Baht strengthens as dollar falls after Fed meeting

The Thai currency is expected to move between 30.95 and 31.15 to the dollar, said Jitipol Puksamatanan, head of Markets Strategy at SCB Securities.
On Wednesday night, the financial market was in risk-off state after US Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell announced that the US central bank’s committee had discussed US bond yield control. However, there was no conclusion on how it could help the US economy recover.
The S&P 500 and Euro Stoxx 50 decreased by 0.5 per cent and 0.8 per cent, respectively. The US Ten-Year Treasury fell by 9.2 basis points, while gold price rose by 1.2 per cent due to the weaker dollar.
The Federal Open Market Committee estimated unemployment rate in 2020 and 2021 at 9.3 per cent and 3.6 per cent respectively. Also, the inflation rate in the two years would be 1 per cent and 1.5 per cent respectively.
The meeting result weakened the dollar. The US currency fell by 0.7 per cent, compared to other main currencies.
In Thailand, the baht was supported by the weakening of the dollar, and the level to beware was Bt31 to the US dollar. If the baht strengthens beyond that level, it would trigger more dollar sales, the Jitipol said.