News That Matters

By www.thetrader.se

Ft.com

US regulators have warned Standard & Poor’s that they may file civil charges against the credit rating firm, the FT reports, alleging that it violated federal securities laws in connection with its rating of one of the structured finance instruments that was at the heart of the financial crisis. McGraw-Hill, http://ftalphaville.ft.com/thecut/2011/09/27/686331/sp-faces-sec-threat-...

Freddie Mac, the US government-controlled mortgage financier, used flawed procedures for determining how lenders repurchased soured loans, probably saddling taxpayers with billions of dollars in losses,http://ftalphaville.ft.com/thecut/2011/09/27/686306/freddie-under-fire-o...

Standard & Poor’s says Chinese property developers face tough times, Dow Jones reports. Most developers it rates could absorb a 10 per cent fall in property sales next year, but many would struggle with a fall of 30 per cent. http://ftalphaville.ft.com/thecut/2011/09/27/686261/sp-expects-more-stra...

Government of Singapore Investment Corporation faces a Sfr6.7bn ($7.4bn) loss as the biggest investor of UBS, Bloomberg calculates. The sovereign wealth fund also has about $500m of unrealised losses on its Citigroup stake, http://ftalphaville.ft.com/thecut/2011/09/27/686236/singapore-faces-7-4b...

The business model of the Big Four accounting firms is under attack from the European Commission, which is pushing for tough rules that would force the firms to abandon their consultancy businesses and share audit work with smaller rivals. http://ftalphaville.ft.com/thecut/2011/09/27/686161/big-audit-firms-face...

Dmitry Medvedev, Russian president, sacked the country’s finance minister on Monday, in the clearest sign yet that a deal between Mr Medvedev and prime minister Vladimir Putin to swap jobs next year is provoking a furious backlash in Moscow political circles, according to the FT. http://ftalphaville.ft.com/thecut/2011/09/26/686086/medvedev-fires-mutin...

The window for resolving the eurozone’s sovereign debt crisis is closing more quickly than policymakers anticipated. Choices on Greece and the future of the euro that were once considered a long way off now must be settled within weeks. Eurozone governments, many facing growing public disquiet, must now address three overlapping policy discussions for stepping up their response to the crisis. Once-unthinkable proposals for fiscal union and shared responsibility for sovereign debt are now being hurriedly readied for ministerial discussion. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/04c421ac-e858-11e0-ab03-00144feab49a.html...

As UBS embarks on a sweeping restructuring of its investment bank in the wake of a $2.3bn alleged rogue trading scandal, there are obvious targets for retrenchment.  Whether senior executives – includingSergio Ermotti, the Swiss group’s newly appointed interim CEO – will be able to shrink the business fast enough to satisfy regulators and investors may be the bigger challenge, analysts say.http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/223aeb50-e84c-11e0-ab03-00144feab49a.html...

The re-emergence of Vladimir Putin as Russia’s political supremo failed to prevent the country’s markets being buffeted by the global financial turmoil on Monday, with the pressure only set to intensify after the sudden dismissal of the country’s finance minister and leading fiscal hawk. The rouble fell just more than 1 per cent in morning trade to its lowest rate against the dollar since August 2009, and analysts predicted no end to the capital outflows that have grown to more than $70bn over the past year. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/0a8c4f1a-e84e-11e0-ab03-00144feab49a.html...

Wsj.com

Taking a cue from Wall Street’s strong rise Monday, Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average advanced 1.8%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 gained 2.7%, South Korea’s Kospi Composite climbed 3.5% and New Zealand’s NZX-50 tacked on 1.3%. Investors reacted positively to a report that European officials were actively developing a plan to use funds for the euro zone bailout facility to shore up financially strapped European banks. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020483130457659565420673447...

A budget deadlock that had raised the risk of a federal government shutdown was broken Monday, as the Senate approved a short-term funding measure and the House appeared likely to follow suit. The Senate, on a 79-12 vote, approved a bill late Monday to fund the government through Nov. 18. The vote came after the main sticking point in negotiations between the two parties was resolved.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020483130457659487274410878...

Greece’s ruling Socialists face a key vote in parliament Tuesday amid growing fears that discontent within the ruling party could force a change in government, opening up a risky new chapter in Europe’s widening debt crisis. The vote on a property-tax law is expected to pass on the back of the Socialists’ narrow four-seat parliamentary majority, analysts say. The law is one that Greece has promised its international creditors as it scrambles to secure fresh aid and avoid default. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020483130457659487181326488...

International regulators are set to rebuff heavy lobbying by banks and stick with a plan to require some of the world’s largest financial institutions to hold extra capital, according to people familiar with the matter. The watchdogs that make up the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision are gathering Tuesday in the Swiss city to consider comments on a planned rule requiring big banks to maintain thicker capital cushions than other institutions. The proposal, first put out in July, aims to curb risk-taking and ensure that these banks are able to absorb sudden losses without damaging the broader financial system or http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020401060457659521344585857...

European officials are debating ways to boost the firepower of their financial-bailout fund after the world’s finance ministers, worried about the potential for a market meltdown, ratcheted up pressure on euro-zone officials to act. During meetings of the International Monetary Fund in Washington over the weekend, the U.S. and other major nations pressed European leaders to increase the effective size of their €440 billion ($594 billion) rescue fund to perhaps trillions of euros by borrowing against it. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020401060457659283002099648...

Risks of entrenched unemployment are increasing in the Group of 20 advanced and emerging nations as economic activity slows, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Labor Office said in a paper presented at a G-20 meeting in Paris. “We are very concerned about what we are seeing in the numbers,” Stefano Scarpetta, the OECD’s head of employment analysis, told journalists at a briefing in Paris ahead of a two-day meeting of G-20 labor ministers here. “Employment and social policies should be at the center of the policy response to the current situation.”http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020442240457659457287077809...

India is considering making it harder for foreign investors to acquire companies in its pharmaceuticals sector, in a bid to protect the country’s thriving market for low-priced generic drugs. Such a move could restrict multinational pharmaceutical corporations’ access to a fast-growing emerging market at a time when they are dealing with aging drug pipelines and sluggish growth in the West. Any regulatory actions, however, may be tempered by concerns among some in the Indian government that a drastic move would send a signal that New Delhi is wavering in its commitment to economic liberalization.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020401060457659291017312915...

For years, economists have told Americans worried that cheap Chinese imports will kill jobs that the benefits of trade with China far outweigh its costs. New research suggests the damage to the U.S. has been deeper than these economists have supposed. The study, conducted by a team of three economists, doesn’t challenge the traditional view that trade is ultimately good for the economy. Workers who lose jobs do eventually find new work or retire, while the benefits from trade, such as lower prices, remain. The problem is the speed at which China has surged as an exporter, overwhelming the normalhttp://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020401060457659500223040302...

South Korea’s energy minister plans to submit a letter of resignation Tuesday to take responsibility for recent massive power blackouts that caused chaos across the country. Minister for Knowledge Economy Choi Joong-kyung will send his letter of resignation to the presidential office during the day, ministry spokesman Park Chung-won said. An official at the presidential office indicated the resignation would be accepted. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020442240457659580184045839...

China’s central bank set the yuan’s official guidepost at a new high Monday even as global investors continued to push the currency lower, suggesting that Beijing will continue to let the Chinese currency strengthen despite global economic jitters.The People’s Bank of China, which guides the yuan’s daily trading range, didn’t respond to requests for comment Monday.http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405297020442240457659449022228912...

Marketwatch.com

Just days after the Federal Reserve dusted off a bond-purchase shift program from the 1960s, a central bank official who voted for that policy says more action may be needed. Further actions might be warranted even though the Fed’s unusual steps, such as bond buying and last week’s announced maturity shift plan, have made a “somewhat more muted” than expected transmission to economic growth and employment, said Fed Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin at a University of Maryland event on Monday. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/feds-raskin-says-more-easing-may-be-nee...

Australia’s banks have minimal expsure to the debt crisis that is roiling Europe and threatening major disruption to global markets, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said in a speech Tuesday.  Known for a heavy reliance on wholesale funding, some analysts have said Australian banks face an indirect exposure to the European crisis through any closure of credit markets in the event of a Greek default.http://www.marketwatch.com/story/gillard-australia-banks-little-exposed-...

The amount of first-time home buyers in Australia dropped more than 30% in the year to July, a report from RateCity said Tuesday. Citing the impact of rising home lending rates and a roll-back of government incentives to tempt first-time home buyers into the market in 2009 and 2010, 40,000 fewer first-time home buyers purchased homes in the year to July. That decline, with 90,000 first-time home buyers overall in the past year, translates to A$11 billion less in first home purchases, according to Australian financial website RateCity. http://www.marketwatch.com/story/australia-first-time-home-buyers-down-3...

Reuters.com

Spot gold rallied 1 percent on Tuesday, snapping four consecutive sessions of losses as a weaker dollar helped battered commodities stage a comeback. Spot gold gained 1 percent to $1,644.40 an ounce by 0330 GMT, after sinking as much as 7 percent to a 7-1/2-month low near $1,530 in the widest daily swing on record on Monday. U.S. gold rose 3.3 percent to $1,647.10. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/27/us-markets-precious-idUSTRE78M...

Brent crude rose above $105 on Tuesday, as concerns over Europe’s debt crisis eased temporarily and a weaker U.S. dollar sparked buying of dollar-denominated assets. Brent futures rose $1.42 to $105.36 a barrel by 0255 GMT, after settling down 3 cents at $103.94. U.S. crude gained $1.76 to $82.00 a barrel, after rising more than $2 earlier. Brent and U.S. crude prices have stabilized after falling to seven-week lows and posting weekly losses of more than 7 and 9 percent last week, respectively. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/27/us-markets-oil-idUSTRE77838320...

European Central Bank officials said on Monday they were keeping their options for a rate cut open, lifting markets, even as Luxembourg’s Yves Mersch warned speculation of a sharp move next month was “wild.” European stock markets surged on the idea the bank could slash its 1.5 percent main rate by a half-point on October 6. There are substantial barriers to it doing so, however. Not least that the meeting would conclude ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet’s term of office with a dramatic U-turn. http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/27/us-ecb-rates-idUSTRE78Q08X2011...

President Barack Obama topped up his re-election war chest with a string of successful West Coast fundraisers that ended Monday and showed soft poll numbers had not dented his ability to raise big money. Despite tough economic times, supporters shelled out for events from Seattle to San Diego that likely raised upward of $5 million in two days, paying up to the legal limit of $35,800 to hear Obama speak.http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/27/us-usa-campaign-obama-idUSTRE7...

Sales and prices of new single-family U.S. homes fell in August despite historically low mortgage rates, underscoring the difficulties policymakers face in efforts to boost the moribund housing sector. A stagnant job market and a big overhang of unsold existing homes have combined to keep new home sales on the rocks even as mortgage rates returned to lows not seen since at least the early 1970s.http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/26/us-usa-economy-idUSTRE78C33C20...

Bloomberg.com

China stocks are on the verge of a “massive short squeeze,” Societe Generale SA said, citing recent equity declines, rising short volumes and European restrictions on short sales. Bets on declining share prices “have been building up over the past six months as hedge funds went short financials,” Todd Martin and Anthony Lee, analysts at Societe Generale, wrote in a report dated today. China is “the world’s most crowded short,” they wrote. Stocks may rebound as the Shanghai Composite Index is near the “technically important” low of 2,319 reached in July 2010. Shares may also rally as the level of shorts as a percentage of total volume has climbed to 9 percent, while hedge funds have been restricted from shorting stocks in much of Europe, the analysts wrote. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-27/china-stocks-on-verge-of-massiv...

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner predicted that European governments will step up their response to their region’s debt crisis after a chiding from counterparts around the world. “They heard from everybody around the world” in Washington meetings last week, Geithner said on ABC’s “World News With Diane Sawyer” program. Europe’s crisis is “starting to hurt growth everywhere, in countries as far away as China, Brazil and India, Korea. And they heard the same message from us they heard from everybody else, which is it’s time to move.” http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-26/geithner-predicts-europe-will-m...

Hong Kong Financial Secretary John Tsang predicted a “soft landing” for the property market and said the city will keep its currency peg to the U.S. dollar, blamed for helping drive home prices up about 70 percent. Property “transactions have fallen and prices are starting to trend down slowly,” Tsang said in an interview in Chicago yesterday. “There hasn’t been a very violent reaction.” Hong Kong’s home sales have slowed amid global growth concerns, with real estate prices falling for the first time in seven months in July. The city’s peg to the dollar robs it of an independent interest-rate policy, and record low rates have fueled property prices. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-27/hong-kong-keeping-dollar-peg-se...

Demand for cars, trucks and buses in Japan may drop 14 percent this year to 4.25 million vehicles, the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association said today in a statement. Sales in the fiscal year ending March 31 may drop 3.3 percent from a year earlier to 4.45 million, it said. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-27/japan-s-vehicle-sales-may-decli...

Home prices in the U.S. probably declined in July from a year earlier, depressed by an imbalance between supply and demand that shows little sign of easing, economists said before a report today. The S&P/Case-Shiller index of property values in 20 cities fell 4.4 percent from July 2010, the 10th consecutive year-to- year drop, according to the median forecast of 27 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Another report may show consumer confidence held in September near a two-year low. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-27/home-prices-in-20-u-s-cities-pr...

Two Federal Reserve policy makers voiced wariness about the idea of spurring growth by letting inflation accelerate as they reiterated support for the central bank’s unprecedented monetary easing. Fed Governor Sarah Bloom Raskin said the central bank’s use of tools has been “completely appropriate” and that she would be “quite leery” of allowing higher inflation or price expectations in an attempt to lower real interest rates. St. Louis Fed President James Bullard said faster inflation won’t reduce the housing glut. He also said “monetary policy is ultra-loose right now, and appropriately so.”http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-26/fed-s-bullard-raskin-voice-skep...

India’s inflation rate remains above the level the central bank deems acceptable, Governor Duvvuri Subbarao said, signaling pressure remains for monetary tightening in Asia’s third-largest economy. “Inflation has been fairly stubborn,” Subbarao said in New York yesterday. “Above a threshold, you can’t accept high inflation to have higher growth,” he said, adding that the price-rise limit is as much as 6 percent for the nation. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-26/inflation-in-india-has-been-fai...

Cnbc.com

Lawmakers are expected to approve an unpopular property tax on Tuesday to open the way for the return of inspectors from Greece’s bailout lenders and the release of vital aid, despite growing anger among austerity-hit Greeks. Buses and metro workers will strike and tax collectors themselves will begin a 48-hour stoppage in protest against the bill and other new austerity measures. http://www.cnbc.com/id/44678390

European officials are working on a detailed plan aimed at shoring up European bank stability, according to an official who spoke with CNBC’s Steve Liesman. The plan appears to have a lot of moving parts. It would involve money from the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), a bailout vehicle created in 2010 to alleviate the sovereign debt crisis in Europe, to capitalize a special purpose vehicle that would be created by the European Investment Bank, a bank owned by the member states of the European Union. http://www.cnbc.com/id/44673564

Emerging market central banks spending billions of dollars to defend their currencies risk depleting their reserves without much success as a deepening global financial crisis sends investors towards safe havens. From the Korean won to the Turkish lira currencies are at multi-year, or even record, lows against the dollar, despite central bank action to stop them falling too sharply. In Asia, the Indian, Thai and Philippines central banks have all waded into the market this month. Poland intervened for only the second time since the zloty floated while Brazil has sold billions of dollars worth of currency swaps.http://www.cnbc.com/id/44678404

Europe lacks the same mechanisms that the U.S. had to deal with its financial crisis three years ago, making the dangers even greater, billionaire investor and activist George Soros said. The U.S. Treasury Department in 2008 helped devise and implement the myriad liquidity programs used to recapitalize big banks and reassure investors when questions arose over their stability and integrity of deposits. But uncertainty over what would happen in a run on European banks has added to the volatility of the European debt crisis. http://www.cnbc.com/id/44653617

Nytimes.com

Goldman Sachs, bracing for what could be one of its worst quarters since it went public 12 years ago, is preparing to expand its cost-cutting initiative by hundreds of millions of dollars, a move that could lead to additional job losses at the Wall Street bank. This summer, Goldman said that it would wring out $1.2 billion in costs from its operations by mid-2012 and cut roughly 1,000 jobs, about 3 percent of its work force. But as the market turmoil has weighed on trading and other businesses in recent weeks, senior executives have been debating even deeper reductions, according to people briefed on the matter who were not authorized to speak publicly. http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/09/26/goldman-sachs-draws-up-deeper-cut...

Foxbusiness.com

Preemptively acting would reduce the pressure needed to get euro zone politicians to tackle the region’s debt crisis, European Central Bank Governing Council member Jens Weidmann said on Monday. “With all our actions we set incentives for politicians. If I tell a politician, hey, take our balance sheet to leverage your assets, I can be sure that there will be no further measures.”http://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/2011/09/26/ecbs-weidmann-argues-again...

BBC.co.uk

Japan has said that it would consider being part of a global plan to help bailout Greece. Finance minister, Jun Azumi, said eurozone countries needed to come up with a rational plan to ease global concerns. Mr Azumi’s comments come a day after the Nikkei 225 index fell to a two-and-a-half year low amid fears that the debt crisis may slow global growth. However, on Tuesday, the Nikkei rose, giving further proof of volatility. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15070799

Telegraph.co.uk

European officials have confirmed that discussions are afoot to boost the eurozone bail-out fund’s firepower as part of a grand plan to contain the region’s sovereign debt crisis in Greece. Confirmation of the talks, however, sparked outrage in Germany, where opposition politicians threatened to derail the plans by voting against a key amendment to the bail-out fund this Thursday. The head of Germany’s constitutional court also piled on the pressure by warning the government not to circumvent the law “by the back door”.  Despite the wrangling in Germany, markets across Europe staggered back to life on hopes that the crisis could be contained and the recovery restored. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8790799/Germany-at-wa...

Slow growth in America and the eurozone debt crisis will weigh down on inflation, a member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has said. In his first speech since joining the MPC in June, Ben Broadbent said that “most importantly for policy today, the international environment is clearly disinflationary”. He said it was not the MPC’s job to keep inflation at the 2pc target at all times, “come what may”, and that rigidly sticking to the target during the crisis would have involved “significant economic costs” including higher unemployment. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/8790758/Global-economy-is-d...

Germany’s top judge has issued a blunt warning that no further fiscal powers may be surrendered to Europe without a new constitution and a popular referendum, vastly complicating plans to boost the EU’s rescue machinery to €2 trillion (£1.7 trillion). Andreas Vosskuhle, head of the constitutional court, said politicians do not have the legal authority to sign away the birthright of the German people without their explicit consent. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8790785/German-turmoi...

Smh.com.au

A pick up in merger and acquisition activity across Australia this year shows deal making volumes involving locally-based companies has passed Japan for the first time since 1998. Helped by SABMiller’s friendly $9.9 billion move on Foster Group, Australia remains ranked second behind China for merger and acquisition activity in the Asia Pacific region. Volume involving Australian companies reached a record $US104.9 billion ($A106.9 billion) for the first nine months in 2011, according to preliminary figures compiled by Dealogic. This up 41 per cent on the same 2010 period. http://www.smh.com.au/business/australian-ma-activity-surges-past-japan-...

Theglobeandmail.com

Roger Bootle has identified a key to achieving that elusive global economic recovery – but Canadians may not entirely like the taste of his medicine. Mr. Bootle, head of London-based independent research firm Capital Economics Ltd., said rising commodity prices were the single most important cause behind this year’s weakening of the world economy, and lower prices could revive growth. Paradoxically, while a retreat in the cost of food, energy and natural resources would give the rest of the world a break, he acknowledges it would be partly negative for resource-based markets such as Canada’s. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/economy/recovery-could...

Xinhuanet.com

China’s consumer price index (CPI) in September will continue sending mixed signals for the country’s policy makers who view inflation control as the government’s top priority this year, experts say. On an annual basis, the growth of CPI, a main gauge of inflation, is expected to ease further in September to 6 percent to 6.2 percent, compared with August’s 6.2 percent, due to the weakening carryover effect of last year, according to the projection by Guohai Securities, quoted by China Securities Journal. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/business/2011-09/26/c_131160864.ht...

Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s issued its third set of Italian downgrades Monday, affecting the credit rating of 11 Italian cities and regional governments in less than a week, and adding to concerns over Italy’s already troubled economy. S&P cut the ratings on some Italian regional and local governments from A+ to A, a move that will make it more difficult and more expensive for those governments to raise money by selling bonds. The cities and areas affected are Rome, Milan, Bologna, Genoa and Sicily. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/indepth/2011-09/27/c_131162411.htm

South Korea’s consumer confidence remained at a weaker level in September as fears over external uncertainties spread among customers amid the lingering inflationary pressures, the central bank said Tuesday. The consumer sentiment index (CSI), which gauges local consumers’ overall economic outlook, posted 99 in September, unchanged from the previous month, the Bank of Korea (BOK) said in a month survey. The figure fell below the benchmark 100 point for the sixth straight month in September, which means pessimists outnumbered optimists. The CSI is based on survey responses from 2,046 households in 56 cities, conducted between September 14 and 21. ” The index stayed at a lower level last month as domestic consumers ‘ sentiment weakened on uncertainties at home and abroad along with higher level of inflationary pressures,” an official at the BOK told Xinhua. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/business/2011-09/27/c_131161375.ht...

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said at the government’s regular meeting held here Monday that the government would be consistent in curbing inflation, stabilizing macro economy and ensuring social welfare in the coming months. According to Vietnam News Agency, the Vietnamese leader said in the coming months the state’s overspending should be reduced to 4. 9 percent, along with increase of the exports and reduction of the imports that will lower the trade deficit. The government will maintain the GDP growth at around six percent in 2011 while public investment will account for 35 percent of the GDP. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/business/2011-09/26/c_131160955.ht...

Thehindu.com

Global companies are increasingly looking at establishing a presence in India, as the inbound merger and acquisition (M&A) volume has swelled to $27.6 billion this year so far, a tad below the record year-to-date volume seen in 2007, says global deal tracking firm Dealogic. According to Dealogic, India inbound M&A volume reached $27.6 billion year-to-date (YTD) — slightly behind the record YTD volume announced in 2007.  However, though there is an increase in the YTD inbound M&A volume, the third quarter of this year saw very little inflow. http://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/article2487220.ece

Leading economists have flayed the national poverty lines set by the Planning Commission at Rs 32 and Rs 26 per capita, per day for urban and rural areas, respectively. In a statement, released here on Monday, the economists said it was counterproductive to link the official poverty estimates to basic entitlements of the people, especially access to food. The number of poor and hungry people in the country remains unacceptably large. Therefore, restoration of the universal public distribution system was the “best way forward” in combating hunger and poverty, the statement said.http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/industry-and-economy/economy/article...

Economictimes.com

The World Bank has suggested sale of excess public land in Indian cities to fund infrastructure projects. Collaborating with the India Development Foundation and the Public Private Infrastructure Advisory Facility , the World Bank has formed a steering committee headed by Vijay Kelkar, chairman of the 13th finance commission, to formulate a proposal on monetizing excess public land.  Earlier this month, the bank’s India director Roberto Zagha Patricia Annez met stakeholders, town planners and urban experts in Mumbai and sought their advice on safeguarding affected communities and transparency in transactions. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/world-bank-to-in...

Yonhapnews.co.kr

Downside risks to South Korea’s economic growth have escalated due to sputtering recoveries in advanced economies and contagion fears about the eurozone debt crisis, the top central banker warned Tuesday. Bank of Korea (BOK) Gov. Kim Choong-soo told  lawmakers that domestic economic activities are moderating while the overall economy is on an upward trend. “In terms of upside and downside risks, downward risks are viewed as being predominant on concerns about the sluggish growth of advanced countries and the spread of the eurozone sovereign debt problems,” the governor told lawmakers.http://english.yonhapnews.co.kr/business/2011/09/27/51/0503000000AEN2011...

Tehrantimes.com

Iran and Pakistan have drawn up plans for an oil pipeline. The move will not be welcomed by the U.S., given that it recently expressed strong opposition to a gas pipeline project between Iran and Pakistan, going so far as to threaten Islamabad with sanctions. The oil pipeline plan emerged after Iran offered Pakistan oil supplies on a long-term deferred payment scheme. The pipeline would be laid from Iran to Gwadar port, where Iran will also set up a refinery to process crude oil. Petroleum Minister Dr Asim Hussain said that the two sides had been discussing the proposal of an oil pipeline in different meetings. “But I am not aware about finalization of the proposal,” Hussain said. “I am also not aware of any discussion taken place about the oil pipeline in a recent meeting of Pak-Iran JEC meeting,” he added. However, documents seen by The Express Tribune suggest otherwise. http://www.tehrantimes.com/index.php/economy-and-business/2922-pakistan-...

India and Oman are considering the import of natural gas from Iran via an under-sea pipeline, an Iranian official said. The caretaker of the National Iranian Gas Export Company, Hossein Bidarmaghz, said an Indian delegation will travel to Tehran for talks on building an independent undersea gas pipeline, said the official IRNA news agency reported.  “New Delhi has a plan to build an under-sea gas pipeline between Iran and India, in order not to pay any transition fee for delivery of gas,” Bidarmaghz was quoted as saying. http://www.tehrantimes.com/index.php/economy-and-business/2924-iran-to-e...

Khaleejtimes.com

Paced by a buoyant hotel sector, Dubai’s retail and residential sectors are showing signs of resilience in the wake of the regional upheaval that has helped the emirate reinforce its position as a global destination for tourists as well as investors, a report said on Monday. Unrest in the region has reinforced Dubai’s position as a sought-after destination with many tourists rescheduling their holidays to the UAE due to volatility elsewhere in the region, said Jones Lang LaSalle, or JLL, in its latest report. While the hotel sector has been the major beneficiary of the Arab Spring, the retail and residential sectors have also received a positive boost over the past nine months. http://www.khaleejtimes.com/biz/inside.asp?xfile=/data/business/2011/Sep...

Thetrader.se

As we have been arguing as of early morning today, the market is in squeeze mood, as the bulls have all become bears…Listening to everybody talking about Europe as a dead, has certainly attracted many new pundits claiming they know Europe is going down (although many of them do not understand Europe). The European markets have collapsed due to the many problems Europe is facing, and we now risk a huge move further on the upside, just to wash out the new “smart” shorts. This is greed and fear at its most. We are structurally bearish, but the market set up is very squeezey here. Below SPX and it’s new trend. http://www.thetrader.se/2011/09/26/spx-close-intraday-chart-beware-the-s...

Famous last words I know but something big happened last week. The FOMC does not have the freedom to print at will at least under current circumstances. Chicago Fed President Evans and Chairman Bernanke, two mad men who desperately wanted to expand the balance sheet could not. So now the market is faced with the reality that bad news is now bad news. Those who bought the dip in the past now have to question will it bounce this time. Will the Fed be there to defend equity prices either with QE or the simple threat of QE? These are the questions longs will now have to ask themselves.http://www.thetrader.se/2011/09/26/this-time-is-different-2/

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