Transactions totalled Bt53.806 billion with an index high of 1,323.43 and a low of 1,302.12.

A Krungsri Securities stock analystexpected the index to fluctuate between 1,290 and 1,315 points due to lack of positive sentiment stimulating investment and uncertainty over the US-China trade war.

“The market will gain positive sentiment from the third phase of lockdown easing after the number of Covid-19 cases in Thailand remained stable,” the analyst said.

However, the index would come under pressure from a tight market valuation and uncertainty over tense US-China relations as Beijing sets out to impose a national security law in Hong Kong.

“Investors are also concerned about the economy amid the Covid-19 crisis after China abandoned its GDP growth target this year,” the analyst said.

The 10 stocks with the highest trade values today were BAM, STA, WHA, GPSC, AMATA, BGRIM, CPALL, TRUE, SUPER and GULF.

As of 4.30pm, the crude oil price was up by US$0.22 or 0.66 per cent to $33.47 per barrel, while the gold price dropped by $5.70 or 0.33 per cent to $1,729.80 per ounce.

US indices were on the rise, while Europe and Asian indices had a mixed day:

Japan’s Nikkei Index closed at 20,741.65, up 353.49 points, or 1.73 per cent.

China’s Shanghai SE Composite Index closed at 2,817.97, up 4.20 points, or 0.15 per cent, while Shenzhen SE Component Index closed at 10,592.84, down 12.12 points, or 0.11 per cent.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index closed at 22,952.24, up 22.10 points, or 0.096 per cent.

South Korea’s KOSPI Index closed at 1,994.60, up 24.47 points, or 1.24 per cent.

Taiwan’s TAIEX Index closed at 10,871.18, up 60.03 points, or 0.56 per cent.

As of 9.30am, the buying price of a gold bar was Bt25,950 per baht weight and selling price Bt26,150, while gold ornaments were priced at Bt25,483.96 and Bt26,650, respectively.

At Saturday’s close, the buying price of a gold bar was Bt26,050 per baht weight and selling price Bt26,250, while gold ornaments were priced at Bt25,574.92 and Bt26,750, respectively.

The Gold Spot Index price this morning moved to around US$1,728 (Bt55,212) per ounce after the price rose by $13.6 to $1,735.5 per ounce at close on Friday.

Investors were buying gold as a safe-haven asset amid uncertainty following the conflict between United States and China and the decline in US and Asian stock indices.

Meanwhile, the gold price on the Hong Kong market dropped by HK$60 to $16,000 (Bt65,913) per tael.

A Krungsri Securities stock analyst expected the index to fluctuate between 1,290 and 1,315 points due to lack of positive sentiment to stimulate investment and uncertainty amid a US-China trade war.

“The market will gain positive sentiment from the third phase of lockdown easing after the number of Covid-19 cases in Thailand remained stable,” the analyst pointed out.

However, the index would come under pressure from tight SET valuation and uncertainty following tense relations between the US and China with Beijing aiming to impose a national security law in Hong Kong.

“Investors are also concerned about the economy amid the Covid-19 crisis after China abandoned setting a target for GDP growth this year,” the analyst said.

He recommended investors buy:

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

● Stocks which will benefit from the third phase of lockdown easing, such as Major, SPA and AU.

● Stocks which have been added to the MSCI calculation – AWC, BAM and KTC.

Now millions of American high school and college students have arrived at the Summer of Nothing, a landscape of scuttled internships, summer camps and travel plans that might have been résumé gilders – or at least something to do. A summer in which paid jobs are scarcer than a Stanford University admission and require something almost as tough to obtain: parental permission.

Ryan Amarillas, a 17-year-old who lives in northern Virginia, had cleared the first hurdle when a friend recommended him for a gig at his local grocery store. His escape from quarantine was near; the outgoing junior from Falls Church could see it. He’d shine at customer service, goof off with his buddies on breaks and before long buy the Ford F150 truck of his dreams. But Ryan could not persuade his parents, who said a job was not worth risking the life of his grandmother, who lives with them.

“It feels like prison, like I’m on house arrest,” he said. His summer would be a lot like his spring.

This was to be the summer of European travel for Maddy Bram, whose mother, Elizabeth, had made extravagant plans. They’d spend a few days in Barcelona and then take a Disney cruise to Rome, Nice and Florence before capping it off with another frolic on the Spanish coast. The 14-year-old from Bay Harbor Islands, Florida, “has really only been to England, with a plane switch in Madrid,” said her mother, an operations manager for an equity brokerage firm. Now Maddy’s travel will take place in a kayak just a few miles from her house, a clear “zero” of a summer, the teen declared.

Yet as unbelievable as a bored teen may find it, this Summer of Nothing might offer some unexpected benefits – like the blue skies over Beijing when industry ground to a halt.

“The primary role of summer is to experience the real world and get away from school,” said Peter Gray, an evolutionary psychologist who writes about the role of free time and play in child development. “It’s a time to explore your own interests and work on your hobbies – the things that poetry tells us are good for the human soul.”

In past generations, meandering summer days led naturally to career paths, Gray noted, though today’s parents are giving the process a pandemic boost.

Kristin McGovern had planned to hire professionals to build an entertainment space in her Boston backyard this summer when her son, a rising college junior majoring in mechanical engineering, lost his chance at an internship with the state transportation department due to covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. Her friend had posted photos on Facebook of a patio her three sons had built.

“It looked awesome,” McGovern said, and her mind started spinning. They’d get the materials delivered and pay Conor an hourly rate as project designer and then builder with his brother Aiden, 17. She envisions a patio with a firepit and pizza oven while Conor is contemplating an outdoor bar. If all goes well, it will be a Summer of Initiative and hands-on experience.

Brendan Barrie had his internship lined up early. The 19-year-old college freshman from Milford, Massachusetts, would be a summer counselor at the Hole in the Wall Gang Camp for children in need of medical supervision. He had attended the Ashford, Connecticut, camp himself as a high school kid battling leukemia and the experience had inspired him to major in nursing.

The pandemic closed that door, but then opened another.

Barrie decided to spend the summer nursing his 50-year-old Uncle Ken, who was dying of late-stage glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. He worked 12-hour days helping his uncle get to the bathroom, eat and stay hydrated. He made sure his patient did not fall asleep smoking or wander in confusion through the sliding screen door.

With his dad unemployed, Barrie even applied to get paid as a personal-care assistant under Medicaid, though there was no putting a price on the time with his uncle, who brightened when his nephew walked into the room.

“As hard as it is, it’s very rewarding to care for him,” he said. Then things took a turn for the worse, and Uncle Ken suddenly died with Barrie by his side Friday night. The intimate experience with hands-on nursing “will stay with me my whole career,” the teen said, and has left him with the gift of perspective.

Nate Tinbit, who just graduated from John F. Kennedy High School in Wheaton, Maryland, also sees the summer as a chance to help others.

Tinbit, the student board member for Montgomery County Public Schools, was looking into a job as a community organizer for a nonprofit before leaving for Cornell University to study labor relations. With that plan defunct, he had at least hoped to keep his part-time gig at Panera to help his parents out. But now that’s gone, too, and Tinbit said he wants to volunteer full-time for a food bank or some other nonprofit “doing anything and everything possible” to ease the suffering around him.

“This summer is not for me anymore,” he said.

Jobs are much more than résumé builders for many of the low-income teens and young people in the District of Columbia who rely on the Marion S. Barry Summer Youth Employment Program for work.

On Friday, Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, announced that the summer jobs program will be virtual, with teenagers and young adults providing tech support or teaching children to read remotely. Other cities, including Philadelphia and Chicago, are doing the same.

“We have to be creative,” said Tyon Jones, an Advisory Neighborhood Commission representative. “These jobs can sometimes be the deciding factor in whether employees and their brothers and sisters can eat at night.”

For teens who are not college-bound, the program also provides hands-on training that can lead directly to full-time jobs. Jones, a supervisor in the city’s transportation department, points to one young man he nurtured for two summers before the agency hired him last year to repair and install street signs.

“I love it because you are helping people out and the people you are helping out, they don’t even know you,” Trevon Williams, 21, said. “If I install a stop sign, I can save a thousand people from crashing at that intersection. I’m helping my community.”

The friend who recommended Ryan Amarillas for a job at the grocery store had a different goal in mind when he took a part-time job as a cashier last year at the store in Falls Church.

“I like Harris Teeter cookies,” Ali Nawal, 17, said. “. . . I thought they’d have free cookies all the time, and they do have free cookies all the time.”

The $10.50 an hour was better than minimum wage, enough to save some money while helping his mom pay the household bills. As schools shut down, Ali became the envy of his cooped-up friends.

Ali’s parents, like Ryan’s, were opposed to his working, preferring he use the time to study and volunteer. “But at the end of the day, they let me make the final decision,” Ali said, because they know he’s responsible and works hard in school. This spring, Ali made sure to shed the mask, gloves and blue polo he wears as an essential worker before walking in the door. His name tag had a new motto: “We’re all in this together, just six feet apart.”

His twin brother got a job at the grocery store, too. But earlier this month, his brother came down with a sore throat and, on May 16 he tested positive for covid-19. Both teens are now quarantining in their two-bedroom apartment. Ali’s summer is looking very uncertain.

Meanwhile, Maddy has changed her summer fun forecast from zero to eight. “When it all got canceled, especially Europe and everything, I was really bummed,” she said. “But it’s given me a lot of time to figure out things I like to do.”

So far that’s included dance, via Zoom lessons, and cooking – she’s made a mean leche frita, a Spanish rice pudding. Even the things that she thought were boring, or at least not special – like sitting near the water watching jet skiers blast by or grabbing a latte – have a strangely new sheen.

“I have just adjusted,” she said. “Everything is special now. If my mom and I go through the Starbucks drive-through with our little masks, that’s special. If we find a little grassy spot near the water over the bridge, that’s special. They might be things I wouldn’t even do if I weren’t in quarantine, but I value everything more.”

Ryan has been driven by boredom to branch out, too. He’s become a deep reader of the news, he said, and it makes him think.

He read stories about the disproportionate number of people of color who are dying of covid-19, forced to work without sick leave and proper health care. He raptly followed the news of Ahmed Arbery, the 25-year-old unarmed jogger in Georgia who was shot to death in February by two white men in a pickup truck, and the three months before authorities filed charges.

Gradually, he said, his perspective has widened – past the grocery store and high school and college. Ryan imagined himself as someone who fights for the rights of others. A career goal took shape: civil rights attorney. He would keep reading to prepare himself for his future.

The Summer of Something, after all.

She said the ministry and the private sector would draft a plan to push exports to cope with the situation, as this conflict may impact several countries’ economies and exports.

“We have to monitor this situation closely, especially before the US presidential election because we cannot predict US President Donald Trump’s moves,” she said.

She expected that the US would issue up to three measures on China or other countries, especially increasing tariffs on products, such as automobiles.

“We will discuss with the private sector about the impact on exports,” she added. “If we are lucky, we may turn the crisis into an opportunity.”

Prachya Samalapa, vice chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce, expected Thailand to benefit from this conflict, especially from the opportunity to promote the country as a supply chain for some industries as China begins to move production to Thailand and Asean countries to supply materials.

“After the US accused China of causing the Covid-19 outbreak, China was forced to find partners in countries nearby, which can be seen from the opening of checkpoints to enable Thailand to export agricultural goods, such as durian,” he said.

Regarding Panasonic’s decision to move production from Thailand to Vietnam, he said it was usual because companies worldwide have to reorganise their structure to be in line with the situation and production cost.

“We expect businesses to reorganise their structure following the Covid-19 outbreak due to the decline in purchasing orders,” he added. “Meanwhile, the government sector and the Thai Chamber of Commerce will find a way to enable companies to be able to continue their business.”

Decisive early action, along with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s empathetic style of leadership, quashed the country’s coronavirus outbreak in fewer than 50 days, earning it a place on the short list of nations the rest of the world is looking to for guidance – not just on how to fight the initial wave of the pandemic, but on what could come next.

So, when Ardern uploaded a video to Facebook last week floating the idea of a four-day workweek, an audience outside New Zealand took notice, judging by the headlines. Amid the flexibility companies have had to show in response to the novel coronavirus crisis, what once in many quarters would have come across as a fringe notion no longer seemed so unthinkable.

Ardern said she was looking for creative ways to stimulate domestic tourism, to help the industry recover as the country begins to reopen with strict border measures still in place. But she couched the idea in the context of broader changes to the workplace wrought by the pandemic.

“I’ve heard lots of people suggesting we should have a four-day week,” she said. “Ultimately, that really sits between employers and employees.”

She pushed companies to consider new policies.

“I’d really encourage people to think about that, if you’re an employer and in a position to do so,” Ardern said, “if that’s something that would work for your workplace.”

Long before the coronavirus pandemic upended life on every continent, the four-day workweek was gaining a global cohort of converts, according to Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, the author of “Shorter: Work Better, Smarter, and Less – Here’s How.”

For his research, Pang spent time in offices that had implemented the policy in Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea the United Kingdom, the United States and Scandinavian countries to track why they were making the shift. “It’s not just touchy-feely social democracies that are doing it,” he said, but also countries where “overwork is the norm.”

Some studies show workplace productivity and satisfaction go up under a shorter, more compressed schedule.

Finland’s prime minister has touted the idea, the U.K.’s Labour Party has campaigned on it, and companies including Microsoft in Japan and Shake Shack in the United States have succeeded in trying out versions of it. While not all have ultimately stayed, one study in the U.K. last year found 64 percent of leaders of businesses with four-day workweeks saw an increase in staff productivity, while 77 percent of workers linked it to a better quality of life. The same study cited bureaucratic hurdles like contracts as among the major limitations.

That’s in part why before the pandemic, Karen Jansen, a researcher on organizational behavior in the U.K., estimated a major shift toward the shorter workweek wouldn’t happen before 2030. Now, she said, the coronavirus is “accelerating” that timeline.

“It used to be that flexible work arrangements were a bit stigmatized,” she said. “Those negatives I think are going away. Covid has had a leveling effect.”

“This experience has taught us that we don’t have to have a one-size-fits-all model for everyone,” Jansen added. “The question, I think, is who is going to go back to the old way.”

Many of the benefits of a four-day workweek overlap, in theory, with the pros of working from home that extend beyond safety during the pandemic, Jansen said. “It’s that ability to have work-life balance, to help save the environment in terms of your commuting and footprint on the Earth.”

Much like remote work, four-day weeks, even if they gained widespread traction, would not likely be available to all workers evenly. There are different models for the shortened week, some of which envision the same output condensed into fewer hours while other simply imagine longer hours spread over fewer days.

The pandemic has already exacerbated divides between those with professions that can be done remotely and the workers in health care, retail, delivery, food-processing and other sectors who cannot stay home and face elevated risk. The crisis has also amplified inherent inequalities between workers in formal jobs, with set contracts and hours, and those in the gig and informal economy.

The four-day workweek can’t fix these labor “bubbles,” said Jansen. Instead, she said, the three-day weekend would become a “bubble” like remote work, encompassing a growing number of people and professions while excluding others.

Andrew Barnes, a businessman and leading proponent of the four-day workweek in New Zealand, said the model, if implemented, could serve to redress gender imbalances.

Initial studies have shown women worldwide bear the brunt of child care and other domestic responsibilities under lockdowns and work-from-home orders, which exacerbate preexisting dynamics. In contrast, he argued, a four-day workweek could normalize a pattern in which people of all genders split their time more evenly between home and the workplace, removing an entrenched barrier to female professional advancement.

“You’re never going to get women at the top unless you get the guys out of the office,” Barnes said. “It makes it OK (for men) to spend time at home, to look after kids, to have care responsibilities.”

Barnes is the CEO of Perpetual Guardian, New Zealand’s largest estate planning company, and his employees, who were already working four-day weeks before the outbreak, easily transitioned to remote work, he said. They would prefer a mix of office and remote work moving forward, according to surveys he has conducted.

For companies that need to scale back, Barnes urged management to consider switching to four-day weeks, as one fewer day could be a way to reduce office-related costs.

“Pay them what they are worth,” Barnes said. “Not how much time they spend in the office.”

Like many European farmers whose wheat plans were thwarted by a wet autumn, the Brit waited for weather to improve and turned to later-planted spring crops like barley, which he plans to sell to maltsters. The timing couldn’t have been worse.

Closing pubs and restaurants and canceling sporting events and festivals like Germany’s Oktoberfest has hurt demand for malt used to make beer and whisky. Brewers and malt producers have shuttered or scaled down plants, just as European barley stockpiles are set to hit a decade-high. That means farms may have to offload crops more cheaply for animal feed.

“What happens and how it plays out, I have no idea,” Askew said by phone from his farm in northern England. “The crop’s in the ground, we have to see it out for the harvest. But who’s going to buy it?”

About a sixth of the world’s barley is used in malt, though the share is higher in regions with intensive beer and whiskey sectors. Stockpiles in the European Union, the largest grower, will jump 14% to 6.6 million tons next season, U.S. government data show, and French malting barley prices recently hit the lowest since at least 2015.

Malting barley needs to be stored in specific silos to maintain its quality, and with the next harvest starting around June, many growers won’t have room to keep supplies at their farms until demand recovers.

Belgium’s Boortmalt, the world’s top malt maker, expects to cut purchases from farmers, while Malteurop temporarily shuttered four North American plants.

“There’s really no trade in malt crops because there’s no demand,” said Brent Atthill, managing director at RMI Analytics. “In fact, it’s the reverse with maltsters trying to get rid of barley that they can predict with good accuracy they don’t need. They know there’s another crop being grown at the moment.”

Malting barley’s premium over the feed variety has narrowed on lower demand, and overall prices could drop further, he said. The U.S. government expects next season’s global barley inventories to swell almost 7% to a five-year high.

In the U.S., small brewers have seen most of their market dry up, and draught beer stuck at breweries or delivered to retailers that soon shut is being dumped, turned into hand sanitizer or being composted, the Colorado-based Brewers Association said. In Europe, maltsters are trying to delay or cancel barley deliveries, German industry group Braugersten Gemeinschaft said.

“All those arenas shut down, concerns, restaurants, that’s a lot of beer not being consumed,” said Wade McAllister, vice-chair of the Alberta Barley Commission. “You can’t drink that much beer at home to keep up.”

It’s not just a beer slowdown worrying farmers. The Scotch Whisky Association said there’s been a drop in grain demand as operations are scaled back, though it hopes there’s a quick recovery when restrictions are eased. Last year in Scotland, more than half of spring barley went into malt production to help supply the highest concentration of whisky producers in the world.

“In four to five months from now, or even before then because of winter barley, grain will be seeing the combines and needing to find a home,” said Peter Loggie, crops policy manager at the National Farmers’ Union Scotland. “It’s a big problem.”

For farmer Askew, even if the drinks sector starts getting back on its feet this year, the barley market will remain sluggish for much longer.

“There will be a large carryover of this product into next year,” he said. “The impact is going to be felt for far more just the next six months. It will be more like 18 months to two years.”

Economy Minister Martin Guzman didn’t give any details on his plans in an interview at his office, but said discussions with creditor groups continue. The latest proposals from bondholders have shrunk the gap between the parties’ positions, he added.

The South American nation, burdened by inflation near 50% and a shrinking economy even before the pandemic hit, missed the final deadline for $500 million of interest payments Friday. The government has said Argentina needs $40 billion in debt relief to set it back on the path to sustainable growth, and officials have been in talks with bondholders for two months.

“Our intention is to amend the offer based on the negotiations so that it has a structure compatible with the restrictions we face, as well as bondholders’ preferences and objectives,” Guzman said. “The message we’ve received from bondholders is that they’re interested to continue talks.”

Argentina extended the deadline for creditors to consider its debt restructuring offer until June 2. Key bondholders have committed not to sue for immediate repayment on the defaulted debt, allowing talks to continue on friendlier terms, Guzman added.

A group of bondholders said the government invited some of its members as well as representatives from other creditor committees to sign a non-disclosure agreement for further talks.

“The Exchange Bondholder Group remains committed to the comprehensive restructuring proposal it submitted to Argentina on May 15,” the group said in a statement on Saturday.

Argentina has demanded a three-year moratorium on payments, sharp cuts to interest rates and a reduction in the principal owed. People familiar with the matter said earlier this week that there was a gap of about 20 cents on the dollar between what the government was offering and what creditors want.

The government remains flexible on the specifics of the deal and could use sweeteners to make it more appealing to creditors, according to Guzman.

“There’s flexibility on the combination of parameters,” he said. “While the counteroffers we received last week are closer than the first ones we received, they’re still far from what Argentina can sustain.”

Bonds were little changed Friday, with most securities trading between 30 and 40 cents on the dollar, as investors had largely anticipated that Argentina wouldn’t make the overdue interest payments. The notes had rallied from record lows in recent weeks amid some optimism an accord can be reached in coming days and weeks.

Investors are resigned to a certain amount of losses, and the government has tried to keep things friendly by avoiding rhetoric that demonized creditors, a hallmark of the country’s battles with hedge funds after its 2001 default.

Bondholder groups lamented the missed payment Friday but said negotiations will continue.

Argentina’s default at the turn of the century led to 15 years of costly court battles with creditors. It’s unlikely we’ll see a repeat of that, according to Alberto Ramos, the head of Latin American economics at Goldman Sachs Research.

“Given all these signals that all these things seem to be progressing, I don’t think anyone will litigate immediately,” Ramos said. “There will be an understanding with bondholders and life goes on.”

Kampon Adireksombat, the centre’s head of economic and financial market research, said that excluding gold and weapons sales, exports contracted 13.4 per cent.

“The export of automotives, electric appliances, chemicals, plastic beads, and steel dropped sharply due to several countries’ lockdown measures,” he said.

He added that the export volume this year would contract lower than expected by 12.9 per cent but for the export of gold and weapons.

“However, we expect exports in the next two months to drop due to several countries’ lockdown measures and slow economic recovery,” he added. “Meanwhile, the price of export goods would also drop as oil prices remain at a low level.”

The SET said that corporates reported net profit of Bt98.524 billion in the first quarter.

Manpong Senanarong, SET senior executive vice president and Head of Issuer & Listing Division, said that the economic stagnation had caused difficulties for corporates’ sales and cost management.

“Net profit of corporates in the Market for Alternative Investment was Bt717 million, down 58.58 per cent year on year,” he said.

The SET Index on Friday (May 22) dropped by 16.72 points, or 1.27 per cent, to 1,303.97 with transactions totalling Bt64.469 billion.

“Domestic retail investors made net buys of Bt5.285 billion, while foreign investors, domestic institutional investors, and securities companies made a net sales of Bt1.999 billion, Bt2.991 billion, and Bt291.78 million, respectively,” he said.

Meanwhile, Kitichan Sirisukarcha, senior vice-president for research at CGS-CIMB Securities (Thailand), said that the index fell in line with global indices due to uncertainty following the renewal of the US-China trade war, Hong Kong tensions, and the Covid-19 outbreak.

“The US aimed to delist some Chinese companies on US exchanges and review the collection of tariff on Chinese goods,” he said.

“As of May 21, the number of Covid-19 cases worldwide rose to over 5,000,000 people, causing several countries to be careful on easing lockdown measures.”

He said that the SET Index valuation was tight after rising over 1,300 points, adding that the index’s price-to-earnings ratio was 20 times, while the ratio next year would be 16.5 times.

“We expect the index’s support line at between 1,270 and 1,280 points, while the resistance line is between 1,320 and 1,333 points due to lack of positive factors and uncertainty following the US-China trade war,” he added.