Tuesday 13 May 2014

Risk Sensor: Asian high yield bonds suffer as default risk rises

A 2.76% gain for speculative grade Asian notes denominated in U.S. dollars this year is nearly 2% behind the gain for high grade bonds,  according to data from JPMorgan Chase.  The reversal of fortunes comes as China's economy continues to slow and officials raise expectations of more defaults. (Bloomberg)

Risk Sensor: Study finds high rate of unoccupied housing units in China

Adding another data point to gauge the state of China's property market,  a study by CLSA finds a high 15% vacancy rate in the nation's housing,  leaving 10.2 million units unoccupied.  The report says that total could rise by up to 4 million units annually. (China Daily).

Tuesday 21 February 2012

Shanghai relaxes home purchase restrictions

* Non-local residents are now qualified to buy 2nd homes once they've
held residence permits for 3yrs. (Shanghai Securities News)
* Residence permit holders previously were not allowed to buy 2nd homes
in Shanghai
* Local agents believe this is a relaxation policy as there has never
been such a case that non-local residents could buy 2 homes.

More customized relaxation on the property market later?

Wednesday 20 July 2011

Tuesday 5 April 2011

Incoming! Interest Rate Risk...

"Pimco to Raise $600 Million for REIT to Buy Mortgage Debt..."

Although most central bankers in the developed world still maintain a low interest rate environment to support the economy recovery, they might soon reverse the process more abruptly than the market predict. When they do that, short term interest rate tend to spike up quickly. Pimco certainly anticipate such a scenario, and preparing for it by reducing the duration of their fixed income investments, in other words, they start to move from the short end of the yield curve (short terms bond investments) to the long end of the yield curve (long terms bond investment such as mortgage debt). It is a key signal for other bond investors to follow in the market place.

Maybe our sovereign wealth fund should do the same thing to hedge against the perceived interest rate risks?