Singapore shares may open slightly higher on Thursday, following gains on Wall Street overnight, but a tepid view of the economy from the Federal Reserve may weigh on investor confidence.
Singapore’s benchmark Straits Times Index <.FTSTI> rose 1.25% at 3,220.78 points.
Here are some stocks to watch:
The stated purpose of quantitative easing was to drive down interest rates on U.S. treasury bonds.But as U.S. News and World Reported noted last month:By now, you’ve probably heard that the Fed is purchasing $600 billion in treasuries in hopes that it…
The Fed released a lot of data yesterday.But as Bloomberg points out, the Fed still held back a lot of information:The Federal Reserve withheld details on individual securities pledged as collateral by recipients of $885 billion in central bank loans, …
Well-known British economic writer Jeremy Warner said yesterday that the European stress tests were a sham:European stress tests weren’t worth the paper they were written on …Most of us said at the time that the tests had been designed for banks to …
The Fed says that unemployment will remain high for years.Some Republican congressmen are trying to take away the goal of ensuring full employment from the Fed. See this and this.Conservatives argue that the relationship between inflation and unemploy…
NY Fed president William Dudley said today, when asked when the Fed would stop quantitative easing:This exit could be several years away.Too bad that quantitative easing won’t help Main Street or the average American. It will only help big banks, gian…
Legendary investor Jeremy Grantham – Chief Investment Strategist of Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo- told CNBC last week:What I worry about most is the Fed’s activity and — QE2 is just the latest demonstration of this. The Fed has spent most of the las…
Germany and China have expressed concerns over US plans to pump $600bn into the US economy. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the US would not solve its problems, but create “extra problems for the world” instead.
The Federal Reserve will buy an additional US$600 billion ($771 billion) of Treasuries through June, expanding record stimulus and risking its credibility in a bid to reduce unemployment and avert deflation.
Policy makers, setting a pace of about US$75 billion of purchases a month, “will adjust the program as needed,” the Fed’s Open Market Committee said today in a statement in Washington. The central bank left unchanged its pledge to keep interest rates low for an “extended period” after Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said it could be modified in some way.
Richard W. Fisher, president of the Fed bank of Dallas, said last month: In my darkest moments I have begun to wonder if the monetary accommodation we have already engineered might even be working in the wrong places. Far too many of the large …
STI +0.6% at 3,209.35 midday, with 1.6 gainers for every decliner; volume low with only 686 million shares changing hands, worth $900.7 million; limited participation likely reflects caution ahead of Fed meeting, also investors taking breather after market’s strong gain yesterday.
UOB KayHian says recent price action confirms validity of uptrend channel (3,100-3,300), if momentum continues index should rise beyond recent peak of 3,220 (October 15) to upper channel of 3,300.
Market bounce unsurprising after yesterday’s 1.2% fall in anticipation of a smaller-than-anticipated Fed action next week; after that, going into mid-November, DBS Vickers strategist Yeo Kee Yan says ’market activity is likely to quieten down, and remain quiet until at least end-December/early next year.’
