The baht turned stronger amid dollar selling pressure.

The baht hit its strongest point this morning at 33.84 baht per dollar before adjusting back to around 33.88-33.90 baht per dollar (9:33 a.m.) compared to yesterday's closing price of 34.23 baht per dollar. Kasikorn Research Center stated that the baht strengthened amid selling pressure against the dollar, both against major currencies and other Asian currencies. The dollar weakened in line with the decline in bond yields after the latest data on the US labor market showed relatively weak signals, especially the number of job openings, which fell by 237,000 to a two-and-a-half-year low of 7.67 million in July (the market expected 8.1 million). In addition, the dollar was under additional pressure after the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta appeared open to the possibility of a rate cut before inflation returns to the Fed's 2% target. For the baht's movement framework today, the initial assessment is 33.80-34.10 baht per dollar, while important factors to monitor include the direction of fore ign capital, the global gold price situation, Thailand's August inflation figures, and US economic figures such as ADP's private sector employment figures, the August PMI/ISM service sector index, and weekly unemployment benefit claims. Mr. Poon Panichpiboon, Krungthai GLOBAL MARKETS, Krungthai Bank, sees the baht at 33.85-34.30 baht/dollar. The baht's appreciation is consistent with the assessment earlier this week that the baht is at risk of two-way volatility following market players' adjustments to the Fed's interest rate outlook after receiving reports of important US economic data. Last night, the baht's movement was consistent with market players' views that the Fed may need to urgently cut interest rates due to worse-than-expected economic data. However, it is still believed that the baht's appreciation may slow down to around the support level of 34.00 baht/dollar after concerns about the slowdown in the Chinese and US economies have pressured crude oil prices to fall, leading some market players to gradually buy crude oil during this period (crude oil prices have adjusted to a new low this year). The flow of crude oil purchase transactions is also a factor that is pressuring the baht to weaken. At the same time, market players' current cautiousness may also provide an opportunity for foreign investors to gradually sell and make additional profits on Thai assets. Today, the Ministry of Commerce announced the inflation figures, estimating that the headline CPI inflation rate in August will slow down to 0.43% due to the high base price of goods and services in the previous year (+0.16% m/m). The core CPI inflation rate may remain around 0.54%. Although the inflation rate has adjusted down below the Bank of Thailand's (BOT) target range of 1%-3%, it is expected that the BOT will not be too concerned about the slowdown in inflation because the inflation rate is expected to gradually increase back into the target range in the fourth quarter of this year. Source: Thai News Agency