1) As we can analyze just recently by the current market trend, there has been a sharp decrease in the prices of commodities all over the world i.e. steel, crude palm oil, crude oil, gold etc.
2) Crude Palm Oil futures for example has dropped 67% from RM4,500 per tonne in March 2008 to RM1,459 as at 29th October 2008. This is an alarming sharp decrease. If the prices has fallen to below RM1,300 per tonne, the price would be much lower during the CPO price in 1980's and many CPO based companies would have major write down losses on forex hedging positions.
3) Global equity market did not spare also the effect of this fallen commodities. Over the past weeks, the Dow Jones also has it share of fallen and declining loss of market valuation. Regional stock market also drops as tandem with the fallen of the Dow Jones. Our KLCI for example was down to 832.44 points as at 29th October.
4) Surprisingly,the value of the USD has appreciates drastically to RM3.5815 per dollar as at 29th October 2008. The value of Malaysian Riggit has decreased 9.6% compare with the dollar in the past 3 months. It is quite puzzling when normally, the value of currency of such countries will be dependent for example on the reserve of the gold such countries has, the amount of debt, the performance of the stock market and also its balance of payment. This is in contrast on what actually the United States does not have favorably at the moment.
5) Some analyst pointed out that the rise of the dollar was because it was seen as a safe haven compared with other Asian countries and demand for the US dollar has spiked.
6) Based on my researching, I would have to concluded that the increased of the valuation of the dollar and the decreasing of major world commodities ...