Double-dip recession talk

Goh Eng Yeow on current market uncertainties.

By Goh Eng Yeow
Markets Correspondent
engyeow1@sph.com.sg

 

Going by the outpouring of anguish on Wall Street, it seems that the United States is already in a deep economic slowdown.

The upshot of all this dismay is a big question mark over the pace of economic recovery in the world’s No. 1 economy which, in turn, cast a pall over the rest of the world's stock markets which have traditionally looked to Wall Street for leads on directions.

But the doomsayers’ argument that the US is slipping back into recession is hardly convincing.

Hindenburg Omen

Goh Eng Yeow on the confusion over stock market direction worldwide.

By Goh Eng Yeow
Markets Correspondent
engyeow1@sph.com.sg

 

SOME traders in the stock market swear they make all their decisions, based on technical analysis.

So while I am not exactly a fan of the charts myself, I believe that when there are sufficient adherents to this art, it takes on a life of its own.

In the past week, some traders on Wall Street and London are pre-occupied with the appearance of a certain market phenomenon known as the "Hindenburg Omen". This is said to be a statistical sign that equity markets are headed for a fall, relying on factors like the proportion of shares registering 52-week

Setting the pace for others to follow?

Goh Eng Yeow on the SGX's decision to move its results briefing to pre-trade hours.

By Goh Eng Yeow
Markets Correspondent
engyeow1@sph.com.sg

 

THOSE in the securities business for decades will remember the good old days when the market opened at ten in the morning, before halting for lunch at 12.30 pm. Trading then resumed for another one and a half hours from 2.30pm.

And with the closing bell at 4pm, there was still time to catch the late afternoon movie.

Not any more. Tea-breaks have gone the way of the dinosaurs, and going by the standards set by the SGX on Monday morning, even breakfast may soon be a memory to be cherished.

A storm in a tea-cup?

Goh Eng Yeow comments on the suggestion to scrap lunch-break on the local bourse.

By Goh Eng Yeow
Markets Correspondent
engyeow1@sph.com.sg

 

THE past three days, I had a few calls from unhappy remisiers over a suggestion by the Singapore Exchange to scrap the 90-minute lunch break in order to allow trading to continue uninterrupted from 9.00 am in the morning to 5.05 pm in the evening.

I am not surprised by the unhappiness among remisiers. Most of them are one-man shows, and they are afraid to miss even one minute of trading, for fear that their clients call them during their absence.

And the local bourse’s trading hours are already among the longest in the world. No wonder remisiers are

Outsourcing

Goh Eng Yeow comments on DBS’s computer glitch.

By Goh Eng Yeow
Markets Correspondent
engyeow1@sph.com.sg

 

JUST last week, I raised the issue as to whether company bosses should focus beyond short-term profit goals in my Cai Jin column.

This followed an observation made by British economist John Kay on the ease in which companies could cut head-count to pare their manpower costs and boost their bottomlines without putting any of their operations at risk. And the argument he got from a top executive is that they could do so because many work processes are now automatic. The people are hired simply to stop things from going wrong, or to fix them when they did.

Beijing’s policy shift on currency

Goh Eng Yeow comments how the shift may affect equities trading

By Goh Eng Yeow
Markets Correspondent
engyeow1@sph.com.sg

 

TRADERS must be surprised that despite Wall Street’s weaker close, the Singapore market has stayed resilient.

Indeed, after an initial 9 point drop, the Straits Times Index has moved back into positive territory, as I write.

I had initially shrugged off the impact which a change of policy by Beijing on the yuan would have on the equities market.

Sell in May and go away

Goh Eng Yeow on the fresh wild swings afflicting global stock markets

By Goh Eng Yeow
Markets Correspondent
engyeow1@sph.com.sg

 

I quoted the great American author Mark Twain recently as noting that history never repeats itself but it often rhymes.

Although Mark Twain was a great writer, he was not a good businessman, and he had to be rescued from his financial follies by his well-heeled friends. But the painful lessons he learnt certainly found their way to history through those immortal one-liners which he wrote.

This morning, as I watch the market slipping after a feeble rebound the previous day, I am struck by another of his observation: Sell in May and go away.

Europe’s 'shock and awe' package

Goh Eng Yeow on regional markets’ reaction to euro-zone efforts to fend off speculators.

By Goh Eng Yeow
Markets Correspondent
engyeow1@sph.com.sg

 

I GOT up early this morning to check if the European finance ministers who had been meeting since yesterday had made any announcement on their latest plan to "shock and awe" speculators into submission.

Around 8.30am, the plan was finally announced – US$560 billion (S$772 billion) worth of new loans and US$76 billion under an existing lending programme. In addition, the IMF will come up with up to US$321 billion of loans, if necessary.

The announcement was timed before the opening of the all-important Shanghai and Hong Kong markets. But going by the muted response so far, it is obvious that investors

Nightmare on Wall Street

Goh Eng Yeow on the wild price swings which cause the Dow to majorly plunge.

By Goh Eng Yeow
Markets Correspondent
engyeow1@sph.com.sg

 

I was awakened early this morning by an SMS that the Dow Jones Industrial Averages had plunged by 998 points.

By dawn, the Dow managed to claw back most of its losses to end 348 points down. The wild ride was due to a glitch in the trading of Dow component counter Procter & Gamble.  

But the Dow’s loss is still on a scale not experienced since the near-death experience encountered when Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008.

The Great Asian decoupling

Goh Eng Yeow on the likelihood of the Greek contagion spreading to Asia.

By Goh Eng Yeow
Markets Correspondent
engyeow1@sph.com.sg

 

IT COMES as quite a surprise to many people that Asian stock markets have turned out be a lot more resilient in the face of a relentless selldown in Europe which subsequently led to a knee-jerk plunge on Wall Street last night.