Bad Medicine Sees Sigma Profit Drop 10%
Lower sales amid a softer consumer environment plus the loss of a key customer saw Sigma Healthcare suffer fall in full-year underlying revenue and earnings for 2017-18 financial year.
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Soul Patts, Brickworks Record Solid Results
Ticks from the market yesterday for the interim results from linked companies, Washington H Soul Pattinson and Brickworks (they own around 42% of each other.
Read MoreRBNZ Leaves Rates On Hold
In New Zealand this morning a different, but expected decision to the Fed’s rise with the Reserve Bank of NZ sitting on its official cash rate at 1.75%.
Read MoreFed Raises Rates, Signals Two More In 2018
As expected the US Federal reserve lifted its key interest rate – its first rate rise under new chair Jay Powell by 0.25% to 1.50% to $1.75%, sending Wall Street higher.
Read MoreCrown Shares Survive Packer Departure
Crown Resorts shares survived the news of chairman James Packer’s departure from the board for the second time in just over two years.
Read MoreEmbattled Myer Unveils Sea Of Red Ink
Myer, the struggling department store chain revealed the bad news to the market yesterday – lots and lots of red ink and no assurances that there won’t be more following later in the year.
Read MoreAcquisitions, Drought Drag On Nufarm
Farm chemicals company, Nufarm has posted a 40% fall in interim net profit to $12 million despite a 7% increase in revenue for the half.
Read MoreChina Deals Sours Fonterra
Massive changes across the Tasman at Fonterra, New Zealand’s largest company, which revealed a massive write down on a controversial Chinese investment, a net $348 million loss for the six months to January 31, and the looming departure of CEO, Theo Spierings.
Read MoreFacebook’s Loss Is Amazon’s Gain & Game?
Amid the fall out from the Facebook Cambridge Analytica data abuse story in the UK and US a major reranking of American stockmarket rankings occurred this week.
Read MoreRio Divests Coal Assets To Glencore
Rio Tinto has sold its Hail Creek coking coal mine in Queensland to Glencore for $US1.7 billion, expanding Glencore’s control over Australian coal exports.
Read MoreANZ Mulls UDC Finance Float
The ANZ Bank says it will now look at floating its NZ asset finance business UDC after a trade sale to a mystery Chinese company was blocked late last year.
Read MoreKathmandu Hikes Into US Footwear Deal
Shares in outdoor clothing chain Kathmandu were halted yesterday to allow a multi million dollar fund raising to take place that will finance most of the acquisition of US footwear company Oboz for $US60 million ($78 million).
Read MoreNBN Bites TPG Bottomline
TPG Telecom has cut interim dividend by three quarters to preserve cash as its mobile expansion plan gathers pace and the impact of the NBN bites the bottomline.
Read MoreMoody’s Ticks Wesfarmers Coles Demerger
Ratings agency Moody’s has joined Standard & Poor’s in Wesfarmers’ short and long term credit ratings a tick, even though the $18 billion spin-off of Coles weakens the conglomerate’s credit metrics.
Read MoreChina Property Investment Remains Intact
China’s solid property sector remains intact.
Read MoreFacebook Sparks Nasdaq Selloff
Hundreds of billions of dollars in value were wiped from some of the market leading tech and associated stocks on Wall Street on Monday, led by Facebook which suffered its biggest one day fall in five and a half years.
Read MoreRobotics Push Lifts Brambles
Brambles shares rose 2.4% yesterday yesterday to $9.90 at the close, as the market took on board the investor day briefing held late last week.
Read MoreGold Miner Beadell To Merge With Canadian Firm
Small Perth-based gold miner Beadell Resources is to marry Canada’s Golden Harp Resources in a $93 million dollar deal aimed at making the company an to achieve its aim of becoming an Americas-focused producer with better access to capital markets.
Read MoreDiary: Local Jobs, Fed Decision, Brexit Summit
Australian jobs, central bank meetings including the Federal Reserve, the Bank of England and the Reserve Bank of NZ, a bit more Brexit, a scattering of corporate results here and in the US and Europe, inflation readings from Japan and Canada later in the week, more Brexit talks and the Bank of England’s interest rate decision – just some of the things the markets will be eyeing this week.
Read MoreOil Price Treads Water As US Rig Count Jumps
Oil ignored growing US production and settled higher on Friday, following an intraday bounce that wiped out a weekly loss and produced a weekly gain.
Read MoreIron Ore Sells Off, Gold, Copper Also Weaker
A weak time for metals last week – iron ore, copper, gold all ended lower as the US dollar had another small gain – its 4th weekly rise in a row.
Read MoreAnalysts React To Wesfarmers Plan To Unwind Coles
Ratings agency S&P likes Wesfarmers news that it plans the spin off of 80% of its Coles supermarkets and liquor businesses to shareholders in the next year.
Read MoreASX Ends Week Lower As Banks Drag
The value of the Aussie dollar could dominate markets this week after it hit its lowest close of the year so far on Saturday morning at just over 77 US cents, as forex and other markets adjust to what looks like an inevitable lift in interest rates by the US Federal Reserve this week.
Read MoreACCC Stymies Aurizon Rail Sale
Trouble for rail group Aurizon’s planned sale of its Queensland intermodal business with the competition regulator revealing severe reservations about the plan to sell it to Pacific National.
Read MoreChinese Tilt Lights Up Lithium Play Altura
Shares in lithium miner Altura Mining , jumped more than 7% yesterday after it confirmed market rumours that it is in takeover talks with its Chinese offtake partner and major shareholder Shaanxi J&R Optimum Energy.
Read MoreNewcrest Confirms Cadia Delays May Be Extensive
Newcrest Mining shares fell yesterday for the 6th session in a row as the company battles with the impact of the partial failure of a tailings dam wall at its huge Cadia gold and copper mine in central NSW.
Read MoreKiwi GDP Comes In Lower Than Expected
Growth in the NZ economy was a bit weaker than forecast in the 4th quarter of last year, but a booming services sector and solid household spending offset the impact of drought on the vital dairy industry and helped the New Zealand economy grow by just on 2.9% in 2017.
Read MoreTrade War Worries Sink Wall St
The ASX will start slightly weaker this morning after Wall Street sold off for a third day in a row on growing fears about the impact of President Trump’s tariffs and ambitions to start a trade war with China and anyone else he doesn’t like.
Read MoreChina Industrial Production Beats Estimates
The solid start for the Chinese economy in 2018 has been confirmed by the release yesterday of industrial production and other data for January and February (to smooth out the impact of the late Lunar New Year in mid-February).
Read MoreKiwi GDP Set To Improve
New Zealand is expected to produce a much stronger set of national accounts and GDP numbers for the last quarter of 2017 later today.
Read MoreGalena Mining Soars On “New World Class Resource”
Shares in Perth-based Galena Mining leapt 27% to $1.22 at one stage yesterday after it confirmed that it has a significant high grade lead and silver find in the Gascoyne region of WA.
Read MoreSurprise Support For Dividend Imputation Changes
The ALP’s plan to end the tax free dividend imputation returns to retiree shareholders has won support from a surprise quarter – Sydney analyst Gareth Brown whose Forager Funds group manages $370 million in several groups.
Read MoreOz Business Conditions Touch Record Highs
Australian business conditions hit the highest level yet recorded in the National Australia Bank’s monthly survey which has been going since 1997.
Read MoreRio Tinto’s Mongolian Woes Roll On
More corruption claims for Rio Tinto, this time in Mongolia where the mining giant is in an increasingly nasty dispute with the government and fellow shareholder in the giant Oyu Tolgoi gold and copper project.
Read MoreEmeco Rebuffs Sale Speculation
Shares in mining equipment supplier Emeco Holdings were dumped yesterday afternoon after it rejected suggestions it might be sitting on an unknown bid.
Read MoreUS Energy Administration Warns On Boom In US Shale
More US oil for traders in the commodity to worry about.
Read MoreNewcrest Confirms “Adverse” Impact From Dam Breach
Shares in Newcrest Mining took a whack yesterday after the gold and copper miner confirmed it is expecting an “adverse” financial impact from the dam wall breach at its huge central western NSW gold and copper mine at Cadia.
Read MoreBHP Deal Sees Woodside Take Control Of Scarborough Gas
Woodside is moving close to controlling the huge Scarborough LNG project off the Northwest coast of WA with news that it and the remaining partner, BHP, have agreed to Woodside will be the operator.
Read MoreEmbattled McGrath Provides Another Profit Warning
More revenue and profit woes for embattled listed real estate agency McGrath Ltd as it reveals its second or third earnings downgrade of the year so far.
Read MoreCadia Dam Wall Collapse To Pressure Newcrest
The Newcrest share price will come under pressure today after more problems at the company’s huge Cadia gold mine in the central West of NSW.
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