As the Year of the Rabbit (or Rabbit Year) approaches, Biz Daily interviewed several feng shui professionals for their opinions on what the upcoming Lunar New Year might herald for businesses in general. There are slight variations in how feng shui is defined by those who subscribe to it. But generally, it is an ancient...

Global Markets US Treasuries rose last Friday in thin trading and end-year positioning. The two-year yield was down 5 bps from 0.65 per cent to 0.60 per cent, whilst the 10-year yield fell 4 bps from 3.37 per cent. Longer term, it is likely that US Treasury yields will rise, as the US economy improves more and investors...

by Jared Heng Inflation and liquidity flows are expected to remain key concerns for Singapore in 2011, according to banking giants UOB and Standard Chartered. In fact, Asia is struggling with the flood of liquidity, and various govern- ments in the region have been forced to cool their respective real-estate markets this year. “Clearly, liquidity...

by Jared Heng All segments of Singapore’s property market have a positive outlook for 2011, according to Nicholas Mak, Executive Director of SLP International Property Consultants Pte Ltd. Singapore’s central bank expects inflation to average between 2 and 3 cent in 2011. The island nation’s GDP is also officially forecast to register a healthy growth...

by Ernie B. Calucag For the most part of 2010, the investment themes of near-zero monetary policies and liquidity injections have remained the order of the day. As the developed world struggled to keep growth alive by fuelling asset prices, investors saw a better world in emerging markets, particularly Asia, as their destination of choice...

by Ernie B. Calucag While 2010 may well end up as a “dramatic” year for equities, no thanks to US’ QE2 and Europe’s debt problems, investors can look forward to a more peaceful and positive market in 2011 as analysts offer a bullish outlook for the coming year of the rabbit. Analysts believe that 2011...

China: Slower Growth Expected The economy slows … We continue to anticipate the economy will expand 9.6 per cent YoY in the third quarter, easing from 2Q’s 10.3 per cent YoY rate. This will be the slowest rate of growth since 3Q2009. … but positives continue to emerge But simmering behind the headline growth trajectory...

No Double-dip, but Slowing Growth; Emerging Markets Should Outperform World economic recovery continues but the dynamism of the upswing is waning. However, gloomy reactions to US economic data during the summer appear overdone: We expect positive growth in the US and a soft landing in China. Emerging market stocks should outperform their peers from industrialised...

US: Double Dip Data Distortions While the outlook for the US economy has clearly worsened in recent months, an unfortunate confluence of circumstances has added to the fear of a double dip. Three temporary factors made the recovery look stronger around the turn-of-the-year (4Q2009/1Q2010), but are now fuelling double dip fears, as they show up...

By Jared Heng Between now and 2020, the amount of digital information created and replicated in the world will grow to a staggering 35 trillion gigabytes as all major forms of media shift from analogue to digital, according to International Data Corpora- tion (IDC). The amount of digital information created and replicated in a year,...

by UOB Economic-Treasury Research USD/Asians came off on Friday following the rise in the preceding sessions. This was helped by some bargain- hunting in the stock markets with the Asian stock indexes mostly higher on Friday. In the Southeast Asian markets, Indonesian rupiah recovered back below Rp9,000/USD resist- ance to end at Rp8,970/USD. Indonesian senior...

by UOB Economic-Treasury Research South Korea: BoK Paused Interest Rate Hike The BoK maintained its benchmark Base Rate at 2.25 per cent Thursday, pausing after one 25 bps hike in July. While the policy decision was in line with consensus expectation, we did not see the need to pause with the strong economic recovery and...