Spooked By Stock Market Slump, China Raises Limits For Foreign Funds

Trying to stop the Chinese stock markets from deepening a slump, regulators will allow off-shore funds to hold as much as $1 billion in Chinese equities, and allow the lock-up period for some funds to drop to three months.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index liked the news, leaping 3.2 %, and the Shanghai Composite had already risen earlier today in speculation of the announcement. Both indexes had dropped disastrously in August, with the Shanghai Composite dipping into bear territory after a 22% drop through the month, triggered by fears that banks would have to curtail lending.

Source: Bloomberg, Reuters

U.S. Payroll May Have Fallen in August, Economists Say

U.S. employers may have cut another 230,000 jobs in August, economists said in advance of the release of closely-watched data on U.S. payroll. Analysts estimated a marginal increase in the unemployment rate to 9.5%, and warned that consumer spending would suffer. The data will be released at 8:30 A.M. in Washington, DC.

Source: Bloomberg.

Google Lose’s China Chief

Kai Fu Lee, Google’s China chief, is leaving the company to join a new Chinese venture capital fund, four years after a very public departure from Microsoft to Google. Google credited Lee with the growth of Google.cn and other “innovations”, but Google had long lagged behind local search engine Baidu.

Source: New York Times.

BP Had Warned U.K. In 2007 About Libyan Deal, Concerned Over Delays in A Prisoner Exchange Program

British Petroleum said that it had spoken to the British Government in 2007 about concerns that its $900 million oil exploration deal with Libya was in jeopardy over delays in finalizing a prison transfer agreement. A Scottish court released the only man convicted in the 1988 bombing of a Pan-Am plane on compassionate grounds because of illnes, but Abdel Al-Megrahi has returned to Libya to a hero’s welcome. Since his release, documents released in the U.K. have cast doubt on the impartiality of the decision, with critics alleging business concerns

Source: Wall Street Journal

Buffet Continues to Dump Moody’s Stock

Warren Buffet dropped another 2% of his holdings in Moody’s, lowering his stake to 39.2 million shares. He had dumped Moody’s shares in July too, after admitting that Moody’s had damaged its reputation by failing to recognize flaws in the U.S. housing market.

Source: Bloomberg

NATO Planes Bomb Hijacked Fuel Tanker, Killed close to 60.

NATO struck two fuel tankers it said were hijacked by insurgents, killing “scores.” Villagers near the tankers said the air strike killed family members trying to retrieve fuel from the tanker- NATO insisted it opened fire only after ascertaining that the tanker was surrounded by enemy insurgents. If civilians were killed, anti-U.S. and anti-NATO sentiments in Afghanistan could be further fueled as voters wait for results of an election that some Afghani leaders have attacked as being rigged.

Reuters