#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40004620

Gold sees marginal increase in price

---

The price of gold rose by THB50 in late morning trade on Friday from the opening price, the Gold Traders Association reported.

At 9.22am, buying price of a gold bar was THB27,450 per baht weight and selling price THB27,550, while gold ornaments were priced at THB26,954.88 and THB28,050, respectively.

At 10.51am, the buying price of a gold bar had increased to THB27,500 and selling price to THB27,600.

The buying price of gold ornaments went up to 26,999.96 and selling price to 28,100.

Published : August 13, 2021

By : The Nation

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40004616

Grim outlook for SET amid worsening Covid situation, outflow of foreign funds

---

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index fell by 3.48 points, or 0.23 per cent, to 1,529.23 on Friday morning.

The SET Index closed at 1,532.71 on Wednesday, down 9.91 points or 0.64 per cent. Transactions totalled THB99.75 billion with an index high of 1,550.74 and a low of 1,531.58.

The stock market was closed on Thursday as the country marked the birthday of Her Majesty Queen Sirikit the Queen Mother.

Krungsri Securities forecast that the index on Friday would fall to between 1,520 and 1,525 points after Thailand’s daily Covid-19 infections hit a new high of 23,418.

Meanwhile, it predicted that anti-government rallies and outflow of foreign funds would pressure the index.

ADVERTISEMENTx

It recommended selective buying as an investment strategy:

▪︎ HANA, KCE, TU, CPF, GFPT, ASIAN, EPG, SUN and NER, which benefit from the weakening baht.

▪︎ BCH, DOHOME, CBG, BEC, JWD, WICE, SONIC, TTA, RCL and LANNA, whose second-quarter revenue is expected to improve.

Published : August 13, 2021

By : The Nation

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40004613

Baht likely to face continued downward pressure due to Covid situation

---

The baht opened at 33.10 to the US dollar on Friday, strengthening from Wednesday’s closing rate of 33.35.

The Thai currency is likely to move between 33.05 and 33.20 during the day, Krungthai Bank market strategist Poon Panichpibool said.

He said the baht was likely to be volatile and weaken due to the Covid-19 situation and the rising momentum of the US currency.

He expected the dollar to receive support in the short term if the US Federal Reserve moves to decrease quantitative easing earlier than expected until late August, as there will be the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium at that time.

The US economy’s data that needed to be watched are initial jobless claims or employment index and the Purchasing Managers Index. If the results are worse than expected, investors in turn will not expect the Fed to lower QE quickly, affecting the dollar, Poon explained.

ADVERTISEMENTx

He said the Covid-19 situation worldwide is affecting the dollar and the baht. If the situation in Europe and Asia improves, the dollar might weaken.

Meanwhile, the baht itself might weaken because foreign investors were still offloading their assets, due to worries that the Covid-19 situation in Thailand could worsen, he said.

He believed that importers were buying the dollar because the baht was strengthening. Because of this, the baht will not strengthen much and the key support level will be at around 33.00 to the dollar.

The baht was likely to be volatile in the short term due to uncertainty amid the Covid situation, he added, recommending that investors use various hedging tools as options.

Published : August 13, 2021

By : The Nation

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40004591

China partly shuts worlds third-busiest port, risking trade

---

China partly shut the worlds third-busiest container port after a worker became infected with Covid, threatening more damage to already fragile supply chains and global trade as a key shopping season nears.

All inbound and outbound container services at Meishan terminal in Ningbo-Zhoushan port were halted Wednesday until further notice due to a “system disruption,” according to a statement from the port. An employee tested positive for coronavirus, the eastern Chinese city’s government said.

The closed terminal accounts for about 25% of container cargo through the port, calculates security consultant GardaWorld, which said “the suspension could severely impact cargo handling and shipping.” Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd said there will be a delay in sailings.

This is the second recent shutdown of a Chinese port due to the coronavirus, after the closure of Yantian port in Shenzhen from late May for about a month. That led goods to back up in factories and storage yards and also likely lifted soaring freight rates, which are at record levels and a source of inflation.

ADVERTISEMENTx

The fear is that this new disruption will further strain shipping and supplies of goods, dampening growth and driving up prices. An extended shuttering at Ningbo could be especially painful for the world economy because seaborne trade usually rises toward the end of the year as companies ship Christmas and holiday products.

“There may be far-reaching downstream consequences going into Black Friday and holiday shopping seasons” and the next 24 hours will determine whether there is a large outbreak or not, said Josh Brazil, vice president of marketing at project44, a supply-chain intelligence firm. “One of the few givens in 2021 is endemic delays, and the fact that conditions can change almost overnight.”

In addition to the closed terminal, containers for shipment through the other terminals in the port will likely slow. The port will now only accept containers within two days of a ship’s estimated arrival time, according to a statement from shipping and logistics firm CMA CGM.

The biggest exports through Ningbo in the first half of this year were electronic goods, textiles and low and high-end manufactured goods, according to the city’s Customs Bureau. Top imports included crude oil, electronics, raw chemicals and agricultural products.

Speaking about the outbreak, Hugo De Stoop, CEO of oil shipper Euronav said “there will be an impact on China’s oil demand, but the length of the impact is unclear.”

For port outbreaks “the Chinese authorities are very very strict. When they find a case they will be very quick to shutdown, isolate the workers, isolate the coworkers who have had contact with that specific worker and then reopen as quickly as possible,” he told Bloomberg Television Thursday, adding that this strictness in dealing with outbreaks can disrupt markets.

All the close contacts of the infected worker have been identified and are in quarantine, according to Ningbo City’s statement. A port spokesman who declined to give his name said there was no new information when contacted Thursday.

The port was the third busiest globally in terms of container shipments in 2020 and the second busiest in China after Shanghai, according to maritime publication Lloyd’s List.

The discovery of the port worker that tested positive for Covid-19 shows that virus-prevention measures in Ningbo City still has loopholes, the local government said in a statement on its website Thursday, which urged officials to implement quarantines, disinfection and close affected areas to prevent the virus’ spread.

Published : August 13, 2021

By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40004588

IEA cuts oil demand outlook on virus, sees new surplus in 2022

---

The International Energy Agency cut forecasts for global oil demand “sharply” for the rest of this year as the resurgent pandemic hits major consumers, and predicted a new surplus in 2022.

It’s a marked reversal for the Paris-based agency, which just a month ago was urging the OPEC+ alliance to open the taps or risk a damaging spike in prices. The oil cartel heeded calls to hike supply, which is now arriving just as consumption slackens.

The analysis also jars with Wednesday’s call from the U.S. — the IEA’s most influential member — for the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies to ramp production up faster.

“The immediate boost from OPEC+ is colliding with slower demand growth and higher output from outside the alliance, stamping out lingering suggestions of a near-term supply crunch or super cycle,” the IEA said in its monthly report.

ADVERTISEMENTx

Oil prices have retreated 6% this month as the contagious delta variant triggers renewed lockdowns in China and other key Asian consumers where vaccination rates are lagging. Brent futures are trading near $71 a barrel, having hit a two-year high near $78 in early July.

The “recent rally has lost steam on concerns that a surge in Covid-19 cases from the Delta variant could derail the recovery just as more barrels hit the market,” the IEA said.

The 23-nation OPEC+ coalition led by Saudi Arabia and Russia agreed last month on a roadmap for restoring the rest of the oil supplies it shuttered when the pandemic emerged. The additional barrels are, however, starting to flow at an inauspicious moment.

Global oil demand “abruptly reversed course” last month, falling slightly after surging by 3.8 million barrels a day in June, the IEA said. The agency lowered estimates for consumption in the second half of the year by 550,000 barrels a day.

Still, the IEA projects that world fuel use will continue to increase as the global economic recovery gathers pace, reaching an average of 98.9 million barrels a day in the last three months of this year.

The recovery achieved so far is already having unwanted side-effects.

As U.S. motorists grapple with $3-a-gallon gasoline and fears over inflation, the Biden administration is insisting that OPEC+ accelerate its supply increases. “At a critical moment in the global recovery,” OPEC’s plans are “simply not enough,” National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said in a statement on Wednesday.

The IEA significantly bolstered forecasts for supplies outside of OPEC in 2022 as the U.S. and other producers recover from the pandemic slump in investment. The projection for non-OPEC output was increased by an average of 1.1 million barrels a day next year.

As a result, OPEC is already producing the volume of crude needed in 2022, the report showed. With output at 26.7 million barrels a day in July, proceeding with plans to restore more production will likely tip the market back into oversupply.

“The scale could tilt back to surplus in 2022 if OPEC+ continues to undo its cuts and producers not taking part in the deal ramp up in response to higher prices,” the agency said.

Published : August 13, 2021

By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Grant Smith

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40004586

Biden calls for action to reduce prescription drug prices

---

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden stepped up his battle over drug costs on Thursday, calling on Congress to pass legislation that would let Medicare negotiate directly with pharmaceutical manufacturers and penalize drugmakers that increase prices faster than inflation.

Biden’s remarks from the White House were less a set of new policy ideas than a reminder that he is eager to make headway on an issue of keen concern to voters – one he describes as critical to helping Americans recover economically from the pandemic.

“Alzheimer’s diabetes, cancer – they don’t care if you’re Democrat or Republican,” Biden said in the East Room. “This is about whether or not you and your loved ones can afford prescription drugs.”

That formulation overlooks the considerable difference between the parties, and among powerful interest groups, over how big a role the government should play in taming drug costs. And Biden’s initiative comes at a delicate time, as drugmakers have earned some of their best headlines in years for the lightning-fast development of coronavirus vaccines.

ADVERTISEMENTx

Citing those inoculations, Biden said, “We can make a distinction between developing these breakthroughs and jacking up prices on a range of medications for a range of everyday diseases and conditions.” He told the story of a woman he’d met whose insulin cost $32 a vial in 2001, saying now that same vial costs $280.

In a reflection of the turbulent political climate on health matters, Biden began his comments by excoriating those, including Republican governors, who are politicizing covid-19 mask requirements, citing a recent incident in Tennessee where doctors and nurses were threatened after testifying before a school board.

Many Democrats, including Biden, have long supported the idea of allowing Medicare to negotiate the price of medicines directly with pharmaceutical companies – something forbidden under the 2003 law that created the program’s drug benefits.

Giving the government such negotiating power was part of Biden’s campaign health-care plan, and it is woven into what the White House calls the American Families Plan that the president proposed in April. He has urged Congress to adopt such an arrangement by the end of the year.

While negotiating with drugmakers was the centerpiece, Biden listed a series of other ideas for lowering drug prices.

ADVERTISEMENT

He touted a proposal for penalizing drugmakers that raise prices more rapidly than the rate of inflation. He said Medicare should cap the amount beneficiaries have to pay out-of-pocket for drugs each year. He said he favors accelerating the development of generic drugs, as the Food and Drug Administration is striving to do.

And he reiterated his support for allowing the importation of drugs from Canada, where they tend to be sold at lower prices. This idea is favored by many Democrats and was embraced by President Donald Trump over the objections of the pharmaceutical industry.

Importing drugs was also part of an executive order Biden issued last month to spur economic competition. Among other things, the order directed his administration to work with states to devise plans to import medicines safely from Canada.

Biden’s remarks came as he began an intensified effort to promote the American Families Plan, a $3.5 trillion spending package that focuses on areas from health care to education. His comments were intended in part to counter Republican charges that the plan is recklessly expensive, portraying it instead as a collection of vital measures that will help ordinary Americans.

“All of us, whatever our background or our age and where we live, can agree that prescription drug prices are outrageously expensive in America,” Biden said, adding, “Right now, right here in America, we pay the highest prescription drug costs of any developed nation in the world . . . about two to three times what other countries pay.”

ADVERTISEMENT

Taking on drug prices allows Biden to emphasize an issue that affects millions of people, and one where many Americans favor government action. And it dovetails with the goal of Biden and other Democrats to expand health coverage.

Americans spend an average of $1,200 a year on prescription drugs, the highest of any industrialized nation, in large part because of high drug costs, according to recent estimates.

Concern over the future cost of medicines has been amplified as pharmaceutical research has led to treatment breakthroughs, some of them exceedingly expensive. American consumers and the government face growing concerns about whether those and other drugs will be within reach for the people who need them.

The Food and Drug Administration recently prompted a backlash by approving an Alzheimer’s drug called Aduhelm, which is not only expensive – $56,000 a year per patient – but which many doctors believe has not been shown to work.

On Thursday, Biden ticked off price increases for insulin to treat diabetes and common medicines for multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis.

A report by Reuters showed that drugmakers raised prices on more than 500 drugs in 2021, in part to offset declining revenue during the coronavirus pandemic, as wary Americans visited doctors’ offices less and were prescribed fewer pills.

The price hikes included more than 300 manufactured by Pfizer, the manufacturer widely praised for producing an early coronavirus vaccine. “While the pharmaceutical companies have done enormous work by developing lifesaving covid-19 vaccines alongside the United States’ best scientists, crippling drug prices are unacceptable,” Biden said.

The government is paying for Americans to get the coronavirus vaccines, so their cost is not an issue for the public.

The pandemic has pushed health costs and disparities into the center of the national conversation. Infections and deaths from covid-19, the illness caused by the virus, have been disproportionately common among people of color and the poor.

Public health leaders warn that people unable to afford a doctor, or take off work for a fever or a cough, could contribute to the spread of a virus that has killed more than 617,000 Americans.

The pharmaceutical industry has long opposed a greater federal role in drug prices, and PhRMA, the industry’s main trade group, is currently sponsoring an ad campaign criticizing direct negotiation of Medicare drug prices.

In response to Biden’s effort Thursday to focus attention on the issue, PhRMA issued a “myth vs. fact” statement, contending that government-negotiated Medicare drug prices would be accompanied by “a harsh reality: reduced access to prescription medicines and choices for patients.”

PhRMA CEO Stephen Ubl argued that Biden’s proposals, by wringing money out of Medicare, would only hurt its beneficiaries and vulnerable patients.

“Many in Congress know that access to medicine is critical for millions of patients and Medicare is not a piggy bank to be raided to fund other, unrelated government programs,” Ubl said in a statement. “This is a misguided approach.”

Biden had harsh words for the industry. “Too may pharmaceutical companies don’t use the profit nearly enough to innovate or on research,” he said. “Too many companies use it to buy back their own stock, inflate their worth, drive up CEO salaries and compensation and find ways to box out the competition.”

He added, “Look, folks, they should be able to make a significant profit. But why should we be paying two or three times what every other country in the world is paying for similar drugs?”

While he did not issue new proposals Thursday, Larry Levitt, executive vice president for health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan policy and research organization, said Biden was seeking to raise his profile in the debate in a new way.

“President Biden is putting his political weight behind the effort to lower drug prices,” Levitt said. “There was a sense that the president was to some extent sitting on the sidelines in the debate over drug prices, but that is clearly not the case anymore.”

And he was aligning with the view of most Americans.

Nationwide, recent surveys suggest that lowering drug prices remains a significant priority with the American public. In a Kaiser Family Foundation poll from May, two-thirds of the respondents said that it should be a top congressional priority to adopt legislation that allows the federal government and private insurers to negotiate lower prices on prescription drugs.

That was the highest ranking among eight health-care proposals included in the poll. And 59 percent said states should have the same authority, the poll found.

Biden stressed the public support for his prescription drug proposal, as well as other aspects of his infrastructure plan, which he said would help American families rebound faster from an economy damaged by the coronavirus pandemic.

The president has spent this week bolstering his spending agenda, which includes a bill to improve traditional infrastructure, like roads and bridges, as well as a more ambitious – and expensive – effort aimed at what the White House calls “human infrastructure,” or the American Families Plan.

The Senate passed the bipartisan physical infrastructure plan this week, and now the measure moves to the House, which is narrowly controlled by Democrats. Lawmakers have only just begun tackling the American Families Plan, which would include the drug pricing proposals.

Any plan to reduce prescription drug prices could run into hurdles in Congress. Thirteen of the 20 largest drug companies, and hundreds of smaller biotechnology companies, are headquartered in New Jersey, representing billions in research and development spending. Some Garden State lawmakers have resisted efforts to fund other progressive priorities by cracking down on pharmaceutical company revenue. And they are only some of the powerful supporters the drug industry has in Congress.

But Biden argued that the country’s overriding need is to bring down costs for working Americans.

“These challenges were with us long before the pandemic took off,” he said. “But as we recover from this crisis, now is the moment to put in place a long term plan to build back America better.”

Published : August 13, 2021

By : The Washington Post · Cleve R. Wootson Jr., Amy Goldstein

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40004585

Stocks set another record as trading range narrows

---

U.S. stocks set another record high even as the S&P 500 Index settles into the narrowest trading range since before the Covid pandemic roiled global financial markets. The dollar strengthened and Treasury yields were mostly higher.

Health care and technology shares helped push the S&P to a closing high for a third consecutive session and for the 47th time this year. The benchmark has almost doubled in value from the pandemic lows reached in March last year, though the rate of change is slowing. It has swung an average 0.5% each day in August, and is poised for the calmest month since November 2019. Micron Technology led chipmakers lower amid concern over the market for memory chips.

“Equities become the proverbial term — there is no alternative — and that’s ultimately a money-flow story,” David Kostin, chief equity strategist at Goldman Sachs, said during a Bloomberg TV interview. “From a valuation perspective, equities are reasonably valued in the context of interest rates.”

Treasuries were mostly lower. An earlier report showed applications for U.S. state unemployment benefits dropped for the third week in a row.

“This is yet another data point indicating continued labor market recovery,” Anu Gaggar, global investment strategist at Commonwealth Financial Network, said of Thursday’s jobless claim data.

Investors are continuing to evaluate the implications of a likely Federal Reserve tapering announcement in the months ahead, the spread of the delta virus variant and China’s clampdown. Global stocks are up about 90% since the pandemic nadir in March 2020, spurring questions about how much further they can climb.

ADVERTISEMENTx

These are the main moves in markets:

Stocks

–The S&P 500 rose 0.3% as of 4 p.m. New York time

–The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.4%

–The Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed

ADVERTISEMENT

–The MSCI World index was little changed

Currencies

–The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.1%

–The euro was little changed at $1.1734

–The British pound fell 0.5% to $1.3805

ADVERTISEMENT

–The Japanese yen was little changed at 110.42 per dollar

Bonds

–The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced three basis points to 1.36%

–Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at -0.46%

–Britain’s 10-year yield advanced three basis points to 0.60%

Commodities

–West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.5% to $68.91 a barrel

–Gold futures were little changed

Published : August 13, 2021

By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Lu Wang, Vildana Hajric