Getting Richer

Barclays Wealth According to a research report published last year, China's Hong Kong Special Administrative Region density of the world's first millionaire, with millions of dollars of assets in Hong Kong family more than 26 percent and is expected to report in 2017, the Hong Kong millionaire families will be increased to 40.7 percent, The total to 980,000.

In addition, the report specifically mentioned China last year, the most affluent countries in the world ranked seven, 10 years later and is expected to be able to enter the top three.

Barclays Wealth Asia-Pacific Chief Executive Officer Didier von Daeniken pointed out that the Asian wealth is growing rapidly, but also the region's economic structure is undergoing major changes. Education, science and technology, the globalization trend and become a driving force for creating wealth, the global economy to the eastward shift of focus.

China's Export Growth Unexpectedly Accelerates to 28%

June 11 (Bloomberg) -- China's export growth unexpectedly accelerated in May, easing concern that a strengthening yuan and a slowdown in U.S. demand will trigger an economic slump.

Overseas sales rose 28.1 percent from a year earlier, after gaining a revised 21.9 percent in April, the customs bureau said on its Web site today. That was more than the 20 percent median estimate of 17 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News.

Exports to the U.S. accelerated, withstanding a 10 percent gain in the yuan against the dollar in the year through May. Imports jumped 40 percent because of soaring raw-material costs, supporting the central bank's case that inflation is a bigger threat than weakening global demand.

``This is very good news for the central bank, backing up their argument that exports are not collapsing,'' said Stephen Green, head of China research at Standard Chartered Bank Plc in Shanghai. ``It gives them more space to raise interest rates and let the yuan appreciate faster to curb inflation.''

The trade surplus was $20.2 billion, down from $22.4 billion a year earlier and less than the $21.3 billion estimate in the survey of economists. For the first five months, the surplus has narrowed 9 percent from a year earlier.

Surging prices for iron ore, crude oil, oil products, coal and soybeans drove the biggest increase in imports in almost four years, according to the customs bureau. The gain was 26.4 percent in April.

U.S. Demand

The yuan rose to the highest since a fixed-exchange rate ended in 2005, trading at 6.9208 versus the dollar as of 4:37 p.m. after closing at 6.9255 yesterday.

Exports to the U.S. rose 9.1 percent in the first five months from a year earlier, up from the 6.9 percent gain through April, the customs bureau said. Shipments to the European Union climbed 27.4 percent, an increase from 25.4 percent.

TCL Corp., China's biggest electronics maker, said mobile- phone exports soared 62 percent in May from a year earlier.

``Export growth held up partly because the U.S. economy appears to be recovering better than expected,'' said Shen Minggao, an economist at Citigroup Inc. in Beijing. ``Another factor may be that there were more working days in May than last year, when there was a seven-day holiday.''

The central bank cautioned on June 3 against exaggerating the risk that weakening global demand would lead to a hard landing for the world's fourth-largest economy.

Machinery and electronic exports climbed 59 percent from a year earlier. Trade with India surged 70 percent in the first five months, the quickest gain among China's top 10 trading partners, the customs bureau said.

Inflation Fight

China has already let the yuan gain more than 5 percent versus the U.S. dollar this year, a faster pace than the 7 percent increase for all of 2007. That has cut import costs and also put pressure on exporters by making their products more expensive in overseas markets.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said yesterday that a more flexible currency could be a ``valuable tool'' to help China cool inflation. The U.S. and Europe argue that China's government has kept the yuan artificially weak to help exporters.

Producer prices rose 8.2 percent in May, the biggest increase in more than three years, the statistics bureau said today, indicating consumer-price inflation may rebound.

Consumer prices rose 7.7 percent last month, two government officials said yesterday, citing statistics bureau data. April's 8.5 percent pace was the fastest in almost 12 years.

Banks' Reserves

Besides letting the yuan gain, China has ordered lenders to set aside a record 17.5 percent of their deposits as reserves from June 25 to try to prevent excess cash in the financial system from fueling inflation.

So far, China has kept interest rates on hold this year to avoid attracting more speculative capital from abroad into an economy already flooded with cash. The benchmark one-year lending rate is 7.47 percent, and the equivalent for deposits is 4.14 percent.

The central bank said on June 3 that the world's fastest- growing major economy was shifting from ``heated'' to more stable growth after a 10.6 percent expansion in the first quarter.

Growth will slacken for the rest of 2008 and 2009 on weaker export gains, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said on June 4.

UIT

UIT stands for Unit Investment Trust.

It is an investment company that offers a fixed, unmanaged portfolio, generally of stocks and bonds, as redeemable "units" to investors for a specific period of time. It is designed to provide capital appreciation and/or dividend income.

Unit investment trusts are one of three types of investment companies; the other two are mutual funds and closed-end funds

Each unit typically costs $1,000 and is sold to investors by brokers. UITs can be resold in the secondary market. A UIT may be either a regulated investment corporation (RIC) or a grantor trust. The former is a corporation in which the investors are joint owners; the latter grants investors proportional ownership in the UIT's underlying securities.

Equity UIT is a registered trust in which investors purchase units from a fixed portfolio of equities, which are chosen and managed by a professional money manager. Securities in the trust remain there for the life of the trust, which is most often one year. At that point they can either be liquidated at market value or rolled over into a newer, current version of the trust.

Because investors purchase units of the trust, this investment allows investors to diversify and participate in dividends and capital gains without purchasing a large number of the equities themselves.

There are also various types of equity trust products, allowing investors to choose an investment that closely matches their own risk tolerance and investment goals.

Where Is Sam Going?

In today's morning, when I opened browser, linking to homepage, finance Yahoo!, I was shocked. Dow down more than 480!

In the day, Fed cut benchmark interest rate 4.25% to 3.5%, the most ambitious cut since 1984. By the end of the day, market was secured by Fed, and went up a little bit.

Actually, Fed is saving the world. European market also gained. In the midnight of Sam, day time of the dragon, Heng Seng Index, Shanghai Composite Index, and Japan's Nekkei Index advanced as well.

Economists still says,"we are currently in the slow economy, not in recession. The fundamental of the States is still in good shape. Bush government has aready 150 billion economy-resucure package for possible emergency.

How the market reflect on Fed and government's action? Who knows. Get some sleep, Sam. You will know it tomorrow.

Good Luck!

Nintendo Rocks

The FT writes that Nintendo is now the No.2 market cap company in Japan, trailing only Toyota (TM).
While this may say something about the company's video game platform sales lead over the Microsoft (MSFT) Xbox and Sony (SNE) PlayStation 3, it says a good deal more about how investors value certain parts of the economy.
Companies like NTT (NTT), one of the world's largest telecom companies, Japan Steel, ad agency giant Dentsu, bank Mitsui Trust, and brokerage Nomura have lagged. Much like shares in the US markets, technology leaders are beginning to take over the market cap tables.
Nintendo is now viewed as a company with products that sell well in Japan, the US, and Europe. But, video games may be the ultimate in cross-border products. There is nothing to prevent them from doing well in huge emerging markets like India and China. The Wii and Nintendo portable are not expensive to make and not expensive to ship. They are not expensive to buy, either.
Nintendo is a symbol of what Wall St. is looking for in the future. A simple company with massive markets.