Owner: Arabian Money URL:http://www.arabianmoney.net Join Date: Wed, 21 May 2008 05:05:33 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: News and advice for Arabian investors all over the world. Site statistics:Click here
The real reason why Warren Buffett is shopping in Europe 2008-05-21 03:14:59 Some say this is to acquire revenue streams in hard currency. All right but surely a far more obvious reason for Buffett
to be buying companies in Europe
is that he wants to move away from the devaluing US dollar. For if the dollar continues downwards for the next couple of years that will deliver [...] Read more:Warren
, Warren Buffett
Reporting on The National: setting new Gulf press standards 2008-05-21 01:52:36 Dubai supermarkets still do their best to bury The National
amid piles of property guides, but the superlative quality of this new newspaper owned by the Abu Dhabi Government can not be denied. It shows up rivals as inferior in their professional standards and frankly very amateur and erratic by comparison. The stage is surely [...] Read more:Reporting
Soros and hedge funds pessimistic but not on the Gulf States 2008-05-20 23:49:01 As one of the world’s leading hedge fund managers George Soros
has a lot to gain by stirring up market gyrations. But a new Deutsche Bank survey of a thousand hedge fund investors found 80 per cent of participants bearish. Soros is no longer alone, indeed for a contrarian he is frighteningly close to the [...] Read more:States
Fed policy to result in higher and higher inflation, what comes next? 2008-05-20 00:06:21 Don’t listen to my humble ramblings, pay attention to what ECB President Jean Paul Trichet and ex-Fed chairman Paul Volcker are saying on inflation and current Fed policy.
Yesterday Trichet warned governments not to make the mistake of ‘second round effects’ on inflation which followed the 1970s oil shock and ‘enshrined the high level of inflation [...] Read more:comes
Ritz Carlton, Dubai: still in a class of its own 2008-05-19 07:00:16 The latest MasterCard survey of consumer confidence in the UAE showed that no less than 99 per cent of residents planned to spend more on personal travel this year. But one alternative is to save on airfares and book into a top local hotel instead. You will not have the hassle of travel and can [...] Read more:Carlton
, class
, Dubai
Will the bond market be the next shoe to drop? 2008-05-18 00:47:48 US and UK house prices are falling and there is a banking crisis. I am also worried about equity prices as profit forecasts are way too high. But the more immediate problem may be the bond market where prices anticipate falling interest rates that just may not be realistic or obtainable now that inflation is [...]
Toshi: a new favorite restaurant for Dubai Media City folk 2008-05-17 00:09:44 The Grand Millennium Dubai
is an awkward hotel to locate being situated on the opposite side of the road to the extension of the Dubai Media City. But the modest effort is well worth it to discover the signature new Toshi Asian fusion restaurant
with panoramic views from the 18th floor over the Palm island [...]
Asian stock markets crash, London, New York next? 2008-05-16 22:46:52 Stock indices still look quite perky in London and New York
despite what senior commentators dub the worst financial crisis since the Second World War. Yet Asian
markets tell a different story and probably signal days to come.
Markets in Tokyo and Hong Kong are down more than the bear market correction mark of 20 per [...] Read more:crash
HSBC says buy Gulf stocks as emerging markets fade 2008-05-16 00:41:42 HSBC flew its Head of Global Emerging Markets Equity Strategy, Dr. John Lomax into Dubai this week for Wealth Management Seminar for its Premier customers. His message was that investing in emerging markets has become far more difficult but that the best opportunities are now in the UAE, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Dr Lomax has regularly [...]
Will $135 oil bring Wall Street crashing down next week? 2008-05-22 01:04:21 You have to wonder which shoe is going to drop first: the oil price or Wall Street
? A sell-off in stocks last night might well be the start of a serious correction for US equities which look particularly overvalued given the obvious strains now showing in the US economy.
Yes, the Dow Jones is an index [...] Read more:crashing
, Wall Street
UBS $15bn deal with Blackrock looks absurd 2008-05-21 23:06:41 Why would you sell an asset at a big discount and then make a loan to fund that same acquisition putting risk back on your own balance sheet? Welcome to the crazy world of hedge funds and banks. For this is exactly what UBS has just done in selling $22 billion of toxic assets to [...] Read more:absurd
That Burj Dubai TV commercial 2008-05-21 08:03:09 If you listen to CNN, BBC World or even Al Jazeera International you could be forgiven for thinking the Middle East is a war zone with no hope of economic progress. But look at Dubai
with the world’s tallest building under construction - indeed UAE infrastructure investment will be running at 80 per cent of [...]
HSBC precious metal forecasts looking up but not far enough 2008-05-24 02:32:40 This week gold closed at $925 an ounce and silver topped $18.10. The bounce back from the March correction is gaining strength with silver showing a five per cent gain for the week, outperforming gold.
HSBC has raised its 2008 price forecast for gold to $915 an ounce from $850. You have to wonder, having upgraded [...] Read more:precious
S&P 500 Q1 profits down 18%, stocks only 3.2% down 2008-05-23 23:01:24 Spot the coming fall on Wall Street! The numbers say it all. Profits for the 461 out of 500 S&P companies that have reported first quarter profits
are down by 18 per cent. By contrast the S&P 500 Index was only down by 3.2 per cent in Q1. More evidence that a substantial correction or [...]
$15.5bn UBS rights issue at 73% discount, what next? 2008-05-22 23:05:53 Yesterday Swiss bank UBS launched a $15.5 billion rights issue
to restore its tattered balance sheet at a huge 73 per cent discount to the price its shares were trading at a year ago.
This clearly explains the rush to clear the decks with the sale of $22 billion in distressed assets to Blackrock for $15 [...]
Silver my top tip for 2008 as ABBA returns! 2008-05-25 01:12:09 If you asked me today what would you do with a $10,000-$50,000 windfall, or $5-10 million for that matter, my answer would be simple: buy silver bullion. Silver
is a leveraged play on the gold price and physically in very short supply. The same thing happened in the late 1970s when ABBA
ruled the pop [...]
Dubai Q1 export trade booms by 79%, cashing in on oil prices 2008-05-26 23:11:41 Dubai is feeling the searing heat of the oil boom in the Middle East with export
s rocketing by 79 per cent in the first quarter, and total non-oil trade in the region’s commercial hub city up by 46 per cent to $58billion.
This is a fantastic performance by any yardstick. Note that these figures exclude oil [...] Read more:booms
, Dubai
S&P reckons oil market not like the 70s but good for gold 2008-05-26 06:59:01 Today I caught up with Standard & Poor’s VP for commodities, Eric W, Kolts who was over from New York speaking at a conference in Dubai. He is resolutely bullish on oil prices, and rejected my comparison to the 70s.
‘I can remember what happened then personally and it was not the same. The 70s oil [...]
Buyers queuing overnight as demand booms for Dubai real estate 2008-05-27 23:05:53 Negative real interest rates courtesy of a dollar-peg, high oil prices, not a little media attention and still attractive price levels are keeping Dubai
real estate booming. It is a total contrast to most global property markets where activity has slowed or is in recession.
New project launches in the right locations sell out quickly. [...] Read more:booms
, Buyers
, demand
, overnight
New Hunt brothers of the silver market most likely to live in Arabia 2008-05-27 01:58:51 Beginning in 1973 the then richest family in America decided to beat inflation by buying silver, then $1.95 an ounce. It worked brilliantly and by 1979 the Hunt brothers had amassed half the world’s silver in a pool with wealthy Arab investors and the price peaked at $54. But they used too much leverage and [...] Read more:Arabia
, likely
Entering phase two of the credit crunch, buy gold and silver 2008-05-29 01:19:23 The real credit
losses for global banks may just be starting as defaults emerge on credit cards, car loans and corporate loans. This will be the stage two of the global credit crunch as markets move out of the eye of the storm and back into crisis mode.
As The Daily Telegraph reports today ‘the [...] Read more:phase
Revaluation urgently needed in the Gulf States 2008-05-28 23:04:30 Inflation levels have picked up again across the GCC this year. We have Saudi Arabia officially in double-digits for the first time. In the UAE the dampening of rental inflation by new supply has not happened; apartments are fetching 20 per cent more in rent than a year ago in Dubai and the Colliers International [...] Read more:States
Geopolitics, Iran and the price of gold and silver 2008-05-29 23:23:06 It gave me no pleasure to read an article in the Gulf News this morning by former German foreign minister Joschka Fisher warning Iran that the US and Israel appear to be gearing up for a strike on its nuclear facilities before the change of US President.
Gulf News is published in Dubai which is a [...] Read more:price
Professor Roubini predicts 12-18 month US recession 2008-06-01 08:27:29 I met Professor Nouriel Roubini
in Dubai when he addressed the poorly attended DIFC week. His gloomy logic seems a good deal more probable than the optimistic noises from the pundits of Wall Street. This is like a cascade of dropping shoes as the economy gets much worse before recovering. A long period of low [...]
Stalking the best gold and silver juniors a profitable summer sport 2008-06-01 02:26:08 Ask anybody in mergers and acquisitions where they expect the action to be this year and energy and mining will top the list. But the big miners are changing tack and going after undervalued minnows rather than their rivals.
This new strategy makes sense, even for cash-rich mining companies. And many are sitting uncomfortably on huge [...] Read more:sport
, Stalking
Profit warnings should bring Wall Street tumbling down 2008-06-01 01:41:05 It amazes me how high the Dow Jones and S&P 500 stand today given everything that has happened in the US economy over the past year: sub-prime crisis, financial crisis and the credit crunch. I know that is because the pain so far has been felt in the financial and property sectors and not elsewhere.
But [...] Read more:Street
, Wall Street
, warnings