(18 April 2019, AFR, online, William McInnes) ‘Australian shares closed slightly higher on Thursday as broad market optimism outweighed heavy losses in the healthcare sector. The S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 3.4 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 6259 while the broader All Ordinaries slid by 0.4 points to 6349.9.’ Read more at AFR.com (might need … Continue reading
(19 April 2019, The Age, p12, By Swati Pandey) ‘A bumper run in jobs extended to March and more people went looking for work, official data on Thursday showed, a sign the labour market remains strong despite a small uptick in the unemployment rate. The local dollar jumped about a quarter of a US cent … Continue reading
(19 April 2019, The Age, Business, p27, By Heather Long) ‘A noticeable shift has taken place on Wall Street and among many economists and business leaders in recent weeks: Fears of an imminent recession have faded and been replaced with cautious optimism, especially about 2020, a trend that bodes well for US President Donald Trump … Continue reading
(18 April 2019, AFR, p58, Mark Draper) ‘Investors should pay attention to the next few months of leading economic indicators, and position their investments accordingly. With the graphs of leading Australian economic indicators taking on the shape of a waterfall, investors would be wise to dust off the play book about how to invest in … Continue reading
(18 April 2019, AFR, p49, Larry Schlesinger) ‘New home buyers who purchased Melbourne housing lots at the peak of the market are scrambling for cash to settle their contracts or risk defaulting due to valuations coming in tens of thousands of dollars below what they agreed to pay 12 to 18 months ago. The valuation … Continue reading
(18 April 2019, AFR, p14, Michael Smith) ‘Shanghai | China’s growth stabilised at 6.4 per cent in the first quarter, helped by improved factory output in March and stimulus from Beijing aimed at arresting a broad slowdown in the world’s second-biggest economy. The growth in gross domestic product (GDP) matched the fourth quarter of last … Continue reading
(17 April 2019, AFR, p29, Vesna Poljak) ‘The futures market has elevated the chance of an October interest rate cut to a done deal, and bumped up the probability of an August cut to 76 per cent, after the Reserve Bank revealed worsening unemployment and below-target inflation would trigger policy easing. In outlining its thinking … Continue reading
(17 April 2019, AFR, p29, Sarah Turner) ‘The Australian mining sector is now worth more than the banking sector but, even with a strong performance from the country’s top resource companies, Morgan Stanley’s Chris Nicol doubts the ASX can extend a strong first-quarter into the end of the year. Morgan Stanley expects the S&P/ASX200 Index … Continue reading
(16 April 2019, AFR, p38, Michael Bleby) ‘Australia’s decline in housing new investment is likely to be twice as deep as the Reserve Bank expects, with a dip close to 20 per cent over the next two years, National Australia Bank says. While the decline will still leave home-building – which has surged in capacity … Continue reading
(16 April 2019, AFR, p29, Divya Balji) ‘The wall of worry surrounding Asia’s double-digit stock market growth this year just got another impetus: equity ETFs inflows have dwindled. Despite a 9 per cent increase to $US502 billion ($700 billion) in assets under management for Asia equity exchange-traded funds so far this year, net inflows have … Continue reading
(16 April 2019, AFR, p12, Tian Ying) ‘Beijing | An iPhone assembler, e-commerce emporium and real-estate developer typically don’t compete in the same business – except when it comes to electric vehicles in China. That’s because of a seismic shift toward EVs, which has spurred billions of dollars in investments by traditional carmakers, startups and … Continue reading
(15 April 2019, AFR, p22, Vesna Poljak) ‘A rally in Wall Street banks on Friday following JPMorgan’s better than feared quarterly earnings lifted market confidence as Jamie Dimon declared that US growth “could go on for years” and there will be no recession before 2022. Mr Dimon, who presides over the largest bank in the … Continue reading
(15 April 2019, AFR, p19, James Fernyhough) ‘A worldwide increase in natural catastrophes is already hitting global supply chains and causing a spike in business interruption insurance claims, a senior executive with Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty has warned. AGCS chief regions and markets officer Sinead Browne said this trend, which she directly linked to … Continue reading
(15 April 2019, AFR, p8, Duncan Hughes) ‘Weekend property sales were boosted as sellers in inner Sydney and Melbourne cut prices by up to 20 per cent to seal deals in sluggish markets. Overall auction clearance rates held above 50 per cent for the fourth consecutive week in the last big weekend of sales before … Continue reading
(12 April 2019, AFR, p37, Valentina Romei) ‘London | The middle classes in developed nations are under pressure from stagnant income growth, rising lifestyle costs and unstable jobs, and this risks fuelling political instability, a new report by the OECD has warned. The club of 36 rich nations said middle-income workers had seen their standard … Continue reading
(12 April 2019, AFR, p23, Hans van Leeuwen) ‘London | The European Union’s 27 leaders have given Britain until Halloween to find a way out of its intractable Brexit impasse, following a six-hour summit in Brussels on Thursday (AEST). British Prime Minister Theresa May will now return to London to sell the plan to an … Continue reading
(12 April 2019, The Age, Business, p31, By Jackie Edwards) ‘When a country’s economic growth slows, its stock market usually follows suit. Not in Australia. Despite a backdrop of troubling economic signals, the nation’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index rallied almost 10 per cent in the first quarter – its best-ever performance to begin a year … Continue reading
(10 APril 2019, AFR, p39, By: Josh Wingrove and Theophilos Argitis) ‘Canada housing starts rebounded in March from a sluggish performance a month earlier, returning to levels more in line with demographics and highlighting the buoyancy of the nation’s battered real estate market. Builders started an annualized 192,527 homes in March, the Canada Mortgage and … Continue reading
(10 April 2019, AFR, p34, Su-Lin Tan) ‘The number of owner-occupier home loans in arrears is rising, albeit from a low base, as borrowers struggle over the switch to principal and interest from interest only loans, the latest data from S&P Global Ratings shows. The Standard & Poor’s Performance Index for owner occupier arrears rose … Continue reading
(10 April 2019, AFR, p12, Jacob Greber) ‘Washington | Australia’s economic growth will slow at almost twice the speed of other advanced nations this year, according to the International Monetary Fund’s latest outlook, which also includes a substantial downgrade to global expansion because of Donald Trump’s tariff wars. Australia’s gross domestic product growth will cool … Continue reading
(9 April 2019, AFR, p34, Michael Bleby) ‘The number of vacant investor-owned properties in Melbourne remains high, with as many as 16.2 per cent homes sitting empty, according to the latest Speculative Vacancies report based on 2017 water usage data. The proportion of investment homes using less than 50 litres per day – equivalent to … Continue reading
(9 April 2019, AFR, p31, Nick Lenaghan) ‘Hong Kong-listed developer Far East Consortium has shrugged off negative sentiment around the housing market to take over a 68-level apartment project in central Melbourne in a $90 million deal. Far East’s move effectively represents the first sign of a big player positioning for the next stage of … Continue reading
(9 April 2019, AFR, p28, Laura Millan Lombrana and Jack Farchy) ‘Santiago | Giant mines currently under construction will churn out an additional 1 million tonnes of copper through 2023, but that won’t be enough to fully close an expected gap between supply and demand in the next few years. Industry analysts and executives descending … Continue reading
(8 April 2019, AFR, p23, Timothy Moore) ‘First-quarter reporting season begins in the United States this week, with JPMorgan and Wells Fargo first off the rank, and the outlook is not particularly optimistic. Morgan Stanley’s chief US equity strategy Michael Wilson said he expected the March quarter to be the first quarter where year-over-year earnings … Continue reading
(8 April 2019, AFR, p21, Chris Giles) ‘The global economy has entered a “synchronised slowdown” which may be difficult to reverse in 2019, according to the latest update of a tracking index compiled by the Brookings Institution think-tank and the Financial Times. Sentiment indicators and economic data across advanced and emerging economies have been deteriorating … Continue reading
(8 April 2019, AFR, p3, Ingrid Fuary-Wagner) ‘Sydney homeowners are increasingly pulling their homes from auction before the big day while some Melbourne properties are now selling for less than their council valuations. Melbourne recorded a preliminary clearance rate of 56 per cent over the weekend from 775 scheduled auctions compared to a slightly higher … Continue reading
(8 April 2019, AFR, p1, Jacob Greber) ‘Washington | Australia’s housing market contraction is worse than first thought, says a top IMF analyst, leaving the economy in what he called a “delicate situation” that boosts the need for faster infrastructure spending and even potential interest rate cuts. In an exclusive interview, the International Monetary Fund’s … Continue reading
(6 April 2019, AFR, p25, Sarah Turner) ‘Super-strong retail sales growth and the windfall promised to households from the federal budget amount to firm signs that the gloom is lifting for the beleaguered consumer, diminishing the case for interest rate cuts. Seasonally adjusted retail sales lifted 0.8 per cent in February, surprising market economists who … Continue reading
(5 April 2019, AFR, p33, John Plender) ‘With more than $US10 trillion ($14 trillion) of bonds showing negative yields across the world, we are clearly in increasingly deflationary times. Investors and policy makers are rightly worried that the global economy is slowing far faster than most had assumed before the turn of the year. The … Continue reading
(5 April 2019, AFR, p10, Duncan Hughes) ‘Two out of three Melbourne apartments sold off the plan during the past eight years have made no price gains, or have lost money upon resale, despite a property boom and record immigration, according to analysis by BIS Oxford Economics. In Brisbane about half are selling at a … Continue reading
(5 April 2019, AFR, p3, Matthew Cranston) ‘Growth in lending to Australia’s economic engine room of small business has dived, according to analysis of Reserve Bank of Australia data, and while banks say their doors are open, small business operators insist they are not. Analysis by The Australian Financial Review shows growth in bank loans … Continue reading
(4 April 2019, AFR, p45, Larry Schlesinger) ‘Office rents on Melbourne’s St Kilda Road boulevard are surging to new highs as vacancy rates tumble and cost-conscious tenants seek alternatives to the pricey, tightly-held CBD office market. Local fund manager Vantage Property Investments, led by Hamish de Crespigny and Matt Spring, is claiming a new record … Continue reading
(4 April 2019, AFR, p40, Ingrid Fuary-Wagner) ‘A sharp fall in property sales across Australia, with record lows in regional Victoria, South Australia and Queensland as well as Darwin over the December quarter, is indicative of a bank-driven credit crunch rather than dampened demand from a Sydney and Melbourne-concentrated downturn, industry experts say.’ Read more … Continue reading
(4 April 2019, AFR, p37, Stephanie Kelly, Reuters) ‘New York | Oil prices hit their highest level so far in 2019, with Brent crude approaching $US70 a barrel, on the prospect that more sanctions against Iran and further Venezuelan disruptions could deepen an OPEC-led supply cut. Brent futures reached a session peak at $US69.51 a … Continue reading
(4 April 2019, AFR, p36, Robert Burgess) ‘Of all the reasons given for the slowdown in the global economy, it seems the world’s ballooning debt load has fallen to near the bottom of the list. Perhaps it’s because interest rates haven’t shot higher as many expected, but high debt has other negative implications that may … Continue reading
(4 April 2019, AFR, p16, Simon Evans and Sue Mitchell) ‘Harvey Norman executive chairman Gerry Harvey expects a positive ”domino effect” on consumer spending from the federal budget tax cuts, which will prompt shoppers to buy shoes, fridges and televisions. “I think it will be across the board and it will have a domino effect,” … Continue reading
(4 April 2019, AFR, p5, Matthew Cranston) ‘Australia achieved a record trade surplus of $4.8 billion in February, smashing the previous record of $4.67 billion in December 2016, largely thanks to higher iron ore prices. The result was the largest monthly surplus since data was first published in 1971 and convincingly beat market expectations – … Continue reading
(4 April 2019, AFR, p5, Vesna Poljak) ‘Retail sales growth smashed expectations in February, rising 0.8 per cent and beating the 0.3 per cent result the market was looking for. Sales growth in January was just 0.1 per cent, seasonally adjusted. The latest report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics puts a dent in the … Continue reading
(4 April 2019, AFR, p4, Simon Evans) <snipped…> ‘…It comes as figures from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries showed that new vehicle sales slumped by 7.1 per cent to 99,442 in March compared with the same month a year ago. This marked the 12th successive month in which new vehicle sales had dropped compared … Continue reading
(29 March 2019, AFR, p31, Vesna Poljak) ‘Australian 10-year bond yields have hit a fresh record low of 1.73 per cent, and half a percentage point of interest rate cuts by the Reserve Bank is now fully priced in by the futures market, which sees the cash rate at 1 per cent in August 2020. … Continue reading
(29 March 2019, AFR, p15, Hans van Leeuwen) ‘London | More than 1000 days have passed since the Brexit referendum in June 2016. There are just 15 days to the new Brexit deadline of April 12. It simply beggars belief that Britain’s politicians could still be at the stage of scribbling ideas on butcher’s paper, … Continue reading
(29 March 2019, AFR, p15, Hans van Leeuwen) ‘London | Britain sank even deeper into the Brexit mire on Thursday as British Prime Minister Theresa May looked set to fail in a third attempt to pass her beleaguered exit deal – despite a desperate pledge to quit if eurosceptic Conservatives backed it – while MPs … Continue reading
(29 March 2019, AFR, p14, Michael Smith) ‘Shanghai | The mixed messages around China’s appetite for Australian coal has rattled Canberra, wiped billions of dollars off mining stocks and raised some uncomfortable questions about our economic dependency on China’s slowing economy. Imports are clearly falling as China ramps up environmental checks, and holds up shipments … Continue reading
(29 March 2019, p9, John Kehoe) ‘Australians have suffered their largest losses in household wealth since 2011 due to falling house prices and a share market plunge late last year. New official figures have quantified that $257 billion was wiped from personal net worth in the December quarter, an average of $10,198 per person. Declining … Continue reading
(29 March 2019, AFR, p6, Matthew Cranston) ‘Job vacancies have grown 9.2 per cent in the year to February but the rate of growth has slowed considerably in the last three months. Job vacancies were up only 1.4 per cent in the quarter to the end of February in seasonally-adjusted terms, with construction, manufacturing and … Continue reading
(29 March 2019, The Age, Business, p26, By Stephen Bartholomeusz) ‘If any indication was needed to highlight the extent to which the global markets and economic environment have changed over the past six months, it came in the form of a German government bond issue on Wednesday. The Germans issued €2.4 billion ($3.8 billion) of … Continue reading
(29 Mar 2019, The Age, Business, p31, By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard) ‘The benefit of Donald Trump’s $US1 trillion ($1.4 trillion) fiscal stimulus is fading before China comes close to touching bottom. We have hit a global vacuum. If semiconductor sales are the canary in the coal mine for the world economy, be careful. Korean shipments fell … Continue reading
(28 March 2019, AFR, p33, Michael Bleby) ‘Apartment building has dropped to its lowest level in four years in Sydney, the country’s biggest builder of units, even as infrastructure and commercial work expands to keep overall construction activity at an unprecedented high level, RLB’s latest count of cranes across the country’s skylines shows. While weaker … Continue reading
(28 March 2019, AFR, p32, Ingrid Fuary-Wagner) ‘Property prices in Darwin are now back to the same level they were in 2007, with anyone who bought a home in the Northern Territory capital in the last 12 years potentially out of the money. An exclusive analysis by CoreLogic for The Australian Financial Review shows a … Continue reading
(28 March 2019, AFR, p31, Su-Lin Tan) ‘The supply of greenfield housing lots on Australia’s east coast in 2018 has fallen to five-year lows matching the constricting supply of new apartments as new-home construction continues to crunch down amid poor demand and curbed mortgage lending, UDIA’s latest State of the Land report shows. Between 2017 … Continue reading
(28 March 2019, AFR, p13, Michael Smith) ‘Shanghai | Profit growth at China’s large industrial companies fell sharply in the first two months of the year, in the latest sign that the world’s second-largest economy is slowing as it edges closer to securing a trade deal with the United States. Industrial profits, a measure of earnings for … Continue reading
