Thailand’s SET Index closed at 1,399.35 points, decreased 23.69 points or 1.66% with a trading value of 52.9 billion baht. The analyst stated that the Thai stock market trended downward, following the same direction as global markets in concerns of prolonged conflict between Israel and Hamas, causing investors to sell off risk assets. Meanwhile, bond yields were rising in response to the Fed’s chairman Jerome Powell’s comment on the need to lower inflation rates, which also pressured the market.
Japan’s September key inflation indicator, the core inflation, was published at 2.8% YoY which is slightly higher than the forecast of 2.7% and under 3% for the first time in 2023. Still, it’s higher than the general target of 2% as the market speculated that the Bank of Japan (BoJ) would try to end its ultra-loosen monetary policy or the negative interest rate soon.
Core consumer price index (CPI) that excluded the volatile foods price from its calculation, slowed down from 3.1% in August to a 13-month low. Meanwhile, the core-core consumer price index, which excludes food and energy prices, that BoJ monitored closely, rose by 4.2% YoY but slightly slowed down from 4.3% in the previous month of August.
China’s Ministry of Commerce announced the export permit requirement for graphite products from 1st December onward. Graphite is strategically critical to Chinese EV industries as it’s a material used in almost every anode of EV batteries. Both Japan, India and South Korea would be the first to be impacted as they are the top graphites buyer from China, according to Chinese customs data.
China is globally supplying 67% of natural form graphite, according to the US Geological Survey.
