Baht moves in line with regional currencies

The Thai currency is expected to move between 31.00 and 31.20, said Jitipol Puksamatanan, head of Markets Strategy at SCB Securities.
The financial markets on Thursday night moved in a narrow range. The S&P 500 rose by 0.1 per cent, while US bond yields fell to 0.71 per cent, down 3.3 basis points. However, price of WTI crude oil increased by 2.5 per cent to $38 per barrel, from investors’ expectation that oil producers will lower production as promised.
Initial jobless claims in the US this week was 1.51 million positions, dropping from 1.57 million last week. Total jobless claims were 20.5 million.
Meanwhile, the Bank of England agreed to use 100 billion pounds to buy bonds in keeping with market expectation. Also, the European Central Bank can provide financial credit of 1.3 trillion euros to financial institutions, under the targeted longer-term refinancing operations.
Compared to the other main currencies, the dollar strengthened by 0.5 per cent. The Australian and New Zealand dollars weakened sharply, due to investors’ concerns about the commodities’ price and the second wave of coronavirus.
In Thailand, the baht moved in a narrower range, and always moved in line with other Asian currencies. The market is focusing on to the Monetary Policy Committee’s view next week.