The Thai baht is surging

Investing.com

The South Korean won tumbled after the country’s central bank kept policy on hold.

The currency finished down by 1.1% at 1,135.85 per dollar.

The Bank of Korea held its benchmark interest rate at 1.25%, as expected, and said it saw “uncertainties surrounding the growth path to be high.”

“In our view, this suggests, the central bank is adopting a ‘wait and see’ stance to allow more data to be released in order to gauge the health of the economy,” noted Barclays’ David Fernandez and Angela Hsieh in a note.

“In particular, the Bok said that although Samsung’s problems with its Galaxy Note 7 smartphone had been factored into its revised economics forecasts (released today), the impact of those problems may have been exacerbated by the company’s decision to suspend production of that model completely,” they continued. “We believe this suggests the central bank is ready to act if the fallout from the Galaxy Note 7 and recent regulatory changes (eg. anti-graft law) escalates further.”

As for the rest of the world, here’s the scoreboard as of 7:55 a.m. ET:

• The British pound is little changed at 1.2195 against the dollar, finally catching its breath after a tumultuous week-and-a-half.
• The Turkish lira touched a record-low of 3.1112 against the dollar earlier in the day. It has retraced some of its losses, and is down by 0.3% at 3.0969 per dollar.
• The euro is up by 0.3% at 1.1037 against the dollar after data showed that German CPI rose 0.1% month-over-month in September, in line with expectations.
• The Russian rubleis down by 0.3% at 63.1841 per dollar, while Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, is up by 0.3% at $51.97 per barrel.
• The US dollar index is down by 0.2% at 97.81 ahead of a light data day. Initial jobless claims will cross the wires at 8:30 a.m. ET.
• The Japanese yen up by 0.4% at 103.76 per dollar