Baht stays firm, but funds inflows to determine direction

The Thai currency is likely to move between 29.90 and 30.05, said Krungthai market strategist Poon Panichpibool.

On Thursday night, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq indexes fell by 0.4 and 0.1 per cent, after initial jobless claims announced this week were almost 1 million positions. It was worse than what the market expected at around 800,000 positions.

Meanwhile, tech stocks were sold for speculation, due to investors’ concerns over their value, while the US Ten-Year Treasury yield rose by 4 basis points to 1.13 per cent.

Poon explained that the Treasury tended to grow continually, after Joe Biden reportedly decided to propose a stimulus measure to the Congress.

In the financial market, the dollar weakened, compared to other main currencies. This happened after the Fed chairman assured that his organisation would not hasten relaxation of quantitative easing or increase the tax rate.

Poon mentioned that US retail sales in December rose by 0.2 per cent from November, when sales had contracted by 1.1 per cent. Also, the UofM Consumer Sentiment this month touched 81 points from 80.7 points in December.

In Thailand, the market strategist said that the baht’s direction would depend on funds flow from foreign countries, and the virus situation in the country was a key factor.