Oil stay above $63 as the world market rebound

When Wall Street and other stock markets rebounded, the oil prices stay steady between $60-$70.

Oil investors fear that the major economies are heading into recession, they have been taking a cue from the plunging market. A recession will cause a decrease in demand for oil and the pirce will fall further to a record low. There are a lot of bad news around the world, comsumer confidence index falls, every one expected that business conditions to be worsen in the months ahead.

Crude for December delivery rose 7 cents to $63.29 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract fell 93 cents to settle at $63.22 on Monday.

Dow Jones industrial average rose 171.32, or 2.10 percent, to 8,347.98.

Earlier Tuesday, key Asian stock markets rebounded:

>Japan's Nikkei 225 index, up 6.4 percent

>Hong Kong's Hang Seng index, up 14.4 percent (biggest gain in 11 years)

European stock markets:

>Germany's DAX up 8 percent

>Britain's FTSE 100 up 3 percent.

Prices fell despite an announcement made last week that OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) would cut oil production by 1.5 million barrels a day. OPEC controls about 40% of global crude oil production, has not ruled out that there will be another cut when it meets in this coming December.

Gasoline fell another 4 cents to $2.629, according to auto club AAA, the Oil Price Information Service and Wright Express. Gasoline prices will continue to fall into the $2.25 to $2.50 a gallon range with the falling price of crude.

How was the Market Indexes after the regional sell-down

Wall Street had a steep sell off Friday, thus sending major market indexes to their lowest levels in more than five years. A grim outlook from Sony helped trigger the selling, and the automaker Daimler added momentum to the drop.

The Dow Jones fell 312.30, or 3.59 percent, to 8,378.95.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index fell 31.34, or 3.45 percent, to 876.77.

The Nasdaq composite index fell 51.88, or 3.23 percent, to 1,552.03.

Singapore's Straits Times Index (STI) plunged 143.39, or 8.3 percent, to 1,600.28.

The plummeting Dow Jones and S&P 500 futures indexes triggered for the sell-down.

ST Index fell 5.6%

Every thing seem so bad lately, and the one day slump on the Singapore market is really a shock to a lot of investors. It was not a surprise to me though, I am still expecting it to fall below 1800 before this November.

Straits Times Index on 6th of October 2008 closed at 2168.32, fell by 128.8. Europe has become the new flashpoint, the investors are worried over the list of ailing European banks that national governments had to prop up.

Nobody knows what will come next. So it is better to be like me, stay away from the market and keep as much cash as possible to yourself.

US fix the credit crunch crisis with US$500 billion

On 19th September 2008, US announced that it will take out US$500 billion (S$717 billion) to fix the credit crunch crisis, by buying the toxic bank assets and hope that it will free up credit markets.

In London, Sydney and New York, regulators have imposed bans on short-sellers who are blamed for aggravating the global market meltdown.

Being a short-seller, one sell shares that he/she does not actually own, hoping to cash in on falling prices.

My opinion is, by saving the credit markets with such a huge amount of money do not solve the core of the problem.

Keep away from the market for small players

There are so many things to worry about in the market:

1) the news on the Lehman Brothers
2) the Fed meeting
3) falling oil prices
4) US about its consumer prices report
5) weak Singapore's non-oil domestic exports
6) Singapore expected to have poor third-quarter growth

Tough Time for Singapore's Market

Singapore stock market will expect more turbulence and STI will continue its downward trend for the rest of the year.

Factors that affecting the weakness of the market:

- It is predicted that Singapore's full year economic growth at 3.2%.
- bad economic environment globally
- High jobless rate of US
- US saving the troubled mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae which own about US$5 trillion of loans (1/2 of all mortgages in the US)
- fast falling commodities sector
- falling oil prices

I would suggest that it is better to keep all your cash and stay away from the market.

Market of the Day

The sliding commodity prices, esp. crude oil, caused the commodity and mining stock a great suffering across the region yesterday. But this morning, almost all major world indices show good sign after FOMC announced that it would keep the Fed funds rate remain at 2%. Most stocks started the day off moving up with out stopping. Asia stocks continue to rally except KLSE.