IDS World Markets Tues 1st April 08

[aussiebear]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/intlindices

[aussiebear]

 

 

http://money.cnn.com/markets/morning_call/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.kitco.com

 

Energy futures

 

Currencies/Au/Ag

[aussiebear]

 

 

A little plummet to start the day. All Ords -0.5% with only one green sector, Consumer Discretionary, +0.2%. Consumer Staples is leadiing on the downside, -1.5% followed by IT, -1.2%. The other sectors have minor losses.

 

In the miners, BHP and RIO are tentatively up, both +0.4%. Golds continue to slide, Newcrest -1.3%, Newmont -2.4% and Lihir -1.2%. Juniors flat to down.

 

Oils mixed: Woodside -1.2%, Santos +0.2% and Caltex +1.5%.

[aussiebear]

U.K. Banks Predict `Prolonged' Downturn, CBI Says

 

March 31 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. banks forecast that credit market turmoil will last at least until the end of the year, twice as long as they predicted three months ago, according to a survey by the Confederation of British Industry.

 

Lending conditions will worsen in the next six months, leaving banks with ``significantly'' higher borrowing costs, according to the quarterly survey of financial firms.

 

``This is a very serious crisis in the financial sector,'' Ian McCafferty, chief economic adviser at the confederation, told reporters March 28. ``There's going to be quite some considerable time before we see improvement in the situation.''

 

The rising cost of capital will herald a ``prolonged period of slower growth,'' McCafferty said. Forty percent of companies surveyed said their difficulties in raising money will hold back development, up from 24 percent in the previous quarter.

[aussiebear]

Europe Inflation Accelerates to 3.5%, Sentiment Drops

 

March 31 (Bloomberg) -- European inflation accelerated to the fastest pace in almost 16 years, making it harder for the European Central Bank to cut interest rates as a global credit squeeze saps confidence among executives and consumers.

 

Consumer-price inflation in the euro area accelerated to 3.5 percent this month, the highest rate since June 1992, the European Union's statistics office in Luxembourg said today. The euro rose after the publication of the figure, which was higher than economists had forecast. A separate report showed consumer and business confidence declined in March.

 

The ECB is refusing to follow the U.S. Federal Reserve and reduce interest rates in response to a global crisis as food and energy prices fuel inflation. ECB council member Erkki Liikanen said today that inflation expectations have ``hardened'' and at the same time is concerned that the growth outlook has ``become more subdued,'' summing up the central bank's dilemma.

[aussiebear]

Hungarian Central Bank Lifts Rates More Than Expected

 

March 31 (Bloomberg) -- Hungary's central bank increased the benchmark interest rate for the first time in 17 months, opting for a larger-than-expected increase to halt soaring government bond yields and stem inflation.

 

The Magyar Nemzeti Bank's 12 policy makers, led by President Andras Simor, raised the two-week deposit rate at a meeting today to 8 percent from 7.5 percent.

 

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Russian Economy `Overheating' on Poor Infrastructure

 

March 31 (Bloomberg) -- Russia's economy, the world's 10th largest, is ``overheating'' because transportation, power and communications infrastructure can't cope with surging demand, Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said.

 

The gap between supply and demand is ``so significant that new enterprises are unable to gain access to infrastructure and they have to pay extra to be connected,'' Kudrin, who is also deputy prime minister, said at a meeting of the Federal Tariffs Service in Moscow today.

 

Russia is in its 10th consecutive year of economic growth, which has averaged 7 percent since 2000, putting a strain on crumbling Soviet-era roads, ports and power grids.

 

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Serbian Central Bank Leaves Benchmark Rate at 14.5%

 

March 31 (Bloomberg) -- Serbia's central bank left its benchmark two-week repurchase rate unchanged at 14.5 percent, after raising it three times since Feb. 1, to ward off inflation.

 

Serbia's inflation rate soared to 14.6 percent last month as food and fuel prices pushed price growth beyond the central bank's control.

 

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Slovenian Inflation Rate Unexpectedly Rises on Energy

 

March 31 (Bloomberg) -- Slovenia's inflation rate unexpectedly rose in March to the highest since December 2002 as clothing and energy costs increased.

 

The rate rose to 6.9 percent from 6.5 percent in February, the Ljubljana-based Statistical Office said on its Web site today. Prices rose 1.3 percent from the previous month. This was more than the median estimate of seven economists in a Bloomberg survey that expected the annual rate to fall to 6 percent.

[aussiebear]

Australia Stocks Have Worst Quarter in 20 Years

 

April 1 (Bloomberg) -- Australian stocks fell the most in 20 years during the first quarter after rising interest rates cut demand for bank shares and slowed the economy's 17th year of expansion.

 

The All Ordinaries Index declined 16 percent in the first three months of the year, the most since the end of 1987, following the October crash. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index, started in 1992, lost 16 percent in its worst quarter on record.

[aussiebear]

UBS AG Sees Q1 Net Loss of $12 Billion

 

ZURICH, Switzerland (AP) -- Swiss bank UBS AG said Tuesday it expected to post first quarter net losses of 12 billion Swiss francs (US$12.1 billion; euro7.65 billion) and would seek 15 billion Swiss francs (US$15.1 billion; euro9.55 billion) in new capital.

 

Switzerland's largest bank, which has been hard hit by the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis, also said it sees losses and writedowns of approximately US$19 billion (euro12 billion) on U.S. real estate and related credit positions.

 

Chairman Marcel Ospel will not seek re-election at the April 23 annual general assembly of shareholders and will be succeeded by Peter Kurer, who is currently general counsel, the bank said in a statement.

 

The bank said its move to raise capital through a rights issue would be fully underwritten by four leading international banks and would enable it to remain "one of the world's strongest and best capitalized banks."

 

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Deutsche Bank Sees About EU2.5 Billion in Writedowns

 

April 1 (Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Bank AG, Germany's biggest bank, expects to book about 2.5 billion euros ($3.9 billion) in writedowns for the first quarter after the U.S. subprime mortgage meltdown roiled credit markets.

 

Deutsche Bank on March 26 said it may miss its 2008 target for pretax earnings of 8.4 billion euros because of writedowns and slowing investment banking revenue.

[aussiebear]

 

 

All Ords managed to claw its way back into the green finishing +0.1%. Miners took over top spot, +1.2% and Consumer Staples was at the other end, -1.1%. Most sectors showed little change.

 

The big miners picked up speed: BHP +2.3% and RIO +1.4%. Golds improved a touch, Newcrest +1%, Newmont -2.8% and Lihir -1.7%. Juniors flat to down.

 

Oils also moved up: Woodside +0.6%, Santos +1.7% and Caltex +3.4%.

 

Quite a mix in Asia: China -4%, India -1.1%, Nikkers +1% and Honkers +0.5%.

 

 

Over to UK/Europe:

 

 

 

 

 

http://finance.yahoo.com/intlindices?e=europe

[aussiebear]

China's Manufacturing Pace Quickened Last Month, Surveys Show

 

April 1 (Bloomberg) -- China's manufacturing activity surged last month after the end of disruptions from the worst snowstorms in half a century, two surveys showed.

 

The CLSA Purchasing Managers' Index rose to 54.4, the highest level in five months, from 52.8 in February, CLSA Asia- Pacific Markets said today in an e-mailed statement. A separate PMI report, published by the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing and the statistics bureau, showed the highest reading in almost a year.

 

The government index is based on a survey of more than 700 companies in 20 industries, including energy, metallurgy, and automobile and electronics manufacturing.

[aussiebear]

Japan Tankan Business Confidence Falls to 4-Year Low

 

April 1 (Bloomberg) -- Confidence among Japan's largest manufacturers fell to a four-year low as Toyota Motor Corp. and Canon Inc. struggled with the yen's gain and the U.S. slowdown.

 

The Tankan index of manufacturer sentiment slid to 11 points in March from 19 in December, a second quarterly decline, the Bank of Japan said today in Tokyo.

[dorfinator]

Holy Toledo, how can one sleep with such great news out there?

[fxfox]

Futures ramp starting directly at the european open, Gold killing (trading below 900 right now), Dollar rallies... interesting... oups, just saw that the forgot to push Oil below 100

[aussiebear]

Shades of things to come, guess we'll be paying more for our trainers now...

 

Workers Strike at Nike Contract Factory

 

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) -- More than 20,000 Vietnamese workers have walked off the job at a Taiwanese-owned plant that makes shoes for Nike Inc., demanding higher pay to keep pace with skyrocketing prices, officials said Tuesday.

 

The workers at Ching Luh plant, in southern Long An province, went on strike Monday. They want a 20 percent bump to their $59 average monthly salaries along with better lunches at the company cafeteria, said Nguyen Van Thua, an official with the province's trade union.

 

The plant has been making sneakers since 2002 and employs about 21,000 workers, most of them young rural women. The company is paying the workers 14 percent more than minimum wage, but soaring inflation is eroding their earnings, Thua said.

 

Consumer prices in Vietnam are 19 percent higher than they were a year ago, according to government figures. Hanoi responded in January by increasing the minimum wage foreign-owned companies are required to pay by roughly 13 percent.

[Jetlag]

New lows on the A-shares

 

 

Dunno what europe is all giddy about, fadable?