Good morning,

It was nice yesterday to see the market continue its rises…once again the volumes were at 1.6bn dollars so didn’t take much to move the market..TLS seem to be coming under a little pressure as I suggested the other day..$3.40 seems to be the ceiling at the moment and it will struggle to get through that in the next few weeks,although their release of their 3g Network to wholesale clients may help.

Overseas news was relatively benign but the ‘Zombieland’ watchers will be looking at Thursday night’s bond auction from Spain and Italy and also a meeting of the ECB…US news was also dull with weekly jobless claims and monthly retail-sales reports are due Thursday. However the Fed said in its beige book that the economy ‘expanded at a modest to moderate pace’ from late November due to increased holiday demand for retail and services although it is still worried that the economy is not strong enough to really make a dent in the unemployment number.

The other biggish overseas event was the apparent assassination of an Iranian scientist involved in their Nuclear program..alleged bomb stuck to his car by Mossad..all very James Bond..but the implications are worrying. The Iranians are sabre rattling and there is a threat to close the Gulf of Hormuz where 20% of the World’s oil sails past every day..The simmering issues with Iran’s nuclear program will keep oil traders on their toes and may push the oil price up to $120.The big ones will benefit most with STO,ORG and even WPL leading the way on any price spike..I continue to like BRU in this space as a small high risk play but it has done ok, buy on weakness below $1.20. Gold will also continue to push up as tensions increase.SLR is one of my favourites for this space. Small resource stocks continue to be dormant!

In the news today

US BONDS-A landmark was set for U.S. Treasury bond supply: A sale of $21 billion, 10-year notes was offered at a yield below 2% for the first time ever.

RETAIL: Australia had its busiest period of internet shopping over Xmas with electronic goods, toys, sporting goods, clothes and instore vouchers most popular according to PayPal. PayPal did not say how much shoppers spent, but reported double-digit growth in the number of online transactions compared with Xmas 2010.(Who said retailing was dead!) I have also enclosed a report on SUL which is proving that you can make money in the high street..take note Gerry,Paul and Bernie!!!

QBE suspended today as it been caught up in a major pricing probe in the US that could threaten the future earnings of one of its most lucrative international businesses

Yesterdays write up on NWH had a massive effect and helped the price up nearly 6%, so not time to chase..I hope they will meander back towards 2.55 again and they are a strong buy there.

Expect another quiet day today with the ASX200 flip flopping around…SPI was up 6 points.

And for film fans..saw ‘My Week with Marilyn’ last night..great little film..well worth seeing..

Enjoy the day

 

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