Morning sports fans,

Well ,all eyes on the Fed last night as the end of an era came and went with hardly a bang more of a whimper really…QEIII is over …it is no more..it is not pining for the fjords, this QE is no more! He has ceased to be! ‘E’s expired and gone to meet ‘is maker! BUT in its place is the good old low rates forever policy….Yellen(not Screamin) last night was very enthusiastic about the US economy…she even noted ‘a range of labour market indicators suggests that underutilisation of labour resources is gradually diminishing.’So all systems go…now the market will just now bet on when rates rise..here’s my bet…we will get a token increase in March..nothing substantial but enough to say the panic station setting is over…I am no economist but to me that would send a positive signal that the great GFC recession had been banished and we can start to return to normal..

To our market Batman…yesterday we saw the divergence between the banks and resources at its most pronounced for a few days as banks gave up 1% and resources rallied..not really sure why they rallied apart from the fact that they maybe look a bit cheap….won’t last..gold got hit last night and dollar stubborn still…anyway the big news of the day is NAB..who would have thought that the UK would be such a disaster..isn’t it one of the best performing economies in the world and yet they still are doing their nuts there…so the solution ,flog it off..finally…yet another Aussie overseas expansion ending in tears from NAB..dividend was 99 cents so that’s good..so I reckon around 5.8% fully franked at current levels..try getting that on deposit!!!Suspect there may be some disappointment but it’s all about the yield stupid!!

Some toing and froing today as NAB gets digested…expect banks to make up some ground from yesterday and resources to lose some…SPI went nowhere last night..

Idea of the Day

 

You know what Xmas is coming..where has the year gone!!yesterday JBH had a massive run as the pessimism evaporated before punters eyes…now this one is a dog but its Xmas so maybe they can tempt Santa to come down their chimney…its MYR…saw the new ad last night..no more MyStore campaign..something about finding wonderful…so catchy…still apart from that if NSW is going gangbusters on housing maybe these boys will see a lift and do a JBH..of course they could get rid of Bernie..that would help…get Mark McInnes in and let Solly run it…or they could just get a tap on the shoulder from the great man…I still reckon this one is a sitter for a takeover..bad management and a final challenge for the king of retail..BUY for the Santa rally…

 

Things to make me go mmmmmm!!

Tomorrow we should know our allocation for Medibank..expect a scale back of epic proportions I suspect….

Scary Clowns!!! ‘Coulrophobia’ may make some sense…In France there has been a spate of attacks from Scary Clowns…knife wielding thugs have been dressing as Clowns and attacking people…of course here in Australia we have our own scary clowns…just they work in Canberra!!!

  

Big moves in the US  from Facebook, who reported yesterday and their shares tumbled 6.1% today as a result of increased spending plans. Hershey fell 3.3% after the chocolate maker cut its full year earnings forecasts and Orbital Sciences shares retreated 15.9% after its cargo rocket exploded on take-off yesterday.

Stocks in Mainland China posted strong gains following the end of the 4th Plenum with port stocks, railways and other transports surging on expectations of new stimulus measures.

Is this madness…I was under the impression that Iraq was keen to have us help them out with their extremist problem..they invited the SAS to go lend a hand (grenade).Trouble is the SAS boys can’t get their visas to enter the country so they are sitting in limbo somewhere in the Middle east twiddling their machine guns…really you couldn’t make this stuff up…you would think they would be fast tracked!!!

Liquor retailers are being offered huge discounts on Penfolds Grange for the first time in 35 years in what they say is a move by Treasury Wine Estates to clear out excess stock of Australia’s iconic premium wine….get in quick…

Big rally yesterday in JBH as chief executive Richard Murray said he is counting on shoppers filling their Christmas stockings with the latest smartphones and games consoles to help the consumer electronics retailer dig itself out of its sales hole.

If at first you don’t succeed,try again only smaller this time… Private equity firm Pacific Equity Partners sold a $218 million stake in credit reporting business Veda Group on Wednesday night.They tried last week to off load $600m of it but failed..bite size pieces it seems!!

One ounce of gold bought about 15.47 barrels of oil on Oct. 22, the most since May 2013. That’s up from an average of 12.52 since 2000 and 11.92 reached in June, which was the lowest since July 2013. The ratio was near 14.7 today….not a bullish sign for Gold I am afraid.

And from Japan, they are reopening a nuclear power station called Sendai…good call right next to an active Volcano..in fact not one but two active volcanos within 50 miles…and after a volcanic eruption wiped out a whole bunch of hikers recently!!

First white leader in Africa since Apartheid as Zambia goes with Guy Scott following the death overnight of “King Cobra” Michael Sata. Elections in three months.

Here’s a nice graphic on world debt…

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said he doesn’t think the Fed can unwind years of extraordinary stimulus without causing turmoil in financial markets.

“I don’t think it’s possible,”

 

Time will tell!!!

And finally….

 

An Irish  mother-in-law arrives home from the shops to find her son-in-law Paddy in a steaming rage and hurriedly packing his suitcase.

“What happened Paddy?” she asks anxiously.

“What happened!  What happened?  I’ll tell you what happened!  I sent an email to my wife telling her I was coming home today from my fishing trip.  I get home… and guess what I found?  Yes, your daughter, my wife Jean, naked with Joe Murphy in our marital bed!  This is unforgivable, the end of our marriage.  I’m done.  I’m leaving forever!”

“Ah now, calm down Paddy…  Calm down,” says his mother-in-law.  “There is something very odd going on here.  Jean would never do such a thing!  There must be a simple explanation.  I’ll go speak to her immediately and find out what happened.”

Moments later, the mother-in-law comes back with a big smile.

“Paddy.  I told you there must be a simple explanation… she never got your E-mail!”

 

And now less than a week before I start my Green Slime diet for 3 1/2 weeks…masochistically looking forward to it…

 

Have a great day

Clarence

XXXX