Baht weakens, 'not likely' to strengthen today
The baht opened at 31.28 to the US dollar on Wednesday, weakening from 31.19 at close on Tuesday.
The Thai currency is likely to move between 31.30 and 31.40 on Wednesday, said Jitipol Puksamatanan, head of markets strategy at SCB Securities.
Financial markets went into a “risk on” state again on Tuesday night. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes closed down 1.4 per cent and 1.6 per cent, respectively, due to investors’ concern over the state of the US economy after President Donald Trump signalled there would be no more stimulus measures before the election. However, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell warned unemployment would increase if the government failed to come out with a new dose of measures, Jitipol noted.
This concern led to a decrease in the US Ten-Year Treasury yield by 2 basis points to 0.77 per cent, while the WTI crude oil price dropped lower than $40 (Bt1,247.50) per barrel.
The dollar weakened by 0.2 per cent compared to other currencies, while the yen strengthened more than the dollar.
Jitipol said the baht could weaken today if the Asian capital market went into a “risk off” state.