1) Thai stock market overview
Thailand’s SET Index closed at 1,550.36 points, increased 1.58 points or 0.10% with a trading value of 39 billion baht. The analyst stated that the Thai stock market moved narrowly without any positive catalyst to boost the market as energy prices started to stabilize as the market expected crude oil prices would not edge much higher. Meanwhile, concerns of Fed keeping rates at higher levels would still pressure the market for a period of time.
2) China expands its ban on iPhones in sensitive departments
The Chinese government is expecting to expand its ban on the use of Apple’s iPhones in sensitive departments to government-backed agencies and also state companies. This is a new crackdown on the U.S. tech company and also a growing challenge for Apple as China is the biggest market outside of the U.S. as well as being a global production base.
Several agencies have begun instructing their staff not to bring their iPhones to work, according to people familiar with the matter as reported by Bloomberg.
3) China’s trade data continues to slow in August, but less steep
China’s imports and exports continued to decline in August as slowdown in global demand persisted, but less steep than expected.
According to an official data reported on Thursday, China’s exports in U.S. dollar terms fell by 8.8% in August compared to last year. Still, it was better than a 9.2% drop forecast by a Reuters poll.
Meanwhile, imports data for last month came in with a plummet of 7.3%, but still better than a 9% drop estimated by Reuters.
A brief spike in economic growth from the world’s second largest economy proved to be short-lived as critical indicators showed continuous decline month after month from early this year. Imports have now fallen every month in 2023 when compared with year-on-year data. Meanwhile, exports started to fall year-on-year for every month since April.
China reported a trade surplus in US dollar-term at $68.36 billion, lower than a forecast for $74 billion.
