TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS

• ASX 200 up 11 to 5890.
• High 5888 Low 5858. Narrow range.
• Chinese data the focus at lunchtime.
• Resources under a little pressure.
• Banks firm as telcos bounce.
• AUD steady firms to 71.68c
• Bitcoin firmer at $3530.
• Aussie Gold slips to $1790.
• Dow futures down -89.
• Asian markets stronger with Japan up 0.53% and China up 0.50%.

• STOCKS IN FOCUS

• BHP -0.27% accused of underpaying WA government.
• SGM -16.07% earnings downgrade.
• KGN -8.10% profit-taking.
• APT -5.28% profit-taking.
• SUL +2.83% appointment of company secretary.
• ALG +3.19% theme park traffic positive.
• CYB +2.95% bargain hunting on Brexit speculation.
• HSO -unchanged – Brookfield due to make proposal 31^st January.
• NST -2.22% gold loses lustre.
• SYR -2.03% profit-taking.
• ALL +3.18% bargain hunting continues.
• PGH +6.91% boring is stirring.
• TPM +4.80% telcos in focus.
• MTO +10.00% signs of life appearing.
• CYB +2.95% UK fears wane.
• Speculative stock of the day: Engage:Bdr (EN1) +26.67% after announcing 2 new programmatic partnerships deals have gone live. One with ThirdPresence and the other with Acuity.
• Biggest Risers – FXL, PGH, TPM, ASL, PNI and ALG
• Biggest Fallers – SGM, PME, APT, AUB, WBA and OGC

TODAY

 

• Treasury Wine Estates (TWE) +1.04% COO Robert Foye has left the company, effective immediately, due to a breach of internal policies unrelated to the company’s trading performance.
• Sims Metal (SGM) -16.07% Another downgrade from the company. it expects 1H FY19 underlying EBIT of approximately $110m. European operations struggling with an 88% drop in underlying EBIT. Challenging conditions to continue. No reason to be in this one. Structural issues in the recycling industry are hurting and have yet to play out fully.
• AFIC (AFI) +1.14% Half Year Profit was $239.8m up 75.4% from $136.7 million in the corresponding period last year: Dividend of 10c interim and a special dividend of 8c fully franked. Some one-off factors increased investment income including the BHP and RIO share buybacks and the demerger of Coles.
• Sandfire Resources (SFR) -0.57%The company has approached MOD Resources (MOD) with a view to a takeover at 38c. MOD is not trading as yet.

ECONOMIC NEWS

• Housing finance fell 1% between October 2018 and November 2018.
• The seasonally adjusted figure is larger, with a 1.4 % decline from $20bn in October to $19.7bn in November 2018.
• The national auction clearance rate has fallen to 43.6% from 62.3%. Largest falls were in Canberra, Adelaide, Perth and Melbourne.

BOND MARKETS

• 2-Year bonds unchanged to yield 1.83%
• 5-Year yields down 1bps to yield 1.95%
• 10-Year yields unchanged with yield 2.31%

ASIAN MARKETS

• Huawei has warned of job losses on 5G concerns.
• DJI which is the world’s biggest drone maker is investigating multiple cases of fraud and embezzlement involving over US$150m.

Chinese data:

• GDP rose as expected by 6.4%. The slowest growth since 2009.
• Industrials output rose 5.7% v 5.3% forecast
• Retails sales up 8.2% v 8.1%
• Fixed asset investment up 5.9% v 6% forecast.
• Urban unemployment rate 4.9%

EUROPEAN AND US HEADLINES

• UK PM Theresa May looks like giving up on some sort of cross-party talks to solve the Brexit crisis. May be a bit premature to believe that a solution can be found easily.
• US pawnshops and payday lenders are enjoying the government shut down as 800,000 workers look at how to budget after 30days.
• Davos World Economic Forum kicks off this week. No Trump though although Xi Jinping will be there.
• London house prices have fallen to their lowest level since August 2015. Asking prices are down 1.5% to GBP 593,972. Nationally values rose 0.4% to GBP 298,734.

And finally…

Need new material …keep em coming…Thanks Al

 

Spanish singer Julio Iglesias was on UK television with British TV host Anne Diamond.

He used the word “manãna” (pronounced “munyana”). Diamond asked him to explain what it meant.

He said that the term means: “Maybe the job will be done tomorrow; maybe the next day; maybe the day after that; or perhaps next week; next month; next year. Who really cares?”

The host turned to Albert Yatapingu from the Gumbaingeri Aboriginal Tribe, who was also on the show.

She asked him if there was an equivalent term in his native language.

“Nah” he replied. “In our native language, which is thousands of years old, we don’t have a word to describe that degree of urgency.”

 

Clarence

XXX