Krungsri Securities said that the US CPI inflation for August 2026 came in as a slightly negative surprise, with headline CPI at +3.4% year-on-year and +0.4% month-on-month, in line with market expectations, compared with July's +3.4% year-on-year and +0.1% month-on-month. Core CPI stood at +2.4% year-on-year and +0.3% month-on-month, versus market expectations of +2.4% year-on-year and +0.2% month-on-month, and July's +2.5% year-on-year and +0.2% month-on-month. The accelerating month-on-month picture indicates that inflation remains sticky. Among the main components, pressure from energy returned to prominence, with energy up +2.1% month-on-month, reversing from -1.5% the previous month, led by gasoline at +3.9% month-on-month from -2.9%, accounting for more than one-third of the monthly increase in CPI, while energy rose +16.3% year-on-year and gasoline +27.4% year-on-year. Some core services also accelerated, particularly transportation services at +0.5% month-on-month, airline fares at +2.7%, communication at +2.3%, and lodging away from home at +2.4%. The research team maintains the view that the war has passed its peak, but the prolonged situation poses an upside risk to stickier inflation, and expects the market to watch energy inflation, which is likely to rise further in September and could pass through to transportation and food inflation. The view on the Fed is slightly hawkish. The market has raised its expectation for a September rate hike to 86% from 70% previously. Although headline CPI did not produce an upside surprise and core CPI year-on-year slowed from +2.5% to +2.4%, core month-on-month at +0.3% was higher than the expected +0.2%, combined with energy inflation re-accelerating and the August labor market recovering more than expected, reducing the reasons to hold. However, wages at +3.1% year-on-year are still slowing and do not indicate a wage-price spiral, thus still helping to limit the risk of inflation pass-through. Meanwhile, the 10-year US bond yield rose less than the 2-year, and Brent around US$107 per barrel has not made a new high, reflecting that the market still sees long-term inflation pressure as limited and the rate hike as possibly only short-term. For equity investment strategy, the banking and insurance groups have received positive sentiment from bond yields, namely KBANK, KTB, KKP, and BBL; the defensive groups, namely BDMS, BH, PR9, and BCH; and the energy security groups, namely PTT, TOP, and PTTGC, given oil prices that remain at high levels and tight global energy supply.
Bangkok Chain Hospital Public Company Limited
Bumrungrad Hospital PCL
Praram 9 Hospital Public Company Limited
PTT Public Company Limited
Thai Oil Public Company Limited
Bangkok Bank PCL
