Iron Ore Prices Edges Higher As China Mills Restock On Lower Prices
Global iron ore prices ended up 5% last week as trade data for August showed another surge in imports to their highest level since the start of 2018.
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Banks Push ASX 0.7% Higher Over The Week
Last week saw the ASX 200 rise up 42.7 points, or 0.7%, extending the rebound from the lows struck in mid-August to nearly 4%.
Read MoreGlobal Shares Gain As Growth Fears Abate
Friday’s mixed to weak trading saw US shares rise 1.8%, Eurozone shares, 2.1%, Japanese shares, 2.4% while Chinese shares jumped 3.9%.
Read MoreMyer Shrinks To Greatness
A big day for struggling department store chain, Myer with the shares seeing their best day for months, jumping more than 10% at one stage after its 2018-19 results showed it had seemingly steadied a sinking ship.
Read MoreInsurance Scandal Resurfaces To Sink CYBG Shares
Shares in the NAB UK bank spin-off, CYBG have been hammered yet again after it revealed a second major provision against sales of dodgy insurance products.
Read MoreMobile Dropout Cuts TPG Telecom Profit In Half
TPG Telecom revealed a 56% slump in net profit for 2018-19 yesterday, a slump driven by the axing of the company’s plans to build Australia’s fourth mobile phone and data network and the now lengthy court battle to try and merge with Vodafone Hutchison Australia.
Read MoreChemist Warehouse Exit Weighs On Sigma Health
A decisive thumbs down from investors for the interim result from Sigma Healthcare’s which revealed profit plunged more than 80% to just $2.52 million.
Read MoreNo Surprise As GDP Grinds To GFC Low
As expected the Australian economy fell to its slowest annual rate of growth in a decade in the 12 months to June after GDP came in at a slightly better than expected 0.5% for the June quarter.
Read MoreFletcher Building Confirms Buyback Details
Fletcher Building will kick off its $NZ300 million on-market share buyback next Monday, September 9Fletcher Building will kick off its $NZ300 million on-market share buyback next Monday, September 9.
Read MoreASIC Takes Aim At Regional Banks
It’s been a big week for regulators waving their legal ‘big sticks’ (and lawyers) – yesterday ASIC joined the ACCC on the legal warpath, announcing separate legal actions against two regional banks – The Bank of Queensland and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank.
Read MoreReece Dives Deeper Into US Market
Melbourne-based Reece Group has further expanded in the US with the $A220 million acquisition of a Southern California plumbing supply wholesaler, Todd Pipe & Supply.
Read MoreACCC Takes Aim At Medibank Over ‘Needless’ Charges
The ACCC is suing Medibank for allegedly telling customers they could not make claims for certain types of surgery even though their policies covered those procedures.
Read MoreThorn Group Resolves Radio Rentals Class Action
Shares in Thorn Group have surged after an announcement to the market confirmed that the long-running class-action lawsuit against the company’s Radio Rentals’ controversial ‘Rent, Try, $1 Buy’ program has been settled for a total of $29 million.
Read MoreAustralia Records Its First Current Account Surplus Since 1975
The first current account surplus for 44 years and the last for a while and possibly a slightly better than expected GDP report later today.
Read MoreRetail Sales Shrink In July
The rotten run of retail sales figures continued in July with growth again falling, despite estimates from the market for a small rise based on a post-election bump to confidence and the early impact of tax refunds.
Read MoreRBA Maintains Easing Bias Awaiting More Evidence
As expected by the market, the Reserve Bank (RBA) kept its key cash rate steady at 1.0% in September. The bank retained an easing bias in the accompanying policy statement from Governor Phil Lowe and again indicated a willingness to cut the cash rate again should the need arise.
Read MoreFall In Business Inventories Overshadows Housing Rebound
Forget the rebound in house prices in August out yesterday – that’s not an important bit of data at the moment even though it’s welcome. No, the big economic news from yesterday was the sharp fall in business inventories in the June quarter which could very well help produce a negative reading for GDP tomorrow.
Read MoreIncitec Pivot Downgrades Outlook, Eyes Fertiliser Sale
The impact of the drought has driven Incitec Pivot (IPL) to review the future ownership of its Asia Pacific fertilisers business after it again slashed full-year earnings guidance.
Read MoreTelstra Pushes Back Peak NBN Pain
Telstra has confirmed that it is still expecting peak financial pain from the NBN, but not this financial year but in 2020-21.
Read MoreWall St Wraps Up Worst August Since 2015
The Dow fell 1.7% in August, the S&P 500 lost 1.8% and the Nasdaq lost 2.6% in August, the worst August performances for all three benchmarks since 2015.
Read MoreASX Ends August In The Red As Earnings Season Fails To Fire
The local June 30 earnings season failed to set the market on fire with weak earnings growth, a fall in non-resource earnings, a 7 year high for the number of companies cutting dividends and more downgrades than upgrades.
Read MoreFocus Returns To The RBA Ahead Of Weak GDP Read
No rate cut this week but there will be confirmation the Australian economy is staggering slowly towards stagnation with growth only saved by the one-off boost from surging iron ore prices which won’t be repeated this quarter.
Read MoreDiary: Trump Tariffs, US Jobs, RBA Meets, Oz GDP
Globally the major economic and market-moving news this week are the tariff rises imposed by Donald Trump as of September 1 (Sunday) and the August jobs data on Friday, as well as surveys of manufacturing activity around the globe.
Read MoreCurtain Draws On Earnings Season To Forget
With no revenue or earnings growth outside major resource companies focusing on iron ore or gold or companies in the healthcare sector, the word from analysts is that it was a season to forget.
Read MoreGold, Silver Star In August As Iron Ore Sinks
Gold and silver were star commodities in August, thanks to Donald Trump and his ham-fisted trade war with China and Boris Johnson’s equally ham-fisted approach to Brexit, which in turn helped undermine other commodities such as oil and copper and especially iron ore.
Read MoreWeak Construction Data Feeds Into Soft June Quarter Capex
No joy from the June quarter private investment data released yesterday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The release showed a fall of 0.5%, against a market forecast of a rise of 0.4%. The overall drop was however slightly better than the revised 1.3% fall (previously -1.7 percent) in the March quarter.
Read MoreWoolies Rules The Supermarket Aisles But Big W, Drinks Disappoint
A cautious thumbs down from investors to Woolworths 2018-19 profit which turned out to be like so many other results this year – lacklustre and a little unconvincing.
Read MoreRecord Production Sees Lynas Profit Rise 50%
The full-year results from rare earths miner Lynas Corp reveal a hint of what Wesfarmers saw in when it launched its now aborted $1.5 billion bid earlier this year.
Read MoreEuropean Expansion Lifts Ramsay Health Results
Australia’s largest private hospital operator, Ramsay Health Care, has produced a result like so many other companies on the ASX 200 (outside the big iron ore miners) in the current June 30 reporting season – OK but nothing to boast about.
Read More“Material Negative”: Construction Slowdown Set To Weigh On GDP
The chances of a negative outcome for the June quarter GDP have risen with the surprisingly large fall in the value of construction work.
Read MoreCrash Landing: Virgin Australia Posts Seventh Consecutive Loss
Virgin Australia shares fell 6% to 15.6 cents yesterday after the company revealed plans to sack 750 back-office workers over the next 8 months and make every attempt to return to the black as quickly as possible.
Read MoreMilk Battle, Drought Sours Bega Cheese Result
Like Caltex and Adelaide Brighton have done, Bega Cheese had already softened up investors to expect a weak 2018-19 result by issuing a weak trading update earlier this month.
Read MoreMetcash Warns On Hardware Slowdown
The building (especially housing and renovations) slowdown continues to grab leading retail chains. Shares in independent grocer (IGA) and hardware group (Mitre 10) Metcash have dipped 3% to a day’s low of $2.75 yesterday after the annual meeting was told that growth in the hardware division had slowed in the first quarter which ended July 31.
Read MoreInvestors Look Beyond Soft Oz Minerals Result
OZ Minerals shares jumped nearly 5% yesterday despite the company reporting a weak interim profit and continued big investment spending on new mines and prospects.
Read MoreAdelaide Brighton Confirms Hit From Construction Slump
Like Caltex’s big earnings fall reported on Tuesday, the half-year earnings report yesterday from Adelaide and Brighton (AdBri) and its loss had been well telegraphed by earlier trading and earnings downgrades.
Read MoreBunnings, Officeworks Dominate Wesfarmers Result
Investors gave Wesfarmers 2018-19 result a modest reception yesterday even though the company and some media reports tried to paint it as solid.
Read MoreCosts Out As Caltex Profit Tanks
A new head office, job cuts, a slashed interim dividend – the knives are out at Caltex Australia after the oil group’s interim results matched the downgraded guidance issued in June.
Read MoreStrike & Warrego Energy Claim ‘Exceptional’ Gas Discovery
Shares in oil and gas tiddlers, Strike Energy and Warrego Energy came alive yesterday after they claimed a major gas discovery in the Perth Basin gas field.
Read MoreFashion Earnings: Noni B, City Chic Collective
Ignore the halving of net profit at the fashionwear group, Noni B and focus on the higher final dividend as a guide to how the company performed in 2018-19 and says it will go in the current 2019-20 financial year.
Read MoreTroubled IOOF Surprises With Special Dividend
A decision by wealth manager IOOF to give shareholders a surprise 7 cents a share special dividend yesterday raised eyebrows and helped send the shares down 6.9% to $4.84.
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