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malaysia posts

The currency trade for 2008, as per Goldman Sachs

Posted Nov 29th 2007 2:02PM by Zack Miller (RSS feed)
Filed under: Analyst Reports, Forecasts, China, Thailand, Japan

Bloomberg ran an interesting article this morning. The article contained an interview with Jens Nordvig, a senior currency strategist in New York at Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS). Nordvig said the top currency trade for 2008 will be to sell the U.S. dollar against a basket of Asian currencies, including the currencies of Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan.

In the article, Nordvig cites two reasons why this trade should work next year:

Asian central banks should allow faster currency appreciation to offset inflation in their home countries
It is becoming costlier for the central banks to enter foreign exchange market

The Malaysian, Singaporean and Taiwanese currencies will each gain about 5% to 10% against the dollar in the next year, according to Nordvig.

Zack Miller is the Managing Editor of IsraelNewsletter.com and a former equity analyst for a leading multinational hedge fund.

Malaysia boycott of Starbucks, Coke urged, warned against

Posted Aug 16th 2006 6:07PM by Michael Canfield (RSS feed)
Filed under: International Markets, Starbucks (SBUX), Coca-Cola (KO)

Political and religous groups recently requested a boycott of two high-profile US companies, Starbucks (SBUX) and Coca Cola (KO), in predominately Muslim Malaysia. The boycott seeks to protest "US failure to prevent Israel's military actions" against Hezbollah in Gaza and southern Lebanon. Organizer Jamarulkhan Kadir is quoted in the Agence France-Presse news service story saying that a similar boycott three years ago protesting the US invasion of Iraq made a "dent' in sales. Last time I checked, the US is still in Iraq.

In any case, Norman Fernandez writing to www.malaysiakini.com, urges Malaysians to strongly consider the national impact before participating in such a boycott. The US is Malaysia's largest trade partner and Fernandez sites that that trade relationship is valued at $44 billion a year (2005).

Michael Canfield is a private investor, a business and media writer, living in Seattle. He doesn't own stock in Starbucks.

Starbucks Malaysia: free WiFi, but the lattes are spendy

Posted Jul 19th 2006 9:35AM by Michael Canfield (RSS feed)
Filed under: Starbucks (SBUX)

Starbucks (SBUX) has 400 stores in China, including 180 on the mainland. This, along with aggressive growth in Japan, might get the lion's share of attention, but the company also has a strong presence in Malaysia. Local subsidy, Berjaya Starbucks Coffee Co Sdn Bhd, opened its first in-country outlet in 1998 and just recently inaugurated its 69th. And the WiFi, available in some 40+ of the stores, is still free, a real value in a region where the internet is predominately accessed at pay-for-time internet cafes. Though to relatively high cost of Starbucks offerings for the average Malaysian consumer might make the price of that free web access somewhat prohibitive.

[Info on free WiFi via Wi-Fi Networking New].