Baltic dry index - 933

Today, Friday, July 28 2017, the Baltic Dry Index decreased by 9 points, reaching 933 points.

Baltic Dry Index is compiled by the London-based Baltic Exchange and covers prices for transported cargo such as coal, grain and iron ore. The index is based on a daily survey of agents all over the world. Baltic Dry hit a temporary peak on May 20, 2008, when the index hit 11,793. The lowest level ever reached was on Wednesday the 10th of February 2016, when the index dropped to 290 points.

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Related stocks: Sembcorp Marine, Cosco & Pan Ocean.

US rig count - 958

HOUSTON (AP) — The number of rigs exploring for oil and natural gas in the U.S. increased by eight this week to 958.

A year ago, just 463 rigs were active.

Houston oilfield services company Baker Hughes said Friday that 766 rigs sought oil and 192 explored for natural gas this week.

Among major oil- and gas-producing states, New Mexico gained four rigs, Oklahoma increased by three and Louisiana, Ohio, West Virginia and Wyoming each gained one.

Texas declined by one rig.

Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, North Dakota, Pennsylvania and Utah were all unchanged.

The U.S. rig count peaked at 4,530 in 1981. It bottomed out in May of 2016 at 404.

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Related stocks: Keppel Corp, Sembcorp Marine & Cosco

Russia is expelling a lot of USA embassy staffs in Russia.

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/russia-orders-us-cut-diplomatic-staff-says-seize-093237700.html

The fight is on.  The USA imposed a new sanction against Russia and Russia expelled the USA embassy staffs.

Tit-For-Tat is nothing new but Russia is able to take on the USA because China is supporting Russia's economy by buying oil and gas in RMB.

Russia will station in Syria permanently now.

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/putin-signs-syria-deal-cementing-russias-presence-half-113942368.html

The USA has no control over Syria now because Russia will be in Syria for a long time.  It won't be easy to overthrow Assad now and the USA has to accept that Assad will be at the helm of Syria for a much longer time than expected.

SGX praised ex-ceo Magnus Bocker but omitted the petition against him.

http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/companies-markets/bocker-was-a-driving-force-for-change-sgx

https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/petition-to-remove-magnus-bocker-as-the-ceo-of-sgx

SGX should just keep its mouth shut.  The truth was Magnus Bocker had a disgraceful departure from SGX but SGX still wanted to honour him.  His passing on won't wipe out his disgraceful departure.

We can forgive but we cannot forget.

Singapore stock calls for 28 July 2017

A fruitless gold shop robbery in Malaysia! Robbers left in frustration!

It pays to install shattered proof glasses in gold shop.

USA is creating false intelligence against North Korea again.

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/u-general-north-korea-icbm-threat-advancing-faster-203432119.html

Yes, the USA is doing it again.

China is just sitting right beside NK but China is not afraid of any missile attack from NK.  The USA is so far away but is constantly afraid of NK's threats.

The USA has THAAD systems on its homefront and also in the overseas military ground.

So tell us honestly, what are you really afraid of, USA?

Singapore elected president status is sealed. Let's not waste time on it anymore.

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/tan-cheng-bock-no-objection-chief-justice-hearing-appeal-case-reserved-presidential-election-131154386.html

Tan Cheng Bock is fighting the war alone and we know he will lose for sure because the EP status is already sealed.

Why fight this war when the majority of Singaporeans don't care at all?  Our poll shows that Singaporeans know who's our first elected president but we don't dare to tell our AG that.  AG's declaration is definitely against our common consensus that an elected president must win in an open election with a majority vote count.  Instead, our AG has created a new definition that an elected president can be an appointed president who has exercised an elected president's power.

Let's just revert back to the appointed president system so that we can save our time and effort to vote for a reserved elected president as such a president won't command the same respect as an openly elected president.

South China Sea won't be peaceful anymore!

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/britain-plans-send-warship-south-china-sea-move-002530690.html

The UK wants to join in the "fun" now.

The western countries are never part of Asia but they want to control Asia in the name of FON (freedom of navigation).  They cannot cite a single case of China stopping any commercial ship sailing in South China Sea but will carry on with their smearing and fearmongering campaigns against China.

I think China should change its strategy of not forming a strategic alliance like NATO because it is very difficult to fight alone.  An APTO (asia pacific treaty organization) is definitely welcome in Asia to stop the western countries from meddling with or controlling Asia.

We also need AMF (Asia monetary fund) to handle any financial crisis in Asia because IMF is too prejudiced.  Even though IMF has indicated that it will move its HQ to Beijing in the future, we must always be on our guard because IMF places more stringent requirements on Asia countries than western countries.  Just look at how the IMF treated Thailand and Indonesia during the asia financial crisis.  Now, look at how IMF treats EU especially Greece.

https://www.rt.com/business/397424-imf-move-beijing-decade-lagarde/

Singapore stock calls for 27 July 2017

FED doesn't raise rate in July but may start QE tapering in September.

How will QE tapering affect the market?

QE tapering is reducing its bond purchases or rollovers (reinvestment of its bond proceeds upon maturing) on a monthly basis.

As bond price and yield are inversely related and demand affects the bond price, the yield will stay low when the bond price is high.  When there is lesser demand for the bond, the bond price will fall and the yield will go up.  This is almost the same as hiking interest rate without literally hiking rate.

Hiking rate literally will affect currency movement and short term rate but QE tapering will only affect long term rate and is more neutral for the currency and stock market.

On the whole, the interest rate will still go up albeit slowly.

Noble Group plunges heavily today after profit warning and asset sales.

https://sg-stock.blogspot.sg/2017/07/whats-left-for-noble-group-after.html

https://sg-stock.blogspot.sg/2017/07/noble-group-update.html

We did warn about Noble Group on a few occasions.  It is not surprising that its P&L won't look good because it had sold off its golden goose.

Don't think that a company can be saved whenever a white knight appears.  Sometimes, the white knight is also ignorant about the company and the industry.  The white knight is financially strong enough to pull the plug but an ordinary retail investor can wipe out his life saving.

China has taken over a Sri Lanka port.

http://en.people.cn/n3/2017/0726/c90000-9246810.html

China has been buying up ports over the world and also set up a port alliance for its BRI (Belt Road Initiative).  This will greatly reduce Singapore strategic importance that the USA values because the USA can contain China shipments by sealing the Strait of Malacca from Singapore.

Stockbank blog has just received a top 75 Singapore investment blog award.

We've been informed by Feedspot that we've been awarded a top 75 Singapore investment blog award.

http://blog.feedspot.com/singapore_investment_blogs/

We will strive to continue to provide articles that are of interest to our readers.

Our top 3 readers come from Singapore, USA and Russia.

Yes, Russians like to read our blog and we don't know why.  We are surprised that Malaysians are not in our top 5.

Nonetheless, we are happy to receive our first award.  Thank you for your support.

What's left for Noble Group after selling income generating businesses?

https://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/noble-group-said-seek-buyers-085506625.html

This is really getting worrisome as Noble sells off its income generating businesses.  Noble will be left with negative cashflow assets that nobody wants.

Sigh!

Singapore stock calls for 26 July 2017

Flooding in China.

In Singapore context, this will be just ponding as defined by our minister. Heehee!

Quantum communication can be operational 24 hours soon.

http://en.people.cn/n3/2017/0726/c202936-9246537.html

Way to go, China!

China is really becoming a high technological country now with excellent achievement in quantum technology.

India fired at Pakistan again!

http://www.kashmirvision.in/news/pakistan-summons-indian-envoy-over-border-tensions

India is stirring troubles for its neighbour again.  The China-India border skirmish is not settled yet and India is attacking Pakistan again.

Sigh!  This India is such a bully and must be taught a lesson!