An isolated huge consumer market.

The name "Burma" has been in use in English since the time of British colonial rule(1886-1948).Today it is known as Union of Myanmar with its capital city Yangon.(previously Rangoon).The changes in name started in 1989 when the illegitimate ruling military junta tookover the helms.

Burma, which has a total area of 678,500 square kilometres (262,000 sq mi), is the largest country in mainland Southeast Asia, and the 40th-largest in the world.

The country is bordered by People's Republic of China on the north-east, Laos on the east, Thailand on the south-east, Bangladesh on the west, India on the north-west and the Bay of Bengal to the south-west with the Andaman Sea defining its southern periphery.
With an estimated population of 50 million, squeezed between the two fastest-growing economies in the world (China and India) and kept artificially poor by 50 years of debilitating government policies, Burma's consumer goods market is ready to explode.

Here is some other news about Burma: this is a country where live not only 200 generals and one Lady, but also 50 million ordinary people, 50 million consumers who have developed very similar consumption habits to their neighbours in Thailand.

A quick visit to Mingalar Zay, the main wholesaler's market in Rangoon, will make you wonder whether you are in Burma or in Thailand. Many brands - local as well as international - familiar to Thai consumers are part of the Burmese people's everyday life.

Thirty per cent of the population is urban and 50 per cent of the non-rural population lives in Rangoon and Mandalay. The population of Burma is very young, with 45 per cent below the age of 19.
The average disposable income per household in Rangoon and Mandalay is between US$150 (Bt5,230) and $200 per month.

"There is enormous potential for growth. It is still affordable to build up brands and establish a position for the long run in this market, which is bound to catch up with its Thai neighbour. Total media spend is estimated at less than US$20 million per year (less than 1 per cent of media spend in Thailand)."

Tracking the Dow,Friday 30/07/10.

Asian Index Futures Expiry day.

9:30am:--Bearish 60.0 points gap down.The Commerce Department reported U.S. real gross domestic product climbed 2.4% in the second quarter from an upwardly revised 3.7% in the first quarter.

10:30am:--Bullish inverted filling up opening gap.Data on business activity in the U.S. Midwest grew more than expected this month as businesses boosted employment and orders.

11:30am:--Pullback time for morning session.Bearish spin.Consumer sentiment data fell in July to its lowest level since November.

12:30noon:--Bearish hammer.Energy stocks end flat on lackluster GDP data.

1:30pm:--Further bearish spin.The economy continues to grow at a slower pace.

2:30pm:--A technical reboundIndecision doji at session MAV resistance.

3:30pm:--The ascending soldiers.Airline stocks soar in July, but August turbulence looks likely.

4:00pm:--A bearish shooting star closing near day's high.
The many spinning dojis towards month's end is a sign of very high volatility in days ahead.These big swings will augurs well for intraday speculators.Unadvisable to hold positions for too long a time.We will be heading towards two major anniversary crash,the September 11 and the mid-October black Friday.

When the companies reporting season ends,there comes the economic undercurrents.Growth fears and interest rates hike fears will be the added theme play.

Downgrading Hungary.

Ratings agency Moody's put Hungary on review for a possible downgrade on Friday, citing increased fiscal risks after it suspended talks with the IMF and EU on its existing $25 billion aid deal.
The new government halted the talks last weekend. Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Thursday he would likely not renew the safety net and would row back on a commitment to cut the budget deficit to European Union-prescribed levels next year.
"This uncertainty is the result of the recent breakdown of Hungary's talks with the IMF and EU (after a disagreement over the country's 2010-11 fiscal deficit targets), which in turn led to a suspension in the next disbursement from the IMF/EU EUR20 billion loan programme for Hungary."
Orban has spurned warnings that Hungary -- where households have a large stock of foreign currency debt -- could face market pressure and currency weakness without support from its lenders.
He said the current EU and International Monetary Fund deal would expire in October, and while Hungary would meet its 2010 budget target under the agreement, the government would negotiate with the EU about how and when to bring the deficit below 3 percent.
Moody's said a review of Hungary's sovereign ratings would focus on the willingness of the government to formulate a coherent reform agenda that could stabilize the economy and the government's financial strength.
"Moody's expects the Hungarian government and the EU and IMF to come to an agreement following the local elections (scheduled for October 3), as all sides are aware of the negative consequences of a complete breakdown in the programme," it said.
The agency is likely to confirm Hungary's current rating of Baa1 if there is a credible commitment to the IMF's previously proposed fiscal targets, it said.
"However, if the new fiscal targets that emerge from the next round of talks imply a less rapid fiscal consolidation path, then a one-notch rating downgrade is likely," it said.

Tracking the Dow on Friday,23/07/10.
9:30am:--Mild Bearish gap down opener.Moody's placed Hungary's sovereign rating under review for a possible downgrade.

10:30am:--Bulls short cover.A disappointing bottom line from Internet retailer Amazon.com (AMZN 109.27, -10.80) dragged early going.

11:30am:--Still holding near session high,bulls are trying to make a breakthrough.Results from the stess tests on European banks are expected to be released shortly.

12:30noon:--The usual pullback time to MAV support line.

1:30pm:--The ascending soldiers.CNBC reported that Portugal's central bank said that all of its banks passed the tests so are Sweden ,France and Germany.

2:30pm:--A pullback from new high and still holding strongly by the bulls.

3:30pm:--Bearish engulfing but failed to test the bull pivot support line.

4:00pm:--Bullish unshaven candlestick closing.A slight pullback before surging again.

A spinning top was formed on Friday which reaches the high of the month.The going is still strong.The latest batch of earnings reports gave another shot of confidence to recovery hopes.US stocks posted their second best weekly performance of the year, led by the NASDAQ Composite with a gain of 4.15%. Within the S&P 500 sectors, industrial and material companies rose the most.

A fight for wrong ideological reason.

Women in Taliban-held areas of Afghanistan say they are once again being threatened, attacked and forced out of jobs and education as fears rise that their rights will be sacrificed as part of any deal with insurgents to end the war in Afghanistan.Women have reported attacks and received letters warning of violence if they continue to work or even contact radio stations to request songs.

One female teacher at a girls' school in a southern Afghan province received a letter saying: "We warn you to leave your job as a teacher as soon as possible otherwise we will cut off the heads of your children and will set fire to your daughter."

Another woman, Jamila, was threatened in August 2009, in a letter bearing the Taliban's insignia when she was working for a local electoral commission. It said: "You work in the election office together with the enemies of religion and infidels. You should leave your job otherwise we will cut your head off your body."
Jamila ignored the letter, but days later her father was murdered. She left her job and moved house.

The Dow on Friday is Index/options Expiry day for June Contract.

Asian Index Futures Expiry:30/07/10.(4 market days to sign of rollover contracts)
9:30am:--Opening near 100.00 points bearish gap down.Unshaven candlestick top.

10:30am:--Bearish hangman at session low.Market participants continue to shrug off earnings.Total CPI for June slipped in step with expectations.

11:30am:--Another session low.Bearish Harami. Preliminary Consumer Sentiment Survey for July from the University of Michigan dropped to 66.5 from 76.0 in the prior month.

12:30noon:--Hammer at another low.Weakness remains worst among financial stocks.

1:30pm:--A slight technical rebound,too late for any aggressive action. Goldman Sach has been helped by news that the firm will pay $550 million to settle charges levied by the SEC.

2:30pm:--Hangman again at the low.

3:30pm:--Low of the day finally stalled the slide.Google (GOOG 468.69, -25.33) became the first major name to miss Wall Street's consensus earnings estimate.

4:00pm:--Closes near day's low but a bullish harami pair was seen.

Somehow or rather the latest market trend at Wall Street is to jeck up a false bull till its peak before the index/options expiry and therafter carpet bombing all the earlier gains wiping it all.

On Friday it has taken it down right to July month MAV support line.This has been recurring for quite sometime now so the market is now a Hit-and Run situation.

Volatility will be still high till the day of October crash anniversary before we can see any genuine bulls.

Interest rates are rising.

Asian markets closed higher after the Bank of Korea became the fourth Asian central to hike rates in the past month, unexpectedly raising its benchmark rate from 2.0% to 2.25%. A Treasury report stopped short of saying China is a "manipulator" of its currency, the yuan, but did say the currency was undervalued.
Today, the Bank of Korea joined India, Malaysia, and Taiwan in raising their benchmark interest rate, fueling hopes the global economy is strengthening.
Bank Negara Malaysia, the Malaysian central bank, raised its Overnight Policy Rate (OPR) by 25 basis points to 2.75 percent on Thursday.
While the developed countries are keeping ultimate low interest rates, any further increase of policy rate will make Malaysia's interest rate spread widened even further and this may attract more hot money to flow into the country.
An interest rate hike also brings about the appreciation of ringgit, the Malaysian currency.
This year, the ringgit has appreciated 6.9 percent against the U.S. dollar, the highest among Asian currencies.
As an export-oriented country, the appreciation of ringgit against the U.S. dollar will slow down Malaysia's exports because the Malaysian goods and services are made relatively more expensive and less appealing.
With a ballooning expenditure and weaker fiscal revenue, the Malaysian government is also unlikely to increase public expenditure.
Tracking the dow Friday,5 market days to index/options expiry.

9:30am:--Bearish hammer opener.The early market action has caused the VIX to fall another 1.6% to 25.30.

10:30am:--Rebounded to session high,bullish hammer and a morning star.

11:30am:--A bearish graveyard doji earlier stopped the party,currently pulback to near opening bell level.bullish dragonfly doji checkmate.

12:30noon:--Consolidation time,drifting sideway near session MAV resistance.

1:30pm:--A second bullish spin sighted.Today, the Bank of Korea joined India, Malaysia, and Taiwan in raising their benchmark interest rate, fueling hopes the global economy is strengthening.

2:30pm:--Holding for the third time at MAV resistance level.Participation remains extremely light as less than a half billion shares have exchanged hands on the floor of the NYSE.

3:30pm:--A breakout with intermittent pullback.The focus will shift to Q2 earnings next week.

4:00pm:--Bullish closing at the day's high.

Investors returned from the Independence Day holiday this week in the mood to buy shares that had been battered in a two-month selloff.

The bull's strength seems to taper off as seen by the small bullish candlestick body.Friday is also the 3rd day of the ascending bull and a slight pause can also be noted by the hammer pattern.
While there haven't been many positives on the economic front, there's been some optimism that companies will still be able to continue to make profits, even with the economic strain.

Analysts currently expect year-over-year growth of 27%, according to the latest figures from Thomson Reuters. Dow components Alcoa (AA, Fortune 500), JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), Intel (INTC, Fortune 500) and GE (GE, Fortune 500) are all due next week.

The circuit breaker tested.

An experimental circuit breaker for stock markets that was put in place after last month’s so-called flash crash kicked in for the second time on Tuesday after an erroneous trade caused a sudden plunge in the price of Citigroup shares.
Trading in the shares of Citigroup, one of the most heavily traded stocks in the United States, was paused for five minutes at 1:03 p.m. after an over-the-counter trade of about 8,821 shares was posted at a price of $3.3174, or 12.7 percent lower than the $3.80 price of the previous trade.
The trade was later canceled, according to Nancy A Condon, a spokeswoman for the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, which regulates brokerage firms. Even so, Citigroup shares closed 5 percent lower for the day, at $3.79.
Personally I feel that this must be an inside job.
On June 18,2009,three resolutions were passed and adopted by all common stockholders.
1.) increase in authorised shares from 15bln to 60 bln.
2.) eliminating the voting rights of all common stock holders.
3.) Authorized(But do not Require) the Board of Directors to effect a reverse stock split, at any time prior to 30 June 2010 at one of seven reverse split ratios as determined by the Board of Directors.(1 for 2)(1 for 5)(1 for 10)(1 for 15)(1 for 20)(1 for 25) OR (1-30)

Since the dateline was not complied to,they just hit the price to the point near where the Treasury has purchased at the rescue price.The administration has to date cleared 2.6 billion shares, another 5.1 billion to go.An obligation since the government officially acquired a controlling interest in Citigroup after the Treasury Department pumped $45 billion into the company through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP.
Treasury said Thursday it will continue to sell stock in an orderly fashion after the blackout period surrounding the company's second-quarter results ends. Those results are scheduled to be released July 16.
Tracking the Dow on Friday,02/07/10
Nikkei Futures expiry:5 market days to go.
9:30am:--Mild bullish open,markets in Europe have rebounded but a graveyard doji follow suit.
10:30am:--Bearish engulfing cum bearish hammer. Nonfarm payrolls for June fell by 125,000, which is a little sharper than the 100,000 decline that had been expected.
11:30am:--Bearish hammer.Factory orders for May fell 1.4%, which is sharper than the 0.6%.
12:30noon:--A slight retracement but bearish hangman still noticeable.Persistent selling pressure in the wake of a disappointing jobs report has the stock market on track for its ninth loss in 10 sessions.
1:30pm:--Bullish harami after finding its session low.The sideways and generally lackluster trade precedes the long, holiday weekend (U.S. markets will be closed Monday in observance of Independence Day).
2:30pm:--A retracement to the bear pivot resistance.Intermittent bearish pullback.Stocks are still stuck in range bound trade with broad-based losses.
3:30pm:--Bullish inverted hammer at the MAV resistance line.Energy commodities were especially weak.
4:00pm:--Bearish pullback to the MAV support line.An unshaven top and bottom candlestick.Pattern similar to that at 10:00am and 11:30am might occur.
This must be a premeditated planned pullback to close at the 52 weeks MAV support line.The two bearish spinning dojis are hoovering slightly above the critical MAV support line.A half yearly unwinding of positions and window dressing afterall June is the mid-year(pivot) as well.
This is also coupled with the Treasury being the main shorties all this while,a dateline by June in which they must sell their first tranche of Citigroup shares.