Australian Shares

By Chris Becker An ebullient day in Asia translated to a solid session in Europe before the American markets came back to reality a bit as oil prices dragged energy stocks down.

Some very solid analysis from Citi today: The miners have experienced a nice rise in 2015 so far and it is now time to figure out if this is just some positive ‘noise’ within a sector which may continue to disappoint in the next few months.

Chris Weston, Chief Market Strategist at IG Markets Greece is solved, so get involved as some say; but this is far from the truth.

From the SMH: The sharemarket is the most expensive it has ever been outside of the worst excesses of the dot-com bubble, as global investors in recent weeks have joined Australian in a headlong chase for yield.

Evidently, from the Dad’s Army: UGL says the outlook for the engineering and construction sector remains challenging after swinging to an interim net loss in its first result since offloading its DTZ business last year.

From the SMH: Banks say more clients are using borrowed money to invest in shares, with margin lending to retail investors growing strongly as the sharemarket edges closer to 6000 points.

By Chris Becker It’s not just Queensland and northern NSW that will wake up this morning after a wet weekend with news of a “compromise” deal with Greece sure to make the locals wonder when the rain will stop.

Chris Weston, Chief Market Strategist at IG Markets Considering as markets are of the belief that Greece is likely to receive confirmation of its loan extension today, there doesn’t seem to be much in the way of euphoric trading.

Another nice piece today from Chris Joye on the bizarro world of ZIRP in which we find ourselves: By fiddling with risk-free rates, governments can manipulate all asset prices, which is tempting when politicians are searching for short-term wins.

No Macro Morning today as Chris Becker battens down the hatches in the path of TC Marcia (miner flooding and power outages already and he’s some distance away).

Stan Shamu for Chris Weston, Chief Market Strategist at IG Markets Markets cautious as Greece deadline approaches Optimism remains rampant in global equities with investors focusing on the latest Fed meeting minutes and any developments on the Greece front.

From the AFR: It’s worth noting that Australian equities have lagged behind the US and European bourses in recent years, due to the end of the mining boom – a large portion of the ASX200 index is made up of mining stocks.

Via The Australian, UBS reckons not much higher: Australian shares may be close to a peak after running well ahead of any improvement in earnings expectations after a “decent” earnings season so far, according to UBS.

By Chris Becker Last night ended with scratch results in most overseas bourses as mixed economic prints, a very dovish set of FOMC minutes and no clear outcome of the Greek debt crisis kept risk holstered.

Chris Weston, Chief Market Strategist at IG Markets Asia markets have really been limited to Japan and Australia today, with most of the region celebrating the Chinese New Year festivities.

By Chris Becker Back from a long weekend, US markets shrugged off European debt concerns and pushed risk higher with the S&P500 above 2100 points for the first time ever, while gold and silver were slammed as USD took a breather.

Stan Shamu for Chris Weston, Chief Market Strategist at IG Markets China rallies ahead of the Lunar break With US markets closed yesterday, it was up to Europe to give Asia some direction.

By Chris Becker Risk markets continued to focus on the Greek debt crisis, with talks last night at the Eurogroup meeting breaking up on plain speaking by the Greeks.

Chris Weston, Chief Market Strategist at IG Markets Being long developed market equites continues to be the right trade, unless of course you think ultra-short-term and scalp the markets.

by Chris Becker Friday the 13th was not a bad night after all on risk markets, with a surprisingly good German 4Q GDP lifting all boats amid continued optimism of a Greek debt resolution soon.

Stan Shamu for Chris Weston, Chief Market Strategist at IG Markets ASX 200 rallies to a six year high The global market rally seems to be back on, aided by some optimism on the European front.

By Chris Becker Risk markets are up, even though there has been no resolution from the Greek crisis and there was a poor December retail sales figure from the US, as oil rallied nearly 5% again, with news that a ceasefire in Ukraine is imminent probably the main cause.

Stan Shamu for Chris Weston, Chief Market Strategist at IG Markets Traders hold their breath on Greece Global markets seem to be in unchartered waters right now with the Greece issue presenting significant uncertainty.

Here’s an absolute beauty from The Age: Here are 11 reasons fund managers have given us about why they see more upside in bank shares: 1.

By Chris Becker The emergency EuroGroup meeting last night on the Greek debt crisis kept most risk markets in limbo in the last 24 hours, with a possible resolution leaking out to the newswires this morning, sending some futures racing up.