Good morning,

Yesterday’s rally was pathetic..I am still at a loss to see how the US market is at 13200 whilst we languish at 4375…the only thing I can think of is no one cares about little old Australia anymore..we don’t have Apple, Bloomberg, Facebook, Harley Davidson, UPS or anything really…except Channel 7,LLC,LEI ,PMP etc …..all our grades are down whereas all the US are up..the budget in a few weeks will show just how bad things have got in the economy and the surplus will come at a huge cost..we are in for the dreaded austerity measures that have worked so well in Europe…last night Spain was downgraded by a couple of ratings agencies..more to follow..think it’s a bit harsh punishing them for their football teams getting bundled out of the Champions League..talk about kicking a man when he is down!

To our lacklustre market..expect a 30 point rise today as we try to gather some enthusiasm and play catch up although the Spanish downgrade came after hours so may mute things a little..Banks will lead the way with the resources reluctantly following.

Still feel its right to lighten the load but Wall Street is proving me wrong at the moment..economic numbers though on employment don’t look too flash but profit numbers continue to surprise on upside..maybe all the analysts were too bearish..

Couple of stocks that I have been looking at Alexium International(AJX) were up 20% yesterday following a deal signed with a textile partner..these guys have good IP for a nanotechnology that adds new properties to materials..the deal is for fire retardant properties..hopefully the start of more deals to come…the company is capped at 11m bucks so any deals are likely to be geared to the max..expect this to double in the next six month s but higher risk its so small.

Just been to a presentation on SkyWest(SXR)..looks interesting at these levels with the Virgin Alliance looking positive and these guys are the charter airline of choice for the fly in fly out business.. good gearing for mining boom in WA…buy around 35/36.

1.The famous shorter Jim Chanos (predicted Macquarie would go bust and Enron ,50% right is good right) is now targeting FMG telling all the media and investors that will listen that FMG is a value trap..go Jim!

2.Optus deal on live sport infringes copyright..they say TLS is a winner..nonsense  the codes are..if it had gone the other way TLS would have been able to access content much cheaper …

3.MQG numbers out this morning..profit down 25% but sticks with buyback and cost cutting..market may be a little underwhelmed

4.The European Commission may relax its target for countries to cut their budget deficits to 3% of GDP by 2013.

5.Another downgrade from JB Hi Fi..hasn’t everyone got a plasma now so where’s the growth!

6.SPI up 18…wow we really are rocking and rolling!!

7.RBA will cut next week..will banks pass it on??Ah there’s a question!

 

The latest report on NCM is enclosed..it’s fair to say that it is being entered for this years’ Cruffts!

Have a good weekend

Clarence

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Few facts on Apples result to keep your BBQ guests interested this weekend.

The iPad is growing at a faster rate than the iPhone and has achieved in two years what the iPhone took four.

  • The iPhone grew units at nearly 90 per cent and revenues at 85 per cent. This is slightly below the quarterly average over the last two years of 99 per cent.
  • The Mac showed significant weakness though the previous year’s Q1 had      exceptionally high growth of 32 per cent. The Mac still grew faster than the market and therefore gained share
  • The iPod is declining consistently. Units showed a lesser decline than revenues as the average price dropped from $US164 to $US157.
  • The iTunes store continues to grow very rapidly, reaching a new record  level above $US2.1 billion revenues.

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