Morning all,

 A little weakness last night from the US as better manufacturing numbers and some words of caution from   Fed chief  Fisher blunted the markets enthusiasm. Yesterday we fell for the first time in 11 days! That hasn’t happened for over 20 years! Volume was pathetic though and this afternoon we have the RBA who are almost a  certainty to cut to 2.5%Another record low. Aussie dollar is on the slide again and commodities a little weaker…expect another quietish day ahead of the RBA and earnings..DOW have announced some unexpectedly good ones so will be interesting to see how the market takes them…

I would expect another down 10 sort of day as we test 5100..still see the market hitting that 5200 level before we get toppy…election is already boring me silly…not sure how they can promise so much money to all and sundry..they don’t have the revenue! Doh! It’s all just pie in the sky!

 This man may be busy with cuts to the budget soon!!!

Iron ore starting to move up a bit and the Aussie down here makes things like FMG attractive for the more active investor.$4.20 very doable..

Idea of the Day

After yesterday’s idea with ADJ the stock moved 10%.So someone is listening? Anyway for those of you who like speculative shares this one is not out of reach yet. Plenty more potential if these guys get it right in the next year. I remember the dim and distant past of the tech boom in the early part of this century..wow that seems like a lifetime ago …there was so much promise about how the net would change our lives and not just for the better. Well here we are a generation almost later and it’s safe to say that every industry is being changed for better or worse by the net…the promise of the net is coming to fruition..the big driver has been net speeds and wireless access at good speeds…if you think of what the NBN will bring ,if it gets built, it will open up society in ways we can only just start to imagine..as a country we need to be at the forefront of this innovation because this is the next mining boom…data mining and the like…will rock our world…

ADJ is a great example of this. If successful will streamline a very manual process of buying banner and display ads on publisher web sites. Huge market and capped at $30m!

As Bob Dylan once sang, “The times they are a changing”….look at the Washington Post..sold to Amazon for $250m!!Sorry FXJ that may not help!!

Things to make me go mmmmm!

Rain saves England…shame was hoping for 2-1 and a real fight in the last three tests…

As of the end of June, a whopping €60 billion in past due taxes (an all time record) was owed by Greek businesses and individuals to the state. This is an amount that is 20% greater than the entire external cash handed over by the Troika to keep Greek banks afloat, and represents nearly 30% of imploding Greek GDP.

And in the home of the brave and the land of the free.. 40.28% of all workers make less than $20,000 a year in America today.  So that means that more than 40 percent of all U.S. workers actually make less than what a full-time minimum wage worker made back in 1968, inflation adjusted.

The serious news…

Fortescue Metals Group CEO Nev Power, has delivered a stern message to the China bears: the Asian superpower’s economy is experiencing record volume growth and it will continue to need Australia’s commodities for decades. Refuting forecasts that China was heading for the wall and the mining boom was over, Mr Power said the Middle Kingdom’s economy was expanding “phenomenally strongly” even though its growth rate had slowed from more than 10 per cent to 7.5 per cent in the past few years.

Former Gunns chairman John Gay has pleaded guilty to insider trading but it is not yet clear whether he will face a jail term. Mr Gay previously pleaded not guilty to two charges of insider trading but changed his plea before his trial. Mr Gay, 69, is alleged to have made $3 million from the sale of 3.4 million shares in the now failed timber company in December 2009…couldn’t have happened to a nicer bloke..met once..that was enough

Virgin Australia Holdings CEO John Borghetti has blamed the company’s expected full-year loss on “difficult economic conditions” that placed pressure on the airline’s revenues in the final quarter of the financial year and left it unable to pass on the cost of the carbon tax to customers. The airline now expects to report an operating pre-tax loss of $30 million to $50 million for the 2012-13 financial year.

Woodside Petroleum  is coming under increased pressure from WA Premier Colin Barnett to at least build a supply base for its Browse LNG venture at James Price Point on the Kimberley coast, at a cost of up to $2 billion. Mr Barnett on Sunday expressed regret that the federal government on Friday decided to lift all the conditions attached to the Browse venture’s rights to the offshore resource.

Not all mining services are Malcolm Tuckered.. Engineering and mining contractor Downer EDI got the reporting season for its sector off to a strong start, posting a year to June net profit of $203.98 million up from $107.51 million a year earlier.Earnings a share reached 45.7 cents up from 23.7 cents. The strong recovery in earnings was booked on revenue of $8.4 billion up from $7.9 billion.

Lots of Australian data including

-Tuesday RBA rate cut + House prices, ANZ Jobs data & Trade balance

-Wednesday Housing Finance

-Thursday Employment & unemployment

Results this week include

-Tuesday Cochlear, Downer & CDI

– Wednesday FOX & Flexigroup

-Thursday Telstra, RIO, Hendersons & BWP

– Friday Tabcorp

And good to see bubbles can grow anywhere!!In Hong Kong,the price of a license combined with a taxi reached a record HK$7.66 million ($987,600) on June 6, the highest since data started being tracked, according Taxixchange.com Ltd., which brokers deals and has monitored sales since 2000. Prices have surged more than 80 percent since taking off in September 2009, as cheap financing and expectations of continued gains draw investors.

Apparently you can now grow a big mac in the lab….Frankenburger has arrived…..costs a bit more but tastes just the same…absolute rubbish.

And finally…..for those of you interested I am doing the City to Surf at the weekend! Some three weeks ago I pulled my hammy and what a bruise …as a result I have been in intensive therapy to try and get it right for the weekend..Last night I put it to the test and a short run and session on the cross trainer at the Gym and all good…will push it a bit more today but will be walking/running the 14kms on Sunday..if anyone wants to donate to my charity of choice for this event,I am running it for the kids at Starlight foundation and so far have raised nearly $1000 although as I pulled the hammy have not been pushing the fund raising too much..but now there is plenty of time to donate so don’t hold back it’s a good cause!!

Here is the link to donate if you have a spare few dollars you would like to go to a great cause..click here to donate..

And I know you like these…

I went to the cemetery yesterday to lay some flowers on a grave. As I was standing there I noticed 4 grave diggers walking about with a coffin, 3 hours later and they’re still walking about with it. I thought to myself, they’ve lost the plot!!

My neighbour knocked on my door at 2:30am this morning.  Can you believe that, 2:30am?!  Luckily for him I was still up playing my Bagpipes.

Have a great day

 Clarence

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