Tag Archive 'China'

Aug 15 2008

Dollar Turn-around Has Analysts Questioning Emerging Markets

When the U.S. economy fell off a cliff, a bunch of investors fled to the “safety” of booming emerging markets, like China and Brazil.

Turned out to be a good bet for a while, until our credit crisis became a global disease… and even stellar markets had their corrections.

But now, on the slightest bump up in the dollar, some analysts are now questioning whether emerging markets is the best place for your cash. Some say that U.S. stocks are a better bet than foreign stocks.

What’s really going on is that other major currencies, like the euro and the British pound, are being hit by recession fears and the possibility of more bank write-downs.

The dollar hasn’t really risen that much on its own yet. We’re still seeing poor housing numbers and sky-high inflation. There have been bright spots in the U.S. economy, and I won’t deny that things are starting to look better, but a major shift back to holding only U.S. assets in your portfolio is a big mistake.

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Jul 16 2008

The BUD Deal: No Use Crying Over Spilled Beer

Published by Sara Nunnally under Consumer, East Asia

In today’s posting, Sarah Nunnally, Editor of Taipan Trader, takes on your faithful editor Irwin Greenstein for his rant in the July 2nd issue about InBev’s move on Anheuser Bush. Feel free to ad your comments about the acquisition of a great American brand by a Belgian company.

Done is done, Irwin… No use crying over spilled beer.

Anheuser-Busch (BUD:NYSE) has agreed to the takeover terms by InBev SA (INBVF:PINK)

The deal is worth $52 billion. That’s a steal, if you ask me. Thanks to the dollar’s fresh demise (new lows against the euro), InBev is spending only 32.5 billion euros. A year ago that price tag would have been 37.7 billion euros, and that’s the main reason why InBev can afford to buy BUD now.

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Jul 14 2008

China’s Next Big Oil Play?

One of the biggest business stories of the year has literally been buried by the media — and it could cost you a lucrative opportunity.

On July 9, the China Investment Corp (CIC), the country’s $200-billion sovereign wealth fund, said it will start investing in global equity markets through its overseas asset managers, according to the China Securities Journal.

CIC said it will allocate $250 million to eight different overseas asset managers.

Why Big Media didn’t play this up more prominently is a real joke. CIC is the world’s sixth biggest sovereign wealth fund (SWF). The decision to start actively investing in emerging market equities is a clear indication that emerging markets cannot be ignored.

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Jul 09 2008

This Inflation Buster Could Turn into a Pay Day

Two Asian newspapers revealed that China’s fight against inflation could pay off in the immediate future. If so, the SSE Composite Index (Shanghai: 000001.SS) Shanghai is the place for you to be.

Both The Shanghai Daily and The Standard reported that as early as this week the Chinese government could issue new numbers to show it has finally reined in inflation. The news could send the Shanghai Composite Index back up. In fact, in our June 11 issue, we thought it was a good idea to double down on the index while it was still in a trough.

The Asian newspapers quoted the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China as saying that the country’s inflation could peak in 2009 and then decline.

While the bank also predicted that stock markets could continue to suffer through 2011, our guess is that any government reporting good inflation numbers has got to be considered a superstar.

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