WaZup! Asia

Stocks rallied this week as the manufacturing in U. S. and China expanded at faster pace reassured investors about the economic recovery. The ISM manufacturing increased to 56. 3 for a sizable eight tenths gain from July.

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China’s PMI rose to 51. 7 from 51. 2, signaling that the economy’s slowdown is stabilizing. In U. S. payroll jobs in August slipped 54,000 after falling a revised 54,000 in July for the third straight month but there was a moderate gain in the private sector.

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Government jobs dropped 121,000 while private non farm employment continued to rise, gaining 67,000 in August. Also on the positive side, wages were up. President Barack Obama said there is “no quick fix” for the economy and will unveil new ideas next week to boost growth and hiring. Chief of Bank of Japan said that the bank is ready to take more actions after giving 10 trillion yen ($118 billion) to a bank loan facility and the nation’s Prime Minister said that the Japanese government is ready to take “bold” action on the currency if necessary which is threatening its exporters.

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India being second biggest emerging economy showed yet another strong performance in terms of growth. The economy saw an expansion of 8. 8 percent in the first quarter ending June, the fastest pace in two and a half years giving an imprint of strong underlying domestic demand. Trade data showed that exports rose for the ninth straight month in July 2010, growing an annual 13. 2% to $16. 24 billion and Imports for the month rose 34. 3% to $29. 17 billion, widening the country’s trade deficit to $12. 93 billion. Exports during the April-July period rose 30. 1% to $68. 63 billion.

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Being a short trading week, stock specific activity is expected to rule in the market as investors would like to see Industrial Production numbers for the month of July scheduled to be released on Friday, 10th September.  In line with rebound in the global indices, Indian market too witnessed sharp bounce after testing the major support zone of 5350 levels. As expected, dollar index traded with the negative bias throughout the week and likely to be sideways to negative bias in the coming days as well. Keeping in the mind all the cues, one may stay long with trailing stop loss strategy or book partial profit on rally to avoid any notional loss. Nifty has support between 5400-5350 and Sensex between 17800-17600 levels.

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Currency play together with some improvements in economic releases invited bulls in industrial metals while energy pack could not retort positively. Bullions continued to rock on investment demand. Now there is a state of confusion on the subject of the further trend in commodities. Dollar index has taken the crucial support of 82 and moved northward. Base metals gave knee jerk reaction on weak unemployment data of US at the same time as precious metals are trading near multi week high. Various interest rate meeting may inject volatility in commodities. Buying is still intact but upside appears to be limited in short run in base metals. Furthermore, base metals and crude oil are moving in a different direction that is a cause of concern for the market players. It is creating an ambiguous situation and indicating unclear trend of commodities.

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The Uniform Project was founded by Sheena Matheiken, who pledged to wear the same black dress for 365 days as an exercise in sustainable fashion. Every day, she created a new outfit using thrifted clothing, vintage pieces, handmade accessories, and other donated goodies. Money raised by the Uniform Project was donated to a charity that supports schools in Indian slums.

I donated a pair of crochet spats to the Uniform Project, and Sheena used them in her February 25, 2010 outfit! It’s an adorable, wild-west themed ensemble called “Deputy Spats. ”

Said one commenter of my spats:

Rajay Deep, Tribune News Service

Multania (Bathinda), September 4. In an age when values have changed, a small school in a Bathinda village has set a shining example.

When one begins to wonder whether the word ‘honesty’ has lost its meaning these days, one should visit the Government Senior Secondary School in the village as the students here live by an age-old adage, “Honesty is the best policy. ”

There is a stall in the school, called ‘Imandari Di Dukan. ’ A number of stationery items of regular use besides literature books have been put here for sale. Each item is mentioned on the wall behind the shop with its price.