Thai baht appreciated on July 26, closing at 36.05 baht per dollar compared to the previous day’s close of 36.15 baht per dollar. The appreciation was attributed to rising global gold prices and continued net buying of Thai bonds by foreign investors. On the same day, foreign investors net bought Thai bonds worth 7,697 million baht, although there was a slight net sell-off in Thai stocks amounting to 147.66 million baht.
The US dollar sentiment remained weak ahead of the release of the PCE/Core PCE Price Index, a key inflation measure monitored by the Federal Reserve. For the upcoming week (July 29-August 2), the baht is expected to fluctuate within the range of 35.85-36.50 baht per dollar. Key factors to watch include the outcomes of the FOMC meeting (July 30-31), BOJ meeting (July 30-31), and BOE meeting (August 1), as well as trends in foreign capital flows, the Bank of Thailand’s economic and financial report for June, and developments related to the US presidential election.
Important US economic indicators to watch include job openings and labor turnover rates, pending home sales data for June, consumer confidence index, private sector employment data, ISM and PMI manufacturing indices, non-farm payroll data, and the unemployment rate for July. Additionally, the market is also looking forward to the second-quarter GDP figures for the Eurozone and the July PMI data for China’s manufacturing and services sectors.
