Wednesday September 19, 2007

Currencies

At the moment of writing, some selected forex rates :

1. USD/SGD=1.5068
2. SGD/MYR=2.310519
3. USD/CAD=1.0094
4. EUR/USD=1.3979

And the U.S. dollar index is :

USDX=79.169

1. Stuff from the US will be cheaper for us, but hmm, what does the US make nowadays? Harley Davidson bikes, Corelle plates, Boeing airliners, and Lockheed fighter jets. Hmm. Well. I guess we don't buy these every day, do we. What about Hollywood DVD's. Yup, they could sell more Hollywood DVD's. Right.

2. Hmm. Singapore 12-month fixed deposit rate : 0.825%. Malaysia 12-month fixed deposit rate : 3.70%. One could do a "mini carry trade" and earn the extra 2.875%. "Carry trade" as in literally carry some money over to the other side. Still below our roaring 23.62% M3 growth rate though. Still losing by 20%. Darn. But trips up north will be cheaper. The Causeway is already one of the world's busiest crossings. Expect it to get busier.

3. This one was pointed out by fellow forummer rostov. The US and Canadian dollars are reaching parity. Historically, some Americans used to laugh at the "Canadian loony". How times have changed. Who's laughing now? Side bonus : the value of my Candian stocks goes up in Singapore dollars even if their prices do nothing. And their prices have not done nothing. Thanks to Helicopter Ben, I got myself roughly a free extra month's bonus recently.

4. Some people are already talking about EUR replacing USD as the world's reserve currency. Perhaps if the Arabs start selling their oil in Euros. Stepping over 1.40 would be quite an event.

The U.S. Dollar Index. It's a goner. What else would we expect, after breaking down through a 23-year support level of 80? Maybe a couple of bumps and we'll establish 80 as the new glass ceiling (cue sound of fingernail tapping glass : plink plink).

(2007-09-19 13:09:30 SGT) [Biz] Permalink

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