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QE3 no silver bullet for markets

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NEW YORK: Friday's jobs report that showed hiring in the United States unexpectedly ground to a halt in August is increasing speculation the US Federal Reserve will move to stimulate the economy. But will it help stocks?

Fed action if it happens is no longer viewed as the elixir for the stock market it once was.

Wall Street tumbled over 2% on Friday as investors fretted more about the economic outlook rather than looking ahead to another round of Fed bond buying.

This week, the question of whether the Fed will step up to the plate with another round of quantitative easing will take centrestage with a highly anticipated speech from President Barack Obama. That could make for another volatile week.

This time last year, anticipation of a second round of quantitative easing, or QE2, sparked an almost uninterrupted rally that lifted the S&P 500 around 30% from August to May.

What a difference a year makes. Confidence in policymakers is sapping away as the economy languishes, the United States grapples with the loss of its top-notch credit rating, and the European Union seems to be coming undone at the seams.

Wall Street sees an 80% chance the Fed will intervene in the bond market to lower long-term interest rates, according to a Reuters poll on Friday.

But Friday's action in the stock market signalled that equity investors do not see that prospect as silver bullet for their woes. The broad-based S&P 500 index fell 2.5% on the day.

“This downdraft is based on sentiment and that has to be turned around,” said Brian Battle, vice-president of trading at Performance Trust Capital Partners in Chicago. “I think we're in for a longer trend of either malaise or just a down channel.”

That means traders and investors who were hoping for a return to normalcy after extreme volatility in August may have to wait a little longer.

Obama is due to address a joint session of Congress on Thursday to lay out plans to create jobs, boost economic growth and lower the deficit.

He faces an uphill struggle when it come to reassuring investors, who fault the lack of consensus in Washington. Heading into an election year, the disharmony is not likely to get better any time soon.

Non-farm payrolls were unchanged last month, the Labour Department said on Friday, and figures for previous months were also revised down to show employers created a combined 58,000 fewer jobs than had been thought in June and July.

The US Treasury market rallied after the data as Goldman Sachs and other US primary dealers big Wall Street firms that do business directly with the Fed said they expect the US central bank to start buying longer-dated bonds after its Sept 2021 meeting.

Seasoned traders say that August's extreme volatility was one of the most trying periods in living memory, outstripping the 20082009 meltdown and the 1987 stock market crash on Black Monday.

“I've been doing this for 20 years and it's never been more exhausting,” said the chief executive of a New York-based proprietary trading firm, who said many of his traders closed out their positions in August, reducing the firm's inventories to just 15% to 20% of what they could be.

At least some of that volatility looks set to spill over into September until there is more clarity over the economy and what the Fed is likely to do at its September meeting.

But some fund managers who take a more long-term view are using pullbacks to cut back positions that have done less well while increasing positions in their preferred stocks.

Many fund managers are still convinced the US economy will avoid a recession and stocks will rally into the end of the year. - Reuters

One of them, Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott in Philadelphia, does not expect the Fed to act this month. He is not expecting a recession, but admits he has become more defensive.

“We used some of the volatility to swap out lower yields for higher yields, believing that a combination of income with capital growth potential will help us weather days like today,” he said. “Equity values should still hold their own if not appreciate given the still-good corporate profit picture.” - Reuters






nk baca kot BM,translate la sendiri :D
 
Experts downbeat on global economy

CERNOBBIO, Italy: Business leaders and finance experts gathered here have offered a downbeat assessment of the global economy, with several predicting another recession due to a calamitous cocktail of sluggish growth, eurozone dysfunction and financial market volatility.

The year's events from natural disasters and violent uprisings to fears of debt defaults have not only sent shock waves through the financial world but also caused a slump in confidence among consumers and industry.

“There is a significant probability of a double-dip recession,” New York University economist Nouriel Roubini said on Friday in opening remarks that lived up to his nickname of “Dr Doom”, earned for forecasting a financial crisis years before the 2008 crash, even as many revelled in the boom times.

Much of the concern focused on the United States.

“The numbers that we've seen recently for the United States on manufacturing, on construction, on consumers' sentiment tell me that the odds have gotten much greater that the United States is going to continue to decline and that we are going to be in a formal recession before the end of the year,” Harvard University economics professor Martin Feldstein, a member of President Barack Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, told the Associated Press.

Roubini blamed the mostly unexpected events of 2011 the Arab Spring fuelling oil prices, the turmoil in Greece spreading through Europe, the Japanese natural disasters upsetting global supply chains, and “significant worries about the US system and the political fight (over the debt ceiling) between the Democrats and the Republicans”.

Because of this series of shocks, he estimated that advanced economies had reached a stall speed of around 1% annual growth, a figure that is lower than official expectations in many countries.

Roubini said governments and central banks, which have already made multi-trillion-dollar stimulus moves, had no more “bullets”. - AP
 
Asian stocks down on dreary US jobs data

BANGKOK (AP) - Asia-Pacific stocks took a beating early Monday after jobs data out of the U.S. last week revived fears of a recession in the world's largest economy.

Japan's Nikkei was 1.7 percent down in early trading at 8,797.89. Australia's S&P ASX 200 fell 2.1 percent to 4,154.90. New Zealand's NZX 50 declined 0.7 percent to 3,279.30. South Korea's Kospi Composite Index slid 2.5 percent to 1,821.65.

Companies that count on brisk economic growth to fuel their revenues were hit hard. Japan's Hitachi Construction Machinery lost 4.3 percent. Energy Resources of Australia Ltd. tumbled 4.4 percent.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed 2.2 percent lower Friday, wiping out its gain for the week, on the heels of a dismal jobs report.

The Labor Department reported that no jobs were added in the U.S. in August.

It was the worst employment report in 11 months and renewed fears that another recession could be on the way.

The lack of hiring in the U.S. last month surprised investors. Economists were expecting 93,000 jobs to be added. Previously reported hiring figures for June and July were revised lower. The average work week declined and hourly earnings fell. The unemployment rate held steady at 9.1 percent. The rate has been above 9 percent in all but two months since May 2009.

The Dow Jones industrial average lost 253.31 points to close at 11,240.26. It was the biggest fall in two weeks. The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 2.5 percent to 1,173.97. The Nasdaq composite fell 2.6 percent to 2,480.33.

The sour jobs report comes on top of Europe's debt problems, which are still dragging on. Meanwhile, China's economy is showing signs of slower growth.

Those problems could weaken global demand for many kinds of commodities including oil and metals. Inpex Corp., Japan's leading energy explorer, sank 3.1 percent.

Investors seeking a relatively stable sore of value during times of economic turbulence in financial markets have been scooping up gold, sending its price up 50 percent over the past year.

Gold-related shares were among the few posting gains Monday. Australia's Newcrest Mining Ltd., the country's top gold miner, rose 2 percent.

In currencies, the euro weakened to $1.4165 from $1.4187 in late Friday trading in New York. The yen weakened to 76.77 yen from 76.72 yen.

Benchmark crude for October delivery slipped 62 cents to $85.83 per barrel on Monday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell $2.48, or 2.8 percent, to finish at $86.45 on the Nymex on Friday.
 
Oil falls to below $86 after weak US jobs report

SINGAPORE (AP) - Oil prices extended losses to below $86 a barrel Monday in Asia as a dismal August jobs report suggested that a weak U.S. economy will lessen demand for crude.

Benchmark oil for October delivery was down 65 cents to $85.80 at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Crude fell $2.48 to settle at $86.45 on Friday.

In London, Brent crude for October delivery was down 75 cents at $111.58 on the ICE Futures exchange.

Crude has fallen since the Labor Department said Friday that U.S. employers stopped adding jobs in August and the unemployment rate remained at 9.1 percent.

Oil had risen from $76 on August 9, the low for the year so far.

"The oil market suffered a severe blow" from the jobs figures, energy consultant Ritterbusch and Associates said in a report. "It reinforced our longer term expectation for a price decline into new low territory."

U.S. gasoline demand during the summer driving season - from May 30 to Monday - fell 4.1 percent from a year earlier as prices rose 34 percent, according to estimates by Barclays Capital.

"Gasoline demand has been affected by higher prices and weaker GDP," Barclays said in a report.

In other Nymex trading for October contracts, heating oil fell 2.0 cents to $2.98 per gallon and gasoline futures dropped 2.0 cents to $2.82 per gallon.

Natural gas for October delivery gained 2.0 cents to $3.89 per 1,000 cubic feet.
 
malysia mesti kna tempias...
adkh ekonomi dunia akn hancur...:-?
 
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