There's a Hero

500 points here, 600 points there. 10% here, 15% there. Halt trading here and there. Clearly world financial markets are in panic mode; especially so for the last 5 days. The financial market participants ranging from bank account holders, businesses and lenders are mistrusting each other; bankers afraid to lend, businesses unable to borrow, account holders worried about the safety of their cash in banks. Credit crisis sinking deeper and deeper. (refer picture). Will the American stock markets hit its circuit breaker like the Indonesian or Pakistani in their trading tonight or in the near future? It does look very gloomy and it is getting gloomier especially for the last one week. Will the Federal Reserve cuts interest rate suddenly or make further unprecedented moves to counter the plunge in the financial markets? The next rate meeting is supposed to be at the end of this month. If Federal Reserve, Treasury or Warren Buffett cannot calm the markets, can International Monetary Fund helps? I sincerely doubt so..unlike IMF's bailout of Thailand and Indonesia which only requires less than USD15b...the IMF may not have any amount near the expected USD1T fresh capital required to help financial markets. How about concerted actions from G7 rich nations? Will the Middle Easterners come in instead? Where can we find help then since countries all over the world are facing their own "crisis" at home originating from the US? Forgive me if I asked too many questions.

We are stretching out our hands in the air to welcome a "hero" to calm us down and give us some breathing space to regain our confidence. Where/Who/What is this hero? Borrowing from the chorus of "There's a Hero"(Mariah Carey) gives me some comfort and sense of hope though....

"And then a hero comes along, With the strength to carry on, And you cast your fears aside and you know you can survive"....

or is the hero lies in YOU? They say Time will tell....


* TheStar: Maybank will purchase an additional 16.26% stake in BII for Rp4.33 per share amounting to RM1.26b. Maybank did not say who the shareholders were!!!!!

* Australia slashed its interest rate by 100 bps to 6% yesterday. HK slashed its base rate to 2.5% from 3.5%. China may follow suit by the end of this week. Japan keeps its interest rate unchanged at 0.5% for the 20th consecutive months.

* USD100b British bailout plan to be revealed today?

* South Korea's won at its 10 years lowest today. 1USD: 1,385

* To stop market from slipping further....freeze the market- Russian style.