Baht weakens but all eyes on direction of Asian markets
The baht opened at 30.17 to the US dollar on Tuesday, weakening from 30.15 at close on Monday.
The Thai currency is likely to move between 30.12 and 30.32, said Jitipol Puksamatanan, the head of the “Easy Invest” team at SCB Securities.
On Monday night, the financial markets were stirred by investors selling stocks that grew at the beginning of this year.
Some observers are concerned about the ban on Donald Trump by social media companies, raising questions about the limits of these companies’ powers.
The Nasdaq index fell by 1.25 per cent, while the S&P 500 and Stoxx 600 dropped by 0.6 and 0.7 per cent, respectively.
The risk-off situation of the market strengthened the dollar to its highest level in the past three weeks, while the Australia and New Zealand dollars weakened by 0.6 and 0.9 per cent respectively.
The price of Bitcoin also dropped by 8 per cent to $35,500, and the US Ten-Year Treasury yield decreased by 1 per cent to 1.13 per cent.
Jitipol added that the price of WTI crude oil and gold had changed slightly on Monday.
In Thailand, the baht weakened, pressured by the stronger dollar, prompting foreign investors to sell risk assets in Thailand for speculation.
On Tuesday, he advised investors to monitor capital markets, explaining that a change in Asian markets could pressure the baht and other currencies in emerging markets to continually weaken.