Wheat, Maize And Crude Oil Prices

Price of commodities like Wheat, Maize And Crude Oil is rising continously for the past few months and they are creating new records. From inflation point of view, it's a cause of concern for monetary policy makers as they have to strike a balance between growth and inflation. Already financial markets are facing a fall out from slower growth expectation in the US, Japan, and Europe.
Asian countires like china are raising interest rates in order to contain a rapidly growing economy and India is also far away from softer monetary policy. Volatile times ahead for stock markets as they have to face lot of uncertainty ranging from elections next year in the US to slower world GDP growth to rising crude oil and food prices to rising fears over a possible attack on Iran and also tighter credit markets across developed nations and narrowing interest rate spread between developed countries and Asian tigers.
Happy Investing.

Crude Is Boiling

Crude oil prices have surpassed important technical level of U.S.$77.50 per barrel mark today and is a cause for concern as it will along with rising food prices can give further boost to inflation, which has become central point for many central bankers across the world. Growth has not been dominating central banks monetary policy of late as excess liquidity is amply supplying credit to fuel growth, but rather asset inflation, especially food and fuel prices are grabbing their monetary stance.
U.S. markets are feeling pain after subprime mortgage mess and continue to suffer investor apathy. Asian markets are showing great resilience and are very close to their all time heighs.

Asian Stocks Close To Their Old Highs

Asian stock markets are close to re-claiming their heighs they have made prior to stock meltdown due to subprime mortgage mess in the U.S. This shows their resilience towards global shocks because unlike previous shocks like in the late ninetees when Asian financial crisis hit them very hard, this time around they have plenty of foreign exchange reserves with solid backing of a growing economy.

U.S. markets too are stabilising with european markets too following the suit. As mentioned earlier in the blog during the crash that smart money was busy buying strongest businesses in panic moments, their strategy paid off very well this time too.

Chinese Stocks

Chinese stock market has weathered the storm created by U.S. sub-prime mess, all other markets have fallen sharply. Prime reason behind the outperformance of chinese stock markets is that it's domestic investor/trader participation is much more than dependance on foreign institutional money flows in their markets. All other emerging markets largely depend on foreign flows to drive their markets especially Indian and south korean markets where foreign flows are an important barometer for market direction. Also with chinese economy growing consistently 10% and above for more than past one decade is reflective of investor confidence in that market.
It will continue to outperform all other markets if it continues it's growth outperformance as compard to other economies.

Volatile

U.S. stock markets are behaving extremely volatile with one day up and other day down, volatility index is moving 10-15% up and down on daily basis. This is cause of concern for investors as well as traders. Asian markets too dance on the tunes of U.S. markets and decoupling still hasn't happened for these markets with the U.S. market. Investors need to protect their profits as and when it happens and should not shy away from taking profits as further sharp falls will again give them those bargain prices.

For some time to come, volatility will be the name of the game.

News

These days market tend to react on every bit of news that comes in their way and they do that with great vigour, be it sub-prime mortgage mess in the U.S., Yen carry trade un-winding among larger financial institutions, rate cuts by U.S. Fed, Inflation etc.

Markets doesn't seem to be making up it's mind on future course as news flow is very fast and confusing, and markets hate uncertainity.

Markets Fall Again

Markets have now again started showing signs of weakness with Dow Jones falling 280 points in yesterdays trading session with renewed fears of sub-prime mortgage defaults and bankruptcy among large hedge funds and financial institutions, also aiding the fall is low consumer confidence among U.S.consumers.
Asian stocks are also trading lower on the back of weak signals from U.S. markets. U.S.Fed now has to take several rate cuts this year so as to restore market and consumer confidence.
It seems worst hasn't come out from U.S.sub-prime mortage mess. And till then stocks will be hugely volatile. This credit crack can have potentially a drag on world economic growth which so far has been very good.
Uncertainty will prevail till then in the financial markets.
Buying in sharp falls in sectors and stocks with the strongest of business fundamentals will pay eventually. Yen is gaining strength against the dollar and is trading at 114 against it, it seems the yen carry trade un-winding is still underway and thus causing volatility in the financial system.

Asian Markets Are Taking A Breather Today

Today all Asian markets except China, are taking breather after moving up for the last couple of days. It seems investors and traders are back again in buying riskier assets like emerging market stocks, currencies and bonds. Crude oil is also trading below U.S.$70 per barrel mark and is a welcome sign. Yen seems to be stabalising around 116 mark against the U.S.Dollar. Agri commodities are however, ruling strong due to inevitable reason that population is growing and due to global warming, floods and other natural peril's will keep demand far more than the actual supply of these farm outputs.

Japanese Central Bank Keeps Rates Unchanged

Today japanese central bank kept the interest rate unchanged at 0.5%. That's good news from yen carry trade perspective. Yen is trading at 116.27 against the U.S.Dollar and thus fear of dollar falling further against the yen is well contained at the moment. Equities are consolidating across the world after sharp sell off, commodities like copper, alumunium, lead, nickel, zinc, crude oil are also cooling. This is good news from inflation perspective but also raises the concerns about slowing economic growth in the developed world.

Not all money is credit

Markets have been bearing the brunt of mahem in the U.S. sub-prime mortgage with several U.S., Europeon and U.K. funds going burst.
Investors and traders believe that all markets have risen because of cheap credit pouring in the markets, however this is paritally true as people do have their own money to invest in case oppurtunity arises, because if all was borrowed money then markets for the past few trading sessions would not have been found the support of new buyers!

Smart buyers have been utilising this sharp fall in equities as a buying oppurtunity and are putting their own money.

Excessive borrowed money can only inflate the valuations of given assets to artificial levels but any cracks in that credit cycle can turn that tide against the borrower as he has to return the money to original lender and he does that in panic as we have seen for the past few weeks. Therefore investng with own money is the only rational strategy one must adopt.

Investor Confidence Is Shaken

By looking at stock market behaviour for the past 3 days gives indication that investors/traders confidence has been shaken and they are using any rally in the markets to lighten their stock commitments. Cracks in the credit markets and subsequent pouring of around U.S.$550 Billion in the financial system by various central banks only indicates the intensity of underlying unresolved problem.
This is causing huge nervousness among investor/trader class who may not want to enter the markets unless and untill some assurance that problems with subprime mess has been contained.
This world runs on credit, so if that gets affected badly then we have a serious problem in our hands and smart market players knows this. Good luck with our investments.

Much Needed Bounce Back In Markets

Today stock markets bounced back after several days of sharp falls and closed pretty smartly anywhere between 3 to 5% up. Yen also is trading close to 115 levels against the U.S.Dollar. It's very difficult to ascertain the exact extent to which credit markets have been affected due to sub-prime mortgage mess and subsuquent defaults and several funds going burst due to this, one thing is sure that risk appetite of investors/traders has taken a severe beating and it will take a while before they can regain their confidence. It will be worthwhile to watch how markets do for the next few days before making a big financial commitment in the markets.

Commodities Are Cooling

Commodity prices are cooling off for the past few trading sessions and this is a very welcome sign with regards to overall inflation scenario. Also with concerns of U.S. economy slowing down because of lower consumer spending and weak housing sales and serious credit squeeze in the U.S. mortgage market, commodity prices have began to ease of substantially from their recent highs.

However crude oil is still trading above U.S.$70 per barrel for the past few weeks and is a major concern.

Yen Carry Trade Unwinding

For two days running, stocks across the world are bearing the brunt of a credit crack that first started in U.S. sub-prime market and now has spread to other credit instruments. This collateral damage has prompted hedge funds, PE funds, large financial institutions to pay back the capital that they have borrowed from Japan very cheaply. With the losses mounting on their mortgage books, they will now have to withdraw from risky assets like stocks and return the borrowed money and this is causing Yen to strenghten against the Dollar, now trading at 114.32 after touching a high of 113.55 against the Dollar. Serious downward stock price adjustments had happened in the last few days, dow jones has re-traced all the gains it had made during this fiscal year and all other emerging markets are also follwoing the suit. For the first time in the last four years, serious credit squeeze is happening and this is not good for assets like stocks. Only selective buying can be made in stocks which are having the strongest of fundamentals and business momentum. Commodities are also correcting and this is good news for commodity user industry and hence to some extent for Inflation.

Will The U.S. Fed Cut The Rates?

Market players are placing huge bets on a possible Interest Rate cut by U.S.Fed in it's next speech in September following the liquidity crunch in the financial system due to huge losses suffered by large players in the U.S. sub-prime mortgage paper. They also believe that to give a push to U.S. economy and to stabalise slump in the U.S. housing market, Fed will cut the rates.
However their bets can go wrong due to many reasons, one of them is since Inflation in the U.S. is still a cause of concern as Fed himself pointed out in his many speeches, also due to recent pumping of dollars in the system Inflation has the chances of getting a head up. Crude Oil is still above U.S.$70.
So markets will be watching Fed speech very eagerly and any dissapointment on rate cut can induce volatility and more nervousness among investor/trader fraternity.

Volatility Is Reducing In The Markets

For the past two days volatility is subsiding in the stock markets and this is a positive news as markets gets adusted to recent shocks they have got from U.S. sub-prime mortgage mess.
However more days of consolidation are needed to confirm the absorption of all the bad news by the markets.
Let's keep our fingers crossed.

Keep A close Watch On News Flow

As the title of this thread indicates, keep a close watch on the level of noise originating from U.S. on sub-prime mortgage crisis.
As various central banks of developed economies keep pouring money in the financial system to meet the liquidity demand and maintain the financial markets in good health, it's not far that financial markets again re-gain their strength. Patience will be the key.

Central Banks Pour The Money

Seeing liquidity crunch because of sub-prime mess in the U.S., central banks of major economies are pouring huge money in the financial system.
Several leading funds of major investment banks and institutions have been closed due to losses that they have incured in sub-prime investments in the U.S.
Yen has been strengthning for the past few days and this is also a cause of concern, critical level to watch out for yen against dollar is 115. This is very important from the yen carry trade point of view as it has in the past and in present providing huge liquidity to the financial markets.
It will also be very interesting to see if Japanese central bank raises the interest rates this time or not, again very important for yen carry trade to keep going.