Another firm day where the financials were the driving force pushing us to within a cooee of the magic 5400 level, closing at 5386 up 13. So close but so far. Next week we will race through that level. The big four were the power house followed by Telstra Corporation Limited (A$5.07, +0.6%) which have enjoyed their holiday in the sun after their investor day this week. We also saw good gains in Santos Limited (A$14.76, +1.7%) and Origin Energy Limited (A$14.65, +1.7%) and Woodside Petroleum Limited (A$38.45, +0.5%) but other resource stocks like BHP Billiton Limited (A$37.41, +0.2%) trod water today after their recent rises. RIO Tinto Limited (A$63.77, -0.1%) and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (A$5.21, -1.7%) a similar story whilst Atlas Iron Limited (A$1.06, -1.9%) fell away slightly as did Arrium Limited (A$1.415, +2.2%) in the iron ore space. Where the Twenty-First Century Fox, Inc. (A$36.33, +1.5%) hat improved today

Consumer stocks were a tad weaker with Seven West Media Limited (A$2.37, -2.9%),REA Group Ltd (A$40.51, -1.4%),Amalgamated Holdings Limited (A$8.28, -1.4%),Flight Centre Limited (A$50.99, -1.6%),Corporate Travel Management Limited (A$5.20, -1.9%),#ISU# and David Jones Limited (A$2.75, -0.7%) all in the red. The Telco sector was firm today with Telstra Corporation Limited (A$5.07, +0.6%) leading the reverse charge followed by Nextdc Limited (A$2.49, -0.4%),Chorus Limited (A$2.24, +1.8%),Newsat Limited (A$0.545, +0.9%),Amcom Telecommunications Limited (A$2.05, +3.5%) and TPG. Some of the tech whizz kids softer today including Reckon Limited (A$2.39, -2.4%),Computershare Limited (A$10.45, -0.5%),IRESS Limited (A$9.39, -0.2%),SMS Management & Technology Limited (A$4.61, -1.9%) and UXC Limited (A$1.035, -3.7%).

Big smiley faces all round for Beadell Resources Limited (A$0.975, +4.8%),Ainsworth Game Technology Limited (A$4.79, +4.8%),Macquarie Atlas Roads Group (A$2.83, +4.0%),Wotif.com Holdings Limited (A$4.52, +2.7%),Energy Resources of Australia Limited (A$1.34, +4.3%),Slater & Gordon Limited (A$3.79, +2.7%) and Silex Systems Limited (A$2.54, +6.7%) whilst in the bad boy basket were ResMed Inc. (A$5.41, -8.3%),Linc Energy Ltd (A$1.375, -5.2%),Asciano Limited (A$5.90, -5.0%),Carsales.Com Limited (A$10.45, -4.3%),Brickworks Limited (A$14.40, -4.4%),$AMP# and Regis Resources Limited (A$3.76, -2.6%).

Volume was distorted by the October Option exercises this morning and outside of that it was pretty quiet and steady. Asian stocks were weaker with the Nikkei leading the way down sharply (2.3%) followed by Shanghai and Korea. Posco the Korean steelmaker sank 1.4% after cutting its forecasts and LG Electronics also sank 2.6% after its third quarter operating profit and sales missed estimates. Samsung’s Profit Climbs 26% Smartphones, Chips Continue to Drive Earnings.

Stocks and Stories

They say that the Mounties always get their man, so it should come as no big surprise that the Canadians, Saputo, have lobbed another bid on the table for the Big Cheese Warrnambool Cheese & Butter Factory Co.Hold.Ltd (A$8.42, +3.3%). Blessed indeed are the Cheese makers! This one is set to run longer than the Mousetrap!

In house stocks today REY Resources Limited (A$0.08, +14.3%) trundled higher as did New Standard Energy Limited (A$0.14, +3.7%) after their quarterly. Carsales.Com Limited (A$10.45, -4.3%) AGM brought some profit taking as did Regis Resources Limited (A$3.76, -2.6%) following a slightly underwhelming quarterly.

Electrolux has delivered a blow to the Orange economy after announcing the NSW city’s whitegoods plant will shut down. More than 500 staff will lose their jobs when the plant winds down in the final quarter of 2015.

Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (A$5.21, -1.7%) have had to evacuate 1500 workers from their Cloudbreaker site in WA due to a fire. Looks like the investor tour got out just in time. Sure they had nothing to do with it.

Woolworths Limited (A$34.49, -0.3%) AGM today Kar ching. Nothing very exciting though.

AMP Limited (A$4.80, -2.8%) a shocker today the company announced a profit warning but fought back off their lows after it said this morning it expects fourth quarter cash earnings to fall by as much as $65 million after higher than expected policy lapses.

ResMed Inc. (A$5.41, -8.3%) had quarterly numbers today .Punters reacted badly to weaker than expected US revenue growth of 4 per cent, but this was mostly a one-off impact of tough comparatives following strong growth in the year earlier quarter, introduction of competitive bidding for machine reimbursement, and competitor new mask launches.

Insurance Australia Group Limited (A$5.82, -1.5%) says it has received 600 claims from the NSW bushfire, but it is still too early to determine how much the company will pay out as a result of the disaster.

BHP Billiton Limited (A$37.41, +0.2%) AGM in the Old Dart last night and new kid on the block, Andrew McKenzie was talking up the Big ones green credentials. Yeah right!

Asciano Limited (A$5.90, -5.0%) are down after the rail and stevedore operator warned of slower growth this year and said its rail network had been damaged by the ongoing bushfires.

GPT Group (A$3.72, +0.5%) has expanded its logistics and business parks portfolio to be worth more than $1.1 billion after the purchase of two properties, in a deal totalling more than $88 million.

Twitter announced plans to list on the NYSE with 70m shares to be offered or tweeted at a price between 17 and 20 dollars

Tomorrows News Today

Investors are piling on record debt to buy stocks at record highs, according to new data on the margin accounts of the NYSE Euronext member firms. The data shows that margin debt, used by investors to buy securities, climbed to a new record of $401 billion in September. That was 4.8 percent higher than the previous month.

France and Germany have now teamed up against the US. The spies who loved them. Nobody does it better!

Japanese inflation rate hit a five year high today as fears about China’s money market rates which jumped in recent days, reflecting tight liquidity conditions. The 7-day repo rate hit 4.8 per cent this morning.

A Chinese court has rejected the appeal of former politician Bo Xilai and upheld his life sentence for bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power. The former Chongqing Communist Party leader was convicted of the charges in September.

Greenland has awarded UK-based company London Mining a 30-year licence to build and run a giant iron ore mine. Greenland’s industry minister called it the largest commercial project in the autonomous Danish territory’s history. London Mining is expected to seek investment partners for the multi-billion dollar project. Interesting as two of our minnow Greenland Minerals and Energy Limited (A$0.32, unch) and #IBG# have interests in Greenland too.

Twitter is to sell 70 million shares priced between $17 and $20 (£10 – £12) when the company makes its debut on the New York Stock Exchange. This offering represents 13% of the microblogging site.It values Twitter at as much as $11.1 billion (£6.8bn), making it the biggest internet company to go public since Facebook.

Clarence

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