#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40009278

A new data protection law is changing the calculus for doing business in China, with foreign and domestic firms scrambling to comply, and some companies including LinkedIn and Yahoo choosing to leave.

China’s personal information protection law, implemented this month, is the latest factor adding to a challenging political environment for businesses operating in the country and altering the cost-benefit analysis. While the untapped business potential of 1.4 billion consumers was once an irresistible draw, this is increasingly changing.

James Zimmerman, a Beijing-based American lawyer, said that the China market had become “less and less palatable for Western companies” because of “reputational risks of operating in an environment with extreme content censorship, and tighter regulatory conditions.”

The trade war brought politics into U.S.-China business to a much greater degree, with Beijing and Washington wielding tariffs and consumer product boycotts in their power struggle. Domestically, Beijing has launched a populist campaign against big business, effectively making the market less profitable for many companies under stricter new regulations.

And for some Western business executives, the human-rights controversies of President Xi Jinping’s era have become a bridge too far, including a crackdown on ethnic minorities in the Xinjiang region that Washington classified as genocide; silencing of Hong Kong protesters through use of force and imprisonment; and, most recently, the disappearance of tennis star Peng Shuai after she accused a former top official of sexual assault.

Women’s Tennis Association Chairman Steve Simon said last week the organization is willing to cease its China operations, potentially losing hundreds of millions of dollars, if Chinese authorities don’t properly investigate Peng’s allegations.

On Nov. 2, the same day the allegations appeared on Peng’s verified social media account, Yahoo announced it was pulling out of the China market due to “the increasingly challenging business and legal environment.” Days earlier, LinkedIn had also cited a significantly more challenging operating environment in its decision to close the Chinese version of its networking site, though it said it would keep a simple China job listing site without a social feed or the capability to share articles.

Yahoo had been downsizing its China operations for years, faced with diminishing business in the country because of censorship and competition from local players. In 2007, the company came under intense criticism in the United States for turning over emails of two Chinese political dissidents to Beijing authorities, which were used as evidence in their prosecution; they were later imprisoned. Yahoo shut down its email service in China in 2013 and closed its Beijing office in 2015.

Still, the company hung on in the China market until now. While Yahoo didn’t go into details about its reasons for leaving China, its announcement occurred as the new data protection law came into effect Nov. 1, which industry executives said would require multinational companies to make significant and costly changes to their processing and storage of data.

The law has broad consumer-protection measures that limit companies – Chinese and foreign – from collecting consumers’ personal information without their consent, and from storing more personal data than necessary. It also restricts the transport out of the country of Chinese nationals’ personal data, an especially onerous restriction for multinational tech companies.

“It’s created a lot of uncertainty,” said Lester Ross, policy head of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, about the new personal data law. He said AmCham has been communicating with Chinese regulators to request a period of forbearance to give U.S. companies more time to comply.

Clarisse Girot, Asia-Pacific director of the Future of Privacy Forum, said the Chinese law is largely modeled on Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation, implemented in 2018. But she said China’s version diverges from GDPR in its stipulations for China’s national sovereignty over data, instead of being purely about consumer rights.

The law also comes amid broad pressure on businesses from Xi’s “common prosperity” campaign, a populist push to narrow the country’s wealth gap. A number of China’s most powerful companies have come under regulatory crackdown over the past year, and businesses have scrambled to make large philanthropic donations to prove they are supportive of the government effort.

U.S. video game maker Epic Games gave up its pursuit of the China market on Nov. 15, several months after Beijing banned children from playing video games on school nights. Epic’s popular game Fortnite had been available on a trial basis in China for more than two years, but it failed to gain regulatory approval for a formal release.

The departure of some foreign tech companies means less competition for local players, but it could bring longer-term challenges. China has benefited from the presence of leading overseas high-tech companies, which has helped advance the nation’s technological know-how through joint-ventures and tech transfer agreements.

Ross said that China’s strict entry restrictions during the pandemic have been yet another challenge for business, as has an energy crunch that has disrupted factory production across the country. He said he hasn’t heard of any foreign executives receiving quarantine exemptions while entering China, unlike some other Asian countries, such as South Korea, that have allowed exemptions for business trips.

Several smaller American companies that were considering entry into the China market have shelved those plans because of the country’s coronavirus restrictions, Ross said, without identifying them.

Most nonessential travel into and out of China is still prohibited, and those able to travel to the country must complete at least three weeks in quarantine. In one northern Chinese city, Shenyang, the quarantine length was extended this month to a whopping 56 days, in a strong deterrent against visitors.

Published : November 26, 2021

By : The Washington Post

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40009270

The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index closed at 1,648.46 on Thursday, down 1.36 points or 0.08 per cent. Transactions totalled 73.54 billion baht with an index high of 1,656.46 and a low of 1,644.87.

The index fell after rising by 3.40 points or 0.21 per cent on Wednesday.

The 10 stocks with the highest trade value today were KBANK, SCB, CPALL, SVOA, BANPU, BBL, TRUE, TTB, ADVANC and PTTGC.

Other Asian indices were mixed:

• Japan’s Nikkei Index closed at 29,499.28, up 196.62 points or 0.67 per cent.
• China’s Shanghai SE Composite closed at 3,584.18, down 8.52 points or 0.24 per cent, while the Shenzhen SE Component closed at 14,827.95, down 59.64 points or 0.40 per cent.
• Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed at 24,740.16, up 54.66 points or 0.22 per cent.
• South Korea’s KOSPI Index closed at 2,980.27, down 14.02 points or 0.47 per cent.
• Taiwan’s TAIEX Index closed at 17,654.19, up 11.67 points or 0.066 per cent.

Related stories:

• SET expected to fluctuate as Fed ready for interest rate hike, QE tapering
• Baht weakening may slow after dollar hits resistance level
• Gold price holds steady

Published : November 25, 2021

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40009254

Sergeant Nattaphon Suea-Ngam, a snake expert from the Mueang Chan Snake Protection Volunteer Team, managed to capture a king cobra at a fruit plantation near a building material store in Chanthaburi’s Tha Mai district on Wednesday.

Nattaphon led a team in pursuit of the king cobra after plantation workers and a dog tried to scare it off.

The operation took a while as the vicious king cobra tried to bite Nattaphon many times.

The king cobra was finally captured after Nattaphon lured it into the open, making it easier to catch.

Sergeant, king cobra battle it out

Nattaphon said the four-metre-long king cobra was fiercer than ever as this was the mating season.

He advised people who come across venomous snakes to call in officials instead of trying to catch the creatures themselves as it could cost lives.

Related stories:

• Hunt on for king cobras in Trang after over 20 seen last week
• 5m king cobra caught in Krabi restaurant
• 5m king cobra caught by hand in Krabi

Published : November 25, 2021

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40009243

The price of gold in Thailand on Thursday morning was unchanged from Wednesday’s close.

A9.28am report from the Gold Traders Association showed the buying price of gold bar at THB28,200 per baht weight and selling price at THB28,300, while the buying and selling price of gold ornaments is THB27,697.32 and THB28,800, respectively.

The spot gold price on Thursday morning was moving around US$1,794 (THB59,752) per ounce after Comex gold at close on Wednesday rose slightly by 50 cents to $1,784.3 per ounce from speculative buying after the price of gold had fallen for four consecutive days, however, the price rose slightly after the US released strong economic data.

Related news:

• SET expected to fluctuate as Fed ready for interest rate hike, QE tapering
• Markets wrap: U.S. stocks rise post-Fed minutes; dollar gains
• Weekly jobless claims plunge to 199,000, the lowest level in more than 50 years

The price of gold in Hong Kong, meanwhile, dropped by HK$10 to $16,660 (THB71,153) per tael, the Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange Society reported.

Published : November 25, 2021

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40009242

The baht opened at 33.39 to the US dollar on Thursday, weakening from Wednesday’s closing rate of 33.33.

The Thai currency is likely to move between 33.00 and 33.45 to the greenback during the day, Krungthai Bank market strategist Poon Panichpibool predicted.

Poon said that the baht weakening might slow down after the dollar was strengthening and reached the resistance level which caused some investors to sell the dollar.

However, the baht might fluctuate as investors sold 1.6 million baht of short-term bonds yesterday which caused the baht to heavily weaken.

Poon believed that the baht will reach the key resistance level of 33.40 to 33.50 to the dollar which is the level at which exporters are waiting to sell the dollar and foreign investors are buying the baht. Moreover, the baht might strengthen if the gold price goes up.

Related News

Baht heads south as investors target gold

Investors snap up baht as soon as it hit 33 to the dollar

Baht weakens as investors wait for new US Fed chief to be named this week

Published : November 25, 2021

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40009239

Krungsri Securities forecast the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index on Thursday (November 25) would fluctuate between 1,640-1,660 points.

It predicted that the index would be under pressure due to fund flow volatility after the US Federal Reserve said the central bank is ready to raise the interest rate and taper quantitative easing programme to deal with rising inflation.

It added that the resistance level at 1,660 points would also pressure the index.

“However, mass-buy ups of stocks which gained specific positive sentiment would help boost the index,” Krungsri Securities said.

It also recommended buying of the following companies’ shares as an investment strategy:

▪︎ BANPU and AGE, which benefit from rising coal price.

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

▪︎ BBL, TTB, KTB, KBANK and BLA, which would benefit from the rising interest rate. 

Published : November 25, 2021

By : THE NATION

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40009231

WASHINGTON – The number of Americans filing initial unemployment claims tumbled to 199,000 – the lowest level since November 1969 – the Labor Department reported Wednesday, part of a spate of positive economic news that signaled that many of the wrinkles of the nations recovery continue to be smoothing out.

It was just the latest bit of good news for the labor market, which remains about four million jobs below pre-pandemic levels but has staged a strong recovery, adding about 581,000 jobs on average a month this year.

Separately, the Commerce Department said that consumer spending increased by 1.3% in October, its fastest pace since March, in a sign that Americans are continuing to spend.

The rash of positive indicators had many banks and economists revising up their predictions for GDP growth for the last three months of the year, after a disappointing third quarter. JP Morgan Chase & Co revised its estimate to an annualized 7%, up from 5% on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley moved its forecast up to 8.7% from 3%.

“The economy is much stronger than what we had originally understood,” said Joe Brusuelas, chief economist at RSM, who moved his firm’s GDP forecast up 7.2% from 5.6%. “The U.S. economy is booming right now. Despite the increase in inflation.”

Of particular note were unemployment claims, a proxy for layoffs, which fell more than 71,000 the week ending Nov. 20, compared with the week before. It represented the eighth straight week of declines and a pivotal shift, as claims are now well below pre-pandemic levels. In 2019, average weekly jobless claims hovered around 220,000.

Some economists, however, cautioned that the numbers were likely a product of seasonal adjustments. Still, the drop marks a stark contrast with this time last year, when roughly 700,000 claims were filed. It’s also a reflection of the tight labor market, which has companies scrambling to retain and expand their workforces.

“It is fair to say we didn’t see that coming,” Mark Hamrick, senior economic analyst at Bankrate, said Wednesday in emailed comments to The Post. “Getting new claims below the 200,000 level for the first time since the pandemic began is truly significant, portraying further improvement.”

President Joe Biden on Wednesday touted the unemployment report as an example of the “historic economic progress” being made by his administration.

“We have more work to do before our economy is back to normal, including addressing price increases that hurt Americans’ pocketbooks and undermine gains in wages and disposable income,” Biden said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the trade deficit in goods narrowed 14.6% in October, according to a Commerce Department estimate, to $82.9 billion from $97 billion in September. That’s its lowest level since October 2020, according to PNC Bank economist Bill Adam.

The trade deficit data was hailed as a positive sign about the potential easing of supply chain disruptions.

“The peak is likely past for the trade deficit,” said Adams, the PNC Bank economist. “The trade deficit surged as American consumers splurged on consumer goods during 2020’s lockdowns, and continued to rise in the summer and autumn of 2021 as the turmoil in global shipping freaked out importers, who front-loaded purchases ahead of the holiday shopping season. The supply chain is coming unclogged now.”

Adams said that the cost to ship a freight container from Shanghai to Los Angeles has dropped to the lowest level in the last two weeks since July.

“Shipping costs will likely continue to fall as the seasonal slowdown in China-to-U.S. imports hits in the first quarter, and as energy shortages in Europe and China weigh on demand for industrial commodities over the winter months,” he said. “These releases vindicate the argument that the problems that held back the economy in the third quarter were temporary.”

Yet the economic picture remains complicated.

Unemployment is still higher than it was before the pandemic, and many more workers have left the workforce entirely because of child care concerns or other issues – a lingering puzzle for policymakers who are trying to get millions of Americans back to work.

Coronavirus cases, an ever present threat to the economic’s recovery, are rising in many regions of the country – an increase powered by the legions of Americans who have refused to get vaccinated.

And supply chain issues, worker shortages, as many workers are reluctant to return to some types of low-paid work,and rising prices remain unpredictable economic forces.

For the Federal Reserve, concerns about rising inflation remain a challenge for Chair Jerome Powell, who on Monday was tapped by Biden for a second term.

Powell has consistently said high prices won’t turn out to be a permanent feature of the economy, and that the Fed won’t try to rein in inflation by raising interest rates until the labor market has fully healed.

But meeting minutes from the Fed’s November policy meeting, released on Wednesday, reflect uncertainty at the Fed about the direction of inflation in the coming months. Officials generally believe that inflation will go down “significantly” next year as supply chains clear their backlogs, according to the minutes. But they indicated that “their uncertainty regarding this assessment had increased.”

Looming over Powell and the Fed is when to raise interest rates for the first time since the pandemic. Fed leaders aren’t likely to raise rates until next year, and in the meantime, the Fed is dialing back its vast asset purchase program, which has supported the markets through much of the covid era.

The expectation is that the process would be completed by the middle of 2022. But in recent days, a growing number of Fed leaders have suggested a faster pace given a pickup in hiring – and still-rising prices.

“If things continue to do what they’ve been doing, then I would completely support an accelerated pace,” San Francisco Fed President Mary Daly told Yahoo Finance on Wednesday.

There are signs that officials in Washington are battling a problem that is about perception as much as the situation on the ground. Despite solid signals of the recovery, some 70% of Americans surveyed rate the economy negatively, including 38% who say it is in “poor” condition, according to a recent Washington Post-ABC poll.

Brusuelas said he believes that the public remains dissatisfied because of rising prices recently, but that the country’s bitter partisanship divide, which is refracted through media, is also largely responsible for attitudes about the economy.

“Yes people are upset about rising gasoline and food prices,” he said. “But it’s not getting in the way of them getting out and working and spending.”

The Labor Department’s monthly jobs report, which will be released next week, is expected to shed more light on the labor market, which has been improving at a steady clip this year. Overall, the country has gained back some 5.8 million jobs lost in the pandemic this year.

Hiring was strong in October, with the nation adding 531,000 jobs, sending the unemployment rate from 4.8% to 4.6%.

The United States still needs to regain some 4 million jobs to get back to where it was before the pandemic.

And though jobless claims have ticked lower in recent weeks, a record 4.4 million Americans, or roughly 3% of the labor force, quit their jobs in September, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The new report had little effect on Wall Street. Investors were more focused on disappointing earning reports from retailers, which are struggling with supply chain issues, inflation and staffing. The three major U.S. indexes were nearly flat Wednesday afternoon.

Published : November 25, 2021

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40009230

Stocks climbed as investors shrugged off tapering concerns highlighted in minutes of the Federal Reserves last meeting. The dollar gained and the Treasury yield curve flattened as short-end rates rose.

The S&P 500 rose, after briefly dipping following release of the minutes, with real estate and energy stocks leading gains. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 outperformed major benchmarks. Trading volume has been less than average ahead of the U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. A gauge of the dollar jumped to the highest since July 2020. Data earlier today showed a resilient U.S. consumer despite accelerating inflation.

The Nov. 2-3 meeting minutes noted the committee “would not hesitate to take appropriate actions to address inflation pressures.” Since then, inflation surged to the highest rate since 1990 and Fed officials have said it may be appropriate to discuss quickening the pace of tapering at the December meeting. That’s triggered a jump in Treasury yields, with the two-year rate soaring to the highest since early March 2020 and markets bringing forward bets on rate hikes.

“We need to be careful here about loading up on risk,” Emily Roland, co-chief investment strategist at John Hancock Investment Management, said on Bloomberg TV. “We want to own some cyclicality to play this continued rebound and this continued unfolding of the recovery here, but we want to just pump the brakes a little bit.”

U.S. personal spending rose in October from a month earlier by more than expected, while a closely watched inflation measure posted the largest annual increase in three decades. In addition, data showed 199,000 people made initial jobless claims in the period ended Nov. 20, the least since 1969, while orders placed with U.S. factories for business equipment rose in October by more than forecast, highlighting solid momentum for capital investment at the start of the fourth quarter.

“There are hints that the job market is pretty good in today’s numbers,” Marvin Loh, global macro strategist at State Street Corporation, said on Bloomberg TV. “If there are signs that the job market is going to heal itself faster then let’s say than the second half of next year, rate hikes are going to be live. But having said that, we’re already pricing in mid-2022 and starting to think about May of 2022, so I don’t see how much more we can get from an aggressive side of things.”

Damping inflation is now center-stage for policy makers, with ultra-loose, pandemic-era stimulus set to be wound down. At the same time, investors are on the edge over the resurgence in Covid-19, notably in Europe.

Oil edged slightly lower a day after U.S. stockpiles rose and the day after the announcement of a coordinated release crude from strategic reserves. The White House announced on Tuesday a release of 50 million barrels from its reserves in coordination with the U.S., China, Japan, India, the U.K., and South Korea.

The Mexican peso tumbled after President Lopez Obrador tapped Deputy Finance Minister Victoria Rodriguez to lead Banxico.

Here are some key events this week:

– Bank of Korea policy decision Thursday

– U.S. Thanksgiving Day: U.S. equity, bond markets closed Thursday

– Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey speaks with Mohamed El Erian at a Cambridge Union event. Thursday

Some of the main moves in markets:

– – –

– The S&P 500 rose 0.2% as of 4 p.m. New York time

– The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.4%

– The Dow Jones industrial average was little changed

– The MSCI World index was little changed

– – –

– The Bloomberg Dollar Spot index rose 0.3%

– The euro fell 0.4% to $1.1206

– The British pound fell 0.4% to $1.3331

– The Japanese yen fell 0.2% to 115.37 per dollar

– – –

– The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined three basis points to 1.63%

– Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at -0.23%

– Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 1.00%

– – –

– West Texas Intermediate crude fell 0.3% to $78.26 a barrel

– Gold futures rose 0.2% to $1,790 an ounce

Published : November 25, 2021

By : Bloomberg

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40009228

Turkey and the United Arab Emirates will sign cooperation pacts for their wealth funds and stock exchanges during one of the highest-level visits in years between the old Middle East foes.

UAE de facto ruler Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan was received in Ankara by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who is facing turmoil in currency markets and fading popularity ahead of 2023 elections.

Abu Dhabi’s sovereign wealth fund ADQ will sign a cooperation deal with Turkey Wealth Fund, or TWF, according to an official familiar with the talks. ADQ and TWF will also sign a deal to establish a venture fund to invest in technology companies.

The lira strengthened ahead of the visit, the clearest sign yet of efforts to patch up frosty relations that have shaped parts of the Middle East.

On Wednesday, the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange and Borsa Istanbul will also sign a cooperation agreement and Abu Dhabi Ports will sign a deal for port and logistics investments in Turkey, the official said.

ADQ will ink a cooperation deal with Turkish Presidency Investment Office on foreign direct investment involving energy, petrochemicals, technology, transportation, infrastructure, health care, financial services, food and agriculture. ADQ is also expected to sign cooperation agreements with closely held Turkish companies Kalyon and CCN, according to the same official.

The visit caps a warming of ties that started earlier this year and could unlock billions of dollars in trade and investment. Abu Dhabi’s wealth funds have already spent months scouting for investments in Turkey, Bloomberg reported earlier this year. The UAE has sought to step back from regional conflicts and refocus on the economy.

This week Erdogan’s relentless pursuit of lower interest rates sparked a currency crisis, with the lira losing 25% of its value against the dollar in the past month, and more than 40% so far this year. Erdogan is keen to repair ties with the OPEC oil producer, potentially opening up new sources of investment.

Ties between the countries had been strained over the role of Islamist groups in the tumult that followed the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings. The two countries supported opposing sides in Libya and have disagreed on issues including gas exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Published : November 25, 2021

By : Bloomberg

#SootinClaimon.Com : ขอบคุณแหล่งข้อมูล : หนังสือพิมพ์ The Nation.

https://www.nationthailand.com/business/40009223

German business confidence took another hit in November, with a new wave of Covid-19 infections looming over the economy and rising inflationary pressures threatening to weigh on manufacturing.

Agauge compiled by the Munich-based Ifo Institute dropped for a fifth straight month to its lowest since April. Economists had predicted a decline to 96.7. Expectations for the next half year also worsened.

The report underscores mounting challenges facing German businesses, which are now facing a resurgent pandemic — having already struggled with supply disruptions for most of 2021 as demand across the globe rebounds following lockdowns.

A separate purchasing managers’ index Tuesday showed “unprecedented inflationary pressures” are threatening to restrain output in the coming months.

The Bundesbank warned this week that inflation may approach 6% in November, and could stay elevated for a longer period than originally thought. In addition, new pandemic restrictions risk weighing on demand for services, which has been an important driver of the recovery amid the manufacturing headaches.

“Bottlenecks continue to be a problem and on top of that we now have these very serious Covid outbreaks,” Ifo President Clemens Fuest told Bloomberg Television’s Francine Lacqua. “We see very clearly in the data that this is worrying companies as well. Services and services expectations are falling very quickly, in particular in hospitality and tourism.”

The business-confidence report comes as Olaf Scholz sealed a coalition deal to become Germany’s next chancellor after forging an unprecedented alliance that aims to revamp Europe’s largest economy by tackling climate change and promoting digital technologies.

In addition to tackling the recent surge in Covid cases, “the coalition needs to address the more long-term challenges,” Fuest said. “Energy policy, guiding the economy toward medium term growth, so it’s a big job.”

The Ifo numbers also arrive just weeks before European Central Bank officials gather to determine how to wind down extraordinary pandemic stimulus. Several policymakers, including German Isabel Schnabel, have warned that there are upside risks to inflation and that monetary policy must be able to react quickly to changes in the outlook.

Published : November 25, 2021

By : Bloomberg