Morning all,

Looks like we will see 5200  today as the sell off continues…wobbles about the US Taper and just plain old profit taking after a stellar year are coming home to roost…with all the IPOs hitting our market its hardly surprising that we are heading down..lots of money being sucked out…however come 18/19^th December all those lovely dividend cheques will hit our door mats…loads of money…anyway if my hopes for a 5600 by Xmas are on the money, we are starting to look like we need that money…Zombieland got hit with the smackdown last night as worries about the US weighed heavily and then in the US worries about Zombieland hit them hard..and so it goes…our futures down 44 so expect another day when the banks take it hard..pretty soon they will be in buy territory again…not yet though…through all this profit taking the one constant has been the Iron Ore price…volatility in this is non-existent at the moment. Strange days indeed…

As I have been saying for some days it worries me when everyone is bullish together..it really does…I know there is safety in numbers but sometimes running with the herd is not always a safe strategy…Lemmings?…anyway while I remain bullish on our market I am wary..there will come a time when the proverbial hits the fan..it may not be tomorrow, it may not be in a years’ time..but hit it will…the world cannot keep printing money, with cheap debt distorting asset prices from everything from Bitcons to Porsche race cars..it is just not sustainable…at some stage we will get ourselves in a bigger pickle than the last biggest pickle…so as we head into a new year just make sure you have the fire exit in your sights, because at some stage someone will pick up the hammer thingy and bash the glass and then it gets interesting!!!

Idea of the Day

We are entering the zone of opportunity to top up with some favourite stocking fillers..and one of my long term faves is TLS…these guys have done a great job and with a domestically focussed strong business model and the benefits to come from just about anyone’s NBN it is hard to beat for yield and some growth..as they look to slip back under 5.00 maybe time to have another look at these…5.6% fully franked div..cannot be bad…try getting that on deposit…

Things to make me go mmmmm!!!

 

Best news of the day is the Stones are playing a national tour…and Mick Taylor is coming too….how good is this..bad news though is I will have to sell one of my beautiful kids to afford a ticket!!

The clever Dickies list today at 12.00..now everyone seems to be extolling their virtues as they open more stores than the      ,cut costs apparently and ramp up their online offering…now its fair to say that Woollies did a horrible job with this problem child and anyone could have done it better but I am not sure that these guys have done it that much better….if there is so much upside ,growth and sizzle with this why are these boys selling it after only 1 year! Usually the Private equity boys hold for much longer..either they don’t trust the market or all the easy stuff has been done and it’s hard to wringe any more from the lemon…

How is it that Wal Mart can handle 1bn hits on their web site during the Black Friday /Click Frenzy Monday season yet Obamacare’s web site falls over if a bloke from Nebraska enquiries about health insurance…weird eh!

It just shows how strange things have become…I woke this morning to read about my favourite stock Krispy Kreme falling 19% after missing analysts estimates on sales….the median estimate was for $115m and they only pulled in $114.2….massive miss..seems a whole precinct of cops have stopped eating doughnuts!!!But 19% down on this sort of miss is crazy..priced to perfection perhaps in some things…or just reality bites.

Atlas Iron has announced the completion of a number of new sales contracts for its Pilbara Direct Shipping Iron Ore (DSO). The signing of the new contracts is the culmination of recent negotiations with customers after heavily oversubscribed requests for new production, with strong demand evident from customers to secure new supply….

Fantastic Holdings shares have plunged as much as 11 per cent after the company warned first-half net profit would fall by up to 78 per cent after sales deteriorated in the first quarter.

Now I know everyone in TV land is suggesting that things are picking up but watching Blacklist last night there were ads from stores I had never even heard of on the Telly..now I tend to gauge how things are going by the quality of the ads on TV….good times..big multinationals..bad times..carpet court and the bath rug people…seems the good times aren’t back just yet..although lots of English Celebrities pushing Aussie stores..Gok,Jaimie,Dawn etc haven’t we got our own and that bloke from Modern Family..great career move..ker ching!

The bookbuild for Nine’s $2 billion float has generated orders from fund managers at the lower end of the indicative price range, with many baulking at shares priced at the top end. The first day of the bookbuild was strongest in the $2.10-$2.15 price range.

Good to see Channel Seven is going to screen lingerie football…stay classy Sydney!And one liberal, Bernardi, has called for the ABC to have its funding cut and put ads on it..that will please his other media pals..good programs with commercials..novel concept..don’t think it will work!!Luckily the other commercial stations haven’t gone down that road!!!Bad reality programs and rubbish ads and hope for the best.. its the lonely way to go.. Seriously ,it’s still the one! You gotta love it!

And from the Australian today…Rio Tinto, Vale: have issued a strong outlook for Australia’s biggest export, saying China’s demand continues to beat expectations at the same time the Asian powerhouse’s domestic mines are struggling. Both miners yesterday said Chinese iron ore demand continued to exceed expectations and would remain strong. They also said the cost of mining the steelmaking ingredient, whose price has remained strong at between $US130 and $US140 per tonne in recent months, was rising substantially in China.

Westfield Group will split its operations into an Australian and New Zealand business and an international business. Westfield Group’s Australian business will be merged with Westfield Retail Trust.Westfield chairman, Frank Lowy, said Westfield’s international business and its Australia/NZ business had both grown in scale and quality to the stage “where they can now stand on their own”.

And finally….sorry Hans I couldn’t repeat your joke today ,way too out there but this one seems ok…let me know if not!!

 

I just got sacked from my job with the Lifeline crisis centre.

A guy and said, “My girlfriend left me so I’m lying on the railway track at Sydney Central waiting for the train to come”.

I swear, all I said was, “Remain calm and stay on the line”.

Have a great day…

Clarence

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