Wall St Inches Higher Ahead Of Fed Meeting
So now for a Fed focus week on Wall Street.
Read MoreSo now for a Fed focus week on Wall Street.
Read MoreAustralian shares rose 1.7% last week and made it to an 11-year-high led by resources stocks and defensive sectors like healthcare, telcos, and consumer staples.
Read MoreA day after an attack on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman prompted a rally in oil prices, reality hovered in the background in the shape of yet another downgrade in the global demand projections for 2019.
Read MoreIron ore prices have topped $110 a tonne for 62% Fe ore delivered to Northern China as BHP, Fortescue and Rio ship as much product as possible to China to make up for the shortfall from Vale and to exploit the high prices.
Read MoreAustralia’s jobless rate in May was steady in both trend terms (5.1%) and seasonally adjusted (5.2%), according to the latest labour Force report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics – a sign perhaps that the labour market is starting to fade.
Read MoreA day after consumer credit group, Afterpay Touch raised more than $300 million and the three founders sold shares worth more than $100 million to two US investment companies, the shares plunged 12% after the financial intelligence regulator, AUSTRAC revealed it believes the company had been involved in money laundering.
Read MoreChallenger shares were sold off yesterday on the second earnings downgrade in four months.
Read MoreMeanwhile, Coles, yesterday revealed swingeing cuts at its head office in Melbourne with a reported 450 people departing, including some senior managers.
Read MoreIt was a tough day for retailers associated with Wesfarmers yesterday. The company revealed up to yet another downgrade for its Kmart-Target mid-level department store chain.
Read MoreShares in Ruralco fell under the $4.40 a share cash offer price from Canadian-based rival, Nutrien after the competition regulator, the ACCC threw doubt on the $469 million bid.
Read MoreStar Entertainment Group shares recovered some of Tuesday’s big slide in the wake of the Sydney based gambling group surprise downgrade in its 2018-19 earnings forecasts.
Read MoreAGL shares at least steadied yesterday after the solid 7.7% sell-off on Tuesday in the wake of news of a firm but indicative approach to telco Vocus at $4.85 a share and the $100 million cut to expected 2019-20 earnings from a lengthy electricity generator outage at the Loy Yang station in Victoria.
Read MoreWesfarmers has lifted the value of its current spending spree to more than $1 billion with the news yesterday that it was paying $230 million for the Australian online retailer Catch Group Holdings Limited.
Read MoreIron ore prices bounced more than 5% on Tuesday as Chinese steelmaker stocks eased again and Rio Tinto revealed it would not be selling as much of its key high-grade Pilbara fines blend and lump ore over the next two months.
Read MoreAnother exit from the Australian gold industry is underway with Mincor looking to get rid of its assets to concentrate on nickel after winning a big supply contract with BHP’s Nickel West.
Read MoreStar Entertainment Group shares fell more than 18% at one stage yesterday after the Sydney based gambling group surprised with a small downgrade in its 2018-19 earnings forecasts.
Read MoreWoodside has cut its 2019 production guidance by 3% after reporting problems at its Pluto LNG processing facility in WA.
Read MoreThe National Australia Bank’s monthly business survey for May delivered some gloomy findings as business conditions weakened further and “are now well below average”.
Read MoreAnd its fund raisings all-around at buy now pay later service Afterpay Touch – the three founders are pocketing at least $100 million from selling some of their shares to two new US investors while the company itself is asking investors for $300 million to fund its expansion into the United States.
Read MoreFourth time lucky for Vocus? The telco, Vocus will open its books exclusively to AGL Energy, less than a week after a Swedish private equity group, EQT withdrew its non-binding approach after doing due diligence.
Read MoreFriday saw the changing of the guard at the top of the list of most valuable US companies confirmed after shares in Microsoft surged into record territory Friday and pushed the veteran software giant’s market cap above the $US1 trillion mark.
Read MoreGold and oil futures fell Monday in the wake of the ending – for now – of Donald Trump’s brief tariff attack on Mexico.
Read MoreGlobal sharemarkets did well on Monday with an easing in the tensions in Trump’s trade wars and growing expectations of a rate cut later this year in the US.
Read MoreChina’s exports unexpectedly rose 1.1% in May from the same month in 2018, but imports also surprised with a larger than expected slide of 8.5%.
Read MoreWhile China’s iron ore and coal imports rose in May, shipments of other key commodities weakened despite world prices for all commodities (bar iron ore) falling towards the end of May.
Read MoreDespite the surprise 8.5% slide in Chinese imports in May the country’s imports of iron ore and coal rebounded in May.
Read MoreOn Monday Japan reported economic growth of 0.6% for the March quarter from the December quarter (up from 0.5%). The annual rate was 2.2%, up from 2.1% in the first estimate and a 1.6% rate in the 4th quarter of 2018.
Read MoreJobs dominate the local thinking in financial markets this week with the May Labour Force report to be released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Thursday and expected to show more new jobs were created last month.
Read MoreAGL Energy has surprised the market with a late revelation on Friday evening that a fault and surprise shutdown of a key generating unit at its most important Victorian power station means next financial year’s profit will be lower than previously expected.
Read MoreShares in Ausdrill, the mining services, and drilling contractor slid more than 7% yesterday after the company surprised with an impairment warning in an afternoon announcement.
Read MoreBank of Queensland has filled its vacant CEO role, a week after revealing a new chair.
Read MoreRio Tinto’s seemingly huge Winu copper, gold silver strike in the eastern Pilbara region of Western Australia is looking more interesting after the miner released more drill results to follow up on the first release of data in March.
Read MoreWith US oil prices in a bear market (that’s a 20% plus fall from the most recent peak), you’d think it would not be a good time to be talking up an oil field, especially in Australia. However, that’s what Santos has done.
Read MoreAmerica is starting to wallow in unsold oil with Brent and WTI prices hitting their lowest levels since January while US inventories have reached their highest levels in almost two years.
Read MoreDespite reports early Thursday of a tentative deal with the French government, it seems Fiat Chrysler has in fact withdrawn its 33 billion euro takeover offer for the French carmaker, Renault.
Read MoreVocus shares dropped dramatically yesterday after the company revealed late on Tuesday evening that would be suitor, Swedish private equity group EQT, was no longer interested in making an offer.
Read MoreDacian Gold has seen a 67% plunge in the value of its shares (to 51.5 cents) which emerged from a trading halt yesterday morning after a downgrade of production guidance for the current quarter.
Read MoreThe reason why the Reserve Bank cut rates this week and why at least one, and possibly two more cuts are very likely was shown in the March quarter National Accounts with annual growth slowing to its most sluggish since the GFC a decade ago.
Read MoreWall Street shares have surged after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell signalled the central bank was open to possible rate cuts later this year.
Read MoreANZ and Westpac failed to pass on the full 0.25% cut from the Reserve Bank to its mortgage customers and immediately faced pressure from the central bank.
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