USDJPY remains in downtrend from 96.70

USDJPY remains in downtrend from 96.70, the price action from 93.53 is likely consolidation of the downtrend. Key resistance is at the upper line of the price channel on 4-hour chart, as long as the channel resistance holds, the downtrend could be expected to resume, and another fall to 92.00 – 93.00 area to complete the downward movement is possible. However, a clear break above the channel resistance will indicate that the downtrend from 96.70 had completed at 93.53 already, then further rise towards 100.00 could be seen.

usdjpy

Daily Forex Forecast

Why Dividend Stocks May Not Stay This Cheap for Long

By MoneyMorning.com.au

Phew! What a punishing second half of March.

There’s blood on the streets everywhere.

Investors are crying into their cheap beer.

And many are wondering if the stock market will ever go up again.

Oh, hang on a minute, it wasn’t that bad. Yes, the Australian market is 3% below the recent peak reached on 12 March. But seeing as the market is still 25% higher than it was last June, we’ll take that any day of the week.

The question is: are you still in the market or have you been spooked out of it?

Either way, here’s what to do now…

We’ll admit something. We told Pursuit of Happiness readers earlier this week that the Cyprus savings grab had spooked us.

It made us reassess our cash savings and whether we’re better off switching some of that into gold. We figured out that yes, we would be better off with more gold, so that’s what we’ll do.

But the one thing we didn’t do during the height of the Cyprus crisis was to change our view on the stock market.

Safer Than Cash?

That may seem strange. After all, in the event of a crisis isn’t it natural to sell risky assets and buy less risky assets? Well, yes, that’s true.

But the way we’ve come to think about it (and we don’t think we’re the only ones to come to this conclusion), we’ve got more faith in the ability of Australian companies to weather a financial storm than we have in the banking sector to weather a bank run.

That’s especially so when, as we also pointed out to Pursuit of Happiness readers, a bank like Australia & New Zealand Bank [ASX: ANZ] only has $75 in cash and coins in reserve for every $10,000 of deposits (that’s less than 1% by the way).

How do you think you’ll go getting your cash out if there’s a run on Australian banks? Enough said.

So, we’ll take the stock market any day of the week. That doesn’t mean you should ditch all your cash. But you should know the risks. We know the risks in shares, but just as importantly, we know the rewards.

And as the chart shows, a 3% drop…big deal:

Source: Google Finance

You know our style. We’re not a shill or a spruiker for the stock market. If we thought things were bad – really bad – we’d tell you to sell.

But right now we figure the Aussie market has settled in for an extended period of volatile, but ultimately, sideways action. In fact, we doubt if you’ll start to see the market challenge the March high again until the last three months of the year.

For what it’s worth, just remember we tipped the market to end the year at 5,004 points. It hit that mark in February, and who knows, with the volatility, it’s still looking like a good bet to end the year at that level.

But this is exactly why we’re buying stocks, and it’s why you should too…

Big Investors ‘Game-Hunting’ for Yield

We’ve laid out our stall to say that it’s a great time to buy growth stocks. We said that a few weeks ago as stocks hit the peak. To us, dividend stocks looked overvalued at worst and fairly valued at best.

But as we showed you in last Friday’s Money Morning, the recent sell-off has presented an opportunity to fill up on a few dividend stocks. We used AMP Ltd [ASX: AMP] as an example. And what do you know? It rallied 4.6% on Wednesday, recovering about half of what it had lost since February.

This isn’t, and won’t be, an isolated case. Investors will scan the market for yields. They’ll look to pick up any unfairly sold off stock. That should see dividend stocks gain over the next few weeks.

So although the best opportunities for gains this year will come from growth stocks (especially the ones we focus on in the small-cap market), you’d be a mug not to take advantage of the opportunity to use incoming cash flows to top-up on your dividend stocks.

You shouldn’t expect to see the kind of capital growth gains you saw in the previous six months. But if you can get 4-5% gains, plus a 4-5% dividend yield, well, that isn’t a bad return on what most still think of as a super high-risk market.

Cheers,
Kris

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From the Port Phillip Publishing Library

Special Report: Australia’s Energy Stock BLOWOUT

Daily Reckoning: In Gold, Not Cyprus, We Trust

Money Morning: Silver ‘$100 Within Two Years’

Pursuit of Happiness: Safer Than Cash – Gold Regains Its Rightful Place

Australian Small-Cap Investigator:
How to Make Money From Small-Cap Stocks

The Most Futuristic 3-D Printer, Based on the Original Factory

By MoneyMorning.com.au

As you know, 2-D printing with ink on paper is being one-upped by 3- D printing with plastics and metals to create objects. But it doesn’t end there…

It’s one thing to print inanimate objects. That is, objects where the machine assembling them does all the work…whether it’s heating up or hardening materials in order to construct whatever your computer aided design (CAD) says.

But it’s quite another thing to print with self-assembling materials. Materials that aren’t just being moved around by the printer, but actually ‘help’ the machine make the product.

Chris Anderson, in his book Makers, explains the concept of ‘intelligent materials’ with the example of Lego blocks:


‘When a child plays with Lego, the blocks correct the child’s mistakes – they fit together only if they’re lined up right. The larger Duplo blocks guide the child to the correct orientation with bevelled edges that exert a force to rotate the parts in the right direction to fit when they’re pushed together.

‘The blocks themselves provide a coordinate system – the Lego grid. And when you’re done with the blocks, you don’t throw them away. You disassemble them and use them to build something else, making them the ultimate recyclable material.’

So How Can a 3-D Printer’s ‘Ink’ be Intelligent?

I’ll give you a hint: it won’t lay down Legos.

But the concept of materials that are inclined to rely on preconceived components is the same...A 3-D printer’s ‘ink’ can be intelligent in the same way that cells in your body are intelligent.

In other words, 3-D printing’s natural next step will be based on biology, the original factory. It will use ‘ink’ that follows instructions from your DNA, the very building blocks of life.

The next step in the 3-D printing revolution is the introduction of bioprinters into labs.

Bioprinters can print layers of living cells in order to create human or other animal tissues. And, in time, even entire organs. The printers build the relevant cells in a certain pattern, a framework, enough so that – amazingly – nature can fill in the rest of the work and complete the job.

Dissolvable gel keeps the cells from dying, which usually isn’t a problem when it happens naturally in a human blood network. The process uses ‘bioink spheroids’ and ‘biopaper gel’.

Incredibly, cells within the bioink spheroid actually rearrange themselves after printing, ‘correcting’ their positions and then turning into tissue.

How they effortlessly do this is all in the memory of their DNA.

Professor Makoto Nakamura at the University of Toyama was one of the first people in the world to use inkjet technology with real living cells to build a 3-D structure. He hopes to print a heart.

The idea first occurred to him in 2002 when he realized that droplets of ink from a standard ink jet printer are about the same size as human cells…one-hundredth of a millimetre.

He had bought a regular old Seiko Epson printer, loaded it with cells and…clogged the nozzle.

Woops.

He could have called it quits, and written it off as a crazy idea. But instead, he called the operator at customer service and explained that he wanted to print human cells, an idea she politely shut down.

Eventually, he reached an official who showed an interest and gave him technical support.

A year later, his experiments confirmed that cells could survive after the printing process if they were put in what we’ve affectionately been referring to as ‘biopaper gel’. So he became one of the first researchers in the world to print a 3-D structure with real living cells using inkjet technology.

His motivation is simple: His background as a paediatrician put him face to face treating children with heart problems. In a discussion he had with a journalist from iAfrica.com, he said:

‘I just had to watch them die. Clinical doctors can’t give them treatment that isn’t in textbooks. I clung to the hope that medicine will make progress and save more lives in the future.

‘I’m not envisioning making superhuman cyborgs. There are simply lives that could be saved if there are organs.’

Nakamura’s represents only one person with the desire to make organs readily available for transplants, but it’s an ambition shared by many. According to the National Network of Organ Donors:


‘More than 111,000 people are currently on the UNOS’ transplant waiting list…the number of people who die waiting for a transplant continues to grow: from 10 people each day in 1990, to 14 a day in 1996, to 19 today. That number will be even higher by 2020…’

That’s just in the United States.

3-D Printing: A New Hope for Patients

When this new technology comes to fruition, there may not even be a need to ask for organ donations. It will most likely be one of the many future technologies that converge in what our in-house expert calls ‘the Phoenix Event’.

Induced pluripotent stem cells, for example, can be used as the raw materials for this kind of technology. Using the DNA from your own stem cells limits any chance of immune system rejection. And all this can happen without the potentially controversial use of embryonic stem cells.

Organovo already has proprietary technology that boasts itself as the world’s first commercial 3-D bioprinter.

In the words of CEO Keith Murphy, ‘Scientists and engineers can use the 3-D bioprinters to enable placing cells of almost any type into a desired pattern in 3-D.’ He continues, ‘Ultimately, the idea would be for surgeons to have tissue on demand for various uses, and the best way to do that is get a number of bioprinters into the hands of researchers…’

Think of the demand from well-endowed medical schools and hospitals.

In December 2010, Organovo successfully created the first bioprinted blood vessels from a single person, and they plan to go through with human trials of bioprinted tissues by 2015.

They also anticipate their first artificial human organ will be a kidney, which is the most straightforward part in your body. In time, any organ might be bioprinted.

But Organovo is just one exciting company harnessing the power of breakthrough technologies.

Stay tuned for more!

Josh Grasmick
Contributing Editor, Money Morning

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From the Archives…

Why You Should Buy This Falling Stock Market
22-03-2013 – Kris Sayce

Stock Market Warning: Part II
21-03-2013 – Murray Dawes

New Developments on Whether You Can Get Your Mortgage Cancelled
20-03-2013 – Nick Hubble

Your Retirement or Your Mortgage?
19-03-2013 – Nick Hubble

Get Used to This Stock Market Action, It’s Set to Last…
18-03-2013 – Kris Sayce

Gold vs. S&P 500 – Where is the Value?

By J.W. Jones – OptionsTradingSignals.com

This past week we received the final 4th Quarter GDP number which came in at 0.39%. The total 4th Quarter growth was terrible, plain and simple. Based on the performance in the equity markets that we have seen thus far in the 1st Quarter of 2013 investors would expect strong GDP growth. However, the only thing spurring stock market growth is the constant humming of Ben Bernanke’s printing press.

The real economy and the stock market are no longer strongly correlated. Essentially, they are meaningless. How do you evaluate risk when Treasury linked interest rates are artificially being held down by the Federal Reserve? How do you evaluate earnings growth estimates when most government based statistics are manipulated or “smoothed” to perfection?

My final argument to anyone who is a true believer that the stock market is representative of the economy is a very simple premise. If the stock market is the economy, how does the stock market evaluate small business earnings growth when most small businesses are not publicly traded? It is a simple question, but I have yet to find a sell side analyst that can work around it with facts.

To back up this information, here is a chart courtesy of www.zerohedge.com that demonstrates the S&P 500’s price action compared to economic data and overall macro risk.

Chart1

The chart above clearly depicts the divergence between the macroeconomic data and the performance of the S&P 500 Index. Yet the sell side continues to scream that stocks are cheap, earnings are going to ramp up later this year on insane S&P 500 earnings growth expectations, and the consumer is going to remain strong even though payroll taxes have increased and the “wealthy” are paying more in taxes.

Even amid those concerns, no one knows for sure what the impact that Obamacare and the various new taxes associated with it will have on the business community. Again, the only thing driving growth is directly linked to the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet expansion. The chart below is courtesy of the Federal Reserve’s website.

Chart2

On August 8, 2007 the Federal Reserve’s total assets were $869 billion dollars. As can clearly be seen today, according to the Federal Reserve the central bank’s total balance sheet has grown to over $3.2 trillion dollars. The increase is on the verge of rising exponentially. With QE, QE2, QE3, Operation Twist, Extended Operation Twist, and now with QE 4 in Perpetuity this trend is certainly unlikely to shift.

At this point in time the Federal Reserve is printing roughly $85 billion dollars each month to purchase Treasury securities with a focus on the long end of the maturity curve. As primary dealers of Treasury securities process these flows the money eventually finds its way into riskier assets that offer higher rates of returns through balance sheet machinations at large money center banks.

It has proven that the flow of the Federal Reserve’s printed monies are more important than the total money stock for a variety of reasons and inflation according to the government’s data is under control ex food and energy.

However, how are people supposed to survive without food and energy in today’s world? The last time I went to fill up my gas tank or to purchase food prices have gone up significantly. According to the 1990 version of consumer price reporting, real consumer inflation is running around 6% currently and shadowstats.com has the following comparison.

Chart3

Unfortunately the 1980 based inflation numbers are even uglier, which based on Shadowstats’ data chart would place consumer inflation at nearly 10%. The calculations being used by Shadowstats.com are based on the government’s OLD ways of calculating inflation. The calculations were adjusted over time and today the data is completely manipulated by not including items that typically experience the largest levels of inflation.

Normally I talk about price action, probability based option trading, and technical information. However, before investors consider buying stocks near the all-time NOMINAL (non-inflation adjusted) highs, why not simply consider the backdrop of the total economic situation.

Central banks around the world are printing money at an alarming rate and their balance sheets are growing to levels not seen in human history. Interest rates are being manipulated to levels that are historically at record lows or near record lows based on real inflation data.

Macroeconomic indicators are issuing a cautionary tone with significant divergences showing up in many areas. Earnings expectations for the S&P 500 in the 3rd and 4th Quarter of 2013 are extreme and borderline ridiculous.

So before jumping headlong into equities based on some sell side analysts recommendation or even worse, a financial advisor who is more interested in his/her commission than they are about producing gains consider the following comparisons.

 

S&P 500 Index (SPX) Price Chart – 1 Year Price History

Chart4

Gold Futures Spot Price Chart – 1 Year Price History

Chart5

Clearly paper gold represented by gold futures is no substitute for physical ownership, but when one considers the fundamental backdrop for gold versus the S&P 500 Index, it should be clear which asset is offering the most value at current price levels. It does not require any inserted trendlines or oscillators, it should be clear which asset is expensive and which asset is cheap based on the real long-term economic fundamentals.

I will give you a hint regarding which asset is offering the most value. It can’t be printed, it has represented the store of value since the advent of modern civilization, and it is senior to all paper currencies.

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This material should not be considered investment advice. J.W. Jones is not a registered investment advisor. Under no circumstances should any content from this article or the OptionsTradingSignals.com website be used or interpreted as a recommendation to buy or sell any type of security or commodity contract. This material is not a solicitation for a trading approach to financial markets. Any investment decisions must in all cases be made by the reader or by his or her registered investment advisor. This information is for educational purposes only.

 

Zambia holds rate steady, inflation to ease in April

By www.CentralBankNews.info     Zambia’s central bank held its policy rate steady at 9.25 percent, saying inflationary pressures should continue to moderate in April due to improved seasonal supply of food, mainly fish, vegetables and beef.
    The Bank of Zambia, which raised its policy rate by 25 basis points in 2102 but has held them steady this year, added that a continued supply of maize to millers by the Food Reserve Agency should also help keep inflation low in April.
    “This notwithstanding, cost-push pressure associated with the lagged pass-through effects of the depreciation of the Kwacha are likely to pose upside risks to the inflation outlook for April 2014,” the central bank said, adding these risks had been weighed in the decision to hold rates steady.
    Zambia’s inflation rate fell to 6.6 percent in March from February’s 6.9 percent.
    In 2012 Zambia’s Gross Domestic Product expanded by 7.3 percent from 2011.

    www.CentralBankNews.info
   

Romania holds rate, sees inflation on downward trend

By www.CentralBankNews.info     Romania’s central bank held its policy rate steady at 5.25 percent, saying inflation is expected to continue to follow a downward trend due to a persistent negative output gap and reach the ceiling of the central bank’s inflation target by the end of this year.
    The National Bank of Romania (NBR), which has held rates steady since a 25 basis point cut in March 2012, said annual inflation fell to 5.65 percent in February from January’s 5.97 percent. The adjusted core2 inflation rate was 3.1 percent in February, just below January’s 3.2 percent.
    The NBR targets annual inflation of 2.5 percent, plus/minus one percentage point.
    Romania’s Gross Domestic Product expanded by 0.1 percent in the fourth quarter from the third for annual growth of 0.3 percent, up from a 0.3 percent contraction in the third quarter.

    The central bank said a widening of the negative output gap had slowed in the fourth quarter and monetary indicators point to lending to the private sector to remain in negative territory, as in the euro area and in most countries in this region.
    “As domestic political and financial tensions eased, the NBR carefully calibrated the monetary policy instruments, also by shifting from firm to adequate liquidity management, which led to an improvement of liquidity conditions on the money market and hence drove interbank rates considerably lower,” the central bank said.

    www.CentralBankNews.info

Taiwan holds rate steady on mild recovery, muted inflation

By www.CentralBankNews.info     Taiwan’s central bank held its benchmark interest rate steady at 1.875 percent, as expected, saying the current stance was appropriate as the country’s economy was “experiencing a mild recovery along with muted inflationary pressures.”
    The Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan), which has held its discount rate unchanged since June 2011, said economic activity had picked up since the fourth quarter due to better-than-expected exports and private consumption.
    The government’s budget, accounting and statistics directorate has revised upwards its forecast for first quarter Gross Domestic Product growth to 3.26 percent and “bolstered by the world’s moderate economic expansion, exports and private investment will likely drive the domestic economy to grow by 3.92% in the second quarter and 3.59% for the entire year,” the central bank said.
    In December, the bank said it forecast 2013 GDP growth of 3.15 percent.
    For the first two months of this year, consumer price inflation averaged 2.05 percent but core inflation only grew by 1.25 percent, the bank said.

    It added the government projects 1.99 percent inflation for the first quarter, then 1.40 percent in the second quarter due to recent falls in international commodity prices and base effects of last year’s fuel and electricity price hikes. For the full year, inflation is forecast at 1.37 percent.
    The central bank has tightened controls on mortgages and land financing to keep property prices from rising too fast and it said that it was keeping a close watch on real estate lending and urged financial institutions to ensure sound operations and thus preserve financial stability.

    www.CentralBankNews.info

   
   

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Taiwan holds rate steady, sees improved 2013 outlook

    Taiwan’s central bank held its benchmark interest rates unchanged, as expected, saying the current policy rate was conducive to maintaining price stability and promoting economic growth in light of a modest economic recovery, subdued inflationary pressures and global economic uncertainties.
    But the Central Bank of the Republic of China, which has held its discount rate steady at 1.875 percent since June last year, struck an optimistic tone about next year, saying the domestic economy was forecast to expand by 3.15 percent in 2013 as exports and private investments are likely to revive on the back of a gradual economic recovery while consumption remains steady.
    “Recent developments point to signs of stabilization for the global economy, with an improved outlook for 2013,” the bank said after a meeting of its board.
    The central bank said the Taiwan dollar’s exchange rate was in principle determined by the market but when there is “excess volatility and disorderly movements” with adverse implications for economic and financial stability, “the CBC will step in to maintain an orderly market.”

    Earlier this month the central bank intervened in the foreign exchange market to ease the upward pressure of the TWD, which has appreciated some 4.5 percent against the U.S. dollar this year.
    It said the euro zone recession has eased, the U.S. economy looks set for moderate expansion, China has regained growth momentum and Asian emerging economies also see a rebound in prospect.  However, the bank added there were still risks from the U.S. fiscal cliff and Europe’s debt crises.
    The central bank’s board set a M2 growth target of 2.5-6.5 percent for 2013.
    Taiwan’s economy picked up speed in the third quarter, expanding by 0.98 percent from the second for annual growth of 1.13 percent, reversing a 0.18 percent contraction in the second.
    The central bank said the economy was estimated to have expanded by 2.97 percent in the fourth quarter from the third.
    Inflation, which fell to 1.59 percent in November from October’s 2.36 percent, was estimated at 1.93 percent for 2012 and is forecast to fall to an annual rate of 1.27 percent next year due to expected steady international commodities and lower base effect for fruit and vegetables, the bank said.
    The central bank’s market operations have been aimed at managing liquidity, it said, adding that banks’ excess reserves were steady at $21.6 billion and for the first 11 months of the year loans and investments by banks grew by an annual rate of 5.03 percent and the M2 annual growth rate averaged 4.22 percent, sufficient to meet the economy’s needs and support growth.

STORMY WATERS:Analysts expect the central bank to leave interest rates alone, and urged caution as risks from abroad could derail Taiwan’s nascent economic revival

By Crystal Hsu  /  Staff reporter

The central bank may maintains it policy of keeping interest rates on hold at its quarterly board meeting on Thursday as significant downside risks remain even though the outlook for economic growth has improved, HSBC PLC said in a report.
“We expect the central bank to stay put until the year end, rather than rush into a sharp and unnecessary policy shift,” HSBC Greater China economist Donna Kwok (郭浩庄) said in the report.
The central bank has left the discount rate unchanged at 1.875 percent since September 2011, although it has tightened credit controls on mortgage and land financing to attempt to rein in property price hikes.
Other foreign banks, including Standard Chartered Bank, Barclays PLC and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd (ANZ), also forecast the central bank would leave its key interest rates unchanged at the meeting, but would keep a close watch on the property market.
Last week, central bank Governor Perng Fai-nan (彭淮南) told lawmakers the bank had no plans to withdraw its credit-tightening measures anytime soon. He did not say whether the bank would take further steps to curb rising house prices, despite prices in major metropolitan areas remaining high.
Kwok said the central bank was concerned about property prices, but was considering use of administrative measures, rather than interest rate increases, to send a message to the real-estate market.
While the central bank is likely to keep liquidity ample in an effort to provide a boost to the economy, as inflationary pressures are unlikely to emerge in the near future, HSBC said it does not expect the nation’s economic growth to recover significantly for at least another year, with external growth risks still a major factor.
“It is no time for Taiwan to rest easy just yet, as the impact of sequestration has yet to filter through, and a US government shutdown is not totally inconceivable,” Kwok said.
European economies, except Germany, have yet to show signs of serious revival and the proposed Cyprus bailout threatens to put the sovereign debt crisis back on center stage, she said, adding that external uncertainties warrant caution for any policy moves that may lead to upside price pressures.
The latest government statistics showed the consumer price index rose 2.97 percent year-on-year last month, after an increase of 1.13 percent in January, on the back of Lunar New Year demand.
The government has estimated the consumer price index will increase 1.37 percent this year, down from last year’s 1.93 percent.


aipei, March 16 (CNA) Taiwan’s central bank said Friday that it expects inflationary pressure in Taiwan will ease this year partly due to stabilizing grain and energy prices in the global market.

In addition, as growth in local vegetable and fruit prices is likely to slow due to a high comparison base recorded in 2012, and domestic communications fees are trending lower, the upward pressure in consumer prices is expected to be mitigated in 2013, the central bank said.

The comments echoed a forecast made by the Directorate General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) in February which said the local consumer price index (CPI) for 2013 is expected to grow 1.37 percent, down from an increase of 1.93 percent recorded in 2012.

In addition to the slower growth in the local CPI forecast by the central bank and the DGBAS, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research and the Chunghua Institute for Economic Research, two of the major think tanks in Taiwan, expect local consumer prices will rise 1.53 percent and 1.57 percent, respectively.

Global Insight, a worldwide economic institute, has also anticipated Taiwan’s inflation will ease to 1.5 percent in 2013, while it has forecast that global inflation will fall to 3 percent this year from 3.2 percent recorded in 2012.

As the central bank’s concerns over inflation has been reduced, market analysts said, the bank will likely leave its key interest rate unchanged in the upcoming policymaking meeting scheduled for March 28, in a bid to keep liquidity ample to boost the economy.

Several foreign banking groups, including Barclays, Standard Chartered Bank, and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd., have forecast the central bank will leave the interest rates intact in the meeting.

In the previous policymaking meeting held Dec. 19, the central bank maintained its key discount rate at 1.875 percent, the rate of accommodations with collateral at 2.25 percent and the rate of accommodations without collateral at 4.125 percent.

Meanwhile, the central bank said it will keep a close eye on the movement of the Japanese yen, which has fallen sharply as the Bank of Japan continues to ease liquidity to depress the currency.

The weakness of the yen has triggered a currency depreciation competition in the region with the central banks in Taiwan and South Korea stepping in to allow their currencies to fall in an attempt to protect their country’s global competitive edge, analysts said.

The local central bank said the Taiwan dollar appears relatively stable compared with the South Korean won, but it emphasized that it is determined to closely monitor the foreign exchange market and 




aipei, March 13 (CNA) Several foreign banks predicted Wednesday that the local central bank will leave key interest rates unchanged in a policymaking meeting scheduled for March 28 as local inflation remains mild.

Among the foreign banks, British banking group Barclays Plc said it expects the central bank to keep liquidity ample in an effort to further lift the economy, although local economic fundamentals have shown some signs of recovery.

In February, the government raised its forecast for the country’s economic growth for 2013 to 3.59 percent from a previous estimate of 3.53 percent, citing an increase in exports and private consumption. In 2012, the local economy grew by just 1.26 percent from the previous year.

The government also anticipates that the local consumer price index for 2013 will rise 1.37 percent from a year earlier, down from an annual increase of 1.93 percent in 2012.

Barclays said the forecast of a 1.37 percent increase in local consumer prices means local inflation will be in check so that the central bank is likely to leave the discount rate unchanged at 1.875 percent in the upcoming policymaking meeting.

The British bank also raised its forecast for Taiwan’s annual gross domestic product (GDP) growth to 4.0 percent from a previous prediction of 3.4 percent.

Raymond Yeung, a senior economist with Australia and New Zealand Banking Group Ltd. (ANZ), agreed that Taiwan will have contained inflation and that the central bank is likely to keep its key interest rates unchanged in the first quarter.

For its part, Standard Chartered Bank, another British financial institution, said the central bank has no urgent need to tighten its monetary policy in the first quarter, adding that it is unlikely to raise key interest rates before the middle of the year at the earliest.

Earlier this month, Standard Chartered maintained its forecast of Taiwan’s GDP growth at 3.9 percent.

The foreign banks also said the central bank could address the issue of rising real estate prices at the March 28 meeting and come up with further measures to rein in property prices.

In the previous policymaking meeting held Dec. 19, the central bank maintained its key discount rate at 1.875 percent, the rate of accommodations with collateral at 2.250 percent and the rate of accommodations without collateral at 4.125 percent.

If the central bank does not alter the key interest rates in March, it will be the seventh consecutive quarter in which they have rem

Taiwan Will Appoint Central Bank Governor Perng to Another Term

Taiwan will appoint central bank governor Perng Fai-Nan for a fourth five-year term, suggesting a continuation of currency-stabilizing policies at a time when closer trade and investment ties with China are being built.
Perng, 74, will stay on as governor of the Central Bank of the Republic of China (Taiwan) beyond the Feb. 25 deadline, when his term is scheduled to end, Fan-Chiang Tai-chi, a spokesman of the presidential office said today.
The re-appointment comes as President Ma Ying-jeou acts to strengthen an economy that grew in 2012 at the slowest pace since the 2009 global recession. Perng, who enjoys bipartisan support, has led the island’s monetary authority since Feb. 1998 after his predecessor died in an airplane crash.
“He has an incredible record of pre-empting crisis and reassuring the markets,” Wai Ho Leong, a Singapore-based economist at Barclays Plc, said before the announcement. “He’s had a very good record of managing inflation and using monetary policy to that effect. He’s done an excellent job of managing the growth-inflation trade-off and has maintained systemic stability. He’s also very well-regarded internationally.”
The re-appointment may help allay concerns about the island’s currency. Policy makers warned on Jan. 29 they would step into the foreign-exchange market after the Taiwan dollar reached a four-year high against the yen on Jan. 28, hurting exporters. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. chairman Morris Chang said at a forum Jan. 11 that the government should let the Taiwan dollar depreciate further to aid competitiveness.

Growth Recovery

Perng has held interest rates steady for six straight meetings since June 2011 as the export-dependent economy struggled with weakening demand for its electronic goods. Gross domestic product rose 3.42 percent in the fourth quarter from a year earlier, compared with a 0.98 percent pace in the previous three-month period, a report showed on Jan. 31.
Perng, who holds a Ph.D. in law from the University of Minnesota, told lawmakers in December the governor’s position “will be my last public job.” He is the longest-serving central bank governor in Asia among economies tracked by Bloomberg. Malaysia’s Zeti Akhtar Aziz, who took charge in May 2000, comes next.
Perng and Zeti, alongside Amando Tetangco of the Philippines, Glenn Stevens of Australia andIsrael’s Stanley Fischer, received an ‘A’ grade in Global Finance magazine’s annual ranking of the world’s central bankers last year. They were rated higher than Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and the European Central Bank’s Mario Draghi.
Central bank unlikely to change key interest rates in 2013: Barclays
2012/12/21 18:15:17

Taipei, Dec. 21 (CNA) Taiwan’s central bank is likely to leave key interest rates unchanged throughout 2013 because it wants to keep domestic markets liquid and push the local economy on the road to recovery, British bank Barclays Plc said Friday.

Growth remains the focus of policymaking, Barclays said in a market comment, though the central bank’s concerns seemed to have eased “slightly” amid improving economic prospects.

With signs of stabilization in China, the U.S. and the eurozone, the central bank has turned less pessimistic over the outlook for the world economy, it said.

Barclays predicted that Taiwan will see improving exports, consumption and private investment in 2013, and inflation should be “more benign” at around 1.2 percent, compared with 1.93 this year, as prices of international raw materials stabilize.

At a quarterly policymaking meeting Dec. 19, Taiwan’s central bank maintained its discount rate at 1.875 percent, its secured loan rate at 2.25 percent and its unsecured loan rate at 4.125 percent.

It was the sixth consecutive quarter that the central bank left key interest rates unchanged, hoping that sustained low interest rates will pull the domestic economy out of its doldrums. 

Czech holds rate steady, zero until inflation pressures rise

By www.CentralBankNews.info     The Czech Republic’s central bank left its benchmark two-week repo rate steady at 0.05 percent and said rates would remain at its current level of technically zero “over a longer horizon until inflation pressures increase significantly.”
    In a statement following a meeting of the Czech National Bank (CNB) board, the bank said it was also ready to use foreign exchange interventions “if further monetary policy easing becomes necessary.”
    The CNB, which cut rates by 70 basis points in 2012 but has held them steady this year, said its forecast calls for a slight decline in market interest rates and then a rise from mid-2014 and inflationary pressures are not expected to rise and there were “no tangible risks of such an increase in inflation pressures” at the present.
    Inflation in the Czech Republic fell to 1.7 percent in February from January’s 1.9 percent. The CNB targets inflation of 2.0 percent, plus/minus one percentage point.
    The Czech economy more than forecast in the fourth quarter and in 2012 Gross Domestic Product shrank by 1.2 percent, the bank said.

    Fourth quarter GDP contracted by 0.2 percent from the third, the sixth quarterly contraction in a row, for annual shrinkage of 1.7 percent, up from 1.5 percent in the third quarter.
    The CNB said data from industrial production, construction output and retail sales in January point to subdued economic activity and the labor market remains weak.

    www.CentralBankNews.info

Jump in Euros “Confirms Gold as Safe Haven” as Cyprus Imposes Eurozone’s First- Ever Exchange Controls

London Gold Market Report
from Adrian Ash
BullionVault
Thurs 28 Mar, 08:50 EST

The GOLD PRICE slipped back to $1600 per ounce Thursday morning in London, heading into the 4-day Easter weekend 1.3% higher from the start of March.

Silver bullion was flat for the month at $28.65 after recovering yesterday’s sharp 2.3% drop.

European stock markets shrugged off overnight falls in Asia to trade 0.5% higher by lunchtime, while commodities ticked lower.

The Euro currency meantime crept back above $1.28 – a four-month low when broken on Wednesday.

North Korea today kept open a key border crossing despite cutting the last of 3 telephone “hotlines” to the South, citing “hostilie action” by Seoul and Washington, on Wednesday.

Gold lived up to its status as a safe haven again after all yesterday afternoon,” says Eugen Weinberg’s team at Commerzbank in Frankfurt, noting the two-month high at €1260 per ounce hit by gold in Euro terms.

“The uncertainty over the Cyprus crisis…should lend support to gold demand.”

Queues at Cyprus’s banks were reportedly “calm and orderly” today as a near 2-week bank holiday was replaced by the first exchange controls in a Eurozone state since the single currency was launched in 1999.

Daily ATM withdrawals are limited to €300, with check-cashing banned, overseas transfers restricted to €5,000 per month, and a limit of €1,000 on cash carried out of the country.

Overseas customers withdrew 18% of their Cyprus bank deposits last month, new data showed today.

Germany’s
Spiegel magazine yesterday reported that “suspicious transactions” involving Cyprus government and central-bank personnel on the eve of the first, disastrous bail-out proposal are now being investigated.

Gold’s failure to break above $1620 per ounce – now seen by several chart analysts as where a downtrend in Dollar gold prices now comes – is “a little concerning” says a note from Swiss refiner and finance group MKS, “especially considering the uncertainty surrounding Cyprus last week.”

But although Cyprus “will likely fade from the headlines” counters the latest note from brokers INTL FCStone, “the unusual circumstances behind the country’s rescue will likely linger.

“In addition, the Italian situation should come back to unsettle the markets further, offering yet another prop for gold.”

Center-left politician Pier Luigi Bersani, who won the largest share of votes in Italy’s inconclusive election last month, was due today to update President Napolitano today on his failed attempts to build a coalition government.

Exchange-traded gold trust funds will meantime end March with their largest quarterly outflow since such products were launched a decade ago, according to Reuters data, down 7.2% to 2197 tonnes.

Those holdings hit an all-time record of 2366 tonnes in early December.

Gold prices in the first quarter of 2013 were heading today for a 3.5% drop in Dollars, a rise of 3.2% in Sterling, and no change from the end of December in Euro terms.

US Treasury bonds today eased back but kept 10-year yields beneath 1.90%.

Ten-year UK gilt yields continued to hold below that level, offering investors a 4-month low of 1.76%.

So-called “junk bonds” saw record new issuance in the first 3 months of 2013, according to the Dealogic consultancy, with higher-risk borrowers raising $148.6 billion from investors seeking higher yields – up by one quarter from Jan. to March last year.

Adrian Ash

BullionVault

Gold price chart, no delay   |   Buy gold online

 

Adrian Ash is head of research at BullionVault, the secure, low-cost gold and silver market for private investors online, where you can buy gold and silver in Zurich, Switzerland for just 0.5% commission.

 

(c) BullionVault 2013

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