By: musicwhiz The second half of July 2008 was much quieter, if you compare it to the flurry of activity which characterized the first half of July 2008. There were no significant updates from the companies I own and only Suntec REIT and FSL Trust released their results. DPU, fortunately, was higher than expected and continued to provide me with high yield amid the current high inflationary conditions. China Fishery is expected to release their 1H 2008 results on August 14, Swiber’s will be on August 13, while Boustead will be releasing their maiden quarterly results (for 1Q 2009) some time in late August 2008. The USA continued to suffer bouts of crisis of confidence, and Merril Lynch was the next “victim” of the credit crunch as it urgently needed to shore up its Balance Sheet as a result of massive write downs. As at time of writing, it is not known if there are further “skeletons in the closet” for other major banks, as it seems they keep getting pummeled one after another. Sometimes I wonder who or what will deliver the knockout blow ! Many smaller banks are also quietly folding in the fallout of the sub-prime crisis, in what is reminiscent of the Savings and Loans Crisis of the 1980’s. Home prices are falling about 16% in what is a continued drag on the USA housing market. Of course, all this is very good news for investors who wish to buy cheaply. Just slightly more than a year ago, it was all good and positive news headlines in the paper but now it’s nothing but “doom and gloom”. Such conditions are conducive for investing as valuations will be reaching trough levels (assuming they have not) and one can then cherry pick at his own time. Below is the summary of my investments and related news as at July 31, 2008 (STI at 2,929.65 points).:- Read more...