April 24th, 2008

NZD held rates steady at 8.25% when market expected cut
Norges Bank raised rates by 25bps from 5.25 to 5.5%
Beijing resciniding the stamp tax from last May saw the mareket up 9.3% in Shanghai composite
Short-covering in general in USD/Asia with USDMYR, TWD, INR all higher
INR swap points flew to +20 level
BSP left Philippines rate unchanged at 5% citing 2008 inflation target might being exceeded
Singapore March manufacturing due tomorrow and if week should see higher USDSGD
HK trade deifciti widened to HKD28.1bn in March, 2nd only to record from March '07, from risks to global growth sentiment, even import growth slowing as wlel
HK CPI fell from Feb record high of 6.3%, but still not comforting at 4.3% and slightly higher than expected
Talks of protest rally by People's Alliance for Democracy n Thailand, prices to hover b/w 31.35 - 31.60

South Africa
- Economic fundamentals and rate differentials favor short-term appreciation in ZAR but long-term still uncertain
- CPIX at 10.1% in March after 9.4% in Feb; food inflation main portion
- there were signs without Eskom would se eminimal inflation, but with Eskom tariff hike could push CPI to 11.2-11.4% by early July

A volatile day with Asia opening mixed. China reduced a tax which was originally instituted last year to quell stock speculation which sent the Shanghai index up 9%. We saw short-covering in USDMYR, USDTWD, and USDINR just on general risk aversion but also a retracement of significant recent appreciation of the Asian ccys. EMEA markets were slammed with very negative news out of CSFB and Barclays with ZAR, TRY etc all depreciating ove r 1%. US markets came in somewhat negative, with rates markets fairly calm when another day of a sudden sharp selloff in fixed income helped spur the biggest drop in EUR since 2004, with it falling all the way down to a 1.5638 low. Market very unsure of direction as US equities again finished very positive.