Philip Chua Business Blog

Posts Tagged ‘March’

SINGAPORE'S exports boom showed no signs of slowing last month, with shipments jumping by the largest amount in more than four years. Non-oil domestic exports surged 29.4 per cent compared with the same month a year ago, the biggest year-on-year increase since December 2005, said trade agency IE Singapore yesterday. This follows March's 25.4 per cent rise in exports, and underlines the robustness ... more

A CASE of ‘buy in anticipation of Q1 window-dressing on March 31 and sell on the day itself?’
Perhaps not surprisingly given that there was already probable quarter-ending window-dressing of the Straits Times Index earlier in the week; yesterday’s session saw the STI slump 45.93 points to 2,887.46. This, after the index had risen 47 points in the previous four consecutive sessions.
Also, perhaps n… more

AS THE curtain fell on the first quarter, investors on the local bourse scrambled yesterday to lock in profits from a generally slow and steady March rally.
This sent the Straits Times Index (STI) tumbling 45.9 points, or 1.57 per cent, to 2,887.46, its biggest one-day fall since Feb 5.
This put paid to expectations in some quarters that the benchmark would end the quarter on a positive note.
Even… more

At the March meeting, the FOMC voted to keep the fed funds rate at a range of 0 to 0.25%, and the phrase that interest rates were likely to remain low “for an extended period” remained part of the statement. Thomas Hoenig voted against the policy decision again, as he…

On Thursday, the ECB Council is holding its regular monthly meeting. We do not expect any policy action. The ECB outlined its basic intentions for phasing out extraordinary policy measures at the March meeting, so there is not likely to be much news in that respect. Given the significant improvement…

The dollar found itself on the defensive against European currencies for much of the week, softness blamed on month- and quarter-end stop-loss orders. Several factors favored technical retracement in EUR/USD pair, which has seen an 800 pip Q1 quarter sell-off. Traders cited passive month/quarter end portfolio rebalancing, higher March inflation…