Japan; Getting Better
And Japan’s monthly report card for January was ruled off yesterday with unemployment remaining steady, deflation slightly easing, but consumer spending fall for a fourth straight month.
Read MoreAnd Japan’s monthly report card for January was ruled off yesterday with unemployment remaining steady, deflation slightly easing, but consumer spending fall for a fourth straight month.
Read MoreWell, guess what, retailing isn’t dead, despite what many half yearly reports from some of the industry’s leaders might have implied.
Read MoreYesterday we told you that iron ore prices would rise by an unexpectedly large 20% in the June quarter, with a further boost to come from India’s surprise move to boost taxes on iron ore exports.
Read MoreNo rate rise from the Reserve Bank yesterday and no sign of when they might move.
Read MoreGuess which company is now a stockmarket darling, despite a second half profit warning yesterday?
Read MoreA litany of bad and doubtful news from Downer EDI yesterday.
Read MoreJust when many analysts thought iron ore prices couldn’t go much higher there’s news of another round of big price rises in the offing.
Read MoreNo change in the economy’s current sluggish pace, judging by yesterday’s data.
Read MoreAs it forecast earlier this month, QBE Insurance, Australia’s biggest insurance group, saw a 16% fall in 2010 full year net profit because of lower investment yields and higher claims.
Read MoreIt’s not going to get any easier for markets in the coming week.
Read MoreOil prices ended higher but off their peaks on Friday after Saudi Arabia let it be known that it had raised production by around 8% to (to above 9 million barrels per day) make up for a near halt in Libyan exports.
Read MoreThe Australian December half earnings reporting season finished today with several large groups reporting interim of full year results See the Diary).
Read MoreThe interim results from Woolworths and Harvey Norman summed up the marketplace for the country’s retailers.
Read MoreThe economy dominates Australia this week, with the Reserve Bank board meeting tomorrow, the fourth quarter economic growth figures out on Wednesday, after the current account figures and other data today and tomorrow.
Read MoreThree results yesterday from Pacific Brands, Origin Energy and Fairfax Media all disappointed for one reason or another, and investors gave the trio a caning,
Read MoreThe gradual disintegration of Libya, coming after the collapse of the regimes in Egypt and Tunisia, plus demonstrations in Algeria, Bahrain, Yemen and talk of unrest on Saudi Arabia has combined to send oil prices higher.
Read MoreIf you had to pick one result from the 2,000 or so interims and finals we are seeing at the moment that best illustrates the vagaries of modern business life, but also how companies of all sizes have to guard against sudden, unexpected events, then Insurance Australia Group is the one.
Read MoreThis week’s Christchurch earthquake will make the list of very significant (or even the highest level, super catastrophic) insurance events for 2011.
Read MoreYes, the December quarter capex figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics yesterday were important for the 4th quarter growth figures to be released next Wednesday and for confirming that the resource boom is still alive and slowly taking shape.
Read MoreYesterday’s profit reports from the resources and linked sectors brought the good, the bad and the indifferent.
Read MoreAGL Energy confirmed a lower first half profit yesterday, thanks to the wet weather at the end of 2010.
Read MoreThe total impact of the two earthquakes at Christchurch will top 10% of New Zealand’s annual economic output, but it shouldn’t cripple the economy or cause a debt blow out.
Read MoreCoca-Cola Amatil Ltd shares rose yesterday after the company delivered on its lowered guidance for the year to December, and indicated that it had made a solid start to 2011.
Read MoreDavid Jones, Australia’s second-largest department store chain, may have joined the victims of consumer caution brigade among our retailers in the first half of 2011, but it certainly did better than arch rival, Myer.
Read MoreBHP Billiton has joined the great American unconventional gas rush, after basically missing the boat in Australia in so far as coal seam methane and other new gas sources are concerned.
Read MoreOneSteel’s South Australian iron ore export business has once again helped the group cushion the impact of an uneven market here and offshore for steel.
Read MoreProperty group, Mirvac lost $12.7 million in the six months to December 31 after making a $215 million provision for loss on inventories.
Read MoreWe saw solid results from regional media groups, Austar and Southern Cross yesterday, with both reporting improved levels of profitability.
Read MoreBusiness conditions softened noticeably again in the December quarter under the weight of sagging profitability and ahead of the impact of the January floods in Queensland and northern Victoria, and Cyclone Yasi at the turn of the month and early February.
Read MoreEven though Woodside Petroleum, Australia’s biggest oil and gas company, disappointed some analysts with the its 2010 result yesterday shareholders won’t have much to complain about with a higher final and full year dividend.
Read MoreCaltex Australia Ltd has more than doubled its full year dividend after a solid net profit for the year to December 31, sending the shares to a new 52 week high during trading yesterday.
Read MoreThe proposed purchase by West Australian Newspaper Holdings of Seven Media Group in a $4.1 billion deal will expand Kerry Stokes’ hold on the Australian media (and especially in Western Australia) and give him the capacity to do more deals.
Read MoreTravel group, Flight Centre expects its sold first half growth rate will run out of puff in the next few months of the 2011 financial year.
Read MoreBluescope Steel shares were sold down yesterday after the company produced what many investors said was a disappointing interim report and outlook.
Read MoreWall Street’s bull run continues unabated.
Read MoreIn Australia, the December half earnings reporting season climaxes this week.
Read MoreSilver stood out on Friday with a run up to new 31 year highs.
Read MoreInvestors will be looking for Fortescue Metals Group shares to come out of a trading halt this morning with the company telling the market if it is going to appeal a Federal Court Full Bench decision that supported an appeal from the corporate regulator against a lower court decision that had rejected ASIC’s claims that the iron-ore producer misled the market in 2004.
Read MoreThe coming week will see earnings and capital spending data released in Australia, a speech by Reserve Bank Governor Glenn Stevens, his first for 2010 and the second estimate of US 4th quarter economic growth.
Read MoreAmerica’s Standard and Poor’s Index is up 27% in five months and has doubled in the last two years (from a low in early March, 2009 of 666.79).
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