MONEY MASTER

The U.S. equity rally took a breather on Tuesday, as profit-taking in tech stocks and renewed fiscal policy concerns weighed on sentiment. Meanwhile, Malaysia’s KLCI edged higher, driven by sectoral rotation into property and construction amid local macro tailwinds. U.S. Markets: Tech Weakness Meets Legislative Surprise U.S. stocks delivered a mixed performance, with the  S&P 500  (-0.11%) and  Nasdaq Composite  (-0.82%) both retreating from recent highs, primarily due to weakness in large-cap tech, including Tesla. In contrast, the  Dow Jones  rose +0.91% as investors rotated into industrials, materials, and financials — a move tied closely to expectations of increased fiscal spending. This rotation came after the  U.S. Senate passed President Trump’s controversial tax-and-spending bill , a sweeping $3.3 trillion package that includes significant  tax cuts ,  increased military spending , and  deep cuts to healthcare and food aid . ...

KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) international reserves fell RM8.3bil to RM356.4bil (US$94.5bil) over the past two weeks until Aug 14. BNM said on Thursday the international reserves as at Aug 14 was sufficient to finance 7.5 months of retained imports and it was 1.0 time the short-term external debt. The reserves had declined by RM8.3bil from the RM364.7bil (US$96.7bil) as at July 31, 2015. The reserves position then was sufficient to finance 7.6 months of retained imports and was 1.1 times the short-term external debt. The above news was taken from Bank Negara reserves decline to RM356B from The Star. The bad news is the reserves are still dropping, but at slower rate; although the Malaysian Ringgit continue to dive until 4.19 against the US Dollar before gaining back and close at 4.17 for the weekends. The slower rate of the reserves drop would most likely because there is no longer intervention by the Bank Negara against the Malaysian Ringgit devaluation ...

The Ringgit weakened against the USD and this trend seems to continue and show no sign of slowing down. USD against MYR currency A quick search on google will show you this and it's scary because the spike doesn't seem to slow down and there's no sign of it any time soon.  And to make matters worse, the BNM International Reserve as of July 2015 has shrunk below US$100 billion.  BNM International Reserves shrunk below US$100 billion To put into perspective, this is the first time that the reserve has fall below this level since August 2010.  The central bank gave a statement today and said the reserves' position is sufficient to finance 7.6 months of retained imports and is 1.1 times the short-term external debt.  The concern on the Ringgit currency is real as it has depreciated for 8 consecutive days.  The local currency slipped further today to 3.9265 against the US dollar — the lowest level in 17 years — compared with Thursday...