MARKET WRAP

It’s beginning to look a lot like Xmas. Great end to the week as we continue to enjoy the warm glow of hot toddies and mince pies. We seem to be having a delayed reaction to the rate cut and unemployment numbers together with better news on the Fiscal Bluff. It was hard to find losers today in the large caps with Banks in demand led by Westpac (A$25.75, +1.1%) and even NAB (A$24.50, +1.0%) looking better. Of course, yield was still the place to be as Telstra (A$4.36, +0.2%) continued to defy the sceptics. Defensives also rallied with Woolworths (A$29.64, +1.1%) and Wesfarmers (A$36.20, +1.0%) in demand. And CSL (A$54.77, +2.5%), off to the races again. News that they are looking to manufacture more overseas seems to be music to the markets ears. Some of the other industrials also starting to fire up with Brambles (A$7.44, +3.3%) drawing strength from recent speculation .

Resource stocks also had a positive day as the news out China appears to be turning and there have been broker upgrades to the economy, BHP Billiton (A$34.74, +1.0%) for once outperformed Rio Tinto (A$60.17, +0.4%) having been in their shadow for a few days. Fortescue Metals (A$3.79, +1.3%) missed out on the rally but friendless Newcrest (A$24.34, +1.0%) rose.

There did seem to be some short covering in a few things in front of the payroll numbers tonight from the US.JB Hi-Fi (A$10.19, +2.4%) and QBE (A$10.50, +2.4%) spring to mind.

Volume again was underwhelming but at least we finish the week on a good note. Up around 0.9% for the record.

Stocks in the news

Linc Energy (A$0.81, +0.6%) continues to do deals as a Ukrainian Gas company ,DTEK, signed them up for the purpose of evaluating underground coal gasification (UCG) potential in the Ukraine on it’s local coal resources.

CSL (A$54.77, +2.5%) continues in the winner’s circle after UBS upgraded the company to a buy and a price target of $60.50 on it.

BBY favourite Mesoblast (A$5.65, +6.4%) had a good day as it is anticipating the Teva investor day next week .Let’s hope we get some news. And in other house stocks to feature today G8 Education (A$1.45, +3.2%) continued their climb along with New Standard Energy (A$0.31, +8.8%) which is starting to gain some traction. Orpheus Energy (A$0.071, +9.2%) was also another winner today with some good buying coming through.

Lynas (A$0.605, +0.8%) announced that the latest court appeal from the activists is now due to take place on 19th December. Hopefully we may see some clarity before Xmas then.

Ten Network (A$0.325, unch) remains in a trading halt as well known author Gina Rinehart pledges her support to the cash raising. The advisors are just putting the finishing touches to the capital raising before it come back next week to a fanfare of dilution!

And what a difference a name makes as Bluestone Global (A$0.029, +70.6%), the company formerly known as Humanis received approval to change and was the best performer of the day. Didn’t really work for Arrium (A$0.80, unch) though!

There did seem to be some winners from the S&P rebalancing today as well, as Papillion Resources (A$0.57, +12.14%) went supersonic following inclusion in the AX200 .In the ASX 100 Adelaide Brighton (A$3.17, -0.9%) ,Carsales.Com (A$7.83, -2.0%) and Flight Centre (A$26.83, -0.1%) were added whilst Boart Longyear (A$1.35, +1.1%) ,Paladin Energy (A$0.83, +3.7%) and Seven West Media (A$1.58, unch) were chopped.

Australia’s trade deficit widened in October, official figures show. The balance on goods and services was a deficit of $2.088 billion in October seasonally adjusted, compared with a downwardly revised deficit of $1.420 billion in September, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said on Friday. Economists’ forecasts had centred on a deficit of $2.2 billion in October.

Tomorrow’s News Today

Big night in the US tonight. Non-Farm Payrolls and Unemployment to come so that will be the focus. Euro Trash markets like Germany and France are pushing towards the highs ,I know it’s hard to believe, but Germany is the highest it has been since 2008 and France at a one year high. Expect more rhetoric on the deb t ceiling and the fiscal bluff. The ceiling which is fast approaching of $16.4 trillion looks to the negotiation point for both parties. CNBC’s Rick Santelli summed it up best with the following words of wisdom, “Debt Ceiling Is Not The Problem. Debt Is The Problem,”, that is after all the point of the fiscal cliff, to get the debt down. FOMC meets next week as well together with another flash, or not so flash, PMI reading

And finally, the US VIX is sometimes called the ‘fear index’ but maybe a better measure of fear would be the sales of guns! Smith and Weston have just announced a 48% increase in gun sales! Particularly impressive was the rise in sales of the recently launched Shield™ pistol designed for concealed carry and personal protection! Glad everyone is so confident about the future.

And today was officially ‘Work in the Nude Day’..think it was more aimed at home workers but I am sure HR can sort it out if you forgot your clothes at work today. That’s what they do best!

Enjoy the weekend.

Clarence

XXX

Any financial product advice contained in this email is general financial product advice only and does not take into account any one person’s objectives, financial situation or needs. Therefore, before acting on any financial product advice in this email, you should consider, with or without the assistance of an independent adviser, the appropriateness of the advice, having regard to your objectives, financial situation and needs.