The price of gold in Thailand dropped by THB100 per baht weight in the morning trade on Tuesday.
The Gold Traders Association report at 9.23am showed buying price of a gold bar at THB27,450 per baht weight and selling price THB27,550, while gold ornaments were priced at THB26,954.48 and THB28,050, respectively.
At close on Monday, buying price of a gold bar was THB27,550 per baht weight and selling price THB27,650, while gold ornaments were priced at THB27,060.60 and THB28,150, respectively.
U.S. stocks dropped from record highs, and commodities slumped as investors weighed concerns about a pullback in stimulus and a resurgence in the fast-spreading delta virus variant.
The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial indexes closed lower to start the week, with the energy and real estate sectors leading the declines. Moderna kept the Nasdaq Composite in the green. Treasury yields edged higher and the dollar strengthened. Crude oil touched the lowest in three weeks on concern the delta virus strain will hamper demand growth.
“Most of the sectors within the S&P 500 continue to trade above their long-term averages and while there is some deterioration in the technical picture, stocks still look to seesaw higher through the last dog days of summer, wrote Paul Nolte, a portfolio manager at Kingsview Investment Management.
Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said the central bank should move to taper its asset purchases with another strong month or two of employment gains, and proceed with that scaling-back process faster than in past episodes.
“His comments are another trial balloon preparing us for an end-of-year start to tapering,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research. “Investors in general would prefer a sooner and more drawn-out tapering, than a delayed one that would then require sharper action. The big concern is that a delayed tapering would put the Fed behind the curve — if they aren’t there already.”
Precious metals also sold off, with gold touching the lowest since March before paring losses. Silver dropped to its lowest since November. Strong U.S. payrolls data on Friday raised the prospect of higher rates, which would make precious metals less attractive relative to other assets.
Asian stocks were mixed, as shares rose in Hong Kong and China and fluctuated in South Korea. The U.S. 10-year Treasury yield climbed to about 1.32%, while the dollar pushed higher. Chinese bond yields gained after inflation data came in above expectations.
Friday’s payrolls report fanned expectations that the Fed may soon start paring back its massive monetary stimulus. Along with the rampaging delta variant, that’s hitting commodities as investors also keep an eye on rising price pressures. U.S. inflation data later this week will be a key marker ahead of the Jackson Hole symposium later this month.
Elsewhere, Chinese technology shares remained under pressure amid concerns about Beijing’s crackdown. Bitcoin rose to more than $45,000.
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These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
– The S&P 500 was little changed as of 4:01 p.m. EDT
– The Nasdaq 100 rose 0.2%
– The Dow Jones industrial average fell 0.3%
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– The MSCI World index was little changed
Currencies
– The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index rose 0.2%
– The euro fell 0.2% to $1.1736
– The British pound fell 0.2% to $1.3848
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– The Japanese yen was little changed at 110.32 per dollar
Bonds
– The yield on 10-year Treasurys advanced three basis points to 1.32%
– Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at -0.46%
– Britain’s 10-year yield declined three basis points to 0.58%
Commodities
– West Texas Intermediate crude fell 2.2% to $66.78 a barrel
– Gold futures fell 1.8% to $1,731.40 an ounce
Published : August 10, 2021
By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Kamaron Leach, Vildana Hajric
Consumer inflation expectations hit eight-year high in Fed study
U.S. consumers expectations for inflation over the medium term rose to an eight-year high in July, according to a Federal Reserve Bank of New York survey.
The median survey respondent anticipated an inflation rate of 3.7% in three years’ time, the highest since August 2013 and up from 3.6% in June, the New York Fed said Monday. Expectations for inflation over the next year rose to a record 4.8%.
Fed officials follow measures of inflation expectations closely because they believe them to be key determinants of actual inflation. The New York Fed survey results are somewhat at odds with indicators of inflation compensation in financial markets, like the 10-year break-even inflation rate derived from inflation-protected Treasury bonds, which has moderated since reaching an eight-year high in May.
Consumers polled by the New York Fed said they expected rents to increase 9.8% in the coming year, the highest reading since the survey began in 2013. Expected changes in medical care costs over the next 12 months ticked up to 9.5%, while the expected change in gas prices moderated to 8.1%.
Older Americans and those with incomes below $50,000 reported the sharpest anticipated rise in prices over the medium term, the survey results showed.
Forecasters polled by Bloomberg expect the Labor Department’s monthly report on consumer prices, to be published Wednesday, will show that the annual inflation rate moderated slightly in July after rising to a 13-year high of 5.4% in June.
Published : August 10, 2021
By : Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Alex Tanzi
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index closed at 1,540.19 on Monday, up 18.47 points or 1.21 per cent. Transactions totalled THB69.89 billion with an index high of 1,543.71 and a low of 1,525.29.
In the morning session, Krungsri Securities forecast that Monday’s index would fall to between 1,510 and 1,515 points despite strong US non-farm payroll data.
It predicted the index would be pressured by the impact on the Thai economy of lockdown measures, anti-government protests, the weakening baht and outflow of foreign funds.
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The 10 stocks with the highest trade value today were GULF, DELTA, KBANK, 7UP, BANPU, GPSC, PTT, AOT, RCL and SCB.
Other Asian indices were mixed:
China’s Shanghai SE Composite Index closed at 3,494.63, up 36.41 points or 1.05 per cent, while the Shenzhen SE Component Index closed at 14,941.44, up 114.03 points or 0.77 per cent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed at 26,283.40, up 104.00 points or 0.40 per cent.
South Korea’s KOSPI closed at 3,260.42, down 9.94 points or 0.30 per cent.
Taiwan’s TAIEX closed at 17,485.15, down 41.13 points or 0.23 per cent.
Limited upside for SET amid slew of negative factors
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index rose by 5.70 points, or 0.37 per cent, to 1,527.42 on Monday morning.
The SET Index closed at 1,521.72 on Friday, down 5.94 points or 0.39 per cent. Transactions totalled THB82.72 billion with an index high of 1,537.27 and a low of 1,514.67.
Krungsri Securities forecast that the index on Monday will fall to between 1,510 and 1,515 points despite strong US non-farm payroll data.
It predicted that the impact on the economy from Covid-19 lockdown measures, anti-government protests, the weakening baht and outflow of foreign funds would pressure the index.
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It recommended selective buying as an investment strategy:
▪︎ HANA, KCE, TU, CPF, GFPT, ASIAN, EPG and SUN, which will benefit from the weakening baht.
▪︎ BCH, CHG, BDMS, DOHOME, CKP, CBG, OSP, ICHI, BEC, GUNKUL, JWD, WICE, SONIC, NER, TTA, RCL, SINGER, JMT and JMART, whose second-quarter turnover is expected to improve.
Price plummets as high sales rob gold of its glitter
The price of gold in Thailand dropped by THB450 per baht weight on Monday morning.
The Gold Traders Association report at 9.29am showed the buying price of a gold bar at THB27,450 per baht weight and selling price at THB27,550, while gold ornaments were priced at THB26,954.48 and THB28,050, respectively.
At close on Saturday, the buying price of a gold bar was THB27,900 per baht weight and selling price THB28,000, while gold ornaments were priced at THB27,394.12 and THB28,500, respectively.
Spot gold on Monday morning dropped to US$1,738 (THB58,119) per ounce after Comex gold price at close on Friday dropped heavily by $45.8 to $1,763.1 per ounce, due to pressure from the selling of gold as safe-haven assets, after US non-farm payroll in July surged beyond expectation.
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Hong Kong gold price meanwhile crashed by HK$680 to $16,030 (THB68,887) per tael, the Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange Society reported.
As baht slumps to three-year low, expert predicts further slide
The baht opened at 33.42 to the US dollar on Monday, weakening from last week’s closing rate of 33.38.
It was the lowest the baht had slid to in almost three years.
The Thai currency was likely to move between 33.40 and 33.55 during the day and between 33.20 and 33.70 this week, Krungthai Bank market strategist Poon Panichpibool said.
The baht’s trend would depend on the dollar’s movement and the Covid-19 situation worldwide, especially in Thailand, he explained.
Poon said that the dollar would gain momentum if the US Federal Reserve reduced quantitative easing this year. However, the dollar’s gains might be restricted by Europe’s economy in case the latter continued recovering and performing better than expection.
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Meanwhile, the resistance of the baht was nearly at 33.80 per US dollar. Poon pointed out that the currency would weaken to the level, as the Covid-19 situation in Thailand had not improved and foreign investors are selling their assets in the Thai market.
He said the baht would strengthen if the government could distribute 500,000 doses of efficient vaccine per day to solve the Covid problem.
Last week, the US labour market recovered better than expected, which supported the idea that the Fed might decrease quantitative easing this year, causing the US dollar to continuously strengthen.
Navy plans to develop 500 rai area to support U-Tapao aviation hub
The Royal Thai Navy has said that the development of Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) continued to move forward despite the Covid-19 situation.
Private concessionaire projects such as U-Tapao Airport and Eastern Aviation City continue to proceed on the parts that can be done, such as surveying and project design.
Meanwhile, the Navy and the Eastern Economic Corridor Policy Office (EECO) are also discussing the development of other projects to support investment after the Covid-19 pandemic. As part of the development plan, the EECO aims to implement projects related to the aviation industry zone (ATZ) development over a 500-rai (80 hectares) area to support investment in the aviation industry.
The ATZ project will support private investments related to the targeted industries, such as the Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul Centre (MRO), which will help support U-Tapao Airport and the EEC’s Eastern Aviation City as a hub for the aerospace industry development.
In the process of planning, it is expected to begin test investor interest and invite investors by September.
The private sector has expressed interest in investing in the aircraft repair centres in the ATZ area as they expect a boom in the aviation industry, especially in Asia. This will enable the aviation industry to recover by leaps and bounds and lead to investment in aircraft repair centres.
The Navy expects the aviation industry will return to pre-Covid-19 activity levels in 2023-24.
How cryptocurrency became a powerful force in Washington
WASHINGTON – At 2:36 p.m. Wednesday, the message went out on Twitter: “Crypto Red Alert!”
The message, from a left-leaning tech advocacy group called “Fight for the Future,” urged people to call U.S. senators to object to one provision of new rules for cryptocurrencies in the massive federal infrastructure bill. Senate offices were swamped with phone calls. Support came in from the likes of Jack Dorsey, the head of Twitter and Square, and Brian Brooks, a top banking regulator during the Trump administration who had become a key crypto executive.
And after years of debate over how to improve America’s infrastructure, and months of sensitive negotiations between the White House and lawmakers, the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure proposal suddenly stalled in part because of concerns about how government would regulate an industry best known for wild financial speculation, memes – and its role in ransomware attacks.
On Saturday, the Senate took a procedural step toward passing the infrastructure bill – expected to occur over the next few days – but remain divided over how heavy a hand government should take in overseeing the industry.
Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and the Biden administration agreed on a proposal that would give federal regulators authority to impose new tax reporting obligations on cryptocurrency brokers, which enable traders to buy and sell cryptocurrency. The crypto provisions emerged as lawmakers struggled to find ways to pay for the bill, with nonpartisan estimates suggesting the tax changes – which would codify work the Internal Revenue Service was beginning to undertake – would increase federal revenue by about $28 billion over 10 years.
But an odd-couple coalition of liberals concerned about government overreach into tech and conservatives skeptical of financial regulation have pushed back strongly against the plan, who argue it would harm innovation.
The disagreement has led to a days-long stalemate – continuing Saturday – in which negotiators fiercely contested details over which parts of the complicated cryptocurrency sector would be subject to the new requirements.
Regardless of the measure’s ultimate fate, the fact that crypto regulation has become one of the biggest stumbling blocks to passage of the bill underscored how the industry has become a political force in Washington – and previewed a series of looming battles over a financial technology attracting billions of dollars of interest from Wall Street, Silicon Valley and financial players around the world, but that few still understand.
“What I think you’re seeing is the maturing of the industry – you see the crypto folks now understanding how Washington can influence their world and Washington learning a little bit about the technology,” said Mick Mulvaney, former chief of staff under President Donald Trump, one of many former officials to be recruited to the crypto industry in recent years.
“One of the challenges that legislators face is they are still learning the language of crypto,” said Mulvaney, who joined the advisory board at the blockchain trade group Chamber of Digital Commerce in September.
Cryptocurrency is a medium of exchange that allows people to transfer value to others without needing a government overseeing it or a financial institution acting as a middleman. Cryptocurrencies have ballooned into a $1.7 trillion industry from nothing in a little over a decade. There are bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP and many others. All are digital currencies with transactions recorded in a decentralized system.
Once an obscure fascination of the tech set, cryptocurrencies today are close to mainstream acceptance, with growing interest from institutional investors – as well as lawmakers and financial regulators who see the potential for misconduct.
The companies also have beefed up lobbying efforts, attracting a bipartisan set of former officials.
Max Baucus, D, the former Montana senator, landed a job earlier this year advising cryptocurrency exchange Binance. In May, Rosa Rios, U.S. treasurer during President Obama’s administration, joined the board of blockchain start-up Ripple.
Cryptocurrency firms today have nearly 60 registered lobbyists. Five years ago, they had one, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. They are also on track to spend more than $5 million on lobbying this year, twice the total from just last year.
“They see the writing on the wall and they want to get ahead of regulations,” said Casey Burgat, director of George Washington University’s legislative affairs program. “I’m just surprised it took them this long to ‘lobby up.'”
But suspicion of this new kind of money runs high. Cryptocurrency – celebrated for being largely untraceable – faces criticism for its potential role in drug-dealing, money laundering and online ransomware attacks. Some enthusiastic supporters also draw quizzical looks for claims that the technology has the potential to create beneficial societal changes and total freedom from central banking powers. The technology has also generated concerns about its potential to worsen climate change by demanding huge amounts of energy to produce the coins.
Attempts to craft regulations are unusually difficult because cryptocurrency and its digital recording system known as blockchain are notoriously complex topics. That leaves plenty of room for lobbying members of Congress who are unlikely to have a deep understanding, some officials say.
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Senators on Saturday were searching for a path of compromise between two different approaches. One, favored by the crypto industry and advanced by Sens. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyo., would specifically exempt cryptocurrency miners and software developers from new tax reporting obligations that they say would prove impossible technically to meet. Cryptocurrencies depend on “miners,” individuals and firms who through complex computing processes produce digital coins, such as bitcoin.
The Biden administration has maintained it has no intention to impose the reporting requirements on miners, but expressed concern that including broad exemptions could provide a loophole exploited by the industry to avoid tax compliance.
In an effort to find a middle ground, the administration and Sens. Portman and Mark Warner, D-Va., proposed exempting only one category of cryptocurrency miners, but under intense industry blowback agreed on Saturday to broaden their proposal to include another substantial category of mining. But those concessions did not, as of Saturday afternoon, appear likely to satisfy Wyden, Lummis, and Toomey, who want much broader exemptions.
The various political coalitions that have emerged around the issue do not fall neatly along partisan lines. Toomey, an advocate of laissez faire economic policies, has praised the innovative technology. He’s one of the few lawmakers on Capitol Hill who has in recent months, as the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, made it his mission to understand and embrace blockchain technology, hiring a crypto expert for his staff and becoming a go-to for the industry.
Wyden has been drawn to the issue as one of the Senate’s biggest privacy hawks. Lummis, meanwhile, has billed herself as the first bitcoin owner to be elected to the Senate and represents a state that has become a hub for cryptocurrency innovation.
Portman and Warner, who have been working closely with Treasury officials to craft legislative text that provides regulators more power, have close ties to Wall Street and the banking industry – the systems some say cryptocurrency has the potential to upend.
Meanwhile, liberals like Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, who have pressed regulators to ramp up oversight of what they’ve described as an unstable and volatile market that poses a risk to consumers, could ultimately align with conservative national security hawks who view crypto as a growing opportunity for terrorists, money launderers, and other criminals.
After years of hoping to avoid government oversight, many in the cryptocurrency world have shifted gears. They see regulation as inevitable. In their eyes, it is better to try to have a role in writing the new rules.
It’s a realization familiar to other industries, such as gambling or marijuana, which once sought to avoid the glare of the federal government. But they all want the blessing to operate nationwide, said George Washington’s Burgat. He pointed to the decision by former House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, to join the board of the public cannabis company Acreage Holdings in 2018.
“We do need a legal framework that supports this ecosystem,” said Perianne Boring, head of the Chamber of Digital Commerce. “That does require engagement with regulators and policymakers.”
After the initial bipartisan infrastructure legislation containing cryptocurrency provisions was unveiled, the sector’s nascent lobbying force sprung into action. The Blockchain Association, a Washington-based trade group whose membership has more than quadrupled since 2018, immediately began to team up with other advocacy groups, such as Coin Center and Digital Currency Group.
They coordinated lobbying efforts over Google Meet video calls and encrypted messages on Signal. They used Google Sheets to track congressional office contacts.
“This is a whole new level of coordination and effectiveness that the cryptocurrency industry has been able to have in Washington,” said Kristin Smith, executive director of the Blockchain Association.
“This week has to me felt like a completely different experience than anything else we have taken on as a group before,” Smith said.
Cryptocurrency’s cause has drawn support from Silicon Valley figures including venture capitalists Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz as well as big-name investors including Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban.
Crypto’s most vocal proponents believe the hostility toward the industry stems from a failure to look past all the speculation over tokens and ignoring the business opportunities that blockchain technology can generate. Cuban, who’s backing a host of crypto-related businesses, likened the potential of the budding technology to the rise of the Internet.
“Shutting off this growth engine would be the equivalent of stopping e-commerce in 1995 because people were afraid of credit card fraud. Or regulating the creation of websites because some people initially thought they were complicated and didn’t understand what they would ever amount to,” he said in an email to The Post.
The parallels between cryptocurrency’s current battle and how “big tech” once approached regulation are notable.
Just as leaders of San Francisco’s tech scene once swore off the “dirty business” of advocacy but later engaged in politics, the cryptocurrency industry increasingly realizes the influence game can work to its advantage, especially as suspicion and scrutiny mount in Washington.
Even as cryptocurrency was fighting to change language in the infrastructure bill, a new potential battle emerged.
It started when SEC Chairman Gary Gensler said in a speech at the Aspen Security Forum Tuesday that he believes most cryptocurrencies should be regulated as securities.
“I believe we have a crypto market now where many tokens may be unregistered securities, without required disclosures or market oversight,” Gensler said. “This leaves prices open to manipulation. This leaves investors vulnerable.”
A day later, Brian Quintenz, a Republican on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, argued that cryptocurrencies were, in fact, commodities rather than securities.
“Just so we’re all clear here,” Quintenz said in a tweet, “the SEC has no authority over pure commodities or their trading venues, whether those commodities are wheat, gold, oil . . . or #crypto assets.”
The ongoing disputes over what cryptocurrencies even are signal the depths of the potential problems faced by the industry.
“Any industry wants to be involved in regulation discussions,” said Reid Yager, a former lobbyist and current director of communications at Blockhaus, a blockchain marketing firm. “But explaining all this to a septuagenarian lawmaker is a huge challenge.
Published : August 08, 2021
By : The Washington Post · Todd C. Frankel, Jeff Stein, Jacqueline Alemany, Hamza Shaban
SET down as daily cases surge above 20,000 in Thailand
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index closed at 1,521.72 on Friday, down 5.94 points or 0.39 per cent. Transactions totalled THB82.72 billion with an index high of 1,537.27 and a low of 1,514.67.
In the morning session, Krungsri Securities forecast the SET Index on Friday would fall to between 1,515 and 1,520 points despite positive sentiment from the decline in US weekly jobless claims.
It predicted the index would be pressured by surging domestic Covid-19 cases, which have impacted the economy, weakened the baht and led to outflow of foreign funds. Friday saw Thailand log more than 20,000 new cases for a third successive day.
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The 10 stocks with the highest trade value today were DELTA, GULF, 7UP, PTT, IVL, PSL, SNNP, GPSC, CPF and CPALL.
Other Asian indices were down with one exception:
Japan’s Nikkei Index closed at 27,820.04, up 91.92 points or 0.33 per cent.
China’s Shanghai SE Composite Index closed at 3,458.23, down 8.32 points or 0.24 per cent, while the Shenzhen SE Component Index closed at 14,827.41, down 44.82 points or 0.30 per cent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed at 26,179.40, down 25.29 points or 0.097 per cent.
South Korea’s KOSPI closed at 3,270.36, down 5.77 points or 0.18 per cent.
Taiwan’s TAIEX closed at 17,526.28, down 76.84 points or 0.44 per cent.
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