What a TIGER Year 2010!!

Since the beginning of the year, analyst has predicted what a bumpy and hollistic 2010 it's going to be. Any true to their words, and with 1H'10 just ended, moving forward the second half of the year is slated to be in moderate pace. With M'sia's GDP peaked to over 8% for 1H'10, Bank Negara is expecting the GDP to down to ~6% to close Year 2010.

From Jan'10, KLCI has now risen to its all-time high at 1395pts, +120pts from early of the year. However, market did not come in a direct upward trend (refer chart above). Throughout the year, stocks stumbled to its lowest point at two occasions; one in Feb and another in end of May. And from the latter, the bulls charged up himself and rallied with no turning back. With KLCI potentially going into overbought territory, coupled with poor economic data especially in the U.S and uncertainty still arise in Europe, market will be eventually pull its break and begin its correction mode.

With the underlying data pinning potential downside turn, what would be the best bet (haven't we mention this before since the end of Year'09 where we were so worried about how this year would turn around?) for investors to put their money at, in order to minimize the "expected" risk involved? One basic ground rule is through Portfolio Diversification and this has been the tactic I'm adopting, and gosh... although there were 2 dips in the year, my net returns from stocks still give me +$1,000! My returns peaked at +$1,300 in early Aug'10. The setback was partly contributed by the regional poor economic data plus the selloff across gloves industry. And back to topic of "safe investment", my personal call is to buy-in the lows of glove stocks. These stocks have good fundamental and proven to give decent return especially when the market turns fragile.

Particularly in domestic region, besides investing in rubber, other commodities product that worth to invest in would be in steel. With governments direction pushing into massive construction and infrastructure projects, these supporting materials will be the best beneficiary. In these 2 field, my pick is CSCSteel (pays good dividend and sound financial data) and Sunway (share price comparatively attractive to its peers). Another preferred blue chip company which has just recently announced outstanding quarterly report would be YTLPwr. I'm expecting a potential upside for this share throughout the year, especially once Tanjong Plc completed its privatisation moved. This will eventually diverge some of the power utilities investors to other players; i.e Tenaga and YTLPwr.

Advent International sells its stake in Herlitz to Pelikan International Corporation Berhad

Frankfurt / Berlin. Advent International, the global private equity firm, today signed agreements to sell its 66% stake in Herlitz, a leading provider of stationary products in Europe, to Pelikan International Corporation Berhad, the international manufacturer and distributer of writing instruments, school stationery, office supplies, and printer consumables.

Herlitz is a long established household brand in Germany and has been listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange since 1977. Following a rapid expansion until the mid 1990’s, the company underwent a significant financial restructuring in 2001 which included Herlitz’ consortium of banks taking a stake of 65%. In 2005 Advent acquired a total of 66% of the company taking over the stake from the banks and from a voluntary takeover offer.

The acquisition of Herlitz by Pelikan represents a logical step as it combines two leading brands and two complementary businesses. Herlitz has a strong regional presence in Germany and Eastern Europe and well established sales channels, particularly in the food retailing sector. Pelikan has a leading market position in Western Europe, Latin America and Asia and long-lasting client relationships with specialist shops. The transaction will thus open up additional business opportunities for Pelikan and Herlitz."

Bumpy Road of Recovery: Unemployment shoots past 10 percent

WASHINGTON — Just when it was beginning to look a little better, the economy relapsed Friday with a return to double-digit unemployment for only the second time since World War II and warnings that next year will be even worse than previously thought.

Payrolls fell by 190,000 last month, more than forecast by economists, a Labor Department report showed today in Washington. The jobless rate rose from 9.8 percent in September. Factory payrolls dropped by the most in four months, and the average workweek held at a record low.

President Barack Obama called it "a sobering number that underscores the economic challenges that lie ahead." He signed a measure to extend unemployment benefits and to expand a tax credit for homebuyers.

Unemployment at 11 percent would be a post-World War II record. Only once since then has joblessness hit double digits in the United States — from September 1982 to July 1983, topping out at 10.8 percent. "It's not a good report," said Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist for New York-based investment firm Miller Tabak & Co. "What we're seeing is a validation of the idea that a jobless recovery is perfectly on track."

2cents: Obviously the bad report came out of nowhere and shocked everyone. However, there has been a saying that our stock market moves ahead of actual market condition (same say 6 months ahead), and judging that D.J still swings around 10,000 +/- 500 pts since the past few weeks, we shall buckled up tight and anticipate a bumpy ride as we head to year 2010...

FDIC announces 99th bank failure

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The nation's tally of 2009 bank casualties hit 99 Friday night when state regulators closed San Joaquin Bank, based in Bakersfield, Calif. This was the tenth bank to fail in that state.

The Citizens Business Bank in Ontario, Calif. will assume all of San Joaquin Bank's $631 million deposits, according to the FDIC. Citizens also entered into a loss-share agreement with the FDIC on $683 million of San Joaquin Bank's $775 million in assets.There are about 8,000 banks in the nation, and an average of 10 banks have failed per month this year, nearly four times the number that failed in 2008. This is the highest tally since 1992, when 181 banks failed.

Though 2009's count is still far from 1989's record high of 534 bank closures which took place during the savings and loan crisis, the FDIC revealed there are now 416 banks at risk of failing -- the highest level in 15 years.This year's failures have reduced the FDIC's insurance fund to $10.4 billion from $45 billion a year ago.

One Week Before Q3'09 Ends - Market Makes a U-turn...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks fell for the third straight session on Friday, ending lower for the week, after weaker-than-expected reports on durable goods orders and new home sales sparked concerns about the strength of any recovery.

The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) lost 42 points, or 0.4%. The S&P 500 (SPX) index lost 6 points, or 0.6%. The Nasdaq composite (COMP) fell 17 points, or 0.8%. Stocks slid in the previous two sessions after having ended Tuesday at one-year highs. Investors reacted negatively to Wednesday's Federal Reserve meeting and Thursday's weaker existing home sales report and oil slump.

The mix of economic news Friday gave investors another reason to retreat after the recent advance. An attempt at stabilizing in the last hour of trading gave out near the close. "Today is the third day that we are seeing selling on higher volume," said Curtis Lyman, managing director at HighTower Advisors. "It's indicative that the market is consolidating after the very nice recovery we've seen."

Stocks have seen a huge spike over the last 6-1/2 months. Since bottoming at a 12-year low March 9, the S&P 500 has gained 54.4% and the Dow has gained 47.6%, as of Friday's close. After hitting a six-year low, the Nasdaq has gained 64.8%.

This week's retreat has left Wall Street at what could be a key inflection point, said Brian Peardon, wealth advisor at Harrison Financial Group. "We could see a new push higher or a much more substantial selloff," Peardon said. "It's just a matter of all the cash on the sidelines and whether the (buy on the) dip buyers decide to come in."

He said that a continued move higher is more likely than a big selloff at this point, but that the upcoming quarterly earnings reporting period will be critical in terms of whether the rally gets another leg up.

Disney Bought Over Marvel... and now Kraft, Nestle, & Hershey is Aiming for Cadbury??

Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Companies worldwide have led $36 billion of takeovers in the past 10 days, according to Bloomberg data. Walt Disney Co. agreed on Aug. 31 to buy comic-book creator Marvel Entertainment Inc. for about $4 billion. The same day, Baker Hughes Inc. agreed to buy BJ Services Co. for $5.5 billion in the largest oilfield-services company takeover since 1998. EBay Inc. agreed a day later to sell 65 percent of its Skype Internet-calling unit to a group led by firm Silver Lake for about $2 billion.

The flurry of takeovers shows that “confidence in the corporate sector has risen off the floor, where it was a year ago,” Lucy MacDonald, who manages $6.8 billion as chief investment officer at RCM UK Ltd., said in a Bloomberg television interview. “Secondly, corporate balance sheets have recovered quite significantly in the last year. We’d expect to see M&A picking up from relatively low levels.”

Kraft Foods Inc.’s 10.2 billion- pound ($16.7 billion) bid for Cadbury Plc may be a sign that Europe’s frozen takeover market is beginning to thaw after the slowest August in five years.

Kraft, the maker of Oreo cookies, said yesterday it would pursue the acquisition after the British maker of Dairy Milk chocolate rejected the offer. The 745 pence-a-share proposal may trigger a competing offer from Nestle SA and Hershey Co., forcing Kraft to increase its bid, according to Warren Ackerman, an analyst at Evolution Securities in London.

The acquisition would be the biggest cross-border deal this year and follows the $21 billion of European takeovers announced in August, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Companies are revisiting plans for mergers that had been shelved during the credit crisis amid signs the recession may be easing. The MSCI World Index has gained 58 percent since hitting a 14-year-low in March, making it easier for firms to fund takeovers with stock.

Mixed Signals

The nation's unemployment rate climbed last month to 9.7 percent — the highest in nearly a generation — but the number of job losses was less than expected and the smallest monthly total in a year.

"It's good to see the rate of job losses slow down," said Nigel Gault, chief U.S. economist at IHS Global Insight. But with unemployment rising, "there isn't the underlying fuel there for strong consumer spending growth," which is vital for a strong recovery.

"The bulls let out a collective sigh of relief today, after the government's highly anticipated payrolls report wasn't as sour as expected," said Andrea Kramer at Schaeffer's Investment Research. "Against this backdrop, the bulls won the battle for the session, but the bears won the war for the first week in three."

"While the labor market is still showing significant job losses, the August employment report showed a continued slowing in their pace, and we expect job growth to turn positive by year-end as the recovery becomes entrenched and businesses feel more comfortable hiring," said Barclays economist Dean Maki.

Mega Sale is Back!!

Share market made a downturn in recent days with stocks around the globe, including D.J and Bursa went into the bear market terrritory:

... for the second straight session, fewer than one billion shares exchanged hands on the New York Stock Exchange, "suggesting that there hasn't been much conviction behind the recent moves," Briefing.com said.

Following the rebound, stocks are down less than one percent week-to-date after Monday's 2.4 percent drop, which marked the stock market's worst single-session percentage loss in six weeks.

Despite the recovery, analysts predict greater market volatility ahead."The good news is that there should be enough bulls sitting on the sidelines to keep US stock market pullbacks from becoming meaningful, but with global market sentiment turning negative toward stocks, we expect to see selling pressure build in the US stock market even though signs of incremental improvement in our economy continue to emerge," said Frederic Dickson, chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co.

Burning Curiousity

Recent weeks have been seeing market continues to pursue its greater heights. There are times where we the shares started off with a good momentum.. went down before 12pm break.. only to close at a higher position. I'm sure these have placed lots of question marks on everybody's mind, wondering what is actually happening.

The market no longer predictable, as we see major heavyweights lose points, while smaller caps' stocks chalked up +20% intra-day. However, I still think that companies with large market caps and good foundation will survive this round of flip-flops and will eventually stand out with a much greater peaks.

... and I'm adding another stock into the list... E&O... y? we'll see....

Bears, Bulls, and.... Swines?

For the past few weeks, share market has been in a flip-flop condition. With many people expecting a bear market towards the end of the year, here comes the bulls running wild. The momentum has been tremendous and it is almost certain that we have passby the long-waiting "V", not until the swines came out from nowhere. The bull has certainly lowered down the gear in around a week ago. However, business is about to pick up again during the end of last week and the opening of this week (after the long weekend holidays due to Labor Day) showed that the market is still bullish regardless of the news on the deadly Influenza A (H1N1) spreading around the world.

Back to our local shares, KLCI fared very well too, will the share points successfully passed the 1,000 test level and maintained within the range of 1,000 - 1,030. Blue-chips are the main gainers, with boosted confidence in consumers continue to invest in equities.

On personal note, here are 3 local shares with good fundamentals and showed to have bright perspective & most importantly, safe to invest in long run: YTLPOWER, IJMLAND, and LION Div.

What’s Up With Spansion?

Spansion (SPSN) shares today have jumped 6 cents, or 128%, to 11 cents. The maker of NOR flash memory chips filed Chapter 11 a month ago. On March 23, the company indicated that it is “in discussions with multiple companies regarding the potential sale of some or all of the company’s assets.”

The obvious question is whether there will be anything left over for common stock holders when the company reorganizes. As of the end of the September quarter, the company had just under $1.3 billion in long-term debt; the current market cap is about $18 million.

Anyway, I can’t find any obvious reason for the sudden jump; no news, no analyst reports, no SEC filings. Still awaiting comment any comment from the company.

Update: A spokesperson for the company said Spansion doesn’t comment on activity in its stock. At the close, Spansion was up 7.97 cents, or 159.4%, to 12.97 cents. And in late trading, the stock is up another 0.99 cents, or 7.6%, to 13.96 cents. That’s some pretty wild trading for a company with no news at all.

Circuit City to vacant 18 million sq.ft of stores and leave 34,000 employees jobless

RICHMOND, Virginia: What began 60 years ago as a humble television store in this sleepy Southern capital ended Sunday as Circuit City closed its doors for good - its 567 remaining U.S. stores to be left broom clean and vacant.

For the last month and a half, a group of four liquidators have conducted going-out-of-business sales for what was the nation's second-largest consumer electronics retailer, selling its remaining $1.7 billion worth of inventory weeks sooner than expected.

In its wake Richmond-based Circuit City Stores Inc. will leave more than 18 million square feet (1.67 million square meters) of vacant space in a faltering real estate market. And more than 34,000 employees, some who worked through the liquidation announced in January, will be jobless.

Shareholders will likely get nothing and creditors may receive far less than what they are owed.
Circuit City filed for bankruptcy protection in November with hopes of emerging as a stronger company able to compete in the ever-expanding marketplace; shedding its $2.32 billion in debt and getting out of older real estate.

Unable to work out a sale or secure new financing, the company will instead spend its remaining days tallying money from the sale of its assets, breaking or assigning its leases and paying off its growing list of creditors. Circuit City owes nearly $625 million to its 30 largest unsecured creditors - mostly vendors who supplied the DVDs, flat-screen TVs and headphones on Circuit City shelves.

Obama: Crisis is time of `great opportunity'

WASHINGTON (AP) -- As the dreadful economic news piles up, President Barack Obama challenged the nation Saturday to not just hang in there but rather to see the hard times as a chance to "discover great opportunity in the midst of great crisis."

The work week ended on another dour note, with the report of 651,000 more American jobs slashed and an unemployment rate climbing to 8.1 percent. That is the highest rate of people out of work in more than 25 years, as the recession continued to put enormous pressures on families and industries.

As the White House takes on so many huge issues at once, Obama is encouraging people to take a longer view, and not get caught up in the fits and starts. The president said in his address that the nation will continue to face difficult days in the months ahead. Still, he ended with hope.
"Yes, this is a moment of challenge for our country," Obama said. "But we've experienced great trials before. And with every test, each generation has found the capacity to not only endure, but to prosper -- to discover great opportunity in the midst of great crisis."

More layoffs: From coffee retailers to mobile phone makers - Starbucks begins announced layoffs to cut costs, Nokia to ax 320 jobs...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Starbucks Corp. on Wednesday told about 1,370 employees that their jobs will be cut as the gourmet coffee company sheds costs by closing stores and laying off employees. About 500 non-store employees in the United States and Canada, including 300 in the company's Seattle headquarters, and 870 assistant store managers learned their jobs were disappearing, the company said. Starbucks said it is offering some of the affected employees other jobs. Those who leave Starbucks will be offered severance pay, benefits and help finding another job.

HELSINKI (AP) -- Nokia Corp. said Wednesday it will close a research center in Finland and ax up to 320 jobs in a move to save costs as the global economic downturn hit the mobile phone industry. It also announced temporary layoffs. Nokia will close the research and development center in Jyvaskyla, southern Finland by the year-end, the world's largest mobile phone maker said. All 320 people working there will be affected, it said. The Finnish company is also planning to temporarily lay off some 2,500 workers at a plant in Salo, on the southern coast, although production there will continue. It will concentrate its Finland-based mobile devices R&D operations in Tampere, Oulu, Salo and the metropolitan Helsinki area.

Auto-makers: GM to cut 10,000 salaried jobs this year, Nissan to slash 20,000 jobs and sees annual loss...

DETROIT (AP) -- General Motors says it's cutting 10,000 salaried jobs, blaming the need to restructure the company amid the continued drop in new vehicle sales. The Detroit-based automaker says it will reduce its total number of salaried workers to 63,000 from 73,000 this year. About 3,400 of GM's 29,500 salaried U.S. jobs are expected to be eliminated. The job cuts are part of the restructuring plan GM submitted to Congress late last year. Most of the cuts are expected to take place by May 1.

TOKYO (AP) -- Nissan announced 20,000 job cuts Monday, the deepest reduction among Japan's automakers in battling the global downturn, as it forecast its first annual loss in nine years. Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn said the latest problems were industrywide and due to the global economic slump and the appreciating yen. They didn't mean Nissan Motor Co. was reverting to its money-losing status that required a bailout from alliance partner Renault SA in 1999, he said.

Outlook Glooms: Canada lost 129,000 jobs last month; Jobless rate 7.6 pct; 598K job cuts most since '74

TORONTO (AP) -- Canada lost 129,000 jobs last month as the unemployment rate surged more than half a percentage point to 7.2 percent, marking the worst monthly drop in at least three decades. The numbers are far worse than the 40,000 job losses economists expected and outpace losses in Canada's two previous recessions in the 1980s and 1990s.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Recession-battered employers eliminated 598,000 jobs in January, the most since the end of 1974, and catapulted the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent. The grim figures were further proof that the U.S.'s job climate is deteriorating at an alarming clip with no end in sight.

A Look at Flash - SanDisk, Toshiba restructure joint venture

MILPITAS, Calif. (AP) -- Memory chip maker SanDisk Corp. said Thursday it has reached a deal to restructure a joint venture with Toshiba Corp., shifting more than 20 percent of the operation's capacity to Toshiba. SanDisk said the restructuring will include the transfer of equipment lease obligations to Toshiba and a cash payment from Toshiba to SanDisk for equipment owned by their joint venture.

SanDisk said the total value of the transfer is about 80 billion yen ($890 million). Two thirds of that amount will come in the form of reduced lease obligations for SanDisk, while the rest will be paid in cash, the company said. The company said SanDisk and Toshiba will remain equal partners in the remaining joint venture, which produces flash memory cards.

"This agreement will reduce our capital spending, strengthen our financial position and increase our business flexibility," SanDisk Chief Executive Eli Harari said in a statement. Memory chip makers have been among the worst hit by falling prices in the semiconductor industry because of overcapacity and falling demand.

A Look at Flash - Qimonda: Four Weeks To Doomsday

Qimonda (QMNDQ.PK) has four weeks to find an investor to save the business before it will have to close production and dismiss 12,000 workers, the Financial Times reports, citing “people close to the company.” Qimonda filed for insolvency a week ago.

The story says that potential buyers could get a bargain in Qimonda’s state-of-the-art technology, but that the need for further investment could drive up the total commitment required to buy and run the company to $650 million to $1.3 billion.

The FT says that Qimonda is hoping to lure rivals in the DRAM business, such as Sasmung, Hynix, Elpida or Micron (MU). The report also said a key factor could be support from the governments of Portugal and the German state of Saxony, which the company has production operations. Both governments had previously offered loans to Qimonda in an effort to keep the company afloat, although the deal collapsed. In trading on the pink sheet, Qimonda shares are unchanged at 12 cents.

Caterpillar to cut another 2,110 production jobs

PITTSBURGH (AP) -- Heavy equipment maker Caterpillar Inc. announced 2,110 new job cuts as it scales back production amid a world economic slowdown. The world's largest maker of mining and construction machinery said the layoffs at three Illinois plants -- in Aurora, Decatur and East Peoria -- and other cost-cutting measures were needed to maintain competitiveness. Like other big manufacturers, Caterpillar has seen demand for its large equipment fall as customers cut back spending.

Friday's new layoffs came on top of 20,000 job cuts announced earlier this week, when the Peoria, Illinois-based company reported a 32 percent drop in fourth-quarter profit. Results fell as slumping commodity prices, tight credit markets and a decline in construction hurt orders for Caterpillar's backhoes, tractors and other machines.

Kodak posts 4Q loss, plans up to 4,500 job cuts, Black & Decker 4Q profit tumbles, cuts 1,200 jobs...

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) -- Eastman Kodak Co. said Thursday it is cutting 3,500 to 4,500 jobs, or 14 percent to 18 percent of its work force, as it posted a $137 million fourth-quarter loss on plunging sales of both digital and film-based photography products. Converting the bulk of its 129-year-old business from high-margin film to more competitive electronic technology cost Kodak $3.4 billion from 2004 through 2007. It chopped its global work force from 64,000 to 24,400 at the end of 2008, with about two-thirds of its 12,800 U.S. employees based in Rochester. The latest cuts that Kodak aims to complete in 2009 could trim its ranks to 19,900, a level not reached since the 1930s Depression era. Its payroll peaked at 145,300 in 1988.

LONDON (AP) -- Pharmaceuticals company AstraZeneca PLC on Thursday reported a small drop in fourth-quarter net income and said it would cut a further 6,000 jobs globally by 2013 as it looks to shore up its earnings.

TOWSON, Md. (AP) -- Black & Decker Corp. said Thursday that its fourth-quarter profit tumbled 77 percent on a large restructuring charge and declining demand as the prior year benefited from a hefty tax settlement. The power tools manufacturer also announced job cuts totaling approximately 1,200 positions and cautioned that its first-quarter results would be hurt by declining sales and a stronger U.S. dollar.