Conceal me what I am, and be my aid For such disguise as haply shall become The form of my intent. Shakespeare Summary Stocks rallied hard last night on the US and European markets after – well, choose your reason and stick to it really. Jobs? Corporate profits? No new meltdown? Cow mutilations are up?
On Tuesday I published Part 1 of a two part series on healthcare stocks. I described how the health care industry is in a market sweet spot – high levels of government support, recession-proof demand and a large group of wealthy, ageing consumers (Boomers) entering a time of their life where healthcare expenditure will significantly
One of the recent stock market puzzles is that, since it became obvious Australia would not be hammered by GFC, there has not been a significant rise in M&A activity. Over $100 billion in capital was raised on the market in response to the GFC. The supposed reason was to “maintain balance sheet strength” (translation:
The Future Fund announced recently that is has reduced its holding in Telstra (TLS) to below 5%, and is still selling. Future Fund, I salute you. TLS is still a telegraph pole stock – as in, any sane, rational investor shouldn’t touch it with a ten foot or even a telegraph pole. In this post,
Picking the direction of retail demand is an issue assuming considerable importance for investors in the stock market. It is a matter of deciding between two reversions to “normal” behaviour — consumption norms or savings norms. Many brokers are anticipating that consumer demand will be lower, but return to normal, which is why they have
The S&P/ASX200 index closed 0.91 per cent higher to 4,742.6 points on Friday, after a strong rebound rally. The index is up 116 points or 2.5% for the week, but still down 1.75% since the start of March and no movement at all for the year. For a primer on how I do my analysis,
Rio Tinto is complaining that governments are seeking rents when the rents should obviously go to Rio Tinto, as my co-blogger Houses and Holes pointed out. More pragmatically, is the stock accurately priced? Brokers are mostly putting buys on it, because that is the obvious thing to do. Yes, its very, very big — big
The Prince sent me a link this morning to an article in the Oz about the WAN-7 Merger, which I wrote about a couple of weeks ago. This quote in the article had me painfully coughing up my Weeties through my nose: “An independent expert’s report found Seven Media was worth between $519m and $986m
My co-blogger, The Prince, has devised a fine scheme to fund innovation that might prove highly effective. Which is why it will never happen, most probbaly. Still, to continue the practice of tilting at windmills, I wish to propose something else that might prove effective (and so also will probably never occur). Public funding of
The financial markets are starting to settle after the tsunami in Japan, although matters remain ominous in North Africa. Brokers are starting to return to more conventional analyses of commodity trends, suggesting that stocks will also return to more predictable valuations, experience less volatility. UBS is reasonably bullish on the effects of the earthquake on
Summary The S&P/ASX200 index eventually closed 0.4 per cent lower to 4,626.8 points today, after a wild rollercoaster ride. The index is down 200 points or 4.14% for the month and 2.4% since the start of the year. In effect, the XJO has gone nowhere since September 2009, rangebound between 4200 and 5000 points. In
Note: This is part 1 of a 2-part series on trading and valuing the big four Australian banks. Part 2 shall be forthcoming soon. Fellow equities blogger Sell on News completed an excellent thematic post on the bubble like growth of the finance industry recently. In the face of a likely change in how capital
With global markets facing a period of sustained uncertainty, it is worth taking a longer perspective, comparing the current conditions with the so-called “Goldilocks” economy that existed just prior to the GFC. It turned out then to be a case of all the three bears instead of Goldilocks, but at the time things seemed robust
It’s a scary and volatile world at the moment: floods, cyclones, earthquakes, tsunamis, US housing crashes, Aussie housing bubbles, the GFC, QEII, PIIGS, Japanese debt, revolution in the Middle East and Charlie Sheen. As the Chinese curse goes, we are living in interesting times. So what’s a bear to do? I’ve never been the “head
Today’s strong uptrend in almost all risk markets is not that surprising. In trader’s parlance, this may just be a “dead cat’s bounce“. Sorry for the awful terminology, but there it is. This broad correction offers both risks and opportunities for trader’s and investor’s alike. For the latter, it offers excellent buying opportunities in “Very
Given the enormity of what is happening in Japan, it seems a little trivial to be tracking the possible effects on Australian shares. The greatest concern will be the long term impacts on the world’s third largest economy and one of the power houses of the Asian region. Japan is a heavy consumer of Australian
Summary The S&P/ASX200 index closed 1.16 per cent lower to 4,644.8 points today, finishing a bad week for local stocks (if you are a buy and hoper). The index is down 3.94% for the week and just over 6% since the highs in February. Asinine commentary aside, justifiable fears are weighing on global markets, particularly
Well that didn’t take long – the ASX200 has corrected again this morning, with an intraday level at 4714 points. Readers may have noticed that I am still wrong about a possible rally! In my last regular weekly analysis I did mention however: But basic charting analysis suggests a more bearish stance: a classic head
After a quick holiday across the pond in NZ (luckily not near Christchurch), your blogger returned to Australia to the news that West Australia Newspaper Holdings (WAN) is going to buy the Seven Media Group from Seven Group Holdings (SVM). So a WA media monopoly is marrying the TV sideshow of a Caterpillar servicing business. I can’t wait to see their kids.
Amidst the heat and confusion about the carbon price, it does seem increasingly likely that some sort of tax will be applied. What does it mean for stocks? “Don’t know yet,” is the commonest answer, and not unreasonably so. But it is likely to hit the big emitters. The steel companies, BlueScope Steel and OneSteel
Having read with fear, bordering on terror, the percipient Houses and Holes’ blog Sell Signal, I am struck by how different broking analysis is from H&H’s dire world of lightning strikes and imminent turmoil. Grains, H&H informs us, may be decoupling. Metals are getting “smashed”. Wheat may be a give away. But none of that
Weekly Summary Apologies for not posting my regular end-week summary, but this blogger is feeling the combined effects of moving house and re-valuing the avalanche of HY earnings reports. What follows is my analysis from last week but with notes on today’s correction and what it may mean looking ahead for the rest of this
Investors in Macquarie Group might wish to avoid an article in The Economist, entitled “Can investment banks make high enough returns on equity to exist?” They may also consider it appropriate not to look to closely to Macquarie’s fundamentals. The gist of the argument is that investment banks will be “clobbered” by the new Basel 3 rules. For most types
There has been an interesting debate going on amongst some of my fellow bloggers in recent days about the meagre future return potential of stocks in developed markets. The return prospects for the US look particularly cloudy. And this is important, because as Sell on News noted today, the US still dominates the global markets
When it comes to investing in shares, Australians love paying high prices for former government-owned monoliths. And the love affair continues as Qantas (QAN) released its half years results with a headline $417 million underlying profit, before tax. The economic commentariat gave mixed reviews, with Royal Bank of Scotland saying the result was reasonable whilst
