India Cuts Repurchase Rate to 5%; Private Employers Cut 697,000 Jobs in Feb.; U.S. Auto Sales Down 41% in February; Oil Rallies to Six-year High; Merrill’s Top 10 Execs Paid $209 Million Last Year

The Reserve Bank of India reduced its repurchase rate from an already low of 5.5% to 5.0%, its fifth cut since October. “We see a significant slowdown in investment,” Sailesh Jha, a senior regional economist at Barclays Capital Plc in Singapore, told Bloomberg. “There is scope for more significant rate cuts.” ADP Employer Services said that U.S. private employers cut 697,000 jobs in February, an acceleration of the revised 614,000 jobs lost in January. The figures mark the biggest job loss since the report’s ...

India started the year on an actionable note by sharply cutting interest rates and unveiling another stimulus package. The Reserve Bank of India lowered its repurchase rate by one percentage point to 5.5%, and lowered the reverse-repurchase rate by one percentage point to 4%.

As part of its stimulus plan, the government eased inflation controls and raised the overseas investment limit to $15 billion from $6 billion. India’s federal government also green-lighted state-level initiatives to raise an additional $6.18 billion (300 billion rupees) in the year to March 31 for infrastructure projects such as roads, schools and hospitals.

The government will also offer $4.12 billion (200 billion) rupees to state-run banks and $5.15 billion (250 billion rupees) to non-bank finance companies to raise capital, The Wall Street Journal reported.

To make this possible, India lowered the cash reserve ratio – the proportion of deposits banks are required

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by Edward Hugh: BarcelonaIndian inflation fell back again in the last week of October, as energy and commodity prices continued to fall, and the impact of the global financial turmoil and credit crunch ricocheted its way across one country after another. The IMF last week forecast annual growth for India of 6.3% in 2008 while India's manufacturing expansion, which continued to weaken, still held out against the global trend, according to the latest JPMorgan global manufacturing PMI.So, as we enter November, and a number of Indian indicators start to improve, it is certainly worth asking ourselves, has India turned the corner? Will India lead the emerging markets charge during the next global expansion?I am not, I am sure, alone in feeling that this is a distinct possibility, and, indeed, a similar view was expressed only last week by Sharmila Whelan, senior economist at CLSA ...

Indian inflation fell back again in the last week of October, as energy and commodity prices continued to fall, and the impact of the global financial turmoil and credit crunch ricocheted its way across one country after another. The IMF last week forecast annual growth for India of 6.3% in 2008 while India’s manufacturing expansion, which continued to weaken, still held out against the global trend, according to the latest JPMorgan global manufacturing PMI.

So, as we enter November, and a number of Indian indicators start to improve, it is certainly worth asking ourselves, has India turned the corner? Will India lead the emerging markets charge during the next global expansion?

I am not, I am sure, alone in feeling that this is a distinct possibility, and, indeed, a similar view was expressed only last week by Sharmila Whelan, senior economist at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets.

“We do expect the Indian business cycle to

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Indian inflation slowed back again in the last week of October, as the impact of the global financial turmoil and credit crunch continued to ricochet from one country after another. The IMF forecast annual growth for India of 6.3% in 2008 while India manufacturing expansion, while continuing to weaken, holds out against the trend. As we enter November, and a number of indicators start to improve it is certainly worth asking ourselves, has India turned the corner? Will India lead the emerging markets charge during the next global expansion?I am not, I am sure, alone in feeling this, and a similar view was expressed during the last week by Sharmila Whelan, senior economist at CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets.``We do expect the Indian business cycle to be the first to bottom in Asia. And, it should, in theory, be first to emerge,'' Sharmila Whelan, senior economist at CLSA, ...

The Reserve Bank of India cut its main short-term lending rate by 50 basis points to 7.5% and reduced bank reserve requirements by 1% to 24% of deposits

India’s central bank yesterday (Monday) unexpectedly lowered its base lending rate for the first time since 2004 – a move that signals that India Reserve Bank Governor Duvvuri Subbarao sees weaker growth and the credit crisis as bigger threats than inflation in Asia’s third-largest economy. The Reserve Bank of India cut its overnight lending rate from 9% to 8%, according to a government statement issued in Mumbai yesterday. The “surprise move” that came days before a regularly scheduled meeting of its policy board came after India’s central bank reduced the cash reserve ratio by 2.5 percentage points to 6.5% – retroactive to Oct. 11, Bloomberg News and MarketWatch.com both reported. The so-called “repurchase rate” is the discount rate at which India’s central bank lends money to commercial banks to infuse liquidity into the market. India’s rupee ...

The Reserve Bank of India cut its key short-term lending rate by 100 basis points to 8.0%, the first time since 2004. 

The Reserve Bank of India cut its key short-term lending rate by 100 basis points to 8.0%, the first time since 2004. 

Credit fears ease…  Chuck’s thoughts from the road… India cuts rates… China growth slows, but is still 9%… And Now… Today’s Pfennig! Good day…And welcome to what should be another volatile week in the markets. Credit worries eased somewhat over the weekend, which helped push money back into the higher yielding currencies. Today Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke will head to Congress to share his view on the economy. Should make for a pretty interesting day of trading. Hope you are sitting down and holding on, it looks like we are going to take another lap on the currency roller coaster!

The yen fell over the weekend as investors began moving funds back into the higher yielding currencies of Brazil, Mexico, New Zealand and Australia. I won’t go into the whole explanation of the carry trade again, but suffice it to say that these moves haven’t proven to have much staying

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