THE PESO rose to an over one-month high on Wednesday as the dollar dropped overnight following weak US job openings data and the delayed US import tariffs on Mexico and Canada.
The local unit closed at P58.095 per dollar on Wednesday, strengthening by 24.5 centavos from its P58.34 finish on Tuesday, Bankers Association of the Philippines data showed.
This was the peso’s best close in more than a month or since its P57.91-a-dollar finish on Jan. 2.
The local unit opened Wednesday’s session sharply stronger at P58.05 against the dollar. It touched the P57 level for the first time in over a month, with its intraday best at P57.98. Meanwhile, its worst showing was at just P58.135 versus the greenback.
Dollars exchanged went down to $1.82 billion on Wednesday from $2.13 billion on Tuesday.
The peso “tracked the dollar’s weakness overnight due to lower jobs data and the delay of tariffs over Mexico and Canada,” a trader said by phone.
The Labor department’s Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey, or JOLTS report, on Tuesday showed there were 1.1 job openings for every unemployed person, down from 1.15 in November, Reuters reported.
Job openings, a measure of labor demand, had decreased 556,000 to 7.6 million by the last day of December, the Labor department’s Bureau of Labor Statistics said. The decline was the largest since October 2023.
The peso was also boosted by data showing that Philippine headline inflation was steady in January, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said in a Viber message. The consumer price index rose 2.9% year on year in January, steady from December. This was within the central bank’s 2.5%-3.3% forecast for the month.
For Thursday, the trader expects the peso to move between P57.90 and P58.40 per dollar, while Mr. Ricafort sees it ranging from P57.95 to P58.15. — A.M.C. Sy with Reuters