As Talking Heads famously sang, ”We’re on the road to nowhere”. The market couldn’t really make up its mind today. We did hit a high of 5060 before easing back to close pretty much unchanged at 5046.Weakness in Asia continued to weigh on investors minds, Japan has fallen 1000 points in the last few days. Did we take any notice? Not yet anyway.

It was pretty quiet even for a Monday, as the sidelines seemed to be popular ahead of earnings, Central banks and FOMC this week. Some big falls in Japan and China did nothing for confidence. But surprisingly the market did hold up pretty well considering. It’s the banks that are offering relative safety with yields.

So once again the yield chasers were in charge as the banks continue to march higher. Commonwealth Bank of Australia (A$73.86, +0.3%) hit another all time high with Westpac Banking (A$30.82, +1.0%) the best performer, whilst the gloss has come off Macquarie Group (A$42.65, -0.8%) after their numbers last week and so to QBE Insurance Group (A$16.18, -1.0%) that is in line for some payouts in the Spanish rail disaster. Other highlights included REA Group Ltd (A$32.48, +5.3%) today as the residential property market continues to do well. So too were Wesfarmers (A$40.53, +0.5%) and Woolworths (A$33.77, +0.5%) up despite some fighting talk from the ACCC on the shopper dockets war on petrol.

Energy stocks were under pressure led by Woodside Petroleum (A$37.50, -0.7%), Santos (A$13.64, -1.2%), Origin Energy (A$11.95, -2.3%) and Oil Search (A$7.99, -0.6%) as the oil price weakened. Industrials were a little better with Rcr Tomlinson (A$2.36, +2.6%), Aurizon (A$4.55, +1.1%), CSR (A$2.18, +0.5%) all to the good and media also put on a show with the Helpmanns’ tonight! APN News & Media (A$0.29, +1.8%), Fairfax Media (A$0.495, +1.0%) and Ten Network (A$0.275, +1.9%). Mining services also weakened with Macmahon (A$0.14, -6.7%), Boart Longyear (A$0.515, -3.7%) and Cardno (A$5.35, -3.3%) leading the charge down. Golds also eased with Kingsgate Consolidated (A$1.695, -0.6%), Evolution Mining (A$0.825, -1.2%) (after their quarterly )and Regis Resources (A$3.32, -2.6%) down.

In resource land BHP Billiton (A$34.55, -0.1%), Panaust (A$1.975, -6.4%), Atlas Iron (A$0.81, -4.7%), Newcrest Mining (A$12.15, -2.1%) and RIO Tinto (A$57.11, -0.2%) were a tad easier.

Big cap winners today included Energy World Ltd (A$0.65, +13.0%), Transpacific Industries Group Ltd (A$0.885, +7.9%), REA Group Ltd (A$32.48, +5.3%), Clough (A$1.15, +4.5%), Seven West Media (A$2.15, +4.9%), TPG Telecom (A$3.62, +3.4%) and Lend Lease Group (A$8.96, +2.2%), whilst those without friends today included Paladin Energy Ltd (A$0.93, -10.1%), McMillan Shakespeare (A$9.38, -4.3%), Atlas Iron (A$0.81, -4.7%) and Als (A$8.52, -4.1%).

Volume was abysmal today at around $3bn.Talking Heads were right!

Stocks in the News

Looks like there are still buyers of resource projects as RIO Tinto (A$57.11, -0.2%) moves to sell another one. If it isn’t nailed down, out the door it goes. Rio Tinto said Monday that it is selling its majority stake in a copper-and-gold mine in Australia for $820 million to a Chinese resources company, in its latest move to bolster its balance sheet amid a global slowdown in commodities demand.

Rio Tinto said it had reached a binding agreement to sell its 80% stake in the Northparkes mine to China Molybdenum Co. The deal hinges on units of Japan’s Sumitomo Corp, which together own the remaining 20% interest, waiving their right to match the offer.

Whitehaven Coal (A$2.10, -1.4%) announced their first quarterly that ‘Big Nath’ couldn’t care less about.

Origin Energy (A$11.95, -2.3%) issued an update on their Otway Basin production which disappointed some.

London copper futures have fallen to their lowest level in almost three weeks, stretching losses for a third day running on worries a slowing Chinese economy may hurt demand in the world’s top consumer of the metal. Shanghai copper fell more than 2 per cent, also hitting its weakest since early July.

Moody’s has cut its ratings on Newcrest Mining (A$12.15, -2.1%) to sad with a slight chance of improvement if a miracle happens.

Tomorrows News Today

A copper price collapse of more than 60 percent, zinc cut by up to a half and oil down to $70 a barrel. That’s the fate facing world commodity markets should China’s growth dip to 3 percent in the next three years — a scenario economists at Barclays Plc (BARC) are now examining.

On Wednesday this week the US is rewriting history. For the first time the number crunchers are going to include copyrights and R&D as investment and Pension deficits as well. This is expected to add 3% to the US GDP.. bout the same size as Belgium really!! They are revising these figure back to 1929!! And at the same time the Bureau of Rewriting History is releasing the current quarter GDP numbers which will show the US has slowed considerably…which means that Ben can lavish his free money until after he has gone!Bring on Yellen!

And more scary stuff from the US as a survey found that 85% of hedge funds don’t beat the market. Course they do take big fees none the less. Since 2010 the average return from the hedge funds is 14.55% .Not bad I hear you say. Shame the market is up 55%! France’s Publicis and US firm Omnicom have announced a merger to create the world’s biggest advertising company worth $35.1bn (£22.8bn).

The IMF has said that the US recovery is tepid at best, but is expecting better things next year. Sounds a bit like my old school reports!

Japan is looking at the implications of the planned two-step rise in sales tax starting next April. First it goes from 5 to 8% then up to 10%. Suspect that may dampen the economy a little and the Bank of Japan are looking at ways to mitigate the effects. Here’s an idea don’t bring it in!

And finally I read today that in India, a heart bypass costs $1800 whilst in the good ol US its $106,000. No wonder they have a $16.6trillion deficit and growing. Still Doctors and Pharmas are doing well. And the Indian guy behind that number is predicting he can get the cost down to $800 soon. Maybe Obamacare should be outsourced and off shored!

That is all!

clarence

Xxxx