Thanks to McGrathmaggeddon we know exactly what to look for in over-inflated and poorly timed exit strategy IPO. Fairfax today announced something a little similar. It’s full year result was ordinary with falling revenue but costs falling even faster to deliver a rebounding net profit after big losses last year: Needless to say, shrinking to
By Leith van Onselen The Coalition’s staunch defence of negative gearing is looking sillier by the day, with a new survey of 13,000 people by the think tank The Australian Institute for Progress revealing that most people believe that negative gearing reform holds the key to housing affordability. From The AFR: Of all respondents 24
I am not very interested in Dominoes as a business per se. But I am interested in it as an exemplar of the wage…ahem…massaging business models that have taken hold in Australia’s service sectors. Adele Ferguson is clear today: Since it listed on the ASX in 2005 at $2.20, Domino’s shares surged more than 2500
By Chris Becker The USD led the charge overnight as advanced retail sales surprised to the upside, sending bond yields higher on even firmer expectations of another rate hike from the Federal Reserve before the year is out. Stocks were relatively flat in the US as a result, while European bourses advanced on good
By Leith van Onselen As expected, several “experts’ have lashed Dick Smith’s call to cut immigration, arguing that it would trash the economy. From The Australian: Economists and senior business figures have disputed Dick Smith’s claims that immigration is fuelling inequality and questioned his Grim Reaper campaign to save the nation from its “addiction to
DXY poured it on last night: Whether that is a double bottom I know not but the post-2014 support level has held. AUD was weak against USD and EUR: But strong against other EMs: Gold got hosed: Brent held: Base metals were mixed: Big miners weak: EM stocks held on: EM high yield looks to
Desperation has seized both the Government and Paul Kelly: Malcolm Turnbull is a prime minister prepared to “do and say anything to try to cling to power” — this is the lethal hyperbole from Labor’s Tony Burke in his assault on the government over the Barnaby Joyce crisis, his purpose being to destroy the Prime
Oh dear, via Chanticleer: One of the ugly sleeper issues buried in the 580-page statement of claim issued by financial intelligence agency AUSTRAC against the Commonwealth Bank of Australia is the accusation the bank failed to report its suspicions that a customer had links to terrorism financing. Under the law any suspicion of terrorism financing must be
Investing can be a volatile ride, the last few days have reminded us. The last few days have also reminded us why holding international equities is often beneficial for Australian investors – the Australian dollar acts as a shock absorber on returns when volatility hits, which is exactly the opposite effect that international investors get investing
By Leith van Onselen Yesterday, Melbourne Planning Minister, Richard Wynne, was all over the media trumpeting a new suburb in Melbourne named Mount Atkinson that would supposedly ease Melbourne’s housing affordability crisis. From Domain [my emphasis]: Construction of a new suburb in Melbourne’s west will begin before the end of the year, with plans to
By Leith van Onselen SQM Research has released its rental vacancy series for July, which revealed a 0.1% fall in the national vacancy rate over the month and a 0.2% decline over the year: As shown above, rental vacancies fell or were flat rose across all capitals in July. Over the year, decreases in vacancies
By Leith van Onselen With the release on Friday of the ABS’ housing finance data for June, it is an opportune time to once again plot CoreLogic’s dwelling price series against the total value of finance commitments (excluding refinancings) as measured by the ABS. Note: the ABS’ housing finance data is current to June 2017,
Iron ore price charts for August 15, 2017: Tianjin benchmark dropped $2 to $72.30. Paper lifted a little overnight. What coking coal is doing at $200 I have no idea. It has no Chinese policy support and supply is gushing all over. I still see the top here. So does Capital Economics: • The price
China’s July credit numbers were out and show ongoing strength with Total Social Financing at $1.22tr yuan and bank lending only 826bn of that: Shadow banking rebounded after a few months of downtrend: Year on year financing jumped after a weak July 2016: The rolling annual continues to lift: But M2 to fall: A mixed
Global Macro / Markets / Investing: Mobility and growth in top and bottom incomes – VOX Goldman Tops Banks Betting on a New Type of Hedging – Bloomberg Some Thoughts on Public Memory – Talking Points Memo Bitcoin Price Tops $4,400 As Crypto Market Nears $150 Billion – Coin Desk Shadow Fed is Glum on
by Chris Becker The bounce continues across Asia with green across the board for stock markets as the USD rallies on the back of renewed vigor for interest rate rises. The Korean situation has eased in terms of tension, giving markets respite as they follow the great start to the week from transatlantic markets overnight.
Launched a few hours ago from Canberra.
Via The Australian, the deal is off: Bob Katter says he will no longer guarantee supply or confidence in the government in another blow to the Coalition, which is still reeling from the fallout over the Barnaby Joyce dual citizenship drama. Mr Katter said it was “back to the drawing board” in negotiations for his support.
By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) today released new motor vehicle sales for the month of July, which registered a 2.0% seasonally adjusted fall in the number of sales over the month but a 1.8% rise over the year: Six jurisdictions reported decreases in new car sales in July whereas two
Via Domainfax: Foreign purchasers are buying as much as 40 per cent of all new apartments in Melbourne, with new figures showing a surge in a tax raised from offshore investment. Official data, released to The Age under freedom of information legislation, reveals that a tax on foreign buyers of residential property, introduced in mid-2015, has become
From the US Department of Commerce: The expected introduction of autonomous, or “self-driving,” vehicles (AVs) promises to have a potentially profound impact on labor demand. This paper explores this potential effect by identifying the occupations most likely to be directly affected by the business adoption of autonomous vehicles. In 2015, 15.5 million U.S. workers
By Leith van Onselen The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released visitor arrivals and departures data for the month of June, which registered another lift in annual net permanent and long-term arrivals, which remains at turbo-charged levels. In the year to June 2017, there were 742,810 permanent and long-term arrivals into Australia – up
From the happy idiots: Domestic Economic Conditions Members commenced their discussion of the domestic economy by noting that the June quarter inflation data had been in line with the Bank’s expectations and provided further confirmation that inflation had increased since 2016. Underlying inflation was ½ per cent in the June quarter and headline inflation was only
Via the Fed: The July jobs report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics brought welcome news on wage growth: Median weekly earnings rose 4.2% on an annual basis, the fastest pace seen since 2007. The underlying story about wage growth may be even better than the headline number suggests, according to updated work by
From Australia’s worst company, STO: That’s nearly $3bn in write downs on GLNG now. It only owns 30% of the great $18.5bn elephantine failure so over half of the carrying value is now gone. Worry not, the rest will disappear in due course as those oil forecast are never met. As it throws loss-making gas
