By Chris Becker An epic day of earnings releases on the local market – almost 60 companies, large and small reporting either before, during or aftermarket. There were some standouts and surprises, and with Fairfax reporting a massive loss today, there’s rumors twirling that Gina Rinehart is preparing to sell some or all of her stake
Fortescue is out with a good result. With the market giving it 3%: But from the annual report the following is woefully inadequate: That’s the Fortescue assessment for iron ore prices. I know ore is going to bounce some time, perhaps soon, but this is ridiculously thin coverage of the primary risk facing the company.
The uncertainty in the market has created something of an excessive focus on defensive investments, and Coca Cola Amatil has been one of the candidates for that play. Analysts are looking pretty non-committal. Merrill notes that the company “pretty much pre-announced its result” so it was very much in line with expectations. It has a
By Chris Becker First up – apologies for lack of updates, I was fighting the dreaded lurgy the past few days – and secondly, today’s Olympic Dam decision by BHP confirms my view of the shallowness of debate in this country about the mining boom, the economy, and of course the politics and ideology that
The reporting season so far has neither excited nor disappointed. Which means the market is likely to be buffeted by overseas currents, not that there is anything new about that. One would have to think that the strength of the $A would be making foriegn investors, about two fifths of the market, feeling nervous about
By Chris Becker It’s a fairly green day in Asian equity markets, well that’s the impression if you just look at the ASX200, which has closed up nearly 1% to 4370 points. I’ll take a closer look at the bottom of the post for a full roundup including technical analysis of the bourse itself. The Japanese
By Chris Becker Earnings reports started up again yesterday and are now accelerating with over 100 companies on the All Ords reporting this week. Full valuations, including position signals, portfolio allocations and Risk Scores for this week will be posted in the next edition of Macro Investor in the “Stocktake” section on Monday. Here’s Thursday’s wrap
By Chris Becker It was an upside down sort of day here in Asia, as half of the equity markets were up, the other half down, whilst bonds were smashed. The ASX200 had a great day, up over 1% or nearly 50 points to 4330 after bouncing off support yesterday. I’ll take a closer look at the
One has to chuckle when seeing the warnings from Commonwealth Bank of Australia chief executive Ian Narev that the country’s big banks may not have enough money to lend if economic conditions improved, which is putting pressure on the government to hold an inquiry into the financial system. Nothing like a “national debate”, it seems. Or “legitimate
By Chris Becker Earnings reports started up again yesterday and are now accelerating with over 100 companies on the All Ords reporting this week. Here’s Wednesdays wrap up, with some big hitters in the mix: Commonwealth Bank Ltd – (CBA) the nations largest bank delivered a record FY profit at just over $7 billion, right on estimates,
By Chris Becker Following on yesterday’s post about the complacency around volatility, as measured by the CBOE Volatility Index or VIX, and further questions around the blogosphere on who’s buying this rally, the next question to ask in this rally is where’s the volume? Normally, I don’t use volume as a technical indicator, but like margin
By Chris Becker Its a sea of red on Asian markets today as shorts continue to get slaughtered….well not really, at least the ASX200 is up just over 11% since its September lows, but has gone nowhere for 3 full years and down 37% from its nominal high in 2007. I’d say its a few Baby
By Chris Becker Earnings reports started up again yesterday and are now accelerating with over 100 companies on the All Ords reporting this week. On Tuesday, the avalanche continued, but it was mainly small and microcaps that we follow (and sometimes prefer) at the FARM. Ansell Ltd – (ANN) the health and safety protection provider, reported FY
The Goodman Fielder result has analysts pretty non-committal, suggesting a bottom may be in sight. The stock has underperformed the ASX 100 by about half since April of last year. The company reported a 29% decline in net profit after tax, but dividends may resume this financial year. The global trends are not especially propitious
By Chris Becker A slightly green day on Asian markets, with the ASX200 just finishing in the green after a volatile day, up almost 9 points to 4292 points. I’ll take a closer look at the bottom of the post for a full roundup including technical analysis of the bourse itself. The rest of Asia did better,
JB Hi Fi is an interesting weather vane for the health of the retail sector. Analysts are assessing it as pretty well priced, given its weakness. Merrill Lynch has a neutral recommendation, saying that the net profit after tax was in line with expectations but that it was down 46% on the second half of
By Chris Becker Earnings reports started up again yesterday and are now accelerating with over 100 companies on the All Ords reporting this week. On Monday we had a mixed bag with an ASX8 golden giant reporting, alongside some small and microcaps that we follow at the FARM. DWS Ltd (DWS) a small cap Australian IT company,
By Chris Becker Another interesting day on Asian markets again, with the ASX200 just finishing in the green, up almost 6 points to 4283 points. For students of candlesticks, you’ll get the reference in the cartoon above, and I’ll take a closer look at the bottom of the post for a full roundup including technical analysis of the bourse itself.
By Chris Becker These daily updates need to be placed in context with the longer trends and drivers amidst the overall technical picture, so head to Macro Investor for a free trial. Former “Trading Week” readers will find it reborn as “Technicals“, published 8.30am each Monday morning. This gets more and more interesting – for those of you who didn’t get
By Chris Becker Earnings continued yesterday and through to today, with four major companies reporting results, News Ltd (NWS), Telstra (TLS), Tabcorp (TAH) and BWP Trust (BWP). News Ltd (NWS), owner of The Australian and Business Spectator reported a net quarterly loss of $1.55 billion, or 64 cents a share, mainly on writedowns in Australian publishing businesses.
By Chris Becker These daily updates need to be placed in context with the longer trends and drivers amidst the overall technical picture, so head to Macro Investor for a free trial. Former “Trading Week” readers will find it reborn as “Technicals“, published 8.30am each Monday morning. Well another interesting day on markets, with the labour force figures in the
Given the growing signs of a downward trend in the iron ore price it is interesting to look at broker reports on Fortescue and Rio. Most vulnerable is Fortescue because of its gearing, but Merrill Lynch thinks it is a buy, with a price target of $6: “FMG announced they have secured US$1.5bn in short
By Chris Becker Earnings continued on Wednesday, with three major companies reporting results, Computershare (CPU), Stockland (SGP) and Rio Tinto (RIO). Computershare (CPU), which dominates the IT sector by virtue of its size, announced that FY net income fell 41% year on year to $156 million, well below analyst estimates of $242 million, but the market
By Chris Becker These daily updates need to be placed in context with the longer trends and drivers amidst the overall technical picture, so head to Macro Investor for a free trial. Former “Trading Week” readers will find it reborn as “Technicals“, published 8.30am each Monday morning. Might be time to leave that green green picture up there hey? The ASX200 is continuing
By Chris Becker Yesterday was the first day of the official earnings season, which disappointed mostly, and has continued with Rio Tinto (RIO) this afternoon, which reported 1st half net profit down 34% to $5.885 billion, but this was way above the expected $5.04 billion by analysts. There’s lots of stuff coming off the Bloomberg news
Harvey Norman is generally seen as a struggling retail stock but because of its franchise structure it is just as much a commercial property play. This is the point made by UBS, which has a buy on the stock and a price target of $2.20. “We continue to see value in HVN’s ~$2.1bn property book
By Chris Becker Yesterday was day one for earnings, and we’ve had quite a few surprises and non-surprises with announcements. First off the rank was Bradken (BKN), a major supplier and manufacturing of mining equipment, surprising estimates by posting a 49% leap in profit for the year. The stock lifted off on the result, closing up over
By Chris Becker These daily updates need to be placed in context with the longer trends and drivers amidst the overall technical picture, so head to Macro Investor for a free trial. Former “Trading Week” readers will find it reborn as “Technicals“, published 8.30am each Monday morning. Another fun, almost green day across the board as the
By Chris Becker It is upon us – the end of financial year earnings season for listed stocks on the ASX200. Not all are reporting over the next month or so, but 181 companies will by the end of September with a few more in October. This is going to be one of the most
By Chris Becker These daily updates need to be placed in context with the longer trends and drivers amidst the overall technical picture, so head to Macro Investor for a free trial. Former “Trading Week” readers will find it reborn as “Technicals“, published 8.30am each Monday morning. Now that was a fun day! Green, green across the
