Krungthai Bank President Payong Srivanich said the bank’s NPL level would likely increase slightly from 4.3 per cent as of the end last year while blaming the declining economy.

The bank has stepped in by restructuring the debt of some clients or cutting the loan rate in a proactive move to keep the lid on NPL, he said.

It has yet to revise down its loan growth target this year, from  between three per cent and five per cent.

The bank believes the economic situation will improve once the goverment starts disbursement of the 2020 fiscal budget.

On the Bank of Thailand’s plan to introduce new guidelines for service fee calculation, Payong said it would only have a slight impact on KTB.

The central bank is expected to launch the guidlines in the third quarter.

TMB chief executive officer Piti Tantakasem said the risk factors, including coronavirus outbreak, could affect income of the banking sector.

Despite the  risks and uncertainties, he believes TMB would meet its loan growth target this year.

He added that the bank was prepared in managing the bad debt and reduce it as much as it can.

The new guidelines on calculating all types of banking service fee is not a major concern to TMB, he added.

Four prototype community plants will be set up this year, he said, adding that two will be driven by biogas, located in Prachuabkirikan and Chiang Mai provinces. Both will have a capacity of one megawatt and will be managed by the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand.

The other two will be operated by the Provincial Authority of Thailand (PEA) in Yala and Narathiwas.

All four will start commercial operation this year.

Goldman Sachs Group, UBS Group and Macquarie Group are among those cutting their growth forecast for both the first quarter and the full year, while others expect material shocks to gross domestic product.

China’s real gross domestic product is now forecast to grow 5.8% this year, according to the median result in a Bloomberg survey. That’s down from 5.9% last month.

The S&P 500 Index gained for the third straight session, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq Composite Index also hit new heights, after China’s Hubei province reported the lowest number of new virus cases this month and suspected infections on the mainland declined.

“The virus is an uncertainty, but it seems to be more of a manageable uncertainty and I think that’s the way that the market is looking at it,” said Chuck Cumello, chief executive officer of Essex Financial Services, which has about $2.8 billion in assets under management.

Carmakers and banks led the advance in the Stoxx Europe 600 Index, even as data showed a deep slump in euro-area industrial output at the end of last year. Asia saw gains for most equity benchmarks, with those in Shanghai and Hong Kong outperforming.

Oil climbed above $51 a barrel in New York, holding that advance even after OPEC slashed forecasts for global demand and U.S. inventories came in higher than estimated. Raw materials including copper and iron ore gained, while core European bonds tracked Treasuries lower and the yen also slipped. New Zealand’s dollar jumped the most in about two months after its central bank said the impact from the virus will be short-lived and it doesn’t project a need for rate cuts this year.

Confidence is increasing among some investors that the impact of the coronavirus outbreak will ultimately prove short-lived. President Xi Jinping vowed China would meet its economic goals while winning the battle against the virus that has now claimed 1,115 lives, while Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said on Tuesday the central bank is keeping a close eye on fallout from the epidemic.

Meanwhile, peripheral European bonds bucked declines and the yield on 10-year Greek debt dropped below 1% for the first time.

These are the main moves in markets:

Stocks:

– The S&P 500 Index advanced 0.6% to 3,379.38 as of 4:02 p.m. New York time, the highest on record.

– The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.8% to 29,550.80, the highest on record.

– The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 0.9% to 9,725.96, the highest on record.

– The MSCI All-Country World Index gained 0.6% to 580.81, the highest on record.

Currencies:

– The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index advanced 0.1% to 1,206.98.

– The euro decreased 0.4% to $1.0875, the weakest in almost three years.

– The Japanese yen depreciated 0.3% to 110.08 per dollar, the weakest in more than three weeks.

– New Zealand’s dollar advanced 0.9% to $0.6465, the biggest rise in 10 weeks.

Bonds:

– The yield on two-year Treasuries advanced one basis point to 1.44%.

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

– Germany’s 10-year yield gained one basis point to -0.38%.

– Britain’s 10-year yield increased four basis points to 0.611%.

Commodities:

– Gold weakened 0.1% to $1,566.76 an ounce.

– West Texas Intermediate crude advanced 3.2% to $51.54 a barrel, the highest in more than a week on the biggest gain in almost 10 weeks.

– LME copper advanced 1.4% to $5,745 per metric ton, the highest in more than two weeks.

The Southeast Asian nation said it aims to import about 1.4 million tons of raw sugar, or 1.33 million tons of the refined variety, for household use this year and in early 2021. That’s a more than 11-fold increase on last year. Meanwhile, domestic output is expected to sink while local demand increases.

“Ideally we must have at least 1.3 million tons of stockpiles in early 2021,” Yadi Yusriyadi, senior adviser at the Indonesian Sugar Association, told reporters in Jakarta on Wednesday. “If there’s no additional supply through imports while demand keeps increasing, prices will definitely continue to rise.”

Global sugar prices have surged about 12% this year for the best start to a year in a decade as a drought cut shipments from Thailand, the world’s No. 2 exporter. The Thai squeeze surprised traders at a time when the European Union was already producing less, Brazil had turned more of its cane crop into ethanol and freezing weather wrecked crops in North America.

London-based commodities trader ED&F Man Holdings Ltd. raised its forecast for a world sugar deficit this season by about 10% to 7.7 million metric tons after a surplus a year earlier. The market, which was previously grappling with an oversupply from India, now needs the sugar, said LMC International.

Food consumption in Southeast Asia’s largest economy has surged in the past decade as growing affluence changes diets and lifestyles. Rising demand from Indonesia may benefit top sugar producers India and Brazil, both of which are seeking to fill the gap in supply from Thailand.

The Indonesian sugar association represents 20 mills, mostly state-owned, that crush domestic cane or make additional imports, mostly from Thailand, to meet household consumption. Industrial users are supplied by another group of 11 refiners that process just imported raw sugar.

The country’s sugar refiners will likely import most of their raw sugar from Thailand in the first half, while also eyeing supply from Australia and India, said Chairman of Indonesia Sugar Refiners Association Bernardi Dharmawan.

The three countries are favorable suppliers because of their close proximity to Indonesia and as the sweeteners carry the same import duty of 5%, Dharmawan said in a text message. The government has allowed eight refiners to import 1.1 million tons of raw sugar in the first half.

The Indian government is in advanced discussions for Indonesia to lower the color specification that will allow supply from the South Asian country, according to the Indian Sugar Mills Association.

Indonesia is also buying sugar from Brazil, according to world’s top trader Alvean, which is set to ship 60,000 tons of raw sugar this week. Dharmawan of the refiners association said he has yet to get details of Brazilian imports.

It will make fresh injections into more than 70,000 village funds nationwide in March or April, he said.

Somkid also ordered the Finance Ministry to seek new loan sources to implement necessary projects.

He also instructed all state agencies to prepare for disbursement of the fiscal 2020 budget, expected to begin in April.

Meanwhile, the Finance Ministry has been told to hasten launch of phase 4 of the Eat, Shop, Spend campaign, aimed at boosting the subdued tourism sector.

Thailand has been facing many risk factors, including delays of the 2020 fiscal budget and impacts from the coronavirus outbreak with many banks and economic research houses revising downward their previous growth forecast of the country’s gross domestic product.

MRTA deputy governor Theeraphan Tachasirinugune said there were many local and foreign private companies keen on jointly investing in the system.

He made the remark after presiding over a market-sounding event of the project on Wednesday (February 12), attended by more than 100 representatives from the private sector.

He added that the MRTA was expected to finish a study on the project’s investment under the Public-Private Partnership scheme in April this year.

It is expected to be proposed to the cabinet in the middle of next year, after which an auction will take place immediately.

Construction is expected to begin in mid-2022 for completion in 2027.

The tram route will be 15.8 kilometres in length at a cost of Bt27 billion, under a 30-year concession.

The government will be responsible for land title management cost, while the bid winner will invest in civil works, rail system, operation and maintenance cost.

Most of the route will be underground. Ticket prices will be set between Bt15 to Bt30 per person per trip. It is expected to see 16,000 passengers daily in the first year.

The findings note that solutions – including robust social safety nets, an active redistribution of wealth and the protection of workers rights – “have been recommended for decades” and are well within the capacity of the world’s wealthy nations.

But in many countries, including the United States, such initiatives have been blocked by “economic elites” because they inevitably challenge the interests of certain individuals and groups, the report says, affecting the balance of power in nations that pursue greater economic redistribution.

The broad contours of income and wealth inequality in the United States are, at this point, well-known. The top 1% of households have roughly doubled their share of the nation’s wealth since 1980, leaving less behind for everyone else. The 400 richest Americans now have significantly more money than the 150 million Americans in the bottom 60% of the distribution.

In the past several decades, paychecks of rank-and-file workers have stagnated even as they have delivered on the growing profits demanded by their bosses and shareholders. As the U.N. report notes, the average compensation for a chief executive at a Standard & Poor’s 500 company was $14.5 million in 2018, while the average production and nonsupervisory worker took in about $40,000.

Defenders of the economic status quo have argued, at times, that inequality is probably not rising all that much. But even if it is, it may well be the inevitable byproduct of a capitalist society and, in fact, it might actually be good. Economic inequality, in this view, is simply the price of paying a fair remuneration to the people who produce the iPhones and the cool apps and the free shipping that all of us – even the less fortunate – are now able to enjoy.

The U.N. report notes, however, that rampant inequality is harmful even to people at the top of income and wealth distributions. Unequal societies “grow more slowly and are less successful at sustaining economic growth,” as numerous studies have shown. As economic conditions deteriorate in lower and middle classes, we may get to a point where a critical mass of the population can no longer afford the iPhones and cool apps and free shipping that are driving our economy, causing a recession. In the end, the trouble with capitalism may be that eventually you run out of other people’s money.

The U.N. report is unusually clear-eyed on the power dynamics underlying today’s inequality struggles. “People in positions of power tend to capture political processes, particularly in contexts of high and growing inequality,” the report states. “Efforts to reduce inequality will inevitably challenge the interests of certain individuals and groups. At their core, they affect the balance of power.”

This observation is extremely useful for understanding the current debate. The winners of the modern, winner-take-all economy often protest that the distribution of money is not a zero-sum game. The rank-and-file may be getting a smaller piece of the American pie, but if that pie is much bigger than it used to be, they may still be better off than they were 40 years ago.

But while preaching nonzero sum thinking, those winners have also taken a ruthlessly zero-sum approach to rewriting the rules of the economy to their own benefit. Corporations and their wealthy leaders have lobbied extensively, and successfully, to reduce their tax burdens, weaken the social safety net, undermine the power of their workers and increase their influence in the policymaking process. The net result has been a massive transfer of wealth and power from the poor and middle class to those at the top.

When the rich shape a country’s institutions in their own image and to their own benefit, it’s little wonder that trust in those institutions declines, as it has in the United States. That lack of trust creates a vacuum for authoritarian and nativist regimes to take root, according to the United Nations. “The central message of populist movements has historically been that the common people are being exploited by a privileged elite, and that radical institutional change is required to avoid such exploitation,” according to the report.

But research shows the history of populist regimes since 1990 has primarily been one of corruption, self-dealing, worsening inequality and political violence.

Policymakers have known how to avoid this dire outcome for decades, according to the U.N. report. Leveling the playing field would involve strengthening the minimum wage, reinforcing the social safety net and ensuring universal access to health care in places that currently lack it. It’s really that simple, and wealthy countries like the United States have plenty of economic capacity and technical know-how to pull it off.

But putting those policies in place would require redistributing a lot of wealth downward, via a mechanism like a wealth tax or some other form of increased taxation on the wealthy. And the individuals and institutions currently hoarding the country’s riches have rightly identified those policies as a threat to their interests.

The S&P 500 Index faded from session highs after the FTC news, with Facebook and Microsoft among the decliners. Health-care and consumer-discretionary shares led the day’s advancers. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq 100 were little changed. Ten-year Treasury yields rose, while the dollar dropped for the first time in five sessions.

Investors have been more bullish lately despite the coronavirus outbreak, signaling some confidence that central banks could ease policy if growth slows. In remarks to Congress on Tuesday, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, while positive about the American economic outlook, said the central bank is keeping a close eye on fallout from the epidemic, which continues to disrupt travel and trade.

“With fundamentals strong, a robust employment situation and inflation on track, Powell’s cautiously optimistic stance isn’t too surprising, especially since coronavirus fears and trade tensions are at bay,” said Mike Loewengart, vice president of investment strategy at E-Trade Financial. “What remains to be seen is the lasting effect of the coronavirus on global growth, which is already tepid.”

Oil bounced back from Monday’s swoon and gold fell. Bitcoin surged back above $10,000. European and Asian equity benchmarks closed higher.

– – –

Here are some key events coming up:

– Earnings season continues with reports including MGM Resorts International and Softbank on Wednesday; Thursday will bring Alibaba, Nissan, Credit Suisse, Airbus, Nestle and AIG.

– A key contest for Democratic presidential hopefuls unfolds Tuesday, when New Hampshire holds a primary vote.

– Thursday sees a gauge of underlying U.S. inflation, the core consumer price index. It is forecast to increase to 0.2% in January, a faster pace than in December.

– China and the U.S. on Friday lower tariffs on billions of dollars of respective imports as part of the trade deal signed last month.

– – –

These are the main movers in markets:

Stocks

– The S&P 500 Index increased 0.2%, to 3,357.77, as of 4:02 p.m. New York time, the highest on record.

– The Stoxx Europe 600 Index advanced 0.9%, to 428.48, the highest on record.

– The MSCI Asia Pacific Index rose, 0.6%, to 169.93.

– The MSCI Emerging Market Index climbed 1.1%, to 1,098.98.

Currencies

– The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index declined 0.2%, to 1,205.58, the first retreat in a week and the largest drop in more than a week.

– The British pound rose 0.3%, to $1.2956, the biggest rise in more than a week.

– The euro rose 0.1%, to $1.0919, the first advance in more than a week.

– The Japanese yen was little changed at 109.79 per dollar.

Bonds

– The yield on 10-year Treasuries advanced two basis points, to 1.59%.

– Germany’s 10-year yield rose two basis points, to -0.39%.

– Britain’s 10-year yield increased one basis point, to 0.569%.

Commodities

– West Texas Intermediate crude advanced 0.9%, to $50 a barrel.

– Gold weakened 0.2%, to $1,568.25 an ounce, the first retreat in a week.

– LME copper increased 0.1%, to $5,667 per metric ton.

Now, fresh signs of robot supremacy are emerging on Wall Street in the form of machine stock analysts that make more profitable investment choices than humans. At least, that’s the upshot of one of the first studies of the subject, whose preliminary results were released in January.

Buy recommendations peddled by robo-analysts, which supposedly mimic what traditional equity research departments do but faster and at lower costs, outperform their flesh-and-blood counterparts over the long run, according to Indiana University professors.

“Using this type of technology to make investment recommendations or to conduct investment analyses is going to become increasingly important,” Kenneth Merkley, an associate professor of accounting and one of the authors, said by phone.

Whether getting stock calls right is a critical mission of human analysts is debatable. Wall Street research departments serve a variety of functions, among them connecting investors with company executives and gathering earnings and other corporate data. While their buy, sell and hold recommendations still garner attention and can move stocks, the number of clients premising investment decisions off them is probably limited.

The study looked at a small and still largely experimental branch of fintech, firms founded on the premise that digital technology does a better job than humans in making equity recommendations. While all analysts use computers, a handful of start-ups has been seeing if programs can handle every aspect of the stock-picking process.

One firm whose data was in the study, New Constructs, uses robo-analysts to collate everything from income statements and balance sheets to the footnotes at the bottom of reports to push out picks, according to its chief executive officer, David Trainer.

“We’re not doing sentiment, we’re not doing momentum, we’re not doing what I would call all these sexy, short-term metrics,” Trainer said in a phone interview. “We can give them good, old-fashioned analytical rigor to insert in their process at little to no cost.”

Trainer’s clients — quant funds, consulting firms, IRAs and asset managers, among others — can buy access to the services for anywhere from about $10 to $15,000, he said, depending on the type of research.

The Indiana University study analyzed more than 76,000 reports issued by seven different robo-analyst firms between 2003 and 2018. Among the findings were that automated services are more likely to produce sell ratings (as opposed to holds and buys) than traditional firms. They also revise their reports more frequently and may be better at accounting for large and complex corporate disclosures, including filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The authors compared the robo-analyst recommendations to those of traditional analysts part of the Institutional Brokers’ Estimate System. They omitted holds in their long-term analysis as those recommendations are less actionable, according to Merkley.

Because robo-analysts don’t exhibit any biases and aren’t subject to conflicts of interest, they produce a more balanced distribution of ratings, the authors, who also included Braiden Coleman and Joseph Pacelli, claimed. Whereas traditional analysts actively work on maintaining relationships with company management, robots aren’t beholden to the same conventions. Their calls may not get the same pop as humans’ at first, but the recommendations can generate “substantial returns for individual investors,” they said.

Besides New Constructs, the researchers analyzed recommendations from firms including Minkabu, Rapid Ratings and TheStreet.com that overlapped with those of traditional analysts.

Out of the total pool of outstanding robo-analyst recommendations, more than 30% represented buy ratings compared with 47% from traditional analysts (the overall number of outstanding recommendations from traditional analysts was five times the robots’). About a quarter of recommendations from the machines fell into the sell category, compared with 6% from humans.

Traditional analysts have been under pressure recently — machines have been doing a bigger share of the work while investors increasingly pile into passive funds. In the next decade, automation could reduce headcount on Wall Street and the banking industry by about 200,000, according to Wells Fargo Securities.

“What we’re seeing is that research budgets at these banks are being constrained, the value proposition of sell-side equity research is being reconsidered — for us, this industry is ripe for disruption,” said Merkley. “Technology is one of those disruptions because you can do things probably at lower cost and greater scale.”

Robo-analysts differ from their better-known counterparts, robo-advisers — shops like Betterment that use algorithms to provide automated financial planning services. But whatever their form, skepticism abounds on Wall Street. Opponents argue that machines are unable to parse nuanced discussions on earnings calls or have conversations with company management. New Constructs’ Trainer says the opposite is true — robots can analyze huge amounts of data, including transcripts of conversations, at much faster paces.

But, “as long as there’s still people that need human interaction, that need to talk to management and talk about the industry and perform that function for the buy-side, the sell-side will still be around,” said Merkley.