South Korean dealers expect another rate cut

SEOUL: Most bond dealers in South Korea expect the central bank to cut its key interest rate again tomorrow, as the global financial crisis inflicts more pain on the domestic economy, a survey showed.
The Korea Securities Dealers Association said 81.3% of those surveyed predicted the Bank of Korea would cut its base rate this week, the fifth cut in three months, amid signs of easing inflation pressures and a looming economic recession.
The remaining respondents predicted no rate change in January, believing the central bank would opt for a pause after slashing the rates by 225 basis points since October, including a record and unexpected cut of one full percentage point in December.
The result was largely in line with Reuters’ recent poll where eight of 10 analysts projected a half percentage point cut while the remaining two economists forecast a 25-basis point cut. Last month, 89.9% of the bond dealers in a similar industry survey had predicted a rate cut.
The association, whose yield quotations are used as official records for South Korea’s debt market, surveyed 143 people from 110 financial institutions, including 19 foreign houses.
The Bank of Korea holds its monthly rate review on Friday

will it?? Oil to top $100 by end-2010

Will that oil prices would rise above US$100 a barrel by the end of 2010 as the global economy recovers??
Texas billionaire T. Boone Pickens said on Tuesday that oil prices would rise above US$100 a barrel by end-2010 is possible.
Oil prices in the US$40 a barrel range are “not going to be around much longer,” Pickens told a gathering at the James A Baker III Institute for Public Policy at Rice University in Houston.
Oil prices have tumbled from over US$147 a barrel in July to about US$48 a barrel on Tuesday as demand in the United States and other developed countries slows due to the global economic crisis.
By late 2010, Pickens sees a rebound in oil demand sparked by a global recovery, pushing prices higher. If the US continues to rely on imported oil for 70% or more of its supply, prices could reach US$200 to US$300 per barrel in another decade, Pickens said.
As an investor, Pickens said he remained “on the sidelines,” with just 10% of his BP Capital hedge fund invested in energy. The fund lost US$2bil last year before shifting to cash as energy prices and stocks declined.
The recent drop in oil and natural gas prices has not derailed Pickens’ effort to push the next administration to implement an energy plan to reduce US dependence on foreign oil.
Pickens said he hoped President-elect Barack Obama would announce details of his energy plan within the first 100 days of the new administration.
To replace one-third of the country’s imported supply, Pickens has outlined a plan to use domestic natural gas as a transport fuel and to invest in power generation from renewable resources such as wind and solar power.
While the cost to transform the nation’s transport and electric infrastructure is enormous, Pickens said reducing the annual tab for imported oil “can pay for anything you are doing.”
Government leadership is imperative, Pickens said. “Waiting for the free market can be disastrous,” he told reporters.
Lack of financing has slowed Pickens’ ambitious plan to build the world’s largest wind farm of 4,000 megawatts (MW) in the Texas Panhandle. Instead of building his own high-voltage transmission line to move electricity from the first 1,000MW of wind turbines to supply more populated areas of north Texas.
Pickens said he would wait for a power line to be built by other investors through the state’s Competitive Renewable Electric Zone process, expected to take three to four years.