Morning all,

Well didn’t win Lotto unfortunately but did get it right on the RBA Not cutting rates..they will always err on the side of caution and wait to see what the last rate cuts do to the economy..

So after a big rise in the US again..(probably a equal fall tomorrow!)…commodities also looking good with Gold rallying as Obama firms in the US election and Iron Ore pushes through 120 ,we should see a solid rise at the opening….I would imagine that the enthusiasm will wane after that though and we will wait and see the result of the election…still the tone is positive ..CBA has also reported today and it looks good.. Commonwealth Bank of Australia, the nation’s biggest mortgage lender, has reported a 6 per cent rise in first-quarter profit, boosted by an improvement in trading income and cost controls. The bank said its unaudited cash profit for the three months to end-September was $1.85 billion, up from $1.75 billion a year ago. Because of the limited nature of the trading update, few analysts forecast quarterly earnings.

Expect an up 20 day to start with Resource stocks in vogue Golds will be bouncing..should have bought them all yesterday but I wimped!!If they don’t move too much good buying…

Idea of the day.

Yesterday I was wined and dined by the new team at Petrel Energy(PRL)…now it’s only a tiddler but they have acquired some interesting ground in Uruguay..yeah I know what you are think but the man in charge is David Casey who did a great job at Eastern Star Gas and sold out at a fab price to Santos over a year ago…well this is his latest play and looks like some majors are moving into the same area of Uruguay…Total have just moved in next door…so with a market cap at $17m its tiny and VERY speculative but well worth a  look for those who like a punt on the really speccy end..probably a better bet than the Cup bets I put on yesterday..most still running!!!

From the Company release:

Petrel Energy Ltd (ASX:PRL) has acquired an interest in major conventional and unconventional petroleum projects in Uruguay and Spain with ‘company making’ potential for large scale oil and gas discoveries.The Uruguay project area, virtually unexplored by modern techniques, includes two concessions covering 14,000sq km (3.5 million acres) which are held under separate production sharing contracts with highly attractive fiscal terms

Petrel Energy will initially acquire a 25% interest in Schuepbach Energy International LLC (SEI), a US private company, holding the Piedra Sola and Salto concession areas in Uruguay and an 85% interest in two gasprospective licences totaling 82,700 ha (204,000 acres) in southern Spain.

Things to make me go all BHP!!

1.In breaking news rumours that Kloppers has come a cropper at BHP as the main man loses his hold on top job!!Interesting times indeed…we will see if they are true..

2.Arrium: chairman Peter Smedley told shareholders yesterday they should sit tight and wait until the steelmaker and miner’s expansion efforts came to fruition, waving the “nothing to worry about here” flag once again. But analysts are concerned that the company carries an inflated book value against its assets and has avoided breaching an as-yet-unrevealed debt covenant set against its $2.14 billion debt burden.

3.Macquarie Bank: Australia could soon have a new player in the world of retail banking, with MQG believed to be in talks with Mark Bouris’ listed Yellow Brick Road over a distribution deal that could be unveiled as early as this week. The deal would give YBR access to the billions of dollars sitting on MQG’s balance sheet to provide home loans via Mr Bouris’ network of more than 140 branches across the country.

4.Greece headed for a cliffhanger vote on austerity measures needed to keep the bailout on track as a 48-hour general strike began and European officials squabbled over the timing of a deal to unlock rescue funds.

5.France’s Pres Hollande executes a huge U turn with cuts in Corporate taxes and a rise in VAT…not what he promised!!Critics call it the most humiliating U-turn in French politics since François Mitterrand abandoned his disastrous experiment of “Socialism in one country” under a D-Mark currency peg in 1983.

6.In the US elections it’s going to be a lawyers paradise with counts and recounts and vote rigging..one machine in a swing state was changing people’s votes to Romney as they ticked the Obama box on their electronic form!!!Looks like a classic case of vote early vote often…let’s face it if the US cannot get their election voting procedure correct what chance have they got in Afghanistan and other cradles of democracy!!

Citizens in storm-ravaged New York and New Jersey wandered from poll to poll after officials moved more than 240 balloting sites and fretted over the integrity of a vote being conducted partly over the Internet.

7.Gold goes parabolic…as markets close!!

8.The Richard Cottee-led oil and gas explorer Central Petroleum has done its second major farm-out deal, with French giant Total, which will spend $60 million drilling about 10 wells in the first stage of a campaign in Amadeus and Southern Georgina basins in northern Australia. In October, Central announced a deal with Santos, to spend $30 million drilling in the Amadeus and Perdika basins over the next three years. In later stages the Santos and Total deals could fund roughly $350 million combined of exploration over the next four years.

9.NWS numbers look ok..Murdoch continues to show us all how to run a media company better than Orson Welles..

10.Chinese leadership change should usher in some more certainty….US will do the same….need to sort the fiscal cliff out though..that’s going to be a big barrier to come!!!

 

11.I’m sorry Dave,I’m afraid I can’t do that… UBS AG (UBSN), Switzerland’s biggest bank, fired its head of credit-default swaps index trading, David Gallers, last week, with no plan to fill the position, according to two people familiar with the matter. Instead, the bank replaced Gallers with computer algorithms that trade using mathematical models, said the people, who asked not to be identified because moves are private.

 

“I know that you and Frank were planning to disconnect me, and I’m afraid that’s something I cannot allow to happen.” 

And finally….from another reader…

 

Two women were walking through the woods when a frog called out to them and said: “Help me, ladies! I am a stockbroker who, through an evil witch’s curse, has been transformed into a frog. If one of you will kiss me, I’ll be returned to my former state!”

One woman took out her purse, grabbed the frog, and stuffed it inside her handbag. The other woman, aghast, screamed, “Didn’t you hear him? If you kiss him, he’ll turn into a stockbroker!”

The second woman replied, “Sure, but these days a talking frog is worth more than a stockbroker!”

So true unfortunately these days!!

Have a great day

Clarence

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