Why St George-Westpac Merger Has More Value Than CommerzBank’s $16 Billion Buy
The proposed takeover of St George Bank by Westpac is looking more like a bargain for Westpac.
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Gold Output Down
Preliminary figures show that Australian gold production fell 7% to a 19 year low in the year to June.
Read MoreJapanese Inflation Up-Indian Growth Down
A nervous Japanese Government has revealed a US$105.8 billion (11,500 billion yen) economic stimulus package which includes an income tax cut, fuel subsidies and government loans to small and medium-sized companies.
Read MoreGold-Oil’s Rotten August
Gold fell, capping its largest monthly fall in more than four years as investors went all negative on it and other commodities as the US dollar turned up.
Read MoreDiary: Rates To Go Lower
In Australia, the Reserve Bank is expected to reveal its first rate cut on Tuesday after 12 consecutive 0.25% increases since May 2002 that have taken the cash rate up to 7.25%.
Read MoreLosses Win Headlines, HVN-AHE Profits Win Buyers
Amidst the flood of red ink on Friday, a couple of retailing results stood out: solid final results from Harvey Norman, and from the country’s biggest car dealer, Automotive Holdings.
Read MoreMarkets Mixed After Strong August
It’s hard to feel sorry for a bunch of investors in the US and here who think things are getting better.
Read MoreToyota Cuts 2009 Output Forecast
And Toyota has bowed to reality and has cut its 2009 car production forecast by 7% or 700,000 , thanks to the impact of high petrol prices on demand in the US, Europe and Japan.
Read MoreSuper Returns: Don’t Be Greedy
The AMP’s chief strategist and economist, Dr Shane Oliver says the slump in shares has boosted their medium term return potential.
Read MoreJapan’s Housing Slump
Without any publicity in Australia, the Japanese home building and construction sector has been hit by the collapse of at least four significant companies in the past three weeks.
Read MoreGPT Swears To Change
Not a word about the outlook for 2009, The management of GPT is still too busy dealing with the realities of 2008 and the damage done by the credit crunch.
Read MoreWoodside’s Oil Price Profit Ride
Woodside cracked the billion dollar profit mark for the first time in the June 30 half as it rode oil and gas price higher and higher.
Read MoreFLT Up, But Slowing
Like Woolworths, travel agent and operator, Flight Centre is looking for a slower and lower 2009 after a hectic 2008.
Read MoreLast Week Of June 30 Profits: Strains Emerge
If we thought last week was dramatic, with the huge profit of BHP Billiton, good to average results from a string of companies like Qantas, a poorly received effort from Wesfarmers, and bad news from Babcock and Brown, then the coming week will be climatic.
Read MoreThumbs Down For WES
Hmmm, went investors yesterday as they studied the annual figures of Wesfarmers, ‘this is not good, it’s really a resources company with all these other bits attached to it, including Coles"
Read MoreQantas 2008 Earnings Up, 2009 Down, But Well-Hedged
Qantas has increased its full year profit by 44.1 per cent but says it is starting to feel the effect of higher fuel costs amid an uncertain economic outlook.
Read MoreQBE’s “Difficult” Markets Experience
Investors hit major insurer QBE yesterday, despite it expressing confidence at being still able to meet its full year 20% profit margin target after reporting a 7% dip in interim profit.
Read MoreCredit Crunch Still Searching For Victims
The great credit crunch monster has struck again on two continents: pushing those desperate twins, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to the edge for the second time in six weeks in the US, and finally crunching financial engineer, Babcock and Brown in Australia, sending chairman, Jim Babcock into early retirement and CEO, Phil Green to the backbench.
Read MoreJapan: A One Quarter Slump?
Will Japan’s second quarter slowdown prove to be a one quarter wonder?
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