A Krungsri Securities stock analyst expected the index to fluctuate between 1,330 and 1,350 points due to uncertainty amid protests over police brutality after the US announced curfew in many states.

“Meanwhile, investment will come under pressure due to tensions between the United States and China after the US terminated its trade relationship with Hong Kong in response to Beijing’s new national security law,” the analyst said.

However, the index will rebound after Thailand’s House of Representatives approved three loan decrees worth Bt1.9 trillion and the rising crude oil price, he said.

“Energy and petrochemical stocks will gain positive sentiment as the price of crude oil rose more than US$35 [Bt1,111] per barrel after the number of oil and gas rigs in US fell to the lowest in history,” he added.

He recommended investors buy:

▪ Energy stocks which will benefit from the rising crude oil price, such as PTT, PTTEP, Top, PTTGC, IRPC, SPRC and IVL.

▪ Stocks which will benefit from the government’s tourism stimulus measures, such as Mint, Centel, ERW and AOT.

▪ Stocks whose second quarter performance will improve, such as CKP, Tasco, STA and RS.

After five days of debate, the lower house voted in favour of the Bt1.9-trillion package proposed by the government by issuing three related emergency decrees.

MPs voted 274 in favour of the first decree enabling the Finance Ministry to borrow Bt1 trillion in order to provide support to people adversely affected by the virus outbreak, while 204 MPs abstained.

The second emergency decree, authorising the Bank of Thailand to provide Bt500 billion soft loans to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) hit by the Covid-19 fallout, sailed through with 275 voting in favour and 205 abstaining.

The third emergency decree to support bond market liquidity via the Corporate Bond Stabilisation Fund (BSF), established by the Finance Ministry and the Bank of Thailand, prevailed with the backing of 274 MPs and 195 abstaining. There were 487 MPs in attendance for the voting session — 276 from the coalition government and 211 from the opposition.

Nateepat Kulsetthasith, Move Forward Party MP, criticised the BSF as benefiting large corporates the most because it requires investment grade bonds, or BBB rated, to be eligible for bailout. Only large firms could raise funds via investment grade bonds, he said.

He also criticised the Bt500-billion soft loans available to support SMEs as too small, or only 10 per cent of the total SME market lending of Bt5 trillion.

Meanwhile, Wanvipa Maison, another Move Forward Party MP, questioned the governance of the BSF saying it was likely to benefit large corporations.

She suggested that some conditions to protect labour be added: the companies eligible for fund support must not lay off workers. They must have no record of abuse of labour rights. In case they have a current legal dispute with labourers, they should drop the case. In the future, if they abused labour rights, they must be forced to buy back corporate bonds from the fund. She also lamented that while businesses get financial support quickly, people have to wait longer for assistance.

He said the index support line is between 1,300 and 1,320, while the resistance line is between 1,355 and 1,380.

Meanwhile, he advised investors to monitor Thailand’s inflation rate in May, the Covid-19 situation, and tensions between the US and China.

“As far as US economic data is concerned, we advise following the Purchasing Managers’ Index in manufacturing and service sectors, nonagricultural employment and jobless rate in May,” the analyst said.

“For other international factors, we advise following the European Central Bank’s meeting on monetary policy and the euro-zone and China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index in May.”

On Friday (May 29), the SET Index closed at 1,342.85, up 2.98 per cent from the previous week, while average daily transaction was Bt77.688 billion, up 15.22 per cent from the previous week.

Meanwhile, the Market for Alternative Investment closed at 284.87, up 4.09 per cent from the previous week.

The S&P 500 ended May on an up note as it capped a second monthly advance. Equities turned higher after Trump announced retaliation against China by withdrawing from the World Health Organization. He said his administration will look into eliminating policies that give Hong Kong preferential treatment. The president did not institute sanctions on Chinese officials as was anticipated.

“Nothing on changing trade deal or anything else with teeth. Looking into actions, might do something in the future, but markets won’t worry about that now,” said Dennis DeBusschere, a strategist at Evercore ISI. “He also stuck to script and hit many of the logical things people are upset with China about.”

Stocks gained 4.5% in May, buoyed by signs the economy is stirring after shutting down in April. But a flurry of negative headlines weighed on sentiment earlier in the day. U.S. consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of the world’s largest economy, plunged a record 13.6% in April after the coronavirus pandemic halted purchases of all but the most essential goods and services.

Meanwhile, the president is escalating a confrontation with Twitter Inc. that threatens to damage social-media platform operators. Trump is also weighing in on political unrest in the Midwest, where protests against police violence have turned unruly. Chairman Jerome Powell said the Federal Reserve’s main street lending program will start soon.

“I’m very cautious on my medium and even long-term outlook for the markets,” Kate Jaquet, a portfolio manager at Seafarer Capital Partners LLC, said on Bloomberg TV. “I perceive there to be a very large disconnect between stock-market valuations across the globe and underlying company fundamentals.”

The Stoxx 600 Index declined for the first time in five days, dragged lower by travel shares and automakers. The euro edged higher after the region’s inflation rate fell to the lowest in four years, adding to reasons for authorities to expand monetary stimulus.

Iron ore surged past $100 a ton as supply woes in Brazil coincide with sustained, robust demand in top steel producer China. Crude oil rallied late and posted its biggest monthly advance on record.

These are some of the main market moves:

Stocks

The S&P 500 Index gained 0.5% to 3,044.31 as of 4:03 p.m. EDT, the highest in more than 12 weeks.

The Dow Jones industrial average dipped 0.1% to 25,383.11.

The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 1.3% to 9,489.87, the highest in 14 weeks on the largest climb in more than a week.

The MSCI All-Country World Index climbed 0.1% to 509.53, reaching the highest in 12 weeks on its fifth straight advance.

Currencies

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index dipped 0.2% to 1,228.25, the lowest in 11 weeks.

The euro gained 0.2% to $1.1102, the strongest in two months.

The Japanese yen depreciated 0.2% to 107.82 per dollar, the weakest in six weeks.

Bonds

The yield on two-year Treasurys sank one basis point to 0.16%, the lowest in two weeks on the biggest tumble in more than a week.

The yield on 10-year Treasurys decreased four basis points to 0.65%, the lowest in two weeks on the largest tumble in more than a week.

Britain’s 10-year yield declined three basis points to 0.184%, the biggest drop in more than a week.

Germany’s 10-year yield decreased three basis points to -0.45%, the largest tumble in more than three weeks.

Commodities

West Texas Intermediate crude increased 4.4% to $35.21 a barrel, the highest in more than 11 weeks on the biggest climb in more than a week.

Gold strengthened 0.8% to $1,731.78 an ounce, the largest climb in more than two weeks.

The new committee, to be proposed early next month, will be chaired by the premier and comprise heads of state agencies and private sector representatives.

The committee’s job will be to oversee existing special economic zones at borders as well as planned economic zones.

The planned zones are:

• The Northern Economic Corridor, covering the provinces of Chiang Mai, Lampun, Lampang and Chiang Rai, all of which are reputed for craftwork.

• The Central-Western Economic Corridor, covering Ayutthaya, Suphanburi, Nakhon Pathom and Kanchanaburi provinces, which are all known for farming and eco-tourism.

• The Northeast Economic Corridor, spanning Udon Thani, Khon Khaen, and Nakhon Ratchasima.

• The Southern Economic Corridor, covering Chumpon, Ranong and Surat Thani provinces.

“The flows into New York are unprecedented,” said Allan Finn, global commodities director at logistics and security provider Malca-Amit. His company’s teams in New York have been working 24 hours a day to cope with demand while navigating lockdowns, flight disruptions and social distancing.

Gold flooded into the U.S. in recent months as traders rushed to profit from an arbitrage caused by dislocations in the market triggered by the pandemic. Since late March, some 550 tons of gold — worth $30 billion at today’s price and roughly equal to global mine output in the period — have been added to Comex warehouse stockpiles. Hundreds of tons of that was imported.

While tens of billions of dollars of gold change hands every day in financial markets, a much smaller amount tends to physically move between vaults in trading hubs like London, Zurich and New York.

But that started to change as the covid-19 crisis affected the supply chain. When planes were grounded and Swiss refineries closed in late March, traders were worried they wouldn’t be able to get gold to New York in time to deliver against futures contracts. That caused futures, which typically trade in lockstep with the London spot price, to soar to a premium of as much as $70 an ounce.

That created an opportunity for enterprising traders: buy gold somewhere in the world at the spot price, sell futures, and benefit from the difference by shipping the metal to New York.

The scale of the trade has been revealed in exchange reports, import and export data and comments from some of the leading precious metals shipping and vaulting companies. On Thursday, traders declared their intent to deliver 2.8 million ounces of gold against the June Comex contract, the largest daily delivery notice in bourse data going back to 1994.

Swiss gold exports to the U.S. have surged, reaching 111.7 tons in April, the highest on record. American import data for April isn’t yet available, but already in March gold imports topped $3 billion, according to the Census Bureau, the highest in at least a decade. Refineries as far away as Australia have ramped up output of kilobars — the form typically delivered on the Comex — to ship to New York.

For Brink’s Managing Director Mark Woolley, the spike in demand to ship gold to New York has been unlike anything he’s seen in 20 years in the market.

“The amount of metal that we’ve successfully moved into New York is pretty significant,” he said Thursday on a webinar hosted by the London Bullion Market Association. “It’s probably not far off the total amount of metal that’s been mined in this period.”

The enormous movement of gold has been a boon for logistics companies, but also a challenge. Not only have passenger flights — on which shipments are typically transported — been grounded, but New York City, where many Comex warehouses are located, has also been a hotspot for the virus.

To deal with flows, Loomis International U.K. opened up additional vault capacity. Malca-Amit considered using airports in Boston and Philadelphia, but hasn’t needed to yet, Finn said.

While large volumes and virus-related restrictions at vaults and airports caused some delivery delays, much of the spike in the premium for futures contracts in March — which left some banks nursing sizable losses — was driven by perception rather than reality, Finn said.

“My own personal opinion is that any assessment on the inability to get gold in was ill-informed at the time and was made on assumptions rather than fact,” he said.

Still, the bonanza for precious metals shippers may last a while. Large deliveries have seen June Comex futures drop to a discount to spot prices this week, but later dated futures are still at a premium. And as investor interest in other precious metals picked up, futures for silver and platinum have also traded at premiums to spot.

“The guys in New York have done a great job,” said Brian Hayward, head of Loomis International U.K. “We’re seeing a lot of silver head that way right now.”

Goods exports plummeted 25.2% in April from the prior month, the biggest decline in records back to 1989, to $95.4 billion, according to Commerce Department data released Friday. Imports decreased 14.3%, also the largest yet, to $165 billion. Combined, the value of U.S. exports and imports dropped to $260.4 billion, the lowest since April 2010.

The goods-trade deficit widened to $69.7 billion from a revised $65 billion a month earlier. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a $65 billion gap.

The advance indicators report also showed retail inventories declined 3.6% from March. Wholesale stockpiles rose 0.4%.

The data indicate the second quarter got off to a weaker start as companies and consumers largely remained on lockdown. Analysts use these numbers to adjust estimates for quarterly economic growth.

Household outlays fell 13.6% from the prior month, the sharpest drop in Commerce Department records back to 1959, data showed Friday. The median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for a 12.8% decline.

Incomes posted a record 10.5% increase, contrasting with estimates for a 5.9% decline, as federal economic-recovery payments were distributed under the CARES Act, the report said. It showed an annualized $3 trillion of government social benefits were provided in April, up from $70.2 billion the prior month.

With the drop in spending, the personal savings rate jumped to a record 33% from 12.7%.

The Federal Reserve’s preferred gauge of consumer prices rose 0.5% from a year earlier, the slowest pace since 1961 and far below the central bank’s 2% target. The core price index, which excludes more-volatile food and energy costs, advanced 1%, the least since 2011.

While the income replacement is helping consumers and Americans are slowly returning to traveling and eating out, economists expect it will take at least a year before spending recovers to pre-virus levels — especially with no vaccine or significant treatment yet in sight for a disease that’s killed more than 100,000 Americans, the highest official toll in the world.

In a contrast with the headline income number, wages and salaries fell 8% from the prior month amid widespread job losses, reductions in hours and pay cuts. The income category of personal current transfer receipts surged 89.6%.

A separate report Friday showed U.S. merchandise trade in April slumped to the lowest level in a decade as the pandemic curtailed demand and disrupted supply lines.

After adjusting for inflation, spending fell by an annualized $1.66 trillion, or 13.2% in April, also the most ever, supporting forecasts for gross domestic product to shrink by a record in the April-June period. The main drivers of the monthly decline were spending on food and beverages, restaurants, hotels and health care.

A chance pass through Quartzite, Arizona, piqued my interest. It corresponded with an annual crystal show where thousands of “rock hounds” convene in the aptly named outpost to sell glittering pillars of rose quartz, regal amethysts, and malachite as swirled and green as the back of an ancient gilded turtle. The RVs and tents parked alongside the highway, Burning Man style, demanded investigation.

I soon found myself haggling over the price of golden-colored citrine with a bolero-wearing man named Brian. Later I forked over a few bucks for a rotund couple of break-at-home geodes (dinosaur eggs, I called them as a child) that came with an oversize nutcracker that looked like it came from a construction site circa 1976.

Turns out, I am late to develop an appetite for “near-gemstones,” as diamond dealers call this $1 billion-plus industry. Virtually every Los Angeles-based celebrity you’ve heard of keeps them, whether Kate Hudson’s amethyst chunks credited with healing properties for emotional distress and issues with the nervous system, Adele’s performance-anxiety reducing crystals, or Gwyneth Paltrow’s rose quartz, which some believe promotes harmony and love. Victoria Beckham (black obsidian), Bella Hadid (blue celestites), and Kylie Jenner are fans. Kim Kardashian named her perfume collection Crystal Gardenia.

Today, the crystal-collecting set goes beyond the type of people who shop at health-food stores or practice reiki. The Astro Gallery of Gems on Fifth Avenue in New York attracts famous clients with its $30,000 pieces of barite and six-figure specimens of mesolite. (“Letterman was in here last month,” its star saleswoman Ruth told me the last time I was there.) Sotheby’s and Christie’s sell them for tens of thousands of dollars alongside meteorites and fossils. Mardani Fine Minerals reports annual gross sales of $25 million to $40 million, with profit margins varying from 20% to 70%.

The market was strong before covid-19 and remains unaffected. The coronavirus pandemic is expected to dent the $76 billion diamond industry (as of 2018) by 20% this year, but the value of near-gemstones such as quartz, amethyst, citrine, and malachite is holding steady.

“Near-gemstones are becoming very attractive,” says Martin Rapaport, chairman of the Rapaport Group and founder of the Rapaport Diamond Report and RapNet online diamond trading network.

The diamond market was already expecting a drop in 2020. Wealthier people are buying fewer, rarer gems, he says while those of more modest means are forgoing jewels and gemstones in favor of crystals.

“The diamond market is going to come down significantly this year, but there’s a lot of demand that has moved down to the lower cusp of [crystals and minerals], which are less expensive,” he says. “The need for emotional gifting is going to be intensified, and quarantining is going to drive more buying in general. Near-gems fall directly into this segment.”

James Hyslop, the head of the science and natural history department at Christie’s, agrees. Coronavirus has only strengthened a market that has been “historically undervalued. The sense that everyone has is that interest in the market for minerals and fossils and meteorites is at an all-time high,” Hyslop said on the phone from London. “It’s extremely healthy at the moment.”

Earlier this month, Christie’s “Sculpted By Nature” auction culled $1.09 million (£820,375) in total sales, making it the most successful online sale for the company’s natural history department, outperforming a similar sale it held in October 2019. Many of the lots sold for more than their top estimated value. Among the top crystal sellers were three different rounded Gogotte formations formed from quartz crystals and calcium carbonate in Fontainebleau, France. They took £37,500 apiece.

“I’ve seen ones selling for a hundred times what they were selling for 20 or 30 years ago,” Daniel Trinchillo, the founder and president of Fine Minerals International, told Business Jet Traveler in December. “I’ve seen collections worth 5 and 10 times what they cost 5 or 10 years earlier.”

Mineral collecting became popular in the U.S. by the 1970s, when buyers began focusing more on how they looked than their scientific relevance. They are treasured as much for their beautiful hues as for their supposed healing benefits.

But if you believe the hype, some crystals are said to offer benefits perfectly in tune with the covid-era anxiety: Ocean-blue azurite can assist in clairvoyance and intuition; sodalite obelisks allegedly encourage calm and rational thought; statuesque tourmaline pillars promote self-confidence; and polished, swirling agate is recommended by fans for rebalancing and cleansing.

The likes of calcite, quartz, and fluorite in myriad colors have become pieces of decor in hotels, cafes, and retail businesses. In the latest fashion campaigns for Celine, crystals show up in the brand’s Instagram ads as props for handbags and jewelry. At the Mandarin Oriental, they’re used in wine wands to help extrapolate tannins. The aptly named Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas held an exhibition earlier this year celebrating the role of crystals in culture.

“Acquiring crystals is a bit like acquiring art,” says Anthony James, an artist who showed his work at Crystal Bridges. “You’re forming a relationship.” James uses computer programming to mimic naturally forming crystals in a process he calls “organic digitization” of “polycrystalline shapes.” His unique pieces, which are the size of refrigerators and bigger, sell in the high six figures.

The first rule of shopping for crystals is to buy the best you can afford.

“It’s better to buy one really good piece than spend the same amount of money on five mediocre pieces,” Hyslop says. Specimens with richer, more vibrant colors without flaws are worth-and will cost-more than those with broken edges, weak coloration, and pockets of milky sediment.

And size matters, but only to a point.

“The prices rise according to size-to the point where you can’t pick up the crystal anymore-then they drop again because some of these items these are just too big,” says Hyslop. (You try moving 500 pounds of solid fluorite into your upper-level loft.) “It isn’t necessarily the price that would be the inhibitor. It’s the logistics of moving these things around.”

The pricing scale generally follows a stable per-kilogram increment structure. At The Crystal Matrix in Glendale, California, you can purchase a piece of quartz that you can hold in your hand for a couple hundred dollars. A piece of malachite and azurite nearly 10 inches across sold for £12,500 in Christie’s May sale; a similar piece just over three inches across sold for £3,750.

On the other hand, there is something to be said for having the biggest piece of something.

“When you get into really big center pieces for a museum exhibition, prices shoot up again,” Hyslop says. “The biggest ones are incredibly valuable-six and seven figures.”

The third rule of crystal shopping: There’s no “right” crystal to collect. Focus on the ones that spark your interest, then learn as much as you can about their provenance, follow auctions that sell them, and ask insiders and experienced dealers for insight.

“Buy a crystal for its beauty or get a crystal to use for healing,” says James, the artist. “What is relevant is your intention.”

Waves of mainland capital are flooding into equities, especially megacap Chinese banks, countering losses sparked by sweeping national security legislation. Tension is also building in the foreign exchange market, where options and forwards show the pegged currency will reach the weak end of its trading band.

Stability in financial markets would reinforce the message being promoted by officials and tycoons alike: that tougher laws on dissent will bring calm to a city wracked by violent protests. The city’s leader Carrie Lam cited gains in the Hang Seng Index on Tuesday as evidence that investors weren’t worried the new laws will undermine Hong Kong’s position as an international finance center.

“China needs to deploy some funds to help stabilize the Hong Kong dollar and capital flows in the city — that’s paramount,” said Steven Leung, executive director with UOB Kay Hian (Hong Kong) Ltd. “Some foreign investors worry the security law will threaten Hong Kong’s status as an international financial center and they might exit.”

The city’s stocks need all the help they can get. The Hang Seng Index lost almost 7% this month, clocking up the biggest drop relative to the MSCI All-Country World Index since the Asian financial crisis in 1998. Short selling volume on Hong Kong’s main board climbed to 21% of total turnover Friday, the highest proportion in data going back more than two decades.

The stakes are high: a panicked business community could trigger cascading outflows that crash its markets and cause runs on its banks. A wave of emigration could create a brain drain that damps its appeal as a financial center.

The $4.9 trillion stock market, the world’s fourth largest, is now the most volatile since 2012, according to a measure of historical 100-day swings on the Hang Seng Index. Options traders are preparing for more turbulence: eighteen of the 20 most-owned Hang Seng Index derivatives are puts protecting against losses.

While Hong Kong’s currency remains supported by tight liquidity conditions that keep its interest rates high versus those on the greenback, there are signs that some hedge funds may be changing their positions. The Hong Kong dollar’s 12-month forward points remain extremely elevated after spiking to the highest level since 1999 last week, showing demand to speculate against the currency.

Local companies are lining up to defend China’s expanded powers. Hong Kong property developers issued a statement saying the national security law will guarantee stability and prosperity, even as their shares tumbled to multi-year lows. More public displays of support will likely come: Hong Kong’s former leader Leung Chun-ying exhorted people on Friday with HSBC Holdings accounts to stop using them, saying the British bank had yet to express its position on the law.

The city’s police chief Chris Tang added to the chorus, telling state broadcaster CCTV that the new legislation would help strengthen investor confidence in the city, according to Radio Television Hong Kong.

Such efforts to calm the business community aren’t new. Back in the early 1980s, the then free-floating currency plunged as London and Beijing held talks over the return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule. The colonial government arrested the slide by pegging the Hong Kong dollar to the greenback. Maintaining confidence became an important focus for the British rulers in the run up to the 1997 handover, especially as hundreds of thousands of Hong Kongers migrated to Canada in order to obtain overseas citizenship.

There is no shortage of evidence that Beijing has repeatedly intervened in its domestic stock market to maintain order during politically sensitive periods. It also has plenty of tools at its disposal to minimize moves in the currency. Such control has long dulled the appeal of Chinese assets to foreign investors.

Whether the Communist Party’s tightening grip over Hong Kong will extend to the city’s free-wheeling financial markets remains to be seen. But it’s increasingly becoming clear that in Hong Kong, like on the mainland, stability is paramount.