1) Thai stock market overview
Thailand’s SET Index closed at 1,593.54 points, decreased 9.49 points or 0.59% with a trading value of 68 billion baht. The analyst stated that the Thai stock market edged lower ahead of the Fed’s rate hike, while bond yield rose to 3.45%. The profit taking from the energy and retail stocks also pressured the market.
The analyst added that the market could rebound if the Fed settles to only a 0.50bps hike, giving a support level for SET Index tomorrow at 1,590-1,580 points and a resistance level at 1,600-1,605 points.
2) European gas prices soar amid supply concerns at Nord Stream and Freeport LNG
British and Dutch wholesale gas continued to move upward on Wednesday morning as an extended outage at the Freeport liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in the U.S. and the cut of supplies via the Russian Nord Stream 1 pipeline raised supply concerns.
The Dutch front-month contract TRNLTTFMc1 (TRPC Natural Gas TTF Monthly Continuation 1) was up as much as 4.10 euros at 101 euros per megawatt hour (MWh) by 0855 GMT, its highest level since mid-May.
Yesterday, Russian gas giant Gazprom announced a 40% reduction in natural gas deliveries to Europe via the Nord Stream pipeline, while putting the blame on German engineering giant Siemens for failing to restore key turbines on time.
The outage extension at Freeport LNG also doubled supply concerns after the company announced that the explosion last week at the Texas plant would keep it fully offline until September with only partial operation through year-end.
3) China’s Baidu seeks to sell majority share in Beijing-based video streaming iQiyi
China’s internet search engine giant Baidu Inc. is reportedly in talks to sell its controlling stake in iQIYI Inc., a Beijing-based online video platform, in a deal for up to $7 billion, according to sources familiar with the matter.
The selling plan comes after Baidu no longer considers iQIYI as its core asset, instead it wants to put its resources into building its capital-intensive artificial intelligence and autonomous driving businesses.
4) China’s economy shows improvement in May
China’s economy showed improvement in May from a decline the previous month as industrial production came in better than expected, but consumption remained sluggish, highlighting the difficulties for policymakers under COVID curbs.
In May, industrial production rose by 0.7% year-on-year, which was somewhat better than an expected 0.7% decline predicted by analysts polled by Reuters. In April, industrial production unexpectedly decreased by 2.9% on an annual basis.
Retail sales, on the other hand, fell less than projected in May, falling 6.7% year on year. According to a Reuters poll, retail sales in May were predicted to have fallen by 7.1% compared with the same period last year.
