China is stimulating again so it’s time to buy Straya! Dalian is still up 6% on yesterday: Big Iron is piling it on: Big Gas too: Big Gold hosed as bond yields jump: Big Bubble bought: Big Liar too. REA is launching as it goes into mortgage broking making it bubble central: Shame China isn’t
John Edwards AKA Mr Rainbow is back: Shrugging off slow first quarter growth in the US economy, the Federal Reserve increased its policy interest rate earlier this month, and intends to do more. Not long after, minutes of a meeting of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee surprised markets by revealing that three of
As Leith described so beautifully this morning, thanks to crazed levels of immigration the denizens of Victoria have been trapped in a whirring rat wheel economy for a decade, running full tilt while sliding backwards: Domainfax has produced a delightfully Seinfeldian take today on why Sydney should compete to occupy the same rodent trap: My
From Deutsche: Repricing of interest-only mortgages In recent weeks the majors have announced repricing initiatives targeted at interest-only (IO) mortgages. While they raised IO rates by 30-35bps, owneroccupier principal & interest (P&I) rates were reduced by 3-8bps. These moves were responses to regulatory restrictions aimed at dampening housing risks rather than responses to the bank
From Morgan Stanley: The consumer is not relaxed and businesses are struggling to relate. Recent reports from our sector teams add support to our crunch time thesis around the domestic cycle cash flow squeeze. Filling the cracks with materials is something to consider given meaningful PT upside (MS and Consensus). Consumption Crunch Playing Out: Discretionary
Via Bloomie: Michael Novogratz says cryptocurrencies could be worth north of $5 trillion in five years — if the industry can come out of the shadows. “The Nasdaq got to $5.4 trillion in 1999, why couldn’t it be as big?” the former hedge fund manager said in an interview, referring the Nasdaq Composite Index. “There’s
Via UBS: Innovation projects for FY 18 announced FMG has provided an update on its continued investment in projects to improve safety, productivity and efficiency. Productivity initiatives to include: 1) further roll-out of autonomous haulage technology (AHS or driverless trucks) at the Solomon Hub, 2) rollout of AHS across the Chichester Hub from FY 18
Via the ABC: Federal Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has vowed to reverse cuts to Sunday penalty rates if Labor wins the next election. Mr Shorten made the pledge at an Australian Council of Trade Unions conference in Sydney, as workers in the retail, hospitality and fast-food sectors prepare for a reduction in their take-home pay
Last night the Aussie was weak against USD and weaker still against EUR: It was firmer against other EMs: Brent jumped: Gold was flat: Base metals jumped: Big miners too: EM stocks were hit: And high yield was weak: Treasuries were hammered: And European bonds: While stocks cracked: It was a tale of four
Recall the recent spray from Rob Burgess at LVO: One of the issues certain to feature in the next federal election is Australia’s rampant population growth, more than half of which is due to immigration. It’s a vexed debate because it is usually conducted just a hair’s breadth away from xenophobia or blatant racism –
Via Banking Day: Westpac has swung the axe on a range of alternative mortgages marketed by its Bank of Melbourne and Bank SA subsidiaries. In identically worded memos sent to mortgage brokers on Tuesday, BoM and Bank SA announced that their fixed and variable rate low doc home loans would be withdrawn from sale on
There is nothing more precious in this life than your reputation. Not least if you are an auditor! Does anyone remember Arthur Anderson? Via the AFR: Government regulator the Professional Standards Councils has confirmed that public practice CPAs in Victoria will lose their protection from multimillion-dollar malpractice lawsuits, and that CPAs in other states and territories are also
Via the AFR: Malcolm Turnbull must put more conservatives in the cabinet and demote Christopher Pyne if he wants to hang on to his leadership and prevent civil war, senior conservatives say. As Tony Abbott stepped up his campaign to topple Mr Turnbull with a provocative speech over policy direction, the Prime Minister sought to
Iron ore price charts for June 27, 2017: Tianjin benchmark roared 6% to $59.10. Coal is calm. Steel too. The trigger of course was this, via SCMP: China would like foreign businesses to keep their profits in the country and reinvest them, Premier Li Keqiang said in his keynote speech at the World Economic Forum
Dalian just went sick: Big Iron is following: The trigger appears to be a speech by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in which described the momentum of world economic recovery as “insufficient“: Anti-globalisation voices emerging World political risks on the rise Momentum of world economic recovery insufficient economic growth needs to ensure fairness, sustainability limiting trade
He sure ain’t going away: Tony Abbott has delivered a stinging rebuke to the Turnbull Government sharpening his own vision for the country and politics in Australia, promising he is “in no hurry to leave public life because we need strong liberal conservative voices now, more than ever”. In an address delivered in Brisbane this
From Bloxo today: Sentiment indicators show a stark gap between businesses and consumers. While surveyed business conditions are around decade-highs and business confidence is well above average, consumer confidence is below average. Importantly, it’s not just a confidence effect – growth in household spending has been sluggish. The main drivers appear to be weak growth
And now for CBA: Commonwealth Bank recognises the importance of ensuring borrowers can sustain a strong path to property ownership and will be reducing our owner-occupier standard variable rate for those repaying principal and interest. From 7 July, customers paying off the home they live in will benefit from a lower standard variable rate of
Via the AFR: Westpac Group is set to whack self-managed superannuation fund property investors with tougher rates, policies and processes in the lead up to this weekend’s changes to caps on lucrative tax concessions being imposed by the federal government. The changes will also coincide with the Westpac and subsidiaries, Bank of Melbourne, BankSA, St
From Citi: The oil bears look to have taken perhaps their final fling as money manager net positioning as a percentage of open interest fell to ~7% and just ~1% above the all-time low in 1Q’16 when oil prices fell below $30/bbl. Money managers have a record level of short positions open on ICE
First, Market Matters (whoever they are): According to Market Matters analysts it’s not a crazy idea. Miners traditionally outperform during the upcoming period and after considerable pressure there could be a buying opportunity in some mining names. “Locally the market continues to underperform with stocks down by 1 per cent last week versus the US
Chinese iron ore port inventories are out for last week and we saw another rise of 2.5mt to 141.45mt, a new world record: Proof positive, if any more were needed, that the iron ore glut is so large that the price cannot hold up unless inventories accumulate. And then, of course, there is this: The
The Aussie was strong against USD and EUR last night: But weak against EMs: Gold slumped: Brent rose: Base metals lifted: Big miners were mixed: EM stocks took off: As high yield rebounded with oil: But the US yield curve sank to new lows: With more tightening European spreads: And stocks rebounded: In short, oil
Great piece today from Peter Hartcher on the astonishing wreckage of Donald Trump: Donald Trump is unique among US presidents not for his rough treatment of America’s enemies but of its allies. His Vice-President, Mike Pence, must be aware of the problem. He offered Julie Bishop a way around it: “If you ever have any
From The Australian: Analysis by The Australian suggests the Coalition would lose 20 seats — four in NSW, nine in Queensland, two in South Australia and five in Western Australia — if the election matched the state-by-state swings shown in the quarterly Newspoll survey published this week. Three cabinet ministers — Peter Dutton, Christian Porter
