The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index rose by 3.63 points, or 0.23 per cent, to 1,569.36 in the morning session on Tuesday.
The SET is predicted to fall to 1,560 points despite hopes of US economic relief measures and vaccination drive in many countries, a Krungsri Securities analyst said.
The index would be under pressure due to uncertainty over US bond yield and volatility in funds flows, while investors would delay their trade to know the outcome of the US Federal Reserve’s meeting, he said.
He recommended investors buy:
▪︎ AOT, MINT, CENTEL, AAV, BA, CPN, CRC and MAJOR, which benefit from positive news of the Covid-19 vaccine in Thailand.
▪︎ HANA, KCE, TU and CPF, which benefit from the weakening baht.
▪︎ CBG, ICHI, SAPPE, RBF, DOD, IP, TACC, GUNKUL and KISS, which benefit from positive news on hemp production and its general use.
The SET Index closed at 1,565.73 on Monday, down 2.46 points or 0.16 per cent. The volume of total transactions was Bt72.81 billion with an index high of 1,575.96 and a low of 1,562.69.
The price of gold rose by Bt50 per baht weight in morning trade on Tuesday, the Gold Traders Association reported.
As of 9.26am, the buying price of a gold bar was Bt25,100 per baht weight and selling price Bt25,200, while gold ornaments were priced at Bt24,650.16 and Bt25,700, respectively.
At close on Monday, the buying price of a gold bar was Bt25,050 per baht weight and selling price Bt25,150, while gold ornaments were Bt24,604.68 and Bt25,650, respectively.
Spot gold price moved to US$1,732 (Bt53,209) per ounce after rising by $9.4 to $1,729.2 on Monday, thanks to the decline in US Treasury yield and mass buy-ups of the precious metal over inflation risks from US economic stimulus measures.
Hong Kong gold price rose by HK$60 to $16,030 (Bt63,418) per tael, the Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange Society reported.
By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Vildana Hajric, Claire Ballentine
U.S. stocks closed at a record high for a third consecutive trading session amid growing optimism over the budding economic recovery and progress on vaccines. Long-term Treasury yields edged lower.
The benchmark S&P 500 Index gained for a fifth straight trading session, led by the utilities and real estate sectors. The Dow Jones industrial average also closed at a record and finished up for a seventh session in a row. Apple Inc., Tesla Inc. and Facebook Inc. led the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 higher. Crude oil pared a loss of more than 2%.
“U.S. equities have become a buy high, sell higher asset class on the heels of economic reopening optimism, vaccination progress and additional government stimulus,” said Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist for U.S. Bank Wealth Management. “We’re maintaining our glass half full orientation for equities and that’s a function of favorable fundamental sentiment and technical trends.”
Yields on benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury notes declined from the more than one-year high reached last week.
Brent crude dropped overnight, erasing a gain after a raft of economic data from China added to signs of recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. Concerns about tightening liquidity weighed on Chinese shares, with the CSI 300 Index closing down 2.2%.
Investors remain preoccupied with rising long-term borrowing costs and their implications for reflation trades and the rotation in the stock market from growth to value shares.
In the U.S., investors are also considering the potential impact of higher taxes and how that could affect corporate profit growth. President Joe Biden is planning the first major federal tax hike since 1993 to help pay for a long-term economic program, according to people familiar with the matter. The White House is expected to propose a suite of tax increases, mostly mirroring Biden’s 2020 campaign proposals, according to four people familiar with the discussions.
“I think the market will wait a bit longer on the Biden tax story,” said Chris Zaccarelli, chief investment officer at Independent Advisor Alliance. “People are going to want to know what is actually proposed, and more importantly, what is likely to make it through Congress.”
Elsewhere, Bitcoin pulled back after a weekend rally that sent prices above $61,000 for the first time. The largest cryptocurrency was trading at about $56,000 on Monday.
These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
The S&P 500 Index increased 0.6% to 3,968.77 as of 4:01 p.m. EDT, hitting the highest on record with its fifth consecutive advance.
The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 0.5% to 32,952.28, reaching the highest on record with its seventh consecutive advance.
The Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 1% to 13,459.71, the highest in two weeks.
The Stoxx Europe 600 Index was unchanged at 423.08.
The MSCI All-Country World Index advanced 0.4% to 677.32, the highest in more than three weeks.
Currencies
The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index gained 0.1% to 1,139.79.
The euro dipped 0.2% to $1.1932.
The British pound decreased 0.2% to $1.3902.
The Japanese yen depreciated 0.1% to 109.10 per dollar, the weakest in more than nine months.
Bonds
The yield on 10-year Treasurys declined two basis points to 1.60%.
The yield on 30-year Treasurys decreased three basis points to 2.35%.
Britain’s 10-year yield fell two basis points to 0.798%.
Germany’s 10-year yield fell three basis points to -0.33%, the lowest in almost two weeks on the largest fall in two weeks.
Commodities
West Texas Intermediate crude declined 0.2% to $65.45 a barrel.
Gold strengthened 0.3% to $1,731.74 an ounce, the highest in almost two weeks.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index closed at 1,565.73 on Monday, down 2.46 points or 0.16 per cent. The volume of total transactions was Bt72.81 billion with an index high of 1,575.96 and a low of 1,562.69.
In the morning session, a Krungsri Securities analyst expected the index to fluctuate between 1,560 and 1,580 despite massive stimulus measures launched in the US and elsewhere to boost economic recovery.
He said uncertainty over rising US bond yield and inflation, plus volatility in foreign funds flows, would pressure the index.
The 10 stocks with the highest trade value today were PTT, STA, KBANK, IVL, CBG, GUNKUL, PTTEP, AOT, OR and JMART.
Other Asian indices were mixed:
Japan’s Nikkei Index closed at 29,766.97, up 49.14 points or 0.17 per cent.
China’s Shang Hai SE Composite Index closed at 3,419.95, down 33.13 points or 0.96 per cent, while the Shenzhen SE Component Index closed at 13,520.07, down 376.96 points or 2.71 per cent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed at 28,833.76, up 94.04 points or 0.33 per cent.
South Korea’s KOSPI closed at 3,045.71, down 8.68 points or 0.28 per cent.
Taiwan’s TAIEX Index closed at 16,249.33, down 5.85 points or 0.036 per cent.
The Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET) Index rose by 1.95 points, or 0.12 per cent, to 1,570.14 in the morning session on Monday.
A Krungsri Securities analyst expected the index to fluctuate between 1,560 and 1,580 despite several countries’ economic stimulus measures.
He said uncertainty over rising US bond yield and inflation, plus volatility in foreign funds flows would pressure the index.
He recommended investors buy:
▪︎ AOT, MINT, CENTEL, CPN, CRC and MAJOR, which benefit from positive news of a Covid-19 vaccine in Thailand.
▪︎ HANA, KCE, TU and CPF, which benefit from the weakening baht.
▪︎ CBG, ICHI, SAPPE, RBF, DOD, PTG, TACC and GUNKUL which benefit from positive news on hemp production and its general use.
The SET Index closed at 1,568.19 on Friday, down 6.94 points or 0.44 per cent. Total transactions fell to Bt83.958 billion with an index high of 1,584.40 and a low of 1,562.90.
The price of gold rose by Bt50 per baht weight in the morning trade on Monday, the Gold Traders Association reported.
As of 9.22am, the buying price of a gold bar Bt25,050 per baht weight and selling price Bt25,150 while gold ornaments cost Bt24,604.68 and Bt25,650, respectively.
On Saturday’s close, the buying price of a gold bar was Bt25,000 per baht weight and selling price Bt25,100 while gold ornaments cost Bt24,544.04 and Bt25,600, respectively. The price had risen by Bt450 per baht weight last week.
Spot gold price moved to US$1,728 (Bt53,115) per ounce after falling by $2.8 to $1,719.8 on Friday due to the strengthening dollar, rising US bond yield and strong US economic data.
Hong Kong gold price rose by HK$160 to $15,990 (Bt63,318) per tael, the Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange Society reported.
By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Olga Kharif
The meteoric rise of Cardano over the past three months is catching the attention of some of the savviest investors in cryptocurrencies.
Billionaire Michael Novogratz sought to crowdsource information on the digital token, also known as Ada, on Tuesday, asking for help to explain the more than sixfold surge since the middle of December that briefly made it the third-biggest cryptocurrency by market value after stalwarts Bitcoin and Ethereum.
Novogratz isn’t the only one asking what’s going on with a network that still lacks many functionalities available on its more established rivals. That hasn’t stopped it from developing a loyal following on Reddit, similar to many of the so-called meme stocks that surged at the start of the year. Unlike the likes of GameStop Corp., Cardano has been able to maintain its upward momentum.
Cardano is the brainchild of Charles Hoskinson, a 33-year-old who looks like the PhD student that he was before crypto mania took over his life. He’s now a bit of a crypto rock star, running a YouTube channel with 105,000 subscribers, gets fan mail and even gifts from admirers, such as a letter Albert Einstein wrote and a bronze eagle.
“That’s the most surreal part of all of it,” Hoskinson said in an interview from Longmont, Colo. “I get recognized at airports.”
While his YouTube videos are being watched by tens of thousands of people, Cardano is still a work in progress. Even after an upgrade that happened in early March, it can’t yet be used to run many of the hottest applications in crypto, such as decentralized-finance projects that let users lend, trade with and borrow money from each other. The so-called smart-contract functionality is expected to come this year.
“I am not aware of a single popular application deployed on Cardano, nor have I seen any enthusiasm for the platform among developers,” said Nic Carter, co-founder of researcher Coin Metrics. “I am truly mystified as to why it is enjoying a resurgence in popularity.”
Cardano previously peaked in early 2018 during the crypto boom and bust, before crashing badly. This year, Cardano went to a market value of about $34 billion from about $5.6 billion, according to data tracker CoinMarketCap.com.
Perhaps investors are buying Cardano’s promise or just fear missing out on the gains. It’s billed as a better Ethereum, which has emerged as the innovation hub for projects ranging from DeFi to NFTs, efforts to issue digital art on blockchain. With transaction fees on Ethereum high, developers have been looking at alternative networks such as Cardano and rivals Tron and Polkadot.
“We did it right, but it meant we were one of the last ones to get to market,” Hoskinson said. He said he doesn’t know why Cardano’s value suddenly shot up.
“It’s been a wild ride, broke to a billionaire in eight years is pretty crazy,” Hoskinson said.
Hoskinson said Cardano’s blockchain security and governance are superior to Ethereum, and should allow for applications such as voting and supply-chain tracking. He is less interested in decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap and collectible art like digital cats.
“My goal is to run countries on this blockchain,” Hoskinson said. “I don’t care about Uniswap and CryptoKitties and other things. It’s a bubble, and it comes and it goes, like Pet Rocks and Beanie Babies.”
More than 100 companies are “in the pipeline,” looking to shift from Ethereum to Cardano when its functionality matures, he said.
“You can take your DeFi and you can run it on my system for 1/100 to 1/1000 of the cost,” he said.
Hoskinson dove into crypto as a disenfranchised 20-something, who wanted to see heads roll on Wall Street after the financial crisis — and they didn’t. After he stumbled onto the Bitcoin white paper in 2010, he looked at all the references it cited, and concluded that Bitcoin will fail. Still, he started mining the cryptocurrency, most of which he said he gave away or spent.
Hoskinson started the for-profit company IOHK in 2015 to develop Cardano and other cryptocurrency projects. The effort was funded by several large angel investors and through an initial coin offering in Asia that raised about $70 million. IOHK received 8% of the coin supply, plus about $30 million in cash to write code for Cardano over a three-year period, Hoskinson said. IOHK now has about 300 employees and contractors, Hoskinson said.
While 12 companies are working on Cardano development, IONK is the largest, he said. Between 2018 and October 2020, the average number of developers actively working on Cardano has roughly doubled, according to tracker Electric Capital, which calls this growth “modest.”
“My job is to set it all up,” Hoskinson said. “What I can be is a kind of Steve Wozniak to Apple. Pass iPhones at the store.”
WASHINGTON – Next week, eager investors trying claim a piece of the extraordinary bitcoin rally can look to an unexpected broker: the federal government.
Starting Monday, the General Services Administration, which regularly holds auctions on surplus federal assets – like office furniture, school buses and aircraft parts – will allow the public to bid on a fraction of a bitcoin, valued at $43,000 as of Friday afternoon.
“This auction marks the first time cryptocurrency will be made available for public sale through GSA Auctions, and it is the only piece of cryptocurrency to have fallen under the purview of the U.S. General Services Administration,” a GSA spokesperson told The Washington Post in a statement.
The auction comes as bitcoin is trading near its all-time high, flirting with price levels just below $60,000, and as the broader world of cryptocurrency has enjoyed a staggering rally that began last year. Since the beginning of 2021, bitcoin’s price has nearly doubled, as investors flock to the digital token in part as protection against inflation and a weakening dollar.
The GSA declined to share where the bitcoin came from, citing privacy concerns. Items that the GSA puts up for auction can come from a wide range of sources, the agency said, including excess government equipment, gifts from foreign governments and seized property.
“Whether it’s a car, or a piece of jewelry, or now even cryptocurrency, you never know what kind of treasures you’ll find on GSA Auctions,” said Acting Regional Administrator Kevin Kerns with GSA’s Southeast Sunbelt Region, in a statement. The auction will last for two days, ending on Wednesday.
The winner of the auction must complete the full payment through a wire transfer and needs to have a digital wallet to receive the bitcoin slice. Since GSA auctions typically involve physical assets, the agency discloses to bidders that “Defects may exist and repairs may be needed. Buyer must pack, load, and remove. Inspection/removal by appt only.” But for the bitcoin auction, the GSA said it will not hold an inspection day, since there is no tangible asset up for bid.
The 0.7401 piece of a single bitcoin is listed on the agency’s auction Website alongside other items, including an aircraft engine, five barrels filled with 2,750 pounds of spent ammunition casings, and a 2008 Ford Escape.
While the bitcoin auction is a first for the GSA, the federal government has been auctioning bitcoin since 2014, after the FBI shut down the online black market Silk Road and seized more than 170,000 bitcoins in the crackdown. People who bought and sold illicit goods on the digital marketplace used bitcoin as currency, which helped to shield their identities.
The U.S. Marshals Service, the law enforcement agency that administered the first bitcoin auction and that has conducted eight others since, has auctioned off roughly 187,381 bitcoins. The tokens were forfeited from various criminal, civil and administrative cases. As of Friday afternoon those auctioned tokens are collectively worth about $10.7 billion.
“Governments have been routinely seizing crypto assets for many years, including and related to the collapse of Silk Road,” said Lex Sokolin, the co-head of fintech at Consensys, a blockchain technology company. “As more mainstream activity moves to crypto networks, such revelations will be less sensational and just a regular part of economic activity.”
Over recent months, institutions have shown a reinvigorated interest in bitcoin, with a number of companies revealing significant investments, including MicroStrategy, Square and Tesla, and the financial sector increasingly is integrating bitcoin, said Angela Walch, a professor at St. Mary’s University School of Law and a research associate at the UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies.
“This has happened alongside continued crumbling of political and social institutions, with the January 6 attack on the Capitol, a second impeachment trial, the lack of a shared set of facts between citizens of the U.S. regarding the pandemic and elections, and massive failures of government and infrastructure during the Texas winter storm,” she said. “All of these events highlight bitcoin’s use as a sort of fallout shelter from the world falling apart.”
Compared to previous government auctions of cryptocurrency, when as many as 50,000 bitcoins were up for grabs, and when fewer venues existed for people to purchase cryptocurrency, the GSA’s event is modest. But the auction and the rising interest around bitcoin raises broader questions about potential government adoption, said Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer at CoinShares, a digital asset management firm. “Who will be the first G20 economy to embrace bitcoin?” she asked, describing the potential for tech infrastructure and innovation as a generational opportunity.
The GSA, which employs more than one million civilian workers and is in charge of the federal government’s real estate and procurement, typically maintains a low-profile in the national conversation. But last year the GSA drew heightened attention when its then-top official became the center of a political controversy following the presidential election. Emily Murphy, a Trump appointee and the former administrator, did not declare Joe Biden the apparent winner until 16 days after several media outlets projected his victory, delaying the official transfer of funds and resources to Biden’s transition team.
The price of gold dropped by Bt200 per baht weight in morning trade on Friday, the Gold Traders Association reported.
As of 9.29am, the buying price of a gold bar was Bt24,850 per baht weight and selling price Bt24,950, while gold ornaments were priced at Bt24,407.60 and Bt25,450, respectively.
At close on Thursday, the buying price of a gold bar was Bt25,050 per baht weight and selling price Bt25,150, while gold ornaments were Bt24,604.68 and Bt25,650, respectively.
Spot gold price moved to US$1,723 (Bt52,817) per ounce after rising slightly by 80 cents to $1,722.6 on Thursday on the weakening dollar and the decline in US bond yield. However, the rise in the US stock market and strong US labour statistics have obstructed the rise in the price of the precious metal.
Hong Kong gold price dropped by HK$120 to $15,960 (Bt63,050) per tael, the Chinese Gold and Silver Exchange Society reported.
EconMar 12. 2021A Wall Street street sign outside the New York Stock Exchange as snow falls in New York on Feb. 1, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Jeenah Moon.
By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Jeremy Herron, Vildana Hajric
U.S. stocks jumped to an all-time high, powered by a renewed rally in tech shares as investors eye a $1.9 trillion spending injection from the federal government.
The S&P 500 reclaimed a record in a broad rally led by tech and consumer discretionary shares. The Nasdaq 100 Index surged more than 2.5% as it continued to rebound from a rout that had taken it 11% below its February record. Chipmakers paced the tech advance. Twitter Inc. jumped 5.7%, while Tesla Inc. continued its recovery. Korean e-commerce giant Coupang Inc. popped 41% in its market debut. Verizon Communications Inc. saw surging demand for its $25 billion debt sale.
The 10-year Treasury yield pared an increase after an auction of 30-year notes. Jobless claims fell more than forecast, signaling labor-market momentum as President Joe Biden signed the bill Thursday ahead of a prime time address to the nation. The dollar slumped versus major peers.
“The administration has slipped a little bit of extra fuel to the equity markets with their bill. It’s going to be rocket fuel,” said Chris Gaffney, president of world markets at TIAA Bank. “We’re headed to new highs because of all that stimulus money that’s being put out there and it’s more broad-based than the first couple stimulus programs.”
Risk assets resumed their broad rally with vaccinations rolling out around the world and the U.S. poised to notch economic growth not seen since the 1980s. Concern that explosion would deliver a bout of inflation eased after Wednesday’s weaker-than-expected report on consumer prices, while Thursday’s report on jobless claims showed plenty of slack in the labor market.
Elsewhere in markets, German 10-year bond yields declined and the Stoxx 600 Index gained after the European Central Bank indicated it will step up the pace of bond purchases. Copper climbed above $9,000 a ton in London and oil advanced.
Meanwhile, the ECB pledged to ramp up its buying of government debt in coming months in a bid to a contain rising bond yields that threaten to derail the region’s economic recovery. While policymakers are now committing to front load purchases, they still kept the overall size of the $2.2 trillion (1.85 trillion-euro) pandemic bond-buying program unchanged.
These are the main moves in markets:
Stocks
– The S&P 500 Index gained 1% as of 4 p.m. EST.
– The Stoxx Europe 600 Index increased 0.5%.
– The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose 1.7%.
– The MSCI Emerging Market Index rose 2.7%.
Currencies
– The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index sank 0.55%.
– The euro rose 0.5% to $1.1990.
– The British pound gained 0.4% to $1.3993.
– The Japanese yen was little changed at 108.43 per dollar.
Bonds
– The yield on 10-year Treasurys was little changed at 1.52%.
– The yield on two-year Treasurys dipped one basis point to 0.14%.
– The 30-year rate rose to 2.27%.
– Germany’s 10-year yield fell two basis points to -0.334%.
Commodities
– West Texas Intermediate crude gained 2.5% to $65.05 a barrel.
– Gold futures were little changed at $1,721.30 an ounce.
A Wall Street street sign outside the New York Stock Exchange as snow falls in New York on Feb. 1, 2021. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Jeenah Moon.
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