Its the ECONOMY...again!!

US Market Review

Stocks fall as Fed decision looms

NEW YORK (AP) – business minute

Wall Street fell moderately Monday as investors anxiously awaited the Federal Reserve's impending decision on interest rates.

The market is betting on a rate cut from the Fed when the central bank meets Tuesday, but investors are not completely sure what it will do and what it will say in its accompanying economic statement. Furthermore, with the major brokerages' third-quarter results yet to be released, investors are uncertain about how badly the summer's stock downturn, souring home loans, and credit squeeze hit the banking industry.

Adding to the uneasiness, Northern Rock PLC, Britain 's fifth-largest mortgage lender, saw its stock plunge and customers withdraw billions of dollars after it issued a profit warning Friday and requested emergency funds from the Bank of England. That gave U.S. investors an added impetus to pare their stock holdings, particularly in the financial sector.

Talk from former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan of the possibility of a recession amid high inflationary pressures also elevated Wall Street's jitters, as did job cuts at Merrill Lynch & Co.'s First Franklin Financial Corp.

It's possible the Fed won't go through with a rate cut at all if it believes the economy is still growing moderately and that inflation remains a threat, but most investors expect the Fed to cut the bench mark federal funds rate, now at 5.25 percent, by at least a quarter-point. And because negative economic data have trickled in over the last couple weeks -- such as a decrease of 4,000 jobs in August and weaker-than-expected retail sales -- some anticipate a half-point rate cut.

"A quarter-point is going to be disappointing. It's already priced in," said Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research. But the Fed probably won't want to lower rates by more than that, he said, and the central bank may not indicate in its statement that more reductions are in the offing.

"The big issue is gold and oil have been spiking higher, which people could argue is inflationary, but economic data has been weak. The Fed's in a tough place." Higher interest rates prevent costs from rising; lower rates fuel growth but also tend to accelerate inflation.

Asian Outlook

Singapore shares outlook - Lower on Wall St fall, record oil price

SINGAPORE (Thomson Financial) - Singapore shares are expected to open lower Tuesday after US stocks dropped and crude oil prices surged to new record levels overnight.

Many analysts are hoping the Federal Reserve will cut its federal funds rate by at least 25 basis points at its policy meeting Tuesday although that may hardly move the Singapore market with investors already buying stocks as early as last week in anticipation of a rate cut.

On Monday, the Straits Times Index closed down 60.09 points or 1.7 percent at 3,476.31.

Losers outnumbered gainers 667 to 183, with 800 shares unchanged.

There were 2.0 billion shares traded,worth at 1.7 billion Singapore dollars.

The Straits Times Index had risen by about 12 percent in the past few weeks, setting the stage for profit-taking this week.

"While Singapore's non-oil domestic export figures support the view that the macro fundamentals for Singapore and the region remain fairly good, the worry is we could see more fallout from the US subprime problems as we saw in the UK," said CIMB-GK economist Song Seng Wun.

Northern Rock PLC, Britain 's fifth-largest mortgage lender, saw its stock plunge and customers withdraw billions of dollars on Monday after it issued a profit warning Friday and requested emergency funds from the Bank of England.

(1 US dollar = 1.51 Singapore dollars)



Unisteel

Unisteel Technology Limited de-registered its wholly-owned subsidiary incorporated in China, Wuxi Gentech Co., Ltd on 4 September 2007.
The de-registration of Wuxi Gentech Co., Ltd. is not expected to have any material impact on the net tangible assets or earnings per share of the Company for the financial year ending 31 December 2007.

Xpress Holdings


FY2007 revenue rose 19% to S$37.3 million, lifted by increased demand for “split printing” from its financial customers in Greater China.
FY2007 net profit surges 43% to S$7.1m.