Good morning and greetings from the freezing cold UK,

I will keep this short as I feel a little out of the loop but its interesting to see the austerity and its effects at close quarter!!

Expect to see some small slippage on our market…I still like TLS and was not surprised on the results yesterday as I have been saying for some tim ethat they are making hay at Vodafone’s expense…the appetite for smartphones,data and facebook will continue..TLS is the premier provider and has the ability to dictate prices…and talking of prices,a visit to a UK supermarket will reinforce to you how much we are being gouged by the big two on prices..its such a great trick..make bread and milk really cheap and whilst we are not looking up goers everything else…competition in the UK for your money is extraordinary…the recession has made everything highly competitive and this very cheap…no cosy duopoly here!!So the message I guess is that whilst WES and WOW are a high price there is no reason to get too bearish on these guys whilst they are making huge profits still and will continue to do so…

Idea of the Day….keep hold of your TLS…no reason to sell…look to accumulate your favourite stocks as the markett pulls back..

I read today that Apple are being sued by a hedge fund for not paying them a higher dividend…not sure what the world is coming to ..how dare they…more..like something out of Oliver….but they have 139bn bucks of spare cash!!

Interestingly today, the new Bank of England Governor is talking about low rates for a specified period of time..there will be a huge breath of fresh air through the UK system…also heres a question when RBS is fined $400m by the regulators for fixing LIEBOR!!My question is this…. RBS is owned by the tax payer and so is the Regulator so the Government is fining itself and giving it to another agency…but why is no one in jail…

Unbelievable news from the health care sector in the UK where hundreds of people have died from the effect of health cuts in Stafford!!Makes Medicare look absolutely fantastic…Appalling…this is the direct result oif austerity…it is quite scary to see the effects of austerity here..I listened to Radio 2 ..must be getting old and they devoted 30 minutes to a discussion on a group pf residents that would have to take their rubbish up the road to be collected to save the council 150,000 pounds…..the level of trust by the people in their Governments here is not good.No one has gone to jail over any of the financial scandals here or in the US…their is a building level of resentment and deservedly so…

LENDERS have cut interest rates for the most popular type of fixed-rate mortgage to their lowest levels in more than two decades, amid bets the cash rate will fall to a record low as early as next month.

News from Super Mario….“The exchange rate is not a policy target, but it is important for growth and price stability,” Draghi said at a press conference in Frankfurt today after the ECB kept its benchmark rate at a record low of 0.75 percent.

More horse meat found in burgers and other products …in fact some are just Horse meat…checked the sell by date and they’re off!!!

The Greek Finance Ministry just reported that despite big tax hikes demanded as part of austerity measures by international lenders, tax revenues fell precipitously in January, with the Greek Finance Ministry reporting a 16 percent decrease from a year earlier, and a loss of 775 million euros, or $1.05 billion in one month.

Watching Q&A on BBC they are talking about a Lib Dem MP,Chris Huhne, who is about to go to jail for avoiding three points for a speeding fine…he has lied for ten years and they still reckon he is a good bloke!Incredible.Not sure where the moral compass is these days in UK!!

Finally some good news from NCM…NEWCREST 1H NET A$320 MLN; ANALYST EST. A$292 MLN..bout time..

Results season gets really underway next week..for example, we have Ansell, Boral, Commonwealth Bank, Computershare, Carsales.com, CSL, Domino’s, Pizza, Leighton Holdings, Oz Minerals, Stockland and WorleyParsons.
Then on Wednesday Downer EDI, Dexus Property Group, GPT Group, Mirvac Group, Padalin Energy, Rio Tinto and Wesfarmers report.

Have a great day..

 

Clarence from a cold cold UK

 

XXX