• Well it was Dick day today. Dick Smith that is. One of the mostly hotly anticipated IPOs in recent times came on today and quickly levelled out from a small premium to parity with the float price. The other big news today was the GDP which showed that things are still limping along at slightly sub normal growth at around 2.3% after growing a seasonally adjusted 0.6% in the September quarter. The dollar took this badly and fell to 90.6 as the RBA may be forced to act in the New Year. A fabulous turn around after three days of losses ensued and from a down 20 kind of day after the Dow’s fall we actually closed up 20 points at 5275 . The rises were led by big resource stocks with the price of Iron Ore continuing to confound the bears. BHP Billiton Limited (A$36.80, +1.0%),RIO Tinto Limited (A$66.29, +1.2%) and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd (A$5.63, +2.9%) all did well with second line iron stocks like Atlas Iron Limited (A$1.19, +7.7%),Arrium Limited (A$1.65, +2.5%),Mount Gibson Iron Limited (A$1.105, +5.7%) all gaining .

In other metal stocks Iluka Resources Limited (A$8.86, unch),Syrah Resources Limited (A$2.58, -5.1%) fell but Independence Group NL (A$2.88, +2.9%),Perilya Limited (A$0.345, unch) and Sirius Resources NL (A$2.04, +4.6%) bucked the trend. Gold shares experienced the daily smackdown as these guys are more unpopular than Christopher ‘Pynocchio’ at the moment. Kingsgate Consolidated Limited (A$0.90, -5.3%),Silver Lake Resources Limited (A$0.37, -2.6%),Newcrest Mining Limited (A$7.16, -1.2%) and even my favourite Beadell Resources Limited (A$0.675, -1.5%) are finding life pretty tough at the moment. Elsewhere the financials blob rolled into town again led by National Australia Bank Limited (A$34.38, +0.6%) and Westfield Group (A$10.78, +4.1%) whilst Commonwealth Bank of Australia (A$76.80, +0.3%) failed to inspire as did Westpac Banking Corporation (A$32.35, +0.2%) and Suncorp Group Limited (A$12.92, -0.6%) and Macquarie Group Limited (A$53.50, -0.2%).
• Energy stocks bucked up as Oil gained overnight led by Woodside Petroleum Limited (A$37.69, +1.8%) and Oil Search Limited (A$8.31, +0.6%),Senex Energy Limited (A$0.795, +2.6%) and even Paladin Energy Ltd (A$0.48, +10.3%) put in an impressive day.

• Retailers were mixed David Jones Limited (A$2.89, unch),Harvey Norman Holdings Limited (A$3.12, -1.0%),Myer Holdings Limited (A$2.79, +0.7%) and JB Hi-Fi Limited (A$20.09, +2.1%) the biggest movers. Healthcare stocks were also a tad weaker led by Csl Limited (A$68.32, -0.1%),Sonic Healthcare Limited (A$16.35, -2.0%),ResMed Inc. (A$5.32, -1.7%) and Ansell Limited (A$19.88, -0.5%). In industrials Brambles Limited (A$9.51, +1.4%) surged free from a Recall ,Transfield Services Limited (A$1.17, +2.6%) pushed ahead, Melbourne IT Limited (A$1.81, +11.0%) did well as it announced a capital return of 54 cents a share. Consumer staples Woolworths Limited (A$33.41, -0.1%),Wesfarmers Limited (A$42.30, -0.7%) and Coca-Cola Amatil Limited (A$12.14, -1.1%) all eased.

• Star performers out there winning ARIAs today included Atlas Iron Limited (A$1.19, +7.7%),#AIZ#,Mount Gibson Iron Limited (A$1.105, +5.7%),Energy Developments Limited (A$5.80, +1.8%),Senex Energy Limited (A$0.795, +2.6%),Flexigroup Limited (A$4.37, +4.3%) and Sirius Resources NL (A$2.04, +4.6%) whilst still sitting at the table waiting for Guy Sebastian to accept his award were #XRO#,Village Roadshow Limited (A$7.22, -4.7%),Energy World Corporation Ltd (A$0.385, -2.5%),GWA Group Limited (A$2.94, -2.6%),McMillan Shakespeare Limited (A$12.42, -2.2%),Oceanagold Corporation (A$1.695, -2.0%),Energy Resources of Australia Limited (A$1.295, -2.3%) and Qantas Airways Limited (A$1.205, -1.6%). Volume was better today buoyed by #DSH#,Westfield Group (A$10.78, +4.1%) and Westfield Retail Trust (A$2.99, -0.3%) and Amcor Limited (A$10.97, +0.2%). Close to $4bn today.

• Around the grounds Japan was slam dunked as smoking Joe Biden rode into Tokyo. Enough to send any market down 2%,suspect the strength of the Yen didn’t help as Asian equities knock on the door of six month highs.China was solid though in the face of adversity.

Stocks and Stories

• Santos Limited (A$14.41, +0.8%) started the day with an investor update which some took as a profit downgrade and whacked the mole down 2.3% before sense and sensibility returned and the stock closed better.

• Westfield Group (A$10.78, +4.1%) and Westfield Retail Trust (A$2.99, -0.3%) issued a joint media release saying they were forming a new entity for the Westfield groups business in Australian and New Zealand called Scentre! Shopping Scentre! Brilliant name. The international Business will become Westfield Corp. Didn’t these guys just split up? More make up break ups than Shurley!

• Westpac Banking Corporation (A$32.35, +0.2%) gets the nod from the watchdog on its purchase of the Lloyds car Loans biz.

• Atlas Iron Limited (A$1.19, +7.7%) signed some new contracts today for its Pilbara DSO showing strong interest from customers both old and new. Demand continues to show the strength of the Chinese economy.

• As the local car industry continues to squeal numbers out today suggest that sales of new cars were up 4.5% over October numbers at around 96,924 motors. Mainly SUV’s, where sales were up nearly 10%.toyota on top followed by Holden and then Hyundai.

• In Cabcharge Australia Limited (A$3.89, +0.3%) it seems that the absence of King Reg from the AGM may have been due to something else other than busy elsewhere as he has taken extended leave and handed over the meter and the beaded seat to Neil Forde in his absence.

• 167 companies in the ASX200 have reported annual earnings thus far for financial year 2013:Just 35 per cent have reported earnings better than street expectations, according to S&P capital analysts.

Tomorrows News Today

• The traditional Cyber Monday sale in the US is being trumpeted as the ‘biggest online shopping day ever’ – after breaking through the $US2b barrier.

• Keep calm and print more money. Japan plans to inject $181bn into their economy to counter the expected effects of the increase in sales tax. Makes perfect sense. Supporting growth as consumers get hit by the tax.

• Four years late and $8bn over budget. No, it’s not the NBN but the Chinese CITIC Iron Ore project in WA. Its first shipment was loaded today at Cape ‘Palmer’. The $10bn project is the world’s largest magnetite mine, turning low-grade ore in Australia’s Pilbara region into 24m tonnes of concentrate annually. ’Caveat Emptor’ obviously doesn’t translate well into Chinese!

• The Volker vote is expected on December 10th banning banks from trading on their own accounts. And more records will fall in Europe soon as regulators line up another batch of banks and institutions to cop record fines for price fixing. Citigroup, Deutsche, RBS and JP The Whale Morgan amongst the offenders apparently.

• And in another first, a US federal judge announced on Tuesday that Detroit is eligible for bankruptcy protection – the first time in US history that a major city has been declared bust.

 

Clarence

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