Oil jumps above US$107 as Asia sells off, Fed and BOJ rate decisions now collide with a fresh energy shock Markets are opening the week under renewed pressure. Brent crude has jumped about 3% to above US$107 , Asian equities are falling sharply, and U.S. Treasury yields remain close to 5%. At the same time, investors are preparing for possible rate hikes from both the Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan this week . For investors, the central question has become: Can central banks contain inflation without causing a much larger slowdown when energy prices are surging at the same time? 30-second market snapshot Market / Asset Latest 🇺🇸 S&P 500 7,656.98, +0.86% Friday 🇺🇸 Dow Jones +0.98% Friday 🇺🇸 Nasdaq +0.96% Friday 🇲🇾 FBM KLCI 1,686.74, -1.10% Friday 🇯🇵 Nikkei -1.7% Monday morning 🇰🇷 Kospi -3.3% Monday morning 🌏 MSCI Asia ex-Japan -0.8% 🛢️ Brent crude ~US$107.36, +2.6% 🛢️ WTI crude ~US$102.48, +2.4% 🇺🇸 U.S. 10Y Treasury ~4.97% 🥇 Gold ~US$4,336...
The first universal rule of personal financial management is to spend less than what you have earn, but that alone is not enough. It is good for one to be able to control his or her own temptations from the materialistic world. However, as we know that the inflation actually drives a lot of things to become more expensive, hence living within means will not be sufficient. The next universal rule of personal financial management is to earn more. This one is a little bit more tricky than spending less than what you have earn especially for the working class because the salary is limited to what companies can offer. Even if this rule is not easy to apply to our life, we should really plan and think of the ways to earn more. There are reasons why earning more is important, in fact, it is as important as the rule number one which is to spend less than what you earn. Companies which are focusing on cost control will doom to fail in the future because there is no growth in the compa...