hey guys, pardon me for starting with stocks once more. "Asian stocks tumble as yen surges" SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Asia's battered stock markets tumbled again on Monday, as a global sell-off that began last week gathered fresh steam, with Japanese shares sliding more than 3 percent as a surging yen hammered exporters such as Toyota (7203.T: Quote, NEWS , Research).
The yen hit three-month highs against the dollar and the euro as investors rushed to close out risky trades and pay off the cheap yen loans that financed them.
Major European markets are expected to open down around 2 percent on Monday, financial bookmakers said. Britain's FTSE 100 .FTSE is expected to open 1.8 percent lower, while Germany's DAX <.GDAXI> and France's CAC 40 <.FCHI> are expected to open down 2 and 2.2 percent, respectively.
"If New York continues to slide and the yen continues to strengthen at this pace, there is no bottom in sight for Japan," said Kirby Daley, a strategist at brokerage Fimat in Tokyo.
A near 9 percent slump in China's main stock index <.SSEC> last Tuesday, combined with worries about stalling U.S. growth, sparked a wave a selling in world equity markets, many of which had been trading around record highs.
Australian stocks <.AXJO> fell 2.3 percent to a seven-week closing low, erasing all their gains for 2007, with the world's largest miner, BHP Billiton (BHP.AX: Quote, Profile , Research), dropping 2.9 percent.
Share indexes in Hong Kong <.HSI>, Taiwan <.TWII> and Singapore <.STI> lost between 3 and 4 percent and South Korea's benchmark <.KS11> fell 2.7 percent. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ apparently, the end of this global sell-off is nowhere in sight. expect the STI to fall below 2,800 within the next fortnight. as it enters its sixth consecutive day of declines. checked the SGX site 15 minutes ago. the STI was down a staggering 147 points at 2,933. those investors who said there's no cause for panic should really start digging holes to hide into. for there is no clear issue over this sell-off, unlike the post-9/11 period. expecting the global markets to rebound anytime soon? wake up and look at reality. i strongly advise all investors to continue staying on the sidelines. since market sentiment is still very weak and volatile. here, i reiterate my stand that this wave of selling will only be over by end-April. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ back to normalcy. so how was my weekend spent, you may ask. well, it was business as usual. sat: SL in the morning, online games in the afternoon. levelled in maple. to 79. then switched to pangya. but couldn't regain my Midas touch for the game. so switched to audition. initially also played quite badly la. kept losing and losing until i wanted to vomit blood. but after awhile, the chains came. executed perfect x3, x5, and even one x7. majority of the time was spent in npc battle party mode. won about 70% of all the rounds ba. earned about 20k Den. but my character's still stuck at lvl 11. since battle parties don't give you experience pts. -.- sun: went to Mr Tham's house in Yishun to bai nian. with wei chao, liang pei, joycelin, kailing, valerie, tan jin, nizar, carmen and zi song. chatted about maths, school life. and somehow the focus got diverted to my blog. had no regrets revealing my blog address though. left at about 1.30. skipped swimming class as it was raining in the late afternoon. nowadays, that occurs on an almost daily basis. today: geog lecture was extremely boring and dry and technical. but tried to stay awake nevertheless. then got back math test on probability. and i passed. 10/14. which means i owe the guys a meal. zzz. civics was free and easy. there isn't much to discuss abt the new college mission and values anyway. continued with preparation of geog presentation slides at free access rm. once again, econs was sleeping time. the case study skills workshop really drained me mentally. almost dozed off on so many occasions. completed discussion of dc circuits tutorial for physics. after lesson, paid another visit to free access rm to complete the geog slides. okay. that's all for today. gotta go complete my news article, as usual. so cya around. total blogging time today: 48 minutes.