UT Portfolio as at 01 Apr 07

This has been a wonderful at work; a project which i was running received fantastic results. Beside having happy clients, one of planners got almost $10K richer during the month long activity. However, this state of happiness did not last very long.


















The results above showed a clear picture where the market is getting nervous; contradicting signals from current FED & Ex FED chairmans did not help.

Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke on Wednesday gave a more balanced view of the U.S. economy and reiterated the central bank has not shifted its bias on controlling inflation. Bernanke acknowledged risks from the weak housing market but also stressed lingering inflationary pressures. The markets interpreted that the Fed is not ready to reduce U.S. interest rates just yet.

Ex Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan indicated that subprime mortgage is 'not a small issue', however, he said a 10% rise in home prices would end the problems. He added not much spillover effect to consumer behavior so far from subprime. The greenback slipped briefly against major currencies and the U.S. stocks also fell after his comments.

My personal taking from this week's events is to stay vigilant for potential downside in the market (especially if you have more than 30% holding ni US related investments). With today's news on US setting tariffs on Chinese imports on glossy paper, the coming weeks will get even more interesting.