The colours on this thread have been pretty bland.
The colours on this thread have been pretty bland.
Die.... QE3.... Ah B SIAO Liao.... Low interest rates till 2015...
QE to infinity I'm expecting a boost to hard asset prices at least to end of the year.
What's the meaning of "planned" as opposed to under construction? EC is included right?Originally Posted by phantom_opera
Basic we need you back. People are overly bullish without you to help tame it...
Fed Undertakes QE3 With $40 Billion Monthly MBS Purchases
By Joshua Zumbrun - Sep 13, 2012
The Federal Reserve said it will expand its holdings of long-term securities with open-ended purchases of $40 billion of mortgage debt a month in a third round of quantitative easing as it seeks to boost growth and reduce unemployment.
“We’re looking for ongoing, sustained improvement in the labor market,” Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said in his press conference today in Washington following the conclusion of a two-day meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee. “There’s not a specific number we have in mind. What we’ve seen in the last six months isn’t it.”
Stocks jumped, sending benchmark indexes to the highest levels since 2007, and gold climbed as the Fed said it will continue buying assets, undertake additional purchases and employ other policy tools as appropriate “if the outlook for the labor market does not improve substantially.”
Bernanke is enlarging his supply of unconventional tools to attack unemployment stuck above 8 percent since February 2009, a situation he called a “grave concern.” The decision immediately provoked a renewed backlash from Republicans, including Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee, who said Bernanke’s policies damage the Fed’s credibility while doing little to spur the economy.
The FOMC also said it would probably hold the federal funds rate near zero “at least through mid-2015.” Since January, the Fed had said the rate was likely to stay low at least through late 2014. The Fed said “a highly accommodative stance of monetary policy will remain appropriate for a considerable time after the economic recovery strengthens.”
Stocks Rally
The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index jumped 1.6 percent to 1,459.99 at the close of trading in New York. Oil climbed 1.3 percent to $98.31 a barrel, a four-month high, while gold jumped to the highest price since February.
“This is definitely a significant shift in FOMC policy,” said Julia Coronado, chief economist for North America at BNP Paribas in New York and a former Fed economist. “This is a very aggressive commitment to success on its mandates.”
Bernanke said the open-ended purchases would continue until the labor market improved significantly. “We’re not going to rush to begin to tighten policy,” he said. “We’re going to give it some time to make sure that the economy is well established.”
Price Stability
While the U.S. has “enjoyed broad price stability” since the mid-1990s, Bernanke said, “the weak job market should concern every American.”
Bernanke said the open-ended purchases of securities should help bolster the confidence of American consumers and businesses by showing that the central bank is determined to stop the economy from weakening.
“By assuring the public that we will be prepared to take action if the economy falters, we’re hopeful that that will increase confidence, make people more willing to invest, hire, and spend,” Bernanke said.
Purchases of housing debt should help the housing market, which he called “one of the missing pistons in the engine.”
“Our mortgage-backed securities purchases ought to drive down mortgage rates and put downward pressure on mortgage rates and create more demand for homes and more refinancing,” he said.
Housing Debt
The market for housing debt bore him out as mortgage-bond yields tumbled to unprecedented lows, signaling home-loan rates may fall to new records.
Yields on Fannie Mae-guaranteed mortgage bonds trading closest to face value declined 18 basis points to 2.18 percent as of 3:05 p.m. in New York, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The gap with an average of five- and 10-year Treasury rates narrowed 16 basis points to about 98 basis points, or the lowest since 1992.
The Fed said it will continue its program to swap $667 billion of short-term debt with longer-term securities to lengthen the average maturity of its holdings, an action dubbed Operation Twist. The central bank will also continue reinvesting its portfolio of maturing housing debt into agency mortgage- backed securities.
Richmond Fed President Jeffrey Lacker dissented for the sixth consecutive meeting, saying he opposed additional asset purchases. Lacker opposed the FOMC’s June decision to extend Operation Twist through the end of the year and has said he expects interest rates will need to be raised in 2013.
Jackson Hole
Today’s Fed meeting comes less than two weeks after Bernanke’s Aug. 31 speech in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, when he lamented the state of the labor market and defended his “nontraditional policies,” saying “the costs, when considered carefully, appear manageable.”
Weak employment data has increased pressure on the central bank to act. The Labor Department said Sept. 7 that the economy added 96,000 jobs in August, less than forecast by economists and down from a 141,000 increase in July. Average hourly earnings were little changed, and 368,000 Americans left the labor force.
Economic growth slowed to a 1.7 percent annual pace in the second quarter from 4.1 percent in the final three months of last year.
“The committee is concerned that, without further policy accommodation, economic growth might not be strong enough to generate sustained improvement in labor market conditions,” today’s statement said.
Economic Forecasts
In its economic forecasts released today, policy makers said the job-market will improve more swiftly by 2014, with unemployment forecast to fall to 6.7 percent to 7.3 percent, compared with 7 percent to 7.7 percent in their June projections. In 2015, unemployment will fall to 6 percent to 6.8 percent.
Growth will improve to as much as 3 percent next year and as much as 3.8 percent in 2014, up from upper estimates of 2.8 percent and 3.5 percent in their previous forecasts. The so- called central tendency forecasts exclude the three highest and three lowest of 19 estimates.
Bernanke, a scholar of the Great Depression, has deployed the most aggressive monetary policies since the Fed’s founding nearly a century ago as he battled the 2007-2009 financial crisis, helped pull the nation out of the worst recession since the 1930s and then sought to keep the expansion going.
Target Rate
The Fed lowered its target interest rate to zero in December 2008 and undertook two rounds of large-scale asset purchases that swelled its balance sheet to almost $3 trillion from less than $900 billion in December 2007, when the recession began.
Unlike the first and second rounds of quantitative easing, today’s program has no end date, and Bernanke declined to provide specific estimates of what economic conditions would prompt the Fed to act or how long the purchases might last.
Republican lawmakers criticized the Fed’s action, with Tennessee’s Corker saying in a statement that Bernanke is “beginning to do serious damage to the Fed as an institution.”
“Open-ended purchases of mortgage-backed securities will politicize the Fed and add substantially to its balance sheet risks, but it will not help our economy’s long-term growth prospects,” Corker said.
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said today’s Fed decision reflected what he described as President Barack Obama’s failure to revive the economy. He repeated his calls to replace Bernanke when the chairman’s term expires in January 2014.
Printing Money
“The president’s saying the economy’s making progress, coming back,” Romney said in an interview with ABC News. “Bernanke’s saying, ‘No, it’s not. I’ve got to print more money.” He added that “I think printing more money, at this point, comes at a higher cost than the benefit it’s going to create.”
Bernanke said today that the central bank didn’t take into account the November presidential and congressional elections in its decisions.
“We have tried very hard to be non-partisan and apolitical,” Bernanke said. “We make our decisions entirely on the state of the economy.”
Bernanke’s policies have also raised doubts within the central bank. Fed district bank presidents, including Richmond’s Lacker, Philadelphia’sCharles Plosser and Dennis Lockhart of Atlanta, have also raised concerns about inflation or whether more Fed action would help fuel growth.
Fed Study
Bernanke, in his Jackson Hole speech, cited a Fed study showing that large-scale asset purchases may have raised the level of economic output by almost 3 percent and boosted private payroll employment by more than 2 million jobs.
Bernanke repeated in his press conference that monetary policy is “not a panacea.”
The U.S. economy is vulnerable to the so-called fiscal cliff, the $600 billion of tax increases and spending cuts that will kick in automatically at the end of the year unless Congress acts. The Congressional Budget Office said in an Aug. 22 economic report that fiscal tightening of that magnitude could cause a recession.
“We’ve got a U.S. economy where we have looming tax increases that are quite significant, we have looming spending cuts in the government which are quite significant,” Michael DeWalt, the director of investor relations for Peoria, Illinois- based Caterpillar Inc., said in a Sept. 6 presentation. A lot of customers are “unsure about what to do, highly uncertain about where it’s going to go at the end of the year.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Joshua Zumbrun in Washington at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Chris Wellisz at [email protected]
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-0...ach-month.html
http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/fed...163704906.html
Fed bets big in new push to rescue U.S. economy
That's very scary!!
Ah Ben must be reading this thread.
Ah B keep saying Ah Ben only do lip service no action.
Ah Ben very upset with Ah B for accusing him that.
Ah Ben decided to do something about it
Ah Ben announce his action
Ah B disappear now
The great asset inflation party continues.........
Ah Ben just want to tell Ah B
"You won't like me if I'm not happy"
QE3!! and the party goes on.
http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/cha...011900682.htmlOriginally Posted by Rysk
This is also quite scary!!
i thought B working at night? how come no post from him? and where is leads, seletar, smarian, i think somemore...
Jedi B / Parrot went into hiding when Super Mario Unlimited and Helicopter Ben Open-Ended strike back
Ride at your own risk !!!
http://www.cnbc.com/id/49027156
Japan Cuts Economic View Again on Weak Global Demand
Published: Thursday, 13 Sep 2012 | 9:20 PM ET
By: Reuters
Japan's government cut its assessment of the economy for the second straight month and warned that growth is pausing, signaling growing concern over the pain from the global slowdown and keeping the central bank under pressure to provide further monetary stimulus.
The Bank of Japan is widely expected to hold off on easing monetary policy at a meeting next week, though it is likely to offer a bleaker view of the world's third-largest economy, keeping alive market expectations that it will launch more stimulus soon.
"Japan's economic recovery appears to be pausing due to the global slowdown," the government said on Friday in its monthly report for September. That was a more cautious view than last month, when it said the economy was recovering moderately, albeit showing some weaknesses.
The downgrade underscores concern among policymakers that exports may not pick up in time to keep Japan's economy on track for a recovery as Europe's sovereign debt crisis hits global trade and delays a pickup in big markets like China.
The government last made consecutive cuts in its economic assessment in late 2008 through early 2009, when Japan was suffering from the fallout of the global financial crisis triggered by the collapse of Lehman Brothers.
In the September report, the government maintained its view that exports are weakening and cut its assessment on output, citing the impact of slowing global demand and fading support from government subsidies for low-emission cars.
It also revised down its assessment on private consumption, casting doubt on the central bank's projection that robust domestic demand will offset some of the weakness in exports.
"Private consumption is almost flat with some weakness seen lately," the report said, a bleaker view than last month when it said it was increasing moderately as a trend.
Japan's economy has outpaced growth of most G7 countries on robust private consumption and spending for reconstruction from last year's earthquake.
But policymakers are becoming less convinced of Japan's recovery prospects as global weakness persists and a strong yen weighs on exports, which slumped the most in six months in July. Factory output also unexpectedly fell in July as the boost from government stimulus for low-emission cars begins to fade.
Data this week showed the economy grew less than initially estimated in the second quarter and analysts now expect growth to stall for most of this year as Europe's sovereign debt crisis drags on and China's economy continues to lose steam.
Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda, who faces a party leadership race later this month, said the government will consider compiling an extra budget to ease the pain from a strong yen, although market players say the spending won't be big enough to have a sizable impact on the economy.
The government and the central bank now forecast economic growth of 2.2 percent in the business year to March 2013. Many analysts originally had similar projections but are slashing their forecasts to below 2 percent. The BOJ may do the same when it issues new long-term growth forecasts next month.
http://www.todayonline.com/Business/...orecast-to-4,5
Thailand cuts export growth forecast to 4.5%
TODAYonline
04:45 AM Sep 14, 2012
BANGKOK - Thailand's Finance Ministry slashed its forecast for export growth this year to 4.5 per cent from 12.8 per cent as Europe's debt crisis erodes demand for the nation's electronics, textiles, rice and rubber.
Economic growth may also fall short of the ministry's 5.7 per cent projection, Mr Somchai Sujjapongse, head of the Ministry of Finance's fiscal policy office, said yesterday.
The revision came a day after Bank of Thailand Governor Prasarn Trairatvorakul said overseas sales may fall short of the central bank's target of 7 per cent. Exports fell 4.5 per cent in July and 2.3 per cent in June, according to government data.
Exports account for about two-thirds of Thailand's economy and European nations buy about 8.6 per cent of all goods shipped from the South-east Asian nation, according to government data.
The central bank reduced its economic growth forecast for the year to 5.7 per cent from 6 per cent in July and pared its export growth estimate to 7 per cent from 8.3 per cent. Thailand's economy expanded 4.2 per cent in the second quarter after an increase of 0.4 per cent the previous three months, official data showed on Aug 20.
The Bank of Thailand kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 3 per cent for a fifth meeting this month, but has said it is ready to adjust policy if needed. Bloomberg
He is too busy having the crap knocked out of him on CNA at the moment to spend a single second here.
Looks like his I know better than anyone else attitude has finally come back to haunt him as his QE3 prediction has gone spectacularly wrong and the wolves over at CNA are no letting him pretend he never made such a call.
Do you think he has time to come to nice guys on this forum when he is being beaten black and blue with his own predictions over on CNA?
" Originally Posted by meesiam
all the stupid morns here....till now still not sure of QE3.....4-5 months ago, I already said no QE3 in sept....so simple, 1 yr ago already can see it....no way for QE3 tonight.....must be very firm & sure......no if or may be or but....clear & direct....
all the stupid morons....
so if no QE3....all morns here queue up to slash wrist like cityshyter shouted above.....hahaaaa.....actually the more QE the better...then the crash will be harder & all morons here will all jump reservoir......"
The STI will be higher without NOL.
http://www.todayonline.com/Business/...opped-from-STI
Neptune Orient dropped from STI
TODAYonline
04:45 AM Sep 14, 2012
SINGAPORE - The Singapore Exchange said yesterday that it has dropped container shipper Neptune Orient Lines from the blue-chip Straits Times Index (STI).
It is replacing it with IHH Healthcare, which recently listed in Singapore and Malaysia after a US$2 billion (S$2.46 billion) initial public offering. The move takes effect on Sept 24 and comes after a half-yearly review of the composition of the 30-share benchmark.
The STI reserve list - which names the five companies in line to replace existing STI components that may be dropped at the next review - now comprises Hutchison Port Holdings Trust, Keppel Land, Ascendas Real Estate Investment Trust, UOL Group and CapitaCommercial Trust.
The next review is scheduled for March 7 next year. Dow Jones
Helicopter Ben landed on Seletar airport liao.
He's going after Ah B for bad-mouthing him for last 1 yr.
Ah B at Changi Beach heard the news.
Ah B quickly pack up his tent and run road.
Ah B's neighbor says he was last seen at yesterday midnight.
Ah B disappears into thin air?
Ah B where are you?
I wish him well. After all the bashing at CNA must be badly wounded now.Originally Posted by EBD
Ah B need time to recover.
All the best to Ah B.
Plus Ah Ben also hunting him down.
"Originally Posted by meesiam from CNA"Originally Posted by EBDNB!! This DAVID LIM (aka TWIST & TURN cum DIVERT ATTENTION EXPERT MR B) from sghouse used so many nick already hah!!Originally Posted by meesiam
Over here also have.. Basic.. Bascially.. Rick1.. Leeds.. Seletar airbase..
Did he sold his that HDB in for $1mil?Originally Posted by PN
Ah B has a floating kennel boat house (after modified) last seen at sungei kadut river. he tied a banner to his boat "for own use only"Originally Posted by PN
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/prem...onomy-20120914
Business Times
Published September 14, 2012
Dip in electricity demand reflects cooling economy
By ronnie lim
THE cooling Singapore economy has been reflected in a drop in electricity demand here over the last two months (July-August), market operator Energy Market Company (EMC) said. "The drop in demand is in line with general subdued economic conditions and outlook in the second half of the year," it added.
From a new monthly average high of 5,208 MW in June, electricity demand "experienced a significant dip in July, a drop of 2.2 per cent from June, before stabilising in August", it said in its latest newsletter.
The fall in electricity demand tallies with the latest forecasts this week by private economists here who now expect the Singapore economy to grow at a slower pace than they projected three months ago. In the latest survey by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, they now project full-year growth of 2.4 per cent, down from 3 per cent in the earlier survey.
Industry sources told BT that another contributing factor for the dip in electricity demand has been the cooler weather in the last couple of months. An increase in new embedded power generation units in which big consumers have invested to provide electricity in-house is another.
Don't think Rick1, Leeds or Seletar are the same person as Basic/MeeSiam/AlamOriginally Posted by Rysk
The latter style very distinctive. Rick1, Leeds Seletar sound sane & not foaming at the mouth.
It's OK to have bearish or bullish views, but how Ah B is behaving is disgraceful. Really don't feel any pity that he's being beaten like a drum
Even has his own thread now on CNA - so famous!
http://forum.channelnewsasia.com/sho...5-no-job......
http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/prem...cline-20120914
Business Times
Published September 14, 2012
Office rents expected to face further decline
Landlords expected to cut rents due to cautious demand, rising shadow space
By Mindy Tan
OFFICE rents in Raffles Place are expected to decline by 12-15 per cent in 2012 and 2013, before returning to growth in 2014.
While demand has held up well in Singapore, largely thanks to foreign corporates keen to capitalise on growth in South-east Asia, landlords remain under pressure to reduce rents because of still-cautious demand and rising shadow space, DTZ Research said in its Office Review Asia Pacific H1 2012 released yesterday.
Said Chua Chor Hoon, head of Asia-Pacific research at DTZ: "Net absorption of purpose-built office space for the first half of 2012 is estimated to be almost 720,000 sq ft, which is quite healthy compared to the past six-year annual average demand of 1.5 million sq ft."
Specifically, sectors that are expanding in Singapore include legal firms, social media firms, insurance and medical research companies, said Ms Chua.
Hello SELETAR airbase (aka MR B),Originally Posted by seletar
20th June 2102 you talked BIG BIG "Price have been dropping in the resale market".. Thereafter no sound no swadow.. only lan lan act blur continue your usual cut & paste..
Eventhrough you act blur.. but I still can remember lor!!
Rysk, Seriously - no way seletar is Mr B. Mr B never provides links to his stories.Originally Posted by Rysk
Meesiam very poor thing in CNA. Kena goreng very badly.Originally Posted by EBD
Or maybe he enjoy it very much over there that's why still camping & shouting there.
This forum too boring for him because we're too nice to him.
Peter Schiff: Fed Repeating The Same Mistakes
September 13th, 2012
anything good of QE?? manipulation only....that means no more free market...that means no more market....that means fully gamble....no more rule, bankrupt company, stock still can surges to sky now.....hahaaaa....this is QE to cover up all bankruptcy....such system can last for human being?? sure fail....on the way now......
How Bad Has The Global Economy Really Rotten?
September 13th, 2012
from the way FED & bernanke shouted last night....we know how rotten global economy really is today....
no way out now as debt is too huge & all has to pay back....this world allow more debt?? with conscious know....those insane, lost their way.....
world leaders today cannot see it.....so we need to change all 1 by 1....from US in Nov, China in Dec....Germany,next yr....of course, many already changed this yr, France, Italy, Greece, HK......but the critical one are here to change.....all policy will change & revert.....
whatever will be will be...nothing to worry if you get your future view right.......