Wheat Booms
World wheat prices finished the week at record levels in Chicago as continuing concerns about world stocks and falling production forced traders to cover.
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Markets UP?
A solid end to the week in the US means a solid opening here today,thanks to better than expected new home purchase figures in America.
Read MoreResults – IAG, CTX, SPT, ADG, CTY
Insurance Australia Group (IAG) has reported a 27% drop in annual profit to $552 million for 2007, a result that should not have come as that much of a surprise to the market and analysts because of the widespread publicity given to the two main factors.
Read MoreBHP Lifiting Local Markets?
Led by BHP Billiton, another solid profit reporting season seems to be lifting sentiment in the local markets.
Read More$A Bites Santos, Oxiana, Iluka
As suggested at the time of its half year production report, Santos was hit by the stronger Australian dollar in the six months to June which trimmed earnings noticeably.
Read MoreBig Changes In China
BHP Billiton is confident that the China growth story will continue.
Read MoreFlight Centre Up, Tabcorp Down
Travel agent, Flight Centre Ltd has revealed what all the buyout fuss has been about over the past 10 months or so.
Read MoreBHP’s Records
Eight successive half year record profits in a row, capped by the latest which pushed the annual result of the world's biggest miner up 35% to $US13.7 billion (or $A16.27 billion at yesterday's exchange rate of 80.24 USc for the Australian dollar).
Read MoreProfits: Woodside Up -Lihir Down
Oil and gold have been two very popular trading commodities (along with copper) for financial speculators such as hedge funds and other big funds.
Read MoreCSL Surges, Coles Ok, PBL Down
CSL is Australia's big pharma. A privatisation that was woefully under-priced and a magnificent deal for management and those early shareholders.
Read MoreBXB-AIO’s Stalking Two Step
Brambles is continuing its game of 'seek and tell' with its stalker, the Toll Holdings spin-off, Asciano Group Ltd.
Read MoreOST Cautious On Outlook
A day after BlueScope produced reasonable 2007 figures and a solid outlook, the country's other steel group, OneSteel, revealed more modest returns from 2007 and a more cautious outlook.
Read MoreVBA To Expand
On a strict comparison, Virgin Blue did better than Qantas did last year.
Read MoreBig Result For SEV
It's been a big year for Seven network and its 42% owner, Kerry Stokes.
Read MorePac Brands, GWA Results OK
The market didn't like Pacific Brands' 4.7% rise in full year earnings and the forecast of a 10% better effort this financial year.
Read MoreSituations – MBL, AUN, CCL
Macquarie Bank will be hoping there's no more 'events' to spook markets as the company heads towards an October meeting of shareholders that will vote on the long awaited plans to create a non-operating holding company structure.
Read MoreBSL Bounces
BlueScope Steel, Australia's largest steelmaker, had to battle the stronger dollar in the second half but still came up with a reasonable result in the year to June 2007.
Read MoreQBE’s Strong Half
Major insurer, QBE Insurance, boosted first half earnings by 56% for the 2007 financial year and has forecast a double digit growth in earnings for the full 12 months to December.
Read MoreProfits: SEK, REA
The market once again took a shine to the annual result from online jobs group, Seek.
Read MoreSituations – NCM, BXB, PRY, PBL, LEI
The turmoil and confusion on Friday meant that a revealing result from Newcrest Mining slipped past most investors.
Read MoreWatch The Dollar, Watch Oil
The value of the Australian dollar has emerged as the major variable for interest rates, along with the progress of oil prices for the next day or so with a major hurricane threatening the US Gulf Coast and oil producing facilities.
Read MoreMarkets 2: Where Now
So where to now for markets?
Read MoreMarkets 1… Why The Fed Cut
The US Federal Reserve galloped to the rescue to try and ease the credit lock up, not to bail out firms or boost equities markets.
Read MoreWES’s Coles Ambitions
Wesfarmers has ambitious plans for Coles if its takeover is successful.
Read MoreGood News From Qantas
Without all the subprime fear and the crunching happening in financial markets, the Qantas result should have produced a flood of 'we told you sos' directed at the board and management of the airline, especially from a couple of fund managers who went out on a limb in their early opposition to the $11.1 billion buyout from the Macquarie Bank-led private equity mob.
Read MoreBiotech; Mad Or Bad?
Perhaps the first time the world realised that the stuff of science fiction had a human dimension with genuine possibilities was in January 1998 when a Chicago physicist, Dr Richard Seed announced that he would clone a human being.
Read MoreA Nasty Day
The dollar plunged, and plunged, and its New Zealand counterpart went the same way. For a couple of hours our market and some in Asia went the same way, and yet when it was all over, the loss on the day was only just over 1%.
Read MoreBoral Hangs In There
There's a certain inevitability about Boral, the diversified building products group with exposure to the troubled Australian and US housing markets, as well as the booming resource and infrastructure industries.
Read MoreHealth Care Merger Still Has Hurdles
Despite the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission approving the merger of hospitals operator, Healthscope, and pathology, medical centres and pharmacy services group, Symbion Health, the deal is not a happening thing, yet.
Read MoreRetailers Go Well, Shares Down
It was a common story in yesterday's profit reporting flurry.
Read MoreCBA OK, Banks Sold Off
Amid yesterday's carnage on the market, especially in banking stocks, the Commonwealth Bank produced a result that would normally have prompted a bit of a rally in the sector.
Read MoreJBH Stands Out
Amid trading on what was a lacklustre and at times grumpy day on the market, JB Hi-Fi stood out with a 12% rise in share price, not earnings, which surged 56%.
Read MoreMarket Hears Cochlear Loud And Clear
Cochlear was another company to receive a volatile reception to what looked a decent result for the 2007 year.
Read MoreMarket Gives Leighton A Knock
So what happened at Leighton Holdings yesterday? A great result, beating guidance and the market gives it the thumbs down.
Read MoreRAMS Shakes Market
For all the fear and loathing there was yesterday in the wake of the announcement by newly-listed mortgage group, Rams, that its earnings would be materially impacted by the subprime mess in the US, its been obvious for quite a while that there was an impact here.
Read MoreWild Day For United
A wild day for shares in rail and infrastructure services company, United Group, with a strong rise, and then a very sharp fall in a day when the overall market finished around 1% higher.
Read MoreChina Booms, Japan Slows
Two very different reports yesterday from the two economies that matter most to us in Australia.
Read MoreMarket Likes Crane
Investors liked a lot of stocks yesterday in the modest rebound from Friday's nervy sell-off.
Read MoreWhat The RBA Said
The Reserve Bank's open-ended warning on interest rates breathed life into the Australian dollar, boosting it past the 85 USc mark as the punters and other speculators climbed back in the saddle after last week's nasty fall.
Read MoreChina Continues To Heat Up
Now another strong month of exports (and rising imports) for China would normally be seen as good news here in Australia…
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