Peso down on US markets’ record high

The Philippine peso stayed on a soft note on Wednesday as the US markets' rally last night — reaching record highs — provided support for the dollar.

The local currency closed at P50.975:$1, down 7 centavos from 50.905 on Monday.

"US markets rallied last night. Almost all major currencies also inched higher," Union Bank of the Philippines chief economist Ruben Carlo Asuncion told GMA News Online.

The S&P 500, Dow Jones industrial, and Nasdaq Composite all marked record finishes after investors' concerns about North Korean tensions faded and the impact of Hurricane Irma eased, a report by Reuters said.

Despite the local unit's decline, Asuncion said that the weakness of the peso was marginal.

"The peso's depreciation was capped by strong Philippine trade data," Guian Angelo Dumalagan, market economist at the Land Bank of the Philippines, said in a separate text message.

The country's balance of trade in goods deficit in July was narrower at $1.65 billion compared to the $2.37-billion deficit a year earlier amid the growth in exports. — MDM, GMA News