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Peter Pham

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  • Woodside’s Acquisition Hands Shell a Difficult Decision

    By Peter Pham - April 23, 2013 | Tickers: BHP, RDS-A

    On Dec 3, Australia’s biggest  independent energy firm Woodside Petroleum revealed that it has decided to acquire a 30% stake in Israel’s largest gas field, called Leviathan, which holds around 17 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas. The business is going to play a crucial role in developing the LNG industry in that country. However, it would have been naive to assume that Woodside’s decision would more »

  • New Banking Rules Shake up Major Chinese ETFs

    By Peter Pham - April 23, 2013 | Tickers: CHIX, FXI, MCHI, TCEHY.PK

    When it comes to Chinese ETFs, the first name that pops up in an investor’s mind is the FTSE China 25 Index Fund ETF (NYSEMKT: FXI). With an enormous market cap of $7 billion, this ETF represents the blue chips of the Chinese economy, particularly its financial services sector. FXI is now changing its structure and becoming more diverse. But currently, investors looking for exposure towards large cap Chinese more »

  • The Good Problems WeChat is Causing Tencent

    By Peter Pham - April 23, 2013 | Tickers: CMGE, CHU, SOCL, FXI, MSFT, SINA

    The Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings (TCEHY.PK) introduced a blockbuster mobile chat application that is being perceived as a significant threat to the revenues of social networking firms, such as Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) Weibo as well as Chinese telcos such as China Mobile (NYSE: CHL) and China Unicom (NYSE: CHU). WeChat is doing now what Tencent’s QQ did about a year ago by eating massive amounts of the more »

  • China’s Welcome Move to Open up Interest Rates

    By Peter Pham - April 23, 2013 | Tickers: DSUM, UUP, CYB

    Interest rate liberalization is an inevitable path towards market efficiency. For China, the plan is between now and 2015 to bring the Yuan (NYSEMKT: CYB) closer to acting as a reserve currency around the Southeast Asia region. This process is speeding up with each deal the Chinese Government cuts with another foreign government. That said, the latest plan put forth should be criticized for lacking details, and for failing to more »

  • British Banks Continue to Cut Jobs Without Hope of Recovery

    By Peter Pham - April 22, 2013 | Tickers: BCS, RBS

    Two of the leading British banks, Barclays (NYSE: BCS) and Royal Bank of Scotland (NYSE: RBS) recently revealed that they have paid more than $1.5 million (£1 million) each to more than 500 of their employees. Meanwhile, the banks continue to post increasing losses as their inappropriate actions result in billions in litigation costs, and compensation and cost cutting measures seem to target thousands of jobs instead of salaries more »

  • Headwinds for Chinese Equity Bourses

    By Peter Pham - April 21, 2013 | Tickers: FXI, NKY, SPY

    The selective tightening policy of the Chinese central bank has created headwinds for economic growth retarding the ability of the Chinese stock market to gain traction. The Chinese equity markets have experienced a methodical decline over the past 2-years, with minor corrections that have provided investors hope that the bear market has come to an end. Domestic investors have a few investment options other than real estate which has driven more »

  • China’s Tax Reform Sends Mixed Messages

    By Peter Pham - April 11, 2013 | Tickers: SNP, EWH, DSUM

    China has implemented across the board tax reforms aimed at alleviating the huge income disparity between state owned enterprises and those not connected to them by increasing their dividend payments to the state by 5% by 2015. While anything to lessen the power of SOE’s in the economy is generally a good plan economically, this aspect of the plan seems a timid first step in the direction of opening more »

  • China’s Tax Reform Sends Mixed Messages

    By Peter Pham - April 11, 2013 | Tickers: SNP, EWH, DSUM

    China has implemented across the board tax reforms aimed at alleviating the huge income disparity between state owned enterprises and those not connected to them by increasing their dividend payments to the state by 5% by 2015. While anything to lessen the power of SOE’s in the economy is generally a good plan economically, this aspect of the plan seems a timid first step in the direction of opening more »

  • China’s Tax Reform Sends Mixed Messages

    By Peter Pham - April 11, 2013 | Tickers: SNP, EWH, DSUM

    China has implemented across the board tax reforms aimed at alleviating the huge income disparity between state owned enterprises and those not connected to them by increasing their dividend payments to the state by 5% by 2015. While anything to lessen the power of SOE’s in the economy is generally a good plan economically, this aspect of the plan seems a timid first step in the direction of opening more »

  • China’s Tax Reform Sends Mixed Messages

    By Peter Pham - April 11, 2013 | Tickers: SNP, EWH, DSUM

    China has implemented across the board tax reforms aimed at alleviating the huge income disparity between state owned enterprises and those not connected to them by increasing their dividend payments to the state by 5% by 2015. While anything to lessen the power of SOE’s in the economy is generally a good plan economically, this aspect of the plan seems a timid first step in the direction of opening more »

  • Alaskan Offshore Provides ConocoPhillips Opportunity

    By Peter Pham - April 11, 2013 | Tickers: COP, RDS-A, STO

    ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) is going ahead with its Arctic drilling plans despite the series of setbacks reported by Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE: RDS-A)in the region. At the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Arctic Open Water meeting recently, ConocoPhillips revealed that it is eyeing the Devil's Paw area of Chukchi Sea, 80 miles off the shore of Alaska.

    Although Shell is a much bigger firm, ConocoPhillips is more »

  • AIA’s Declaration of Asian Independence From AIG Pays Off

    By Peter Pham - April 10, 2013 | Tickers: AAIGF, AIG, ING

    The Asia based and focused insurance giant AIA Group (NASDAQOTH: AAIGF) remains one of the best performing Asian insurers relative to its peers. Once a part of American International Group (NYSE: AIG), AIA is now using its independence to spread its wings in the continent’s lucrative insurance market. While AIA’s peers in the West have been struggling due to sluggish economic growth and unattractive interest rates, AIA is more »

  • Alaskan Offshore Provides ConocoPhillips Opportunity

    By Peter Pham - April 9, 2013 | Tickers: COP, NE, RDSA, RDS-A, STO

    ConocoPhillips (NYSE: COP) is going ahead with its Arctic drilling plans despite the series of setbacks reported by Royal Dutch Shell (NYSE:RDS.A)in the region. At the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Arctic Open Water meeting recently, ConocoPhillips revealed that it is eyeing the Devils Paw area of Chukchi Sea, 80 miles off the shore of Alaska. Although Shell is a much bigger firm, ConocoPhillips is more »

  • China’s Tax Reform Sends Mixed Messages

    By Peter Pham - April 9, 2013 | Tickers: SNP, EWH, DSUM

    China has implemented across the board tax reforms aimed at alleviating the huge income disparity between State Owned Enterprises and those not connected to them by increasing their dividend payments to the state by 5% percentage points by 2015. While anything to lessen the power of SOE’s in the economy is generally a good plan economically, this aspect of the plan seems a timid first step in the direction more »

  • Chinese Refiners Free to Make a Profit

    By Peter Pham - April 9, 2013 | Tickers: SNP, PTR, BNO

    Asia’s leading refiner and China’s second biggest oil firm China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (NYSE: SNP), otherwise known as Sinopec, posted a dip in annual profits as it was hit by fuel price controls at its home in the face of rising oil prices. The Chinese government has suppressed refined fuel prices – not allowing the price to rise even though by its own control mechanism a price hike more »

  • Emerging Market Europe Remains Under Pressure

    By Peter Pham - April 8, 2013 | Tickers: FXE, BNO

    Central European manufacturing data continued to reflect weakness within the region which will make it difficult for exporting countries such as Germany to gain traction and pull the EU out of its current economic malaise.  Central banks will likely continue to easy further than the last cycle trough to revive these floundering economies.  There are problems in Europe which have extended to its emerging markets which means the Euro (NYSEMKT: FXEmore »)

  • AIA’s Declaration of Asian Independence from AIG Pays Off

    By Peter Pham - April 7, 2013 | Tickers: AIG, ING, EWH

    The Asia based and focused insurance giant AIA Group (NASDAQOTH: AAIGF) remains one of the best performing Asian insurers relative to its peers. Once a part of American International Group (NYSE: AIG), AIA is now using its independence to spread its wings in the continent’s lucrative insurance market. While AIA’s peers in the West have been struggling due to sluggish economic growth and unattractive interest rates, AIA is more »

  • IBM’s Mobile Plans Moving Forward

    By Peter Pham - April 7, 2013 | Tickers: AMZN, GOOG, IBM

    The chief executive of IBM (NYSE: IBM), Ginni Rometty, revealed that the current year would be a significant one as IBM will make considerable inroads into mobile technology. Prioritizing mobile is one of the first major steps taken by the new CEO who took over the helm a little more than a year ago. Industry dynamics have changed rapidly in the last couple of years and IBM has to now more »

  • Yahoo’s Google Move Makes Sense

    By Peter Pham - April 2, 2013 | Tickers: GOOG, YHOO

    Yahoo! (NASDAQ: YHOO) has revealed that it will start using its rival Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) advertising services Adsense and AdMob as it looks to increase its revenue base. In an official blog post dated Feb 6, the company said that it has entered into a non-exclusive agreement for contextual advertising to be displayed on Yahoo and its co-branded sites for autos, finance, news and sports. This is in line more »

  • Sharp’s Hopes Depend on Samsung Deal for IGZO

    By Peter Pham - April 2, 2013 | Tickers: AAPL, QCOM, SSNLF, SHCAY.PK

    The economic and political dynamics in Asia are quickly changing. Just a few decades ago, Japan was the tech-country that was home to almost every market leader in the consumer electronics segment. From video game consoles to TVs to home appliances, Japan’s rule was well established. However, now, former industry titans need the support of companies from other Asian economies such as China, South Korea and Taiwan for their more »

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