Free Republic

SINGAPORE: China and Singapore have agreed to allow direct trading between each other's currency, Singapore's central bank said on Tuesday. The move, along with other agreements on financial cooperation, is expected to bolster Singapore's status as a leading offshore trading centre for the Chinese yuan, officially called the renminbi (RMB). "China and Singapore will introduce direct currency trading between the Chinese yuan and Singapore dollar," the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said in a statement, adding that details will be announced separately. The statement was issued after a meeting between senior officials from both countries led by Singapore Deputy Prime...

Naysayers on China are wrong, I think. Americans and American investors should pay close attention to China and learn. Continued Chinese growth means that the supercycle in commodities, prematurely declared dead by so many, will continue. By the end of 2013, I expect the long-term commodities uptrend to reassert itself. If America does not learn from China, in fact, commodities may be investors’ only potential source of outsized gains. As I wrote in my book Red Alert, most disbelief concerning China’s growth prospects stems from differences between Eastern and Western mindsets. I cite many clinical psychological studies to distinguish East...

A major investor of China Yuchai International Ltd. CYD +0.50%, a Singapore holding company for a Chinese diesel engine manufacturer, is proposing the company increase its stake in the manufacturer, among other changes. Investment firm Shah Capital Management is expected to release a 13D filing on its proposal as soon as Tuesday evening, said Shah Capital President Himanshu Shah. In a letter to China Yuchai’s chairman and a director sent on June 13, Raleigh, N.C.-based Shah Capital, which owns about 6.2% of China Yuchai and is one of its largest shareholders, urged the company to increase its stake in its...