Thailand’s SET Index closed at 1,386.42 points, increased 14.26 points or 1.04% with a trading value of 40.07 billion baht. The analyst stated that the Thai stock market extended its gain following the regional markets, as they received supporting factors from the reiteration of the US Federal Reserve chair on the policy rate cuts and the confidence that inflation would move to the target of 2%. Foreign flows returned to risk assets and equity markets after this reiteration by the Fed’s Chair.
The analyst expected the market to trade sideways next week.
S&P analyst Kim Eng Tan noted on Thursday that China’s credit rating could be downgraded if the world’s second-largest economy chose to continue recovering its economy by mainly using extensive stimulus.
The postponement of economic improvement within the next year or two could cause S&P Global to revise down the current A+ stable credit score for China.
China’s S&P rating was last downgraded in 2017, while Moody’s gave the country’s rating as downgrade warning in December, as there were concerns about the country’s property market.
Meanwhile, Tan stated that the current situation was mixed, and China still had decent chances to bear an economic rebound this year.
Job growth in the US for February is expected to decrease after it jumped largely in January, while the trend for employment is also far from dropping, as companies are keeping up their demand for workers.
According to Dow Jones consensus estimates reported by CNBC, the nonfarm payrolls, which will be reported by the Labor Department on Friday, are expected to display job growth of 198,000, with the unemployment rate of 3.7%.
Though the expected number of job growth in February showed a significant decrease in numbers compared to 353,000 growth in January, it would still be demonstrated as a healthy labor market.
Julia Pollak, chief economist at ZipRecruiter, noted that the gain of 333,000 in December 2023 and 353,000 growth in January 2024 were boosted by seasonal distortions, while the growth in February 2024 could reach as high as 240,000, as companies aimed to fill their vacancies.
However, the positive trend for the labor market also comes with emerging concerns, as it could impede the Federal Reserve from cutting interest rates.
At present, markets expected the Fed to announce rate cuts in June. The central bank signaled that the cut would come in the near future, while it awaited to get more confident on inflation to move sustainably at 2%.
