Philip Chua Business Blog

Posts Tagged ‘point’

The Federal Reserve 25 basis point discount rate increase on Thursday to 0.75% was not a market moving event. The first Fed hike in either the discount rate or the more important fed funds rate in almost two and a half years will have little direct economic impact. It had…

AMID the general optimism over equities in Asia and the emerging markets, strategists at Barclays Wealth have sounded a note of caution over valuations in Asia. This runs counter to the consensus view that Asian growth is set to outstrip that of developed economies – a point that isn’t in dispute – and that market weakness is a buying opportunity.

Says Aaron Gurwitz, Barclays Wealth managing di… more

TRADERS were all but wearing Santa Claus suits yesterday as they embraced the Christmas mood and sent the market to a 17-month high.
Funds, too, got in the act by window- dressing blue chips to make the last full trading day before the holiday a festive one. The result was a 17.74-point rise in the benchmark Straits Times Index (STI) to 2,841.56.
But it would not be Christmas without the presence … more

THE weighting of Asean markets in most global portfolios seems small due to a perceived lack of investment opportunities, low liquidity and weak investor relations in the region, Singapore Exchange chief executive Magnus Bocker said yesterday.
He raised this point from an unnamed study of investor perceptions of regional markets that highlighted the attractiveness of Asean markets at the same time… more

A 70-POINT rise in the December futures contract on the Dow Jones Industrial Average, a 1.7 per cent rise in Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index and a firm opening Europe-wide yesterday led traders here to bet heavily on Wall Street opening the week with a bang. The subsequent buying targeted mainly banks and propelled the Straits Times Index up 56.62 points to 2,783.85 in moderate volume of 1.85 billion … more

IT was a generally positive session for Asian stock markets, but with a huge dose of caution in the air ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s upcoming pronouncement on the economic outlook and more key economic data ahead.
In Singapore, the benchmark Straits Times index rose, but on lacklustre trading on thin volumes.
The 27.09-point gain to 2,648.64 came on the back of relatively light buying on heav… more

Third quarter GDP rose 3.5 percent with significant positive contributions from personal consumption, housing, federal spending and inventories. For consumption and housing the improvements reflect tax credit programs. Inventory gains also added nearly one percentage point. Therefore, final sales continue to improve and this provides the underlying demand for growth….

Last week’s lead bullet point was that the risk rally had stalled, for the moment. Lacking any solid technical indications of a reversal, we could only highlight potential for an upcoming correction in risk assets. This week, however, we have no such hesitation and a plethora of technical evidence that…

The inability of the pair to sustain its recovery higher and its subsequent failure at the 1.6694 level saw it collapsing the past week through key supports at the 1.6466 and 1.6411 levels, its Sept 23’09 high/channel breakout point. GBP is now back into its falling channel (clearly seen on…

The Leading Economic Index rose a full percentage point in September, as eight of the ten indicators increased. The largest contributors were a wider interest rate spread, increased consumer expectations, and a decline in weekly unemployment claims. By contrast, the average workweek and building permits both declined. With September’s increase,…