Morning sports fans,

A bit of a rout yesterday will get partly reversed today as the banks will bounce back….miners got whacked yesterday big time..Iron ore will do that!. Have been suggesting for some time that the upside is limited in the banks and that selling calls is the way to go especially as they are brushing those all time highs so it was good to see much higher profile Charlie Aitken write yesterday that he thought the banks were a hold…as I say buy the banks die with the banks!! He has much better PR than me …anyway after a positive night from overseas we should see some buying emerge. It will be tentative as we have our own problems. Tony Abbott! His latest bright idea is a levy now that’s just a tax Tony. it will take the steam out of discretionary spending and the top income earners will suffer…and then there is the levy placed on business to pay for the paid parental leave scheme and all the cutbacks to welfare and middle class handouts..gonna be a fun night in two weeks…

Just ringing to tell you about the Levy!!

Expect to see a small rally today but the market is waiting to be disappointed by the bank results…ANZ tomorrow kicks us off…these guys are priced to perfection and the only way is sideways to down I reckon..everyone will love the dividends and they have been making out like bandits in the housing market and credit cards but business growth I reckon remains elusive…so patience is the key to these babies..buy on the bad days..add to them over time..enjoy the divs and the income and expect modest growth and look to sell some calls to increase your income..

Miners will suffer as the Iron Ore price continues to slip and Gold going nowhere so no real rally to happen there.

I am still cautious and expecting more volatility in the months to come..everyone is so complacent and long!!US is now unchanged for the year but up 7% if you only count Tuesdays (with Morrie)

Idea of the Day

This is pretty big…The value of takeovers announced in 2014 hit the $1 trillion mark yesterday, reaching that level at the fastest pace in seven years.54 days sooner than in 2013…these huge deals are rolling along and although we have missed out down here to some extent the Asian bid for our bread and butter is a sign of things to come.

The masters of the universe and their analyst friends will be pouring over lazy balance sheets and bad management to find the next target…this is a positive for the market and will ensure that rubbish management will have to work harder or lose their jobs and have to deploy their gold parachutes….we have had DJs and now GFF..who is next…

Things to make me go mmmmmm!!!

Every day ICAC revelations are whittling away the last vestiges of public trust and confidence in the Politicians of this fine land of ours…what did we do to deserve such self serving corrupt drongos of both varieties!!!

Reg Kermonde has resigned as head of Cabcharge to fight his aggressive Cancer. We wish him well.

Tomorrow is FOMC day with more weird mutterings from Yellen (Not Screamin) to come…gotta love the Fed Chief..even more confusing than Uncle Ben.(RIP)

Nearly 7000 option trades in the US had to be cancelled after the machine that goes ‘bing’ had a bit of a meltdown…7000 trades in 13 minutes!!!All those traders eh?Or is it computers?

Twitter has reported a $US132 million ($A143 million) loss in the first quarter, while revenues rose sharply and the popular messaging platform boosted its user base. The company said revenues grew 119 per cent from a year ago to $US250 million, and its monthly active users rose to 255 million.

This is the Tweet (chart) that got them all in a twitter…it’s the way they measure the advertising revenue growth..

Apparently pigs will eat anything..anyone remember ‘Snatch’…anyway it seems that the market won’t swallow pigs though, as Asia’s biggest IPO to date has been pulled..Pulled Pork very trendy at the moment..is that just code for having no decent carving knives! Anyway China’s WH Group Ltd, the world’s biggest pork company, has postponed its planned Hong Kong initial public offering (IPO) due to weak demand for the deal.Pigs don’t always fly it seems!!!

Meanwhile in Zombieland Super Mario is carrying out stress tests on the banks..as they say in court never ask a question you don’t know the answer too…in his scenario there is no deflation contemplated at all!!!ever..full stop…will not happen..yeah right!!

In another sign of something, the largest LBO (That’s not a little black outfit) being the once huge Energy Future Holdings has filed for bankruptcy with $50bn in debts!!!KKR bought this baby 7 years ago… Energy Future, formerly known as TXU Corp., had bet wrongly that the price of natural gas, used to make electricity, would rise enough to justify the company’s $48 billion price.

Apple has launched a $12bn bond to pay to shareholders so it does not have to pay tax…

Anyone who has traveled to the UK will know how bad Costa Coffee is but they have killed it with their profit numbers, profits at Costa Coffee rose 21.9pc to £109.8m. Andy Harrison, chief executive of owners Whitbread, has declared a “strong” set of results and has hiked the dividend by 19.9pc to 68.8p.

This is strange…Kristina Kenneally has quit Basketball Australia to spend more time with her teenage children…really…most parents want to do the opposite…certainly most teenagers don’t want to spend any time with their parents!!!

Worryingly as the West continues to hit Russia with a soggy piece of Broccoli over Ukraine, it is making friends with China, Qatar and Iran…Nice …they will have their own G-whatever.

The ingratitude of it all. yesterday at the GEM meeting shareholders had the temerity to vote against the pay of its directors..19% voted against them…and this is one of the best performing stocks around in the last couple of years!!!

Bunnings was the star of the Coles result…sales growth up 12%..all those DIY projects and getting ready to sell no doubt!

And finally..

My wife and I were happy for twenty years. Then we met. 
- Rodney Dangerfield

A good wife always forgives her husband when she’s wrong. 
- Milton Berle

I was married by a judge. I should have asked for a jury. 
- George Burns

The secret of a happy marriage remains a secret. 
- Henny Youngman

After a quarrel, a wife said to her husband, “You know, I was a fool when I married you.” The husband replied, “Yes, dear, but I was in love and didn’t notice.”

Its my 20^th Wedding anniversary today so will be wining and dining my wife rather than sitting in front of the screen..apologies but she has told me she takes priority today!!!

 

Clarence

XXX