Debts A Problem? Not In Australia
Shares fell 2% and more in some cases, commodities were sold off and currencies fell as the US dollar jumped as worries about the YUS economy and European sovereign debt hit markets overnight.
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Myer Sales Up, Shares Down
No joy for holders of Myer shares (especially those who have held from last year’s float, or who bought in soon after).
Read MoreStats: Retail Sales Down, Building Approvals Up In December
Retail sales fell, but building approvals remained strong in December, especially for private houses, a sign the building and home owning boom still has some way to run.
Read MoreBHP-Rio Big Profit Week
BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto produce results next week that will once again confirm that they are riding the China boom for all they can get.
Read MoreTabcorp Profit Underwhelms
The market was undecided about Tabcorp’s interim profit.
Read MoreIAG’s Strong Upgrade
You will no doubt read a lot of guff about how QBE should have really moved last year to snap up Insurance Australia Group when the latter was vulnerable and changing CEOs and strategy.
Read MoreCSR Split Denied
‘Thanks James Hardie’ might have been heard around the boardroom at CSR yesterday after the Federal Court stopped its $3 billion plan to split into two companies.
Read MoreChina’s Special Hold On Australia
A lot has been made about the commercial closeness of China and Australia in the past couple of years.
Read MoreShare Shark Crackdown
Media reports yesterday that Melbourne share sharks, Share Express, were back offering Telstra shareholders below market prices for their holdings made a timely backdrop for a move from Canberra to make these sorts of raids much harder.
Read MoreNews Corp Earnings, Dividend Up
Buried in the News Corp second quarter and first half result was yet another surprise. A higher dividend.
Read MoreRBA Surprises With Rates Standstill
Well, we were all wrong; the Reserve Bank left rates unchanged at 3.75% at yesterday’s board meeting, preferring instead to sit and assess how the three previous rate increases work their way through the economy.
Read MoreHills’ Profit Improves
Shares in Hills Industries jumped sharply yesterday after the company signalled it was over the rough days of 2009.
Read MoreRio-AMC, Westfield
Rio Tinto said yesterday it had completed the sale of Alcan’s packaging, pharmaceuticals, tobacco and food divisions to Amcor for $US1.9 billion ($A2.1 billion).
Read MoreUpdates: TPG, Flex, Mincor
More positive earnings updates yesterday.
Read MoreArgo Meets Lowered Guidance
Adelaide-based listed investment group, Argo Investments has joined its peers in reporting interim earnings lowered by the decline in corporate dividend payouts.
Read MoreAJ Lucas Will Have First Half Loss
Shares in AJ Lucas Group fell more than 10% after the company told shareholders to brace themselves for disappointing half-year results.
Read MoreHousing Bubbles
It was just the thing the Reserve Bank didn’t want to see a day ahead of its board meeting today.
Read MoreMixed News For Economies
Not even a surprise fall in job ads last month will stop the rate rise today.
Read MoreThree Upgrades: ALL, RHC, NVT
Has Aristocrat Leisure finally seen off the spate of poor news that has damaged its reputation with investors over the past couple of years?
Read MoreMarkets Down Sharply Last Month Here And Asia
Share investors have entered February with a nasty loss in January to contend with.
Read MoreBHP’s Busy Week
Last week was a busy one for BHP: there was a board meeting to examine the interim results (due for release the week after next) several deals and spending plans for given the greenlight and two board appointments (and retirements were revealed) and announced in a flurry of announcements on Friday.
Read MoreERA’s Earnings Surge
Uranium miner Energy Resources of Australia posted record earnings in 2009, thanks to higher world prices finally hitting the bottom line through higher-priced supply contracts.
Read MoreCommodities Tumble As Well
Commodities had their biggest monthly drop in 13 months in January as the sell-off that started almost two weeks ago, gathered pace late last week.
Read MoreDiary: Rate Watch
Interest rates and earnings will dominate in Australia this week; in the US its car sales, earnings and the January jobs figures.
Read MoreNZ Sits On Rates
The gap between the Australia and New Zealand economies opened further yesterday with the decision by New Zealand’s central bank to keep its main interest rate steady after the first meeting of the year.
Read MoreJapan’s Slide Continues
On the face of it, news that Japan reported a rise in exports last month, compared with December 2008, seems to be good news.
Read MoreShares Down, Remember 2004
Shares around the world fell again overnight, as concerns continued about China’s tightening, the regulation of banks in the US, and sovereign risk.
Read MoreCorporates: ALS, WEB, NCM, OSH
The soft trading conditions that Alesco warned about early last month continue to bedevil the Sydney-based building products and industrial group with trading conditions in the past couple of months remaining "soft".
Read MoreGiving ASIC More Power
The past few months haven’t been kind to the corporate cop, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission: it’s lost a trio of high profile cases and only won one.
Read MoreWOW Does OK
Woolworths shares finished 2% lower yesterday after the company revealed second quarter and first half sales that just missed some market estimates.
Read MoreGUD Earnings Up, Pulls Breville Bid
GUD Holdings called off its bid for rival appliance group Breville and revealed a solid 46.4% jump in first half earnings yesterday.
Read MoreAFI Confident Despite Profit Fall
Australia’s largest listed investment company, Australian Foundation (AFI), says it is cautious, but confident about the outlook, despite experiencing the anticipated slump in earnings for the December half year as public companies cut dividends to preserve cash.
Read MoreFed Sits, Markets, US Housing Wobble
The US Federal reserve kept rates on hold at 0% to 0.25% for a ninth successive meeting and continued its view that they will remain at current levels "for an extended period of time".
Read MoreIndustrea Sees A Second Half Rebound
I know two updates don’t make a trend, but there could be something emerging in an important sector of the market, mining services.
Read MorePressure Eases On Inflation
A solid pointer to today’s Consumer Price Index with a surprise easing in producer prices in the December quarter.
Read MoreIron Ore Holdings Upgrades
The Kerry Stokes-controlled Iron Ore Holdings continues to blitz the market with news of new iron ore finds or upgrades.
Read MoreBHP-Rio Joint Venture To Be Probed
Of all the things that will or could happen in Australian business this year, the $US116 billion tie-up between BHP Billiton’s and Rio Tinto’s iron ore operations in Western Australia looms as the most important one that we know of, so far.
Read MoreWorld Steel Output To Rise In 2010
World steel output is expected to rise 10% this year, or just over 120 million tonnes, a bull point for BHP and Rio (and Fortescue Metals).
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