Corporate profits fall, inventories rise

Monday 3 December 2012

The ABS has released September quarter Business Indicators which feed straight into GDP and the news is mixed on the surface but poor underneath.

3Q Company profits fell 2.9%, survey was -3% prior was revised from -0.7% fall to – 0.3% fall.

Here are the sectors, check out mining:

Inventories rose 1.1% – suggesting either poor demand or a rebuild after the mid year splurge – prior was 0.6% rise, revised down to 0.3% rise but the trend is clear:

This will help GDP for the quarter but not production going forward.

AUDUSD fell over 30 pips on release, straight down. Could be job ads and retail too. All poor.

About the author

David Llewellyn-Smith is Chief Strategist at the MB Fund and MB Super. David is the founding publisher and editor of MacroBusiness and was the founding publisher and global economy editor of The Diplomat, the Asia Pacific's leading geo-politics and economics portal. He is also a former gold trader and economic commentator at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, the ABC and Business Spectator. He is the co-author of The Great Crash of 2008 with Ross Garnaut and was the editor of the second Garnaut Climate Change Review.