Afternoon all,

Running very late today due to the ‘man cold’ that is bombarding my head, but can’t let a day go by without some commentary..I know you are waiting with baited breath.

As I write this,the markets have rallied and have recovered most of yesterday’s loss which is a good thing and will punish the Chinese bears a little..be nice to punish them a lot but we will be back to worrying about something else come Monday..Suspect US budget Impasse will be next!! That’s a biggy!!

The Chinese GDP figure which rumour has it would be a shocker turns out to be not so bad after all…. just come out at 7.6% which is not too bad considering the rumour was of 7.1%.

Resource stocks yesterday took it hard with 4 year lows for BHP and NCM..in fact anything that is not paying a nice dividend was walloped..Volume remains very sketchy and outside of the ASX200 is non existent..

On to stocks, as you all know I am a BBG optimist (at the moment) cannot but help feeling that once the rights issue is out of the way the game will be afoot. The Merchant of Bells cannot knock back another offer and there are companies out there who would love to get their hands on this lifestyle business and run it better..feel it’s only a matter of time.

 

Things to make me go all Man Cold!

1.The U.S. Treasury sold $13 billion of 30-year bonds Thursday at a record low yield of 2.58 percent.

2.Big takeover last night for ad Agency Aegis (UK) from Japan.Corporates still have cash and are not afraid to spend it.

3.Vix still around 18 still despite all the gloom and doom..long term average is around this number.

4.Singapore has released some down beat GDP numbers this morning..

5.Brett Lee calls it quits and another high profile celebrity chef goes bust (Becasse) hardly a surprise..the fit outs on these restaurants are way too over the top and no one can afford 150 bucks a head for dinner.And that’s the cheap places.

6.Moody’s cuts Italy debt rating to zzz! It’s been a long lunch!

7.There is a growing acceptance that the World economy is slowing..the question is what if anything can the powers that be ado about it or do we have to accept that this is the recession we had to have..I expect it is..doesn’t make it any fun though.

8.Yield stocks are still the go in these tough times…TLS Banks etc..

 

And finally….from Keef! Happy Birthday Man!

It’s great to be here. It’s great to be anywhere.

Have a good weekend and lets hope next week will bring more sunshine!

 

Clarence

xxx

 

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