Hamish Pepper, Forex Strategist at Barclays Capital, Singapore talks about:

- house view on when Fed would likely start tapering QE3 based on US FOMC meeting minutes

- worst case scenario of Fed exiting, and impact on currencies

- Bank Indonesia surprised the market by hiking the rate by 50bp to reduce capital outflows. Reaction and more to come? 

- Bank of Japan maintained it stance, and raised its assessment of the economy, referring to a recovery for the first time since before a record 2011 earthquake.  Will this stall the yen’s depreciation, at least? 

- Central Bank of Korea kept rates on hold this time, after unexpectedly cutting rates by 25 basis points in May.  Status quo remains for won? 

- Bank of Thailand left its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 2.50 percent on Wednesday,  after BOT had cut rates by 25 bp on May 27th. Status quo was expected? 

- Within ASEAN, the SGD is considered by many to be the ‘Swiss Franc of Asia’. Which currency do you consider the next best safe haven?

- Bank Negara left Malaysia’s OPR unchanged at 3% last night, for the 13th consecutive meeting. Consensus appears to be for rates to stay status quo? Bank Negara does expect inflation to rise this year. 

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Ong Seng Yeow, Research Director at Maybank Kim Eng, Singapore talked about fund flows. He addressed the following: 
- AEJ reported its first moderate inflow of USD 0.1bn after 6 consecutive weeks of outflows, mostly due to the consumer discretionary sector. One-off? 

-  According to research by Credit Suisse, net foreign selling in emerging Asia (ex-China & M’sia) was US$14.3bn in June – about 0.3% of total market capitalisation. Have we seen the end of foreign selling?

- Year-to-date net foreign buying has now dropped to just US$2.9bn vs. net  foreign buying of US$83bn in Japan. Are investors right to be allocating out of Emerging Asia and into Japan?

- The only markets in Asia which have seen net foreign buying are India, Malaysia and the Philippines. Inflows into these markets to continue?

- Singapore notably doesn’t provide data on foreign fund flows. Why is this? What is your sense of whether foreigners are buying or selling the Singaporean market?

BFM's Khoo Hsien Chun speaks with him. 

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On International Market Watch today Tim Mulholland, Managing Partner of China-America Capital Company in Chicago discusses:

- whether the Fed was right in laying out a timetable for tapering

- when bond buying is expected to end

- the vicious circle of volatile markets and QE

- China's seemingly weakening economy

- Chinese small cap performance

- what positions to take in the current investment climate

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Hwang DBS Vickers analyst Quah He Wei talks about Sapurakencana Petroleum: 
- earnings forecasts, incorporating Trans-Thai contract

- 48% of Sapura Kencana's order book is from Brazil. Making it beyond Asia? 

- protecting against inflation in Brazil. 

- gearing is high with net debt to equity of about 70% for 2013, forecasted to rise to 90% for 2014 til 2016.  As at 30 April, had borrowings in USD equivalent to RM7.1bn and AUD equivalent to RM7.3m. - forex risk- rising borrowing costs threaten substantial capex plans?

- One issue raised at SapKen’s recent AGM was Kencana Capital buying an 18.4% stake in Yinson. Given Kencana Capital’s 13% stake in SapKen and some overlap in the business of the two companies, potential conflict of interest?

- when SapKen would start paying dividends

- Buy call at RM4.85 target price, previously RM5.05. 

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Jigar Shah, Head of Research at Maybank Kim Eng, India updates us on India's IT sector, including: 

- US Immigration Bill - would this disrupt India IT firm’s business models? 

- Gartner and J P Morgan halved their IT spending forecasts for 2013 - cautious on IT spending estimates? 

- which verticals would growth come from, for large caps and mid-tier companies 

- possibility of mergers and acquisitions in the industry - its said KPIT and Infotech are open to acquisitions

- small and medium enterprises have been faster adopters of new tech such as cloud, big data and analytics which provides them with further leverage for deal wins. How larger firms are responding

- buy calls on all the mid-cap stocks in this sector, while it’s a mixed bag for large caps.  top fav in this sector.

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On International Market Watch today Ben LeBrun, Market Analyst at Options Express in Sydney discusses:

- coal miners stocks

- industrial or precious metals

- copper

- Favourite in the APAC region

- high beta laggards or expensive safe bloc

- impact of change of leadership on Australian markets and economy

- Australian banking stocks

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Lee Cheng Hooi, Head of Retail Research at Maybank Investment Bank discusses US results season, upcoming Fed meeting minutes and KLCI for the week ahead. He also highlights three buy calls, namely Cuscapi, Furniweb Industrial Products and MYEG.

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Dr. Michael A. Yoshikami, Founder and CEO of Destination Wealth Management in San Francisco, California, discusses: 

- HSBC's cut in growth outlook for Asia Ex-Japan due to a China slowdown and Fed tapering reflects Asia's dependence on cheap credit. What's your view on the extent (or otherwise) of a hard landing for Asian markets? 

- Ballooning debt around this region indicates that structural reforms are badly needed: in the biggest Asian economies like Japan and China, what should the top priorities be? 

(Labor markets need a shake-up, whether through lower barriers to migration in China, or greater flexibility in Japan and India," Neumann said. "Lack of competition, reflecting often stifling regulation, also needs to be addressed, including by cutting back on the privileges of state owned firms or opening up more sectors to foreign investors.")

- Re Japan: it’s corrected nearly 10% from the high, but is still up over 60% over the past 12mths. Will a comprehensive win for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in the upper-house elections on 21 July be the catalyst to end the mkt slump? And allow him to push through these much-needed reforms?
[Victory would give Abe power in both chambers, which means he’ll have total control for three years, which would allow him to push through much-needed structural and economic reform].

- An update of your views on the on the health of the US economy? Jobs-wise and beyond the numbers, certainly not as rosy as the growth headline numbers would suggest, as evidenced by the number of Americans who have physically left the workforce  ..  

Income growth remains anaemic (c. 2%), the number of part-time workers has just hit a brand new all-time high while the number of full-time workers is still nearly 6mn below the old record that was set back in 2007. 

Only 47% of adults in America have a full-time job. Americans leaving the workforce has outpaced those who found a new job for 37 consecutive months. The number of Americans on food stamps has continued to grow since the crisis – and is now 47.7mn.

- DM vs. EM – developed mkt equities have substantially outperformed EM since late 2010 – where are you advising clients to put their $$?

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On International Market Watch today Joe Quinlan, MD and Chief Market Strategist at US Trust-Bank of America Private Wealth Management in New York discusses:

- US economic recovery

- US employment market

- Future treasury yields

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PK Basu, Regional Head of  Economics and Research at Maybank Kim Eng talks about: 
- what these central banks need to do, especially with fears of deleveraging in Asia and prospect of weak growth in China: 

 - Japan 

 - South Korea 

 - Indonesia 

 - Malaysia

They meet this week on Thursday

- Bank of Thailand, which meets on Wednesday
- what investors need to be most aware of 
- most attractive markets over the next 6 to 12 months

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