Earnings: Big Banks Face Testing Week
Three of Australia’s top banks are set to report record profits this week, but did Macquarie tip their hand on Friday with a surprise lift in dividend?
Read MoreThree of Australia’s top banks are set to report record profits this week, but did Macquarie tip their hand on Friday with a surprise lift in dividend?
Read MoreGold up, silver up, oil a bit firmer, Wall Street up, April was a month on the up and up for many markets and investment classes.
Read MoreIt’s easy to see why Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is looking at two large acquisitions on the scale of its $US9 billion cash purchase of chemical company Lubrizol Corp.
Read MoreA very big week ahead for the economy in Australia, the US, Europe and the UK, not to mention China and other economies in Asia.
Read MoreAccording to the federal government, there’s a new deal for investors from the long awaited reforms released yesterday.
Read MoreThe first rounded glimpse of the damage done to the economy of Australia’s second biggest trading partner reveals damage much larger than expected, but confidence in the recovery undiminished.
Read MoreAs expected, New Zealand’s Reserve Bank has kept interest rates unchanged after its meeting yesterday and that situation will continue for some time to come because of the impact of the February 22 second Christchurch quake which will help keep core inflation under control.
Read MoreHigher oil and food prices, a falling dollar, weakening government spending and now US economic growth has come in on the downside of comfortable.
Read MoreAs expected, the flooding and big wet across Queensland since January has put a big hole in the production and sales performance of Macarthur Coal in the three and nine months to the end of March.
Read MoreAustralia’s third most important export market, South Korea, continues to grow strongly, as does the chances of another rate rise.
Read MoreStrangely, Standard & Poor’s yesterday put Japan on a creditwatch negative because of uncertainty about the amount of spending and borrowing for the reconstruction of the damage caused by the March 11 quake and tsunami and the impact of the Fukushima nuclear crisis.
Read MoreHeadline inflation was a bit stronger than expected in the March quarter, but that won’t force the Reserve Bank’s hand at its May meeting next Tuesday.
Read MoreAs expected there was no change from the US Federal Reserve after its two day meeting which ended early Thursday morning, Sydney time.
Read MoreA big week for the US, with the Federal Reserve expected to keep interest rates and its quantitative easing program on hold, and the first estimate of March quarter economic growth expected to show a sharp slowing.
Read MoreIn assessing the likely impact of the March quarter consumer price data later today, here’s a reminder from the minutes of the April 5 meeting of the Reserve Bank board which left rates unchanged.
Read MoreEquinox Minerals has found another Canadian company as its white knight to fight off the hostile bid from one of China’s largest mining and metals groups.
Read MoreLater today and tomorrow we will get a very good idea of the damage done to the Japanese economy by the March 11 quake and tsunami and then the Fukushima nuclear crisis which remains unresolved.
Read MoreIt’s a three-day week in Australia this week, with a fair bit packed into that time.
Read MoreThe AMP’s chief strategist, Dr Shane Oliver looks at the role played by investor psychology in investment markets and what it means for investors.
Read MoreJapan is facing several months of falling exports after reporting a 2% fall in shipments in March yesterday.
Read MoreHave no doubt; Coles Group continues to run rings around rival Woolies, no matter what anyone says.
Read MoreBHP Billiton is facing production and sales problems at its highly profitable Bowen Basin coking coal mines for much longer than previously thought.
Read MoreJapan’s Fukushima crisis continues to impact the nuclear power industry around the world.
Read MoreIt’s been a busy time for Transfield Services with two new service contracts announced after media speculation emerged that the company and UGL Ltd might be a good fit (according to media reports which reckoned UGL bosses could be interested in a deal).
Read MoreNo sign of a rate rise looming from the latest Reserve Bank of Australia board meeting minutes, so the slightly restrictive 4.75% cash rate remains on hold for another month or three, although the big test will come with next Wednesday’s CPI for the March quarter and then the April jobs data on May 12.
Read MoreQantas shares hardly moved yesterday after the airline boosted its fuel surcharge for a 5th time this financial year to where the extra cost is more than some domestic and international routes to NZ.
Read MoreIt’s not only production of iron ore, coal and uranium that have been impacted by the wet weather and cyclones across northern Australia since the start of the year.
Read MoreNewcrest Mining has downgraded its full-year gold production guidance following a 16% fall in production in the first quarter of calendar 2011 (the third quarter of its financial year).
Read MoreLeighton Holdings may have answered a ticklish question from the ASX yesterday about why it didn’t update the market about its profit drop and writedowns faster than it did, but its problems in the troubled Middle Eastern state of Dubai seem to be deeper than thought last week.
Read MoreShares in supermarket giant, Woolworths Ltd bounced around yesterday as investors struggled with the third quarter sales update.
Read MoreThe recent spate of natural disasters here and in New Zealand will see home and car insurance premiums rise "materially" in 2011, according to ratings agency Standard & Poor’s.
Read MoreWe had a China link up story yesterday with a small Australian company with lots of talk about big sales potential and profitability, but no immediate market reaction.
Read MoreShare prices fell and gold and silver charged to new highs overnight in the wake of more fears about Europe and Standard & Poor’s made the historic move and lowered its outlook for America’s long-term debt.
Read MoreInflation continues to worry markets (as we said in Friday’s weekly Air) with a spate of reports on Friday night adding to concerns, as well as a misreading of the latest US consumer price inflation.
Read MoreThe sharp increase in China’s inflation rate in the year to March has had an immediate impact with the Government again lifting the reserve asset ratio for banks to a new high.
Read MoreAustralian bank stocks got a boost on Friday ahead of the March interim reporting period early next month for Westpac, the ANZ and the NAB.
Read MoreGold jumped Friday and silver on a heady mixture of inflation worries in the US (which were groundless), higher oil prices and more worries in Europe about Greece and Ireland after the latter’s sovereign debt rating was cut by Moody’s.
Read MoreA short week in many countries because of Easter.
Read MoreIn February big global investors abandoned their reserve and went for risk, only to pull back in early March, before the March 11 disasters in Japan.
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