Latest Forum Topics / User Research/Opinions | Post Reply |
%%%% WORLD ECONOMIC SUMMIT %%%%
|
||||||||||||||
pharoah88
Supreme |
18-Aug-2010 21:51
|
|||||||||||||
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
Foreign direct investment in China surges 20.7% BEIJING Foreign companies pumped US$58.4 billion ($79 billion) into China in the January-to-July period, Commerce Ministry spokesman Yao Jian said yesterday. That marked an acceleration from the 19.6-per-cent growth logged in the first half of the year, and the 14.3 per cent growth from January to May. Last month alone, foreign direct investment totalled US$6.9 billion, a jump of 29.2 per cent over the same month in 2009, Mr Yao said. The data includes investment by overseas companies in industries such as manufacturing, real estate and agriculture but excludes money put into banks and other financial institutions. — Foreign direct investment in China rose 20.7 per cent in the first seven months of this year from the corresponding period in the year earlier, underlining growing confidence in the world’s second-largest economy.AGENCIES |
|||||||||||||
Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | ||||||||||||||
pharoah88
Supreme |
18-Aug-2010 21:48
|
|||||||||||||
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
Half of apartments in Shanghai, Beijing vacant
BEIJING About 51 per cent of Shanghai apartments, 66 per cent of Beijing flats and more than 70 per cent of units in Hainan are vacant, according to the survey, based on counting the number of apartments observed to have no lights on at night. It was conducted on more than 1,000 real estate projects and was organised by news website The finding comes as “Investors and speculators are the owners of the vacant houses” as they wait to sell their properties at an appropriate time, said Mr Lu Qilin, a Shanghai-based researcher at Uwin. “It’s important for the government to introduce more measures to curb speculation,” he added. Property prices in 70 major Chinese cities climbed 10.3 per cent last month from a year earlier, according to
|
|||||||||||||
Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
pharoah88
Supreme |
18-Aug-2010 20:52
|
|||||||||||||
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
Europe’s make-believe recovery, as debt virus spreads
The Greeks have implemented their first austerity measures with some success. The fevered predictions of the early summer that the euro was doomed and that Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis would rip through countries such as Spain and Portugal like a virus have been forgotten. The crisis appears to be over. Don’t believe it. Under the surface, the cracks in the euro are getting worse. The imbalances in the euro area are growing all the time. The resistance to the bailout package will rise as the terms turn out to be immoral and absurd. And the big deficit nations are locked in a downward economic spiral. The euro has bought itself some time, at a huge cost. And yet little has been done to fix the causes of the crisis. True, there have been signs in the last month that the situation has stabilised. Last week, the European Union said the 16 economies sharing the euro grew 1 per cent in the second quarter, the strongest rate of expansion in four years. Most of Europe’s banks passed the “stress tests”, designed to judge their ability to withstand financial-market shocks, easily enough. They have bounced back from the crisis and look in decent shape again. The euro has also strengthened to US$1.28 after reaching US$1.19 in June. Even Greek stocks are looking healthier. At this rate, even the editors of Germany’s mass-market Here’s why we should be sceptical. Firstly, the euro area remains as dangerously imbalanced as always. Take a look at those growth figures. In the second quarter, German gross domestic product grew 2.2 per cent. Other countries did not do nearly so well. Greece’s economy shrank 1.5 per cent, while Spain registered just 0.2 per cent growth. The debt crisis has even helped Germany by weakening the euro, thereby strengthening its exports. It has hardly helped nations like Greece because they do not export much. Instead, the euro area is more lopsided. Germans are getting wealthier, yet they are being forced to subsidise Greeks who are getting poorer. That will not be sustainable for long. Secondly, opposition to the bailouts may grow. Slovakia has understandably refused to ratify its share of the rescue package. Any political system needs to be both fair and reasonable to command support. The terms of the bailout are neither. You cannot tell relatively poor, hardworking people who have played by the rules, like the Slovaks, that they have to help out countries such as Greece that did not. You may get away with it once or twice, but if the euro area is simply a mechanism for transferring wealth from the industrious to the feckless, it is hard to see it surviving. The responsible nations are going to want out at some point. Slovakia will no doubt be ignored. The EU does not pay much attention to protests from its smaller members, particularly from Eastern Europe. But Portugal and Ireland, which will also have to help Greece, may join the protest soon. Even if they don’t, the billions in aid and loan guarantees promised for Greece and the other deficit countries cannot be taken for granted. The new government in Slovakia was elected on a platform of opposing the bailout. “Say no to the Greeks” is a great campaign theme and will surely be copied in the region. Thirdly, the Greek economy is in a terrible state. It may have delivered on the first round of the austerity package demanded as part of the rescue. That was always going to happen. But the economy is still shrinking. With the government cutting spending and with strikes hitting the tourist industry, it is impossible to see it recovering any time soon. As the Greek economy shrinks, the tax base will fall, and the task of curbing the deficit will get harder. Greece has always needed a growth strategy as well as a deficit-reduction one. There has been no sign of that so far. Europe’s sovereign-debt crisis was always going to be a drawn-out affair. Lulls in the storm are to be expected. Crisis finished? It’s only just getting started. The euro area is growing again. The banking system has survived its stress tests.Bild newspaper will soon be congratulating their Greek friends on their sober and responsible approach to economic management. Think again.The writer is a Bloomberg News columnist and the author of Bust, a forthcoming book on the Greek debt crisis. The opinions expressed are his own. |
|||||||||||||
Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | ||||||||||||||
pharoah88
Supreme |
17-Aug-2010 12:43
|
|||||||||||||
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
China is the new No 2 Its economy surpasses Japan in Q2 TOKYO as the world’s second-largest economy to China in the second quarter as receding global growth sapped momentum and stunted a shaky recovery. Gross domestic product grew at an annualised rate of just 0.4 per cent, the Japanese government said yesterday, far below the annualised 4.4 per cent expansion in the first quarter and adding to evidence the global recovery is facing strong headwinds. Japan’s nominal GDP, which isn’t adjusted for price and seasonal variat ions, was worth US$1.286 trillion ($1.75 trillion) in the April-to- June quarter compared with US$1.335 trillion for China. The figures are converted into US dollars based on an average exchange rate for the quarter. The latest data underscore China’s emergence as an economic power that is changing everything from the global balance of military and financial power to how cars are designed. It is already the biggest exporter, auto buyer and steel producer, and its global influence is expanding. China has been a major force behind the world’s emergence from deep recession, delivering much-needed impetus to the United States, Japan and Europe. Tokyo’s latest numbers, however, suggest that Chinese demand alone may not be enough for Japan or other economic giants. “Japan is the canary in the goldmine because it depends very much on demand in Asia and China, and this demand is cooling quite a bit,” said Fujitsu Research Institute’s economist Martin Schulz. “This is a warning sign for all major economies that just focusing on overseas demand won’t be sufficient.” China’s economy will almost certainly be bigger than Japan’s at the end of this year because of the huge difference in each country’s growth rates. China is growing at about 10 per cent a year, while Japan’s economy is forecast to grow between 2 per cent to 3 per cent this year.
|
|||||||||||||
Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | ||||||||||||||
pharoah88
Supreme |
17-Aug-2010 12:38
|
|||||||||||||
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
World’s largest IPO SHANGHAI China’s biggest lender by customers sold a further 3.34 billion shares at the IPO price of 2.68 yuan apiece, it said in a stock exchange filing yesterday. That increased the Shanghai portion of the lender’s IPO to 67.6 billion yuan. The expansion propels Ag-Bank’s IPO past Industrial and Commercial Bank of China’s US$21.9 billion sale in 2006. The bank had raised US$20.8 billion selling shares in Hong Kong and Shanghai last month as chairman Xiang Junbo braved a market rout that drove the Chinese benchmark stock index to a 15-month low.
|
|||||||||||||
Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
pharoah88
Supreme |
17-Aug-2010 12:07
|
|||||||||||||
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
Europe still poses risk: Lim SINGAPORE Speaking in Parliament, Mr Lim noted that Singapore’s limited exposure to the areas in Europe most affected by the debt crisis had prevented an impact on the Republic’s exports to the European Union as a whole. However, he cautioned that austerity measures and fiscal tightening throughout Europe remained a cause for concern. Mr Lim ruled out the possibility of a global double-dip recession, but warned that growth prospects would likely trend downwards in the second half of this year. “The G3 economies, of course, will see much lower growth, whereas for much of the emerging economies, I think the risk in fact lies in higher liquidity and the risk of an asset bubble,” he said. — While Europe’s sovereign debt crisis has not materially affected the Singapore economy so far, it does not mean that macro-economic risks from the continent have fully subsided, Trade and Industry Minister Lim Hng Kiang said yesterday. |
|||||||||||||
Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | ||||||||||||||
pharoah88
Supreme |
17-Aug-2010 12:04
|
|||||||||||||
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
Indonesia’s 7.7% growth target JAKARTA “With careful planning and proper implementation, we are optimistic in reaching the target,” he said on the eve of Indonesia’s Independence Day. Mr Yudhoyono presented his draft Budget for 2011 in which he forecast a deficit of 1.7 per cent of gross domestic product next year, wider than the 1.5 per cent gap expected this year. He also proposed to increase capital spending next year by 28 per cent to 121.7 trillion rupiah ($18.4 billion), mainly to finance infrastructure projects such as irrigation, transport, housing and water resources. — Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono yesterday said Southeast Asia’s biggest economy should aim to hit annual growth of 7.7 per cent within four years, which would create 10.7 million new jobs and slash poverty by 8 to 10 per cent.AGENCIES |
|||||||||||||
Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | ||||||||||||||
pharoah88
Supreme |
15-Aug-2010 21:01
|
|||||||||||||
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
EVERY LEADER must be an ENTREPRENEUR ? ? ? ? before telling Others to be an ENTREPRENEUR ? ? ? ? and HOW GOOD it is to be an ENTREPRENEUR ? ? ? ? |
|||||||||||||
Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
pharoah88
Supreme |
15-Aug-2010 20:54
|
|||||||||||||
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
Aug 14, 2010ENCOURAGING ^ENTREPRENEURSHIP^
dOn't tIe dOwn talentTHE Minister-in-charge of Entrepreneurship, Mr Lee Yi Shyan, discussed the issues Singapore faces in promoting entrepreneurship in Wednesday's report ('Wading into the Blue Oceans'). Mr Lee is right that we have strong fundamentals for doing business. Starting a company here is easy and inexpensive. The problem is that we do not have the right culture for Singaporeans to be entrepreneurs and for entrepreneurs to be creative and globally competitive. I can think of three reasons why. Government institutions perpetuate this mindset by ever increasing the number of scholarships, publicising the prospects of scholarship holders and fast-tracking their careers. We must cut the number of bonded scholarships and give more non-bonded awards for good performance in universities. This will leave a larger talent pool of young people who are not tied down to organisations before they even dream of becoming entrepreneurs. The friendship built up by young talent across cultures may one day bring forth entrepreneurial Singapore companies with global ambitions. While our universities have taken steps in this direction by having offshore campuses and tie-up programmes, the pace should intensify and permeate to lower levels. Few secondary schools have serious entrepreneurship engagement, and business school programmes are mostly theoretical in nature. Such engagements should go beyond business plan competitions. There can be more places that are easy for young aspiring entrepreneurs to develop ideas and test market products. Singapore has been successful in attracting the best companies to set up here to provide jobs. We now need to establish global entrepreneur-minded companies. Yee Jenn Jong |
|||||||||||||
Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | ||||||||||||||
pharoah88
Supreme |
14-Aug-2010 19:08
|
|||||||||||||
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
Rising yen a bigger risk than euro zone crIsIs TOKYO “With regard to the recent appreciation of the yen and fall in Japanese stock prices, some members said that the effects on Japan’s economic activity should be examined closely,” minutes of a July 14-15 meeting released on Friday showed. A weakening United States economy spurred the yen’s climb to a 15-year high of 84.73 against the US dollar this week. It has retreated since Finance Minister Yoshihiko Noda and central bank Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said on Thursday they were closely watching the currency, comments investors say indicate preparedness to curb currency gains to protect the nation’s economic recovery. The yen stood at 86.11 per US dollar late on Friday. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average rose 0.4 per cent to close at 9,253. Japanese stocks have fallen about 13 per cent in the past three months.
|
|||||||||||||
Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | ||||||||||||||
pharoah88
Supreme |
14-Aug-2010 18:58
|
|||||||||||||
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
Superman Germany leads the way in Europe
Economic growth in second quarter fastest since reunification BERLIN
German gross domestic product surged 2.2 per cent from the first quarter, fuelling euro zone growth of 1 per cent, the fastest in four years.
Economists had forecast GDP would rise 1.3 per cent in Germany and 0.7 per cent in the currency bloc.
“Superman is wearing black, red and gold this year, Germany’s national colours,” said ING economist Carsten Brzeski.
Germany, Europe’s largest economy, is benefiting from a recovery in global demand after last year’s recession just as the euro’s 10 per cent decline against the US dollar this year makes its exports more competitive outside the region.
At the same time, European governments are cutting spending to rein in ballooning budget deficits, threatening to slow growth in coming months.
Germany’s performance highlights the growth differential across the euro region in a quarter that saw the Greek fiscal crisis threaten to break the bloc apart.
France’s economy expanded 0.6 per cent in the period and Italy’s 0.4 per cent, while Greece, which was forced to seek a European Union bailout in May, experienced a 1.5-percent contraction.
In annualised terms, the German economy expanded about 9 per cent in the second quarter, said Mr Andreas Scheuerle, an economist at Dekabank in Frankfurt.
That puts it on a footing with emerging markets like China and India.
Late in Europe on Friday, after the GDP announcements, the Stoxx 600 benchmark was little changed at 254.69. |
|||||||||||||
Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | ||||||||||||||
pharoah88
Supreme |
14-Aug-2010 14:09
|
|||||||||||||
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
PARALYSIS at the MAS ? ? ? ? “Singapore Monetary Policy: A Case of Self-Induced Paralysis?” But short-term interest rates — the usual tool of monetary policy — were near zero and could go no lower. And the MAS used that fact as an excuse to do no more ? ? ? ? iS SiNGAPORE followIng the fOOt path Of JAPAN and AMERICA ? ? ? ? |
|||||||||||||
Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | ||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
pharoah88
Supreme |
14-Aug-2010 14:04
|
|||||||||||||
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
PARALYSIS at the Fed Why is Bernanke just as passive now as the Bank of Japan was a decade ago? Paul Krugman Ten years ago, one of America’s leading economists delivered a stinging critique of the Bank of Japan, Tokyo’s equivalent of the Federal Reserve, titled “Japanese Monetary Policy: A Case of Self-Induced Paralysis?” With only a few changes in wording, the critique applies to the Fed today.
NEW YORK TIMES
The writer is a professor of economics and international affairs at Princeton University. He received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2008. At the time, the Bank of Japan faced a situation broadly similar to that facing the Fed now. The economy was deeply depressed and showed few signs of improvement, and one might have expected the bank to take forceful action. But short-term interest rates — the usual tool of monetary policy — were near zero and could go no lower. And the Bank of Japan used that fact as an excuse to do no more. That was malfeasance, declared the eminent US economist: “Far from being powerless, the Bank of Japan could achieve a great deal if it were willing to abandon its excessive caution and its defensive response to criticism.” He rebuked officials hiding “behind minor institutional or technical difficulties in order to avoid taking action”. Who was that tough-talking economist? Mr Ben Bernanke, now the chairman of the Federal Reserve. So why is the Bernanke Fed being just as passive now as the Bank of Japan was a decade ago? Now, America’s current economic troubles aren’t exactly identical to those of Japan in 1999-2000: Japan was experiencing outright deflation, while we aren’t — yet. But inflation is well below the Fed’s target of around 2 per cent, and it is continuing to slide. And Americans face a level of unemployment, and sheer human misery, far worse than anything Japan went through. Yet the Fed is doing almost nothing to confront these troubles. What could the Fed be doing? Back when Mr Bernanke suggested, among other things, that the Bank of Japan could get traction by buying large quantities of “non-standard” assets — that is, assets other than the short-term government debt central banks normally hold. The Fed actually put that idea into practice during the most acute phase of the financial crisis, acquiring, in particular, large amounts of mortgage backed securities. However, it stopped those purchases in March. Since then, the economic news has grown steadily worse. And earlier this week, the Fed changed course — but barely. It now says that it will reinvest the proceeds from maturing securities in long-term government bonds. That’s a trivial change, basically the least the Fed could get away with without facing a firestorm of criticism — and far short of the major asset-purchase programme the Fed should be undertaking. Back in 2000, Mr Bernanke also suggested that the Bank of Japan could move expectations by making announcements about its future policies. In particular, he argued that it could make private-sector borrowing more attractive by announcing that it would keep interest rates low until deflation had given way to 3 or 4 per cent inflation — an idea originally suggested by yours truly. Since we are, if anything, in worse shape now than Japan was in 2000, an inflation target of at least 3 per cent would very much be in America’s interest. But as chairman of the Fed, Mr Bernanke has explicitly rejected any such move. What’s going on here? Has Mr Bernanke been intellectually assimilated by the Fed Borg? I prefer to believe that he’s being political, unwilling to engage in open confrontation with other Fed officials — especially those regional Fed presidents who fear inflation, even with deflation the clear and present danger, and are evidently unmoved by the plight of the unemployed. And in fairness to Mr Bernanke, discord among senior officials also makes it difficult for policy to change expectations. In fact, I’d argue that loose talk by some Fed officials is already having a negative economic impact. But while Mr Bernanke doesn’t have the authority to stop that loose talk, he could make it clear that it doesn’t represent overall Fed policy. Last, but not least, policy is suffering from an act of neglect by President Barack Obama, who waited until his 16th month in office before offering a full slate of nominees to fill vacancies on the Federal Reserve Board. If he had filled those slots quickly — his nominees still aren’t in place — the Fed might be less passive. But whatever the reasons, the fact is that the Fed — which is required by STATUTE to promote “maximum employment” — isn’t doing its job. Instead, like the rest of Washington, it’s inventing reasons to dither in the face of mass unemployment. And while the Fed sits there in its self-inflicted paralysis, millions of Americans are losing their jobs, their homes and their hopes for the future. |
|||||||||||||
Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | ||||||||||||||
pharoah88
Supreme |
14-Aug-2010 13:18
|
|||||||||||||
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
高盛:美经济再衰退概率 高达25%至30% (2010-08-14) (新加坡彭博电)高盛(Goldman Sachs)在致客户的电子邮件报告中表示,美国经济再次陷入衰退的可能性在25%至30%。 高盛集团资深美国经济学家麦克伟(Ed McKelvey)等分析师表示,美国经济增长放缓迹象倍增,市场人士开始担心经济二次探底的可能性。他们认为,这个可能性高得异乎寻常,在25%至30%。 分析师们写道,住房、企业的设备开支、汽车和其他耐用消费品支出、家庭储蓄以及公司招聘是防范经济二次探底的五大领域。 |
|||||||||||||
Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | ||||||||||||||
pharoah88
Supreme |
13-Aug-2010 15:29
|
|||||||||||||
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
10 targets for Inception dream team
mind bender. Few films in recent memory provoked more chatter than this corporate- espionage tale featuring Leonardo DiCaprio implanting an idea into a young billionaire’s head. Extracting thoughts, our dream catchers say, is easy. Introducing them? Not so much. It also is a fascinating exercise in “what if?” Watching it, I wondered about how inception might be employed in Asia. There are many steps that leaders could take to improve the lives of billions and make economies more investor-friendly. Big ideas seem lacking, the challenges are many. Imagine hiring Dom Cobb, the character DiCaprio plays, to plant the seeds of change in the dreams of important people. Were it possible, here are 10 missions we might offer him. The dream thriller Inception is quite theTarget No 1: There are many ideas we could plant in his subconscious: Don’t censor the Internet, stop making fat energy deals with despots around the globe, and reduce currency reserves. Really, isn’t a US$2.5-trillion ($3.4-trillion) currency stockpile a bit ridiculous? The idea I would implant is making green growth the priority. The most populous nation is lagging behind a target for reducing energy use relative to gross domestic product. Expect determination to meet the goal to wane as China focuses on growth. Tomorrow’s sustainability is more important. Mr Hu Jintao, Chinese President.Target No 2: Pssst! Your sons aren’t the answer. Mr Kim’s third son, Jong Un, will soon join the nation’s leadership. Considering the unambiguous disaster the Kim Dynasty has been for North Korea’s 24 million people, this hardly seems the way to go. Mr Kim Jong Il, North Korean leader.Target No 3: Mr Manmohan Singh, India’s Prime Minister.Inception Mr Singh has had such thoughts before. As Finance Minister in the 1990s, he introduced free-market measures that cut red tape, removed state-enforced capacity caps on steel and cement makers and allowed overseas companies, such as Ford Motor Co, to set up business locally. India needs more of this thinking. could focus him on the micro- economy. Gross domestic product has grown almost six-fold since 1991. Yet, India’s leaders seem a bit too impressed with their high growth rates.Target No 4: Visit Hiroshima. Last week marked 65 years since an atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese city. Mr Obama courted speculation by having Mr John Roos, US ambassador, attend the anniversary. It fit with what may be Mr Obama’s signature achievement: Moving us a step closer to a nuclear-free world. The push needs to come from the nation that created the atomic bomb and used it. Going to Hiroshima would show Mr Obama’s resolve. Mr Barack Obama, United States President.Target No 5: Talk about a guy who doesn’t know when to quit. Almost four years after he was removed in a coup amid corruption allegations, Mr Thaksin continues to rally supporters from exile in swanky resorts around the globe. Here’s a thought: Stay away! Mr Thaksin Shinawatra, former Thai Prime Minister.Target No 6: Just because her predecessor, Mr Kevin Rudd, got grief for a mining-tax plan doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Why shouldn’t all Australians benefit from their natural resources? Mr Rudd’s 40-per-cent tax on “super profits” would help Australia invest in its future. If I could invade Gillard’s dreams, I would tell her, if she wins the Aug 21 election, she should demand billionaire miners share the wealth around more. Ms Julia Gillard, Australian Prime Minister.Target No 7: Foreign investment plunged 81 per cent last year, from 2008, and it’s hardly booming this year. Blame Malaysia’s four-decade old affirmative-action policies that leave the economy uncompetitive. The voice in Mr Najib’s head would say scrap it and bring your nation back into the global economy. Mr Najib Razak, Malaysian Prime Minister.Target No 8: The shock resignations of 25 Philippine Airlines pilots, who left for higher pay abroad, highlight the brain drain afflicting the economy. Excessive population is a key reason why. Let’s give Mr Aquino a mind to take on the church. It muzzles serious discussion of family planning as a means of reducing poverty in the predominantly Roman Catholic nation. Producing more people than good paying jobs is a losing economic model. Mr Benigno Aquino, Philippine President.Target No 9: This one may be as easy as slipping a gas mask over his face as he sleeps. Severe pollution remains a clear and present danger to the city’s status as a global business hub. To Mr Tsang’s subconscious, all I have to say is this: Cough! Cough! Cough! Mr Donald Tsang, Hong Kong chief executive.Target No 10: He can’t revitalise Japan with the bureaucrats who really run the country blocking change. Here’s an idea: A mandatory rotation of responsibilities among government staffers every three years. The longer one stays in a job, the more entrenched their influence becomes and the more skewed their interests become toward their own personal success. In Mr Naoto Kan, Japanese Prime Minister.Inception, DiCaprio’s character tries to persuade the next generation to break up an organisation’s MONOPOLY on power. Japan’s BUREAUCRACY is a good place to start. BloombergThe writer is a Bloomberg News columnist. The opinions expressed are his own. |
|||||||||||||
Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | ||||||||||||||
pharoah88
Supreme |
12-Aug-2010 17:15
|
|||||||||||||
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
SGX to extend trading hours of derivatives market from Aug 30
SINGAPORE : The Singapore Exchange (SGX) is extending the trading hours of its derivatives market from August 30. Trade will close at 2am, instead of 1am. [7th mOOn ? ? ? ? Or fOreign tOlent ? ? ? ?] Pre-opening continues to begin at 7.30am, when trading orders can be placed. SGX is also shortening the trading break to 30 minutes between the T session close and the start of the Pre-Opening of the T+1 session. This applies to the SGX Nikkei 225 Index and SGX MSCI Taiwan Index suite of products. SGX senior vice president of Derivatives, Janice Kan, said the new hours will allow customers to better manage their positions in response to news and market movements during the European and North American trading hours. The enhancement is also in line with SGX's strategy to make its market more accessible to international and domestic customers. - CNA/al http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/1074660/1/.html |
|||||||||||||
Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | ||||||||||||||
pharoah88
Supreme |
12-Aug-2010 15:05
|
|||||||||||||
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
Surging Wheat Price — Risk Of Another Food Crisis? While WTI crude oil quietly slipped out of its recent range and gold found its footing this week, the market focused on the continued surge in the prices of wheat and the possible implications on the cost of anything from biscuits, bread, poultry to beer. The risk is that wheat prices could stay elevated for a while, pulling corn prices upwards as well. High wheat prices will tempt US farmers to switch from soya beans and corn to winter wheat production, leaving the inventory situation uncertain given the already increased demand for corn in ethanol production combined with new demand as a feed substitute to wheat. The corn-to-wheat ratio has moved from 0.75 down to 0.50, a wheat outperformance of 33 per cent. Once the situation stabilises, this trade should favour corn as wheat prices should suffer. Until we find a more stable plateau in the market, FEAR will be the main driver with high volatility expected. The writer is a market analyst at Saxo Capital Markets . |
|||||||||||||
Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | ||||||||||||||
pharoah88
Supreme |
12-Aug-2010 15:01
|
|||||||||||||
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
Gold — A Bubble Forming? The month-long correction in gold seems to be over, as buyers re-emerged on the back of dollar weakness and a pickup in physical demand, with Ramadan and the Indian wedding season. The important 200-day moving average support at 1,150 held and will be the focus point for any future corrections. The top of a bubble is usually marked by a final surge that explodes higher. Considering gold is “only” up 12 per cent year-to-date, such a move remains to be seen. We are optimistic that outside factors will keep the safe haven theme alive into the second half. |
|||||||||||||
Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | ||||||||||||||
pharoah88
Supreme |
12-Aug-2010 14:59
|
|||||||||||||
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
Crude Oil — Surplus Leads To Lower Prices? The energy sector had a quiet but positive week with crude oil rising above US$81, a three-month high. The dollar index has been toying with the 200-day moving average all week with a move below, signalling further weakness. The weaker dollar will help dollar-based commodities. Meanwhile, the process of bringing crude onshore from floating storage continues. With inventories at Cushing, Oklahoma (the delivery hub into Nymex-WTI) swelling to 37.8 million barrels, only 100,000 short of the previous record from May, the forward price of crude is now so close to the spot that the buy and hold on floating storage is no longer financially attractive. The impact of this on the tanker market is clear to see from the number of Very Large Crude Carriers (VLCC) looking for tenders. The vessel availability is at a sixyear high and the daily rates for hiring a VLCC from the Arabian Gulf to Japan has collapsed to US$6,500 ($8,800). As shipping companies barely break even at these prices, some VLCC owners have reacted by taking vessels out of service and anchoring them until the situation stabilises. We conclude that the high for the year has already been made and the risk heading into the second half points towards lower prices. |
|||||||||||||
Useful To Me Not Useful To Me | ||||||||||||||
pharoah88
Supreme |
12-Aug-2010 14:53
|
|||||||||||||
x 0
x 0 Alert Admin |
RiSK ADVERSITY to continue in Q3 FEAR will be the main market driver with HIGH VOLATILITY expected Andrew Robinson
The one-year recovery has primarily come about due to the most extraordinary policy response ever seen. As governments are left heavily-indebted and weak, their response to a new crisis will be questionable. China, the global growth engine, is fighting a two-way battle against inflation and a speculative bubble and will, therefore, need to stay tight on policy. Considering that China consumes between a fifth and a seventh of all global commodity production, we see downside risk to the Reuters Jefferies CRB index on the assumption of a Chinese slowdown. This will be driven primarily by renewed selling, mainly in base metals and the energy sector. Ongoing concerns about the Sovereign Debt issue as well as the risk of a double-dip recession will maintain risk adversity into the third quarter. |
|||||||||||||
Useful To Me Not Useful To Me |