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Showing 1031 - 1040 of 2991 results for Benjamin Ong

Machineries not in order

BENJAMIN ONG  |  TUESDAY, 17 JAN 2017
Just when we thought the sun's starting to shine. Japan private core machinery orders (orders excluding ships and electrical equipment) - a leading indicator of business investment - dropped by 5.1% in the month of November. This is heaps worse than ...

A-dollar rising

BENJAMIN ONG  |  MONDAY, 16 JAN 2017
Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi! Australia's legal tender is again doing the rounds of the headlines. Disappointment over Trump's press conference last week - he talked and talked about everything except about his economic policies - brought the ...

Credit where credit is not due

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 13 JAN 2017
"I swear by the moon and the stars in the skies..." (All-4-One). Time and gain, Beijing has promised to curtail excessive borrowing in its domestic economy to contain asset bubbles and mitigate financial risks. However, fresh Chinese credit data shows ...

Tax breaks drive China car sales

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 13 JAN 2017
China's tax break on small vehicles -- halving the 10% purchase tax on vehicles with 1.6-liter engines or smaller - is having the same impact as the US' 'cash for clunkers' programme back in July 2009, it's sending car purchases in a frenzy. Data released ...

Energy fuels US cross-border inflation

BENJAMIN ONG  |  FRIDAY, 13 JAN 2017
The price of goods and services bought and sold by America from its trading partners lifted in December - both largely driven by surging energy prices. US export prices rose by 0.3% in the month of December following a 0.1% dip in the previous month. ...

The UK's still OK

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 12 JAN 2017
Brexit worries aside, the UK economy remains OK. Along with the latest improvement in business and consumer confidence and PMI surveys, industrial and manufacturing output has bounced back. To be sure, market expected industrial and manufacturing rebound ...

Sun rising in Japan

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 12 JAN 2017
The sun appears to be rising in the Land of the Rising Sun. Japanese consumer confidence rose to a reading of 43.1 in December from 40.9 in the previous month supported by a rally in the stock market and the yen's depreciation versus the US dollar. ...

Slack Eurozone labour

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 12 JAN 2017
The Eurozone's unemployment rate remained unchanged at 9.8% in November from October. This is in line with market expectations, the lowest in seven years (September 2009) and an improvement from the 10.5% rate recorded in the same month a year earlier. ...

Every American's turning optimist

BENJAMIN ONG  |  THURSDAY, 12 JAN 2017
The IBD/TIPP Economic Optimism Index continues to run of rising optimism in the United States following Trump's triumph at the November 2016 US presidential polls. The index - designed by the Investor's Business Daily (IBD) and TechnoMetrica Institute ...

China's inflation off target

BENJAMIN ONG  |  WEDNESDAY, 11 JAN 2017
China's consumer price inflation eased to 2.1% in the year to December from 2.3% in the previous month. This is below Beijing's target of 3.0% and less than market expectations for a 2.3% increase - sparked by four consecutive months of rising producer ...