QAN’s Boomer
Don't be surprised if there are some well-timed upgrades for Qantas about to emerge.
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Clive Peeters’ Rocky NSW Trip
Shares in small Melbourne-based consumer entertainment and whitegoods retailer, Clive Peeters, took another pounding yesterday as investors continued to fret about its botched move into Sydney.
Read MoreNAB On Inflation, Confidence, Economy
The National Australia Bank believes the outlook for inflation and interest rates in 2008 is worsening and it would not surprise if the Reserve Bank sought some "reassurance" in the face of the economy's increased growth momentum and continuing low rates of unemployment.
Read MoreWheat Prices Surge
World wheat prices have hit an 11-year high in Chicago after confirmation that heavy rain had damaged parts of the US wheat crop.
Read MoreANZ Finds Another Foreigner
The ANZ has found a replacement for the very successful CEO, John McFarlane.
Read MoreNSW Storm Impact
The bill for the NSW storms is heading for an unwanted record, the most costly natural disaster ever.
Read MoreWoolies Controls Coles Sale
Woolworths has its foot on the neck of a bleeding Coles Group and controls the fate of its fading rival.
Read MoreCopper, Gold Under Pressure
Copper prices are the one commodity (apart from gold, which is more 'financial') that investors should be watching closely during this time of volatility and interest rate-driven nervousness.
Read MoreBonds Remain The Key
So will the great bond ogre leap up and bite stockmarket investors and their fortunes around the world again this week?
Read MoreKiwis Take On The Market
The scene is set for a battle between the New Zealand Reserve Bank (and presumably the Government) and the market (especially big investors) over the value of the Kiwi dollar and the overall direction of NZ interest rates and the economy generally.
Read MoreBehind The Boom
With unemployment at a 32 year low of 4.2 per cent, employment surging (66,000 fulltime jobs created last month) and a one in a thousand year drought, not to mention a sluggish homebuilding industry in the big states of NSW and Victoria, why don't we have wages and inflation problems, and why do we have a boom?
Read MoreOne Up-One Down
Despite the solid economy and booming resource and infrastructure sectors, some companies operating in those sectors are struggling, as Coates Hire owned up to yesterday.(See below).
Read MoreSteel Deal-Warehouse Bidding Over?
The reconsolidation of the Australian steel industry has been given the greenlight by the ACCC, after some deep thought.
Read MoreBonds Up, Should We Worry?
Bond yields have increased significantly since March. This largely reflects greater confidence about economic growth rather than another inflation scare.
Read MoreThe Aussie Surges
A leading broker yesterday downgraded Aristocrat and Fosters Group not because of a worsening in their operations, but because of the impact of the higher Australian dollar.
Read MoreBHP’s Loss, Another’s Gain?
It's the biggest drawback in a company's succession planning: what to do with the senior executives who miss out on the top job.
Read MoreChina Bounces
Asian stocks bounced back yesterday, thanks to a late recovery in Chinese stockmarkets after a sharp fall in early trading left everyone staring a very worrying abyss.
Read MoreLessons For QAN From Ryanair’s Blues
Qantas shares closed off a cent at $5.68 in yesterday's generally easier market as the investors took a breather and looked again at the airline.
Read MoreWal-Mart’s Warning For WOW
Woolworths isn't a defensive investment stock, good for the tough times, it is one of the market's premier growth stocks with low dividend yield and high price earning ratio.
Read MoreMetcash Disappoints
Australia's third retailing force, the independent wholesaler, Metcash Ltd, disappointed yesterday when it missed most analysts targets for its 2007 profit and doubled up with a less than optimistic forecast of a smallrise in earnings in the 2008 year.
Read MoreChina Down Again
Stockmarkets all but ignored another big sell-off in China yesterday, the third in four days of trading.
Read MoreProfits Fat And Growing
Corporate Australia is chugging along very nicely, according to the March quarter business indicators from the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
Read MoreMedia Moves
A high stakes game involving the Nine Network and its Perth affiliate, STW 9; with an apparent threat being made to turn off programming by Nine if the owner of the Perth station didn't pay millions of dollars owing under an affiliation agreement.
Read MoreIAG’s China Move Collapses
Insurance Australia Group has suffered a major blow to its ambitions to grow in the rapidly expanding Chinese financial services market.
Read MoreCommodities Strong
A better end to the week for most major commodities, thanks to more confirmation that the US economy seems to be recovering, and an easing of fears that the Government-engineered volatility in the Chinese stockmarket could cause problems in the wider economy.
Read MoreRate Decisions Dominate The Week
Currencies will bounce around a lot this week with central banks meeting in Australia, New Zealand, Europe and Britain to look at the health of their economies and the immediate direction of interest rates.
Read MoreWine: Profit Drought Looms
Bad news or rather, bad news confirmed about the impact of the drought on the 2007 wine harvest and the listed companies with an involvement in the industry.
Read MoreBehind The US Dollar’s Sag
For some of us who grew up in the 1970s, the television program "The Six Million Dollar Man" will be a nostalgic experience.
Read MoreInvestment, Trade Solid
The building and construction boom is still going strong.
Read MoreGNC Beats Drought’s Blues
Like ABB Grain earlier in the week, GrainCorp has done a bit better than you would believe, given the undeniable impact of the drought and the downturn in grain availability.
Read MoreCBA Lifts Its Game
All our banks now claim to be ‘customer friendly'; nothing is too hard for them, no request or service too tough. They say (their ads tell us) that they will deliver. And quickly.
Read MoreRetail Slows-Construction Grows
Australia's retail boom slowed in April.
Read MoreChina’s Tap On The Brakes
World stockmarkets have shaken off the impact of the latest moves by China to slow its booming stockmarket.
Read MoreRex Surges
It's not just Qantas which is doing well among our airlines.
Read MoreMND Profit To Double
Engineering group, Monadelphous Group (MND) says it is looking at an 80 per cent rise in revenue for the 2007 financial year and a doubling in profit; news which sent the company's shares jumping 84c to $13.44.
Read MoreCampbell’s Boom
A year ago we pointed out the impact the mining boom was having on Brisbane-based group, Campbell Brothers, when earnings jumped to more than $34 million.
Read MoreColes In Disgrace
Oh the ignominy of it all: a struggling corporate so bad that not even two of the most aggressive private equity groups in the world, KKR and CVC, want it.
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