Japan’s debt rating downgraded by Moody
After the downgrade of the credit rating of the United States, another major economic superpower is seen to be following suits as Japan is the next in line. Moody’s Investors Service has downgraded Japans’ credit ratings from Aa3 to Aa2. The agency said that this was due to the weak growth prospects of the country as well as its massive government debt and its uncertainties of the country’s political climate. Read more
Head of Standard & Poor stepping down, analysts said he is ‘helped to the door’
Devan Sharma, the president of Standard & Poor is reportedly resigning. This came in the wake of the recent move by S&P to strip the United States of its AAA credit rating to AA+ for the first time in its history and saw most markets being affected by the move. Taking his place would be Douglas Peterson who is currently the Chief Operating Officer of Citbank N.A the banking arm of Citigroup. Read more
Hong Kong inflation rockets to 7.9%, a 16-year high
In the latest regional reports, the inflation rate in Hong Kong has hit a 16 year high in July. This situation is expected to continue and the Hong Kong Government has that it would not be resolved anytime soon.
According to the official figures which were released earlier this week, consumer prices shot up to 7.9% as compared to the year before and this rate is the highest recorded since November 1995 when consumer prices were at 8.4%. Read more
Global shares sell-off will continue without any short-term remedy on crisis
Following last week’s market performance, analysts believe that the current sell-off in global shares will likely to continue and that will continue to affect the local share market. The current Eurozone debt crisis has not shown any sign of slowing down but instead seemed to be slowly developing into becoming a major problem in the continent and the global economic recovery too have not been on the verge of ending anytime soon have prompted global sell-off of stocks. And this will only worsen the situation where the recovery period will be prolonged. Read more
Oil prices expected to drop with overthrow of Gadhafi government
Should the Libyan rebels succeed in overthrowing the Moammar Gadhafi’s regime, then market analysts believe that it would affect the global oil prices directly. This came in the wake of the latest development when rebel forces entered Tripoli with minimal resistance where they also overran a major military base which was supposed to defend the city. In the line of fire, Gadhafi’s son, Seif al-Islam was captured and gave fresh speculation that Gadhafi’s government is on the brink of falling. Read more
Speculation on stimulus measures by US drive Asian markets up
Preliminary sentiments and performance of Asian markets were higher than expected after there were speculations that there are some stimulus policies being planned by the United States Federal Reserves to help boost its economy. This helped to gain the investor’s confidence in trading in light of the recent Eurozone debt crisis which many believed was on the verge of worsening. Read more
Greece calls on EU to implement bailout deal
Greece is calling on the EU (European Union) to consider extending the country with a €109 billion bailout as well as to implement the rescue fund for the euro zone debt crisis which was agreed upon last month. The finance minister of Greece said that EU must ‘fully and immediately’ implement the fund. Evangelos Venizelos, the minister had written to senior officials of the EU to call on them to implement the agreement which will include a new bailout package for Greece. Read more
BlueScope Steel Australia posts $1.1 billion loss, closes 2 plants, 1,000 jobs cut
BlueScope Steel Ltd, the largest steel maker of Australia had announced that they will be closing 2 of their production facilities in the country which will directly cost some 1,000 jobs. This came in the wake of the recent release of the accounts of BlueScope Steel Ltd. Of a $1.05 billion Australian dollar annual loss which prompted a major restructuring process. Read more