The Australian Investor Click here for more information
  HOME   NEWS   IPO + CAPITAL RAISING   TRADING TOOLS   CO. RESEARCH   PROPERTY   MAGAZINE   VIDEO   SOFTWARE   CONTACT US
Member Login
 

 
   

Login Problems?
New Users
Register
ASX Watchlist
Homepage
Market News & Floats
Trading Tools
Companies
Movers & Shakers
Magazine
Email this page
to a friend
Their Email Address:
 
Directories
Accountants
Financial Planners
Investors Club
Navra
First Prudential Markets
Athena Resources Limited
Krucible Metals
Rum Jungle Uranium Limited
Tasman Goldfields Ltd
Polaris Metals NL
Eagle Nickel Ltd
Austex oil
Olympus Funds Management
BOTSWANA METALS LIMITED
Emergent Resources Ltd
Boss Energy Ltd
Total Staffing Solutions
Envitec Energy
Oro Cobre
Wilson Asset Management Ltd
Phoenix Copper Limited
Bighill Resources Limited
Boigrade Limited
Geodynamics Limited
OPAL HORIZON LIMITED
Exoma Energy Ltd
Arana Therapeutics
Tiaro Coal Limited
Southern Cross Goldfields Limited

 

 
Welcome To The Australian Investor

US Stock Market Report – 9th February 2010 – US Dow Sinks Below 10,000.

The Dow industrials finished below the 10,000 level on Monday for the first time in three months, dragged lower by financial stocks, as investors remained concerned about Europe's debt woes and the US economic recovery.

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 103.84 points, or 1.04% to 9,908.39 and the Nasdaq composite was down 15.07, or 0.70% to 2,126.05.

The major US indexes have been on the decline for four weeks in a row as the optimism that propelled a 10-month rally off 12-year lows hit last March has been replaced by cautiousness. Bets that an economic recovery was gaining momentum, combined with trillions in fiscal and monetary stimulus, fed the 2009 rally.

But so far in 2010, US markets have been choppy and weak as investors wait for evidence that the recovery is really taking hold, particularly amid the hard-hit labor market and housing industry.



Helping to take the edge off the selling on Monday was a rally in commodity prices and energy and metal stocks as the US dollar lost some steam.

Last week, debt concerns battered the euro, propelling the dollar and dragging on dollar-traded commodities. A wish to dump riskier assets including US stocks also added to the selling.



In company news, a number of tech stocks gained on monday, including Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Google and Cisco Systems.

Home Depot gained after Morgan Stanley reportedly upgraded the Dow component to overweight from equal-weight, saying it will benefit from a recovering US housing market.



But a variety of financial shares fell, dragging on the market. Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo were among the big losers.

Toyota Moto, reeling from the recall of more than 8 million vehicles due to brake problems, told its dealers it is close to announcing a solution to the problems with the Prius hybrid Sedan.

A few big corporations are due to report results this week, including Dow components Coca-Cola and Walt Disney on Tuesday and Sprint Nextel on Wednesday.

Coke is expected to have earned US66 cents per share up from US64 cents a year ago, according to a consensus of economists surveyed by earnings tracker Thomson Reuters. Disney is expected to have earned US39 cents per share, down from US41 cents a year ago. Sprint Nextel is expected to have lost US19 cents per share after earning US24 cents per share a year ago.

With 320 companies, or 64% of the S&P 500, having reported results, earnings are on track to have risen 207% versus a year ago and revenues to have gained 8%. But the big jump is partly due to easy comparisons to a tough fourth-quarter of 2008.

Financial companies in particular are driving the gains. Stripping out financials leaves earnings growth at 16% and revenue growth at 3%.

Results have largely been positive, with 74% of companies beating earnings forecasts and 70% beating revenue forecasts.

In commodities, COMEX gold for April delivery rose $US13.40 to $US1,066.20 an ounce.

US light crude oil for March delivery rose US70 cents to settle at $US71.89 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

In currency trading, the US dollar was down versus the euro and up versus the yen.

One Australian dollar currently buys:

AUD/USD .8643
AUD/EUR .6333
AUD/GBP .5546
AUD/JPY 77.170
AUD/NZD 1.265

In overseas trade Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 0.62%, Germany’s DAX was up 0.93% and France’s CAC 40 climbed 1.22%.


ASX Afternoon Market Wrap – 8th February 2010 – Share Market Manages Small Gain.

The Australian share market struggled to hang on to early gains, closing slightly higher as a small recovery rally fizzled in the afternoon.

At close of trade the ASX 200 rose 7.3 points to 4521.4 and the All Ordinaries was up 6.3 points to 4538.8.

At the close most sectors were posting losses with the health care sector posting the highest losses.

Banks will probably raise interest rates above and beyond any official increases announced by the Reserve Bank over the next few months as they move to shore up margins after the federal government ends its wholesale funding guarantee. The Rudd government said yesterday it will scrap its $190 billion wholesale funding guarantee on 31 March 2010. That could create a new reason for banks – many of which hiked rates by much bigger margins than the 25-basis point rise announced by the central bank in December – to ask borrowers to pay more. The market is forecasting only a one-in-five chance of a 25-basis point rise in March. A 25-basis point rate rise adds about $45 to the average cost of a $300,000, 25 year loan.

In company news, Santos Limited has increased its oil and gas reserves to record volumes, driven by the growth of its liquefied natural gas (LNG) portfolio. The Company announced that it’s proved and probable (2P) reserves grew by 42% or 427 million barrels of oil equivalent (mmboe) to 1.44 billion barrels last year. Santos said this was its sixth successive annual reserves increase and excluded its production last year of 54.4 mmboe.

Nickel producer Western Areas NL announced it is tipping a turnaround in fortunes in its first half, after making a loss in the corresponding period a year earlier. The Company expects a net profit of $10.7 million for the six months to 31 December 2010, compared to a loss of $12.3 million in the same period in 2008. The before tax profit for the period is likely to be $16.9 million compared to a loss of $16.3 million a year earlier. Production during the period is expected to be up nearly 38% at 5,874 tonnes of concentrate.

Eldorado Gold Corporation posted today’s greatest gains up 62 cents or 4.62% to $14.04.

JB Hi-Fi Limited posted today’s greatest losses down $1.02 or 5.07% to $19.09.

At 1617 AEDT the 12 GICS indices were:-

Discretion 1,558.9 down 8.2
Energy 14,230.6 up 38.3
Financials 4,518.6 up 20.2
Fin-x-property 5,258.0 up 41.8
Gold 5,190.2 up 68.6
Healthcare 8308.7 down 23.9
Industrials 3,781.5 down 20.5
Info Technology 674.4 down 2.7
Materials 11,601.8 up 45.4
Metals and Mining 4,106.8 up 18.7
Property Trusts 859.4 down 12.9
Consumer Staples 7,103.5 down 21.7
Telecommunications 1,143.1 down 9.6
Utilities 4,107.1 down 15.4

Individual stock performances

BHP Billiton was at $39.58 up 3 cents. Rio Tinto was at $67.17 up 57 cents.

Banks

Westpac was at $23.25 up 64 cents. NAB was at $25.46 up 15 cents. ANZ was at $21.01 up 11 cents. Commonwealth Bank was at $52.85 up 18 cents.

Media

News Corp was at $17.36 down 44 cents. The Seven Network was at $6.91 up 19 cents. John Fairfax was at $1.70 down 2 and a half cents.

Retail

Woolworths was at $25.53 down 14 cents. Harvey Norman was at $3.68 up 6 cents. David Jones was at $4.59 down 3 cents.

Toll Holdings was at $8.33 down 10 cents. Qantas was at $2.84 up 4 cents.

Food

Coca Cola was at $10.65 down 9 cents. Goodman Fielder was at $1.541 down 2 and a half cents.

Insurance

AMP was at $6.26 up 11 cents. QBE was at $22.10 up 10 cents. IAG was at $3.85 up 4 cents.

Gold

Gold may fall after slumping to a three-month low last week as the US dollar's rally reduced the appeal of the precious metal as an alternative asset.

At the close gold was trading at $US1,067.00 up $US14.20 an ounce.

Oil

Crude oil rose from a seven-week low on speculation demand will improve as the global economy recovers from its worst recession since World War II.

At close US light crude was trading at $US71.55 a barrel, up US55 cents a barrel.

Dollar

The Australian dollar was higher today, bolstered by a lift on equity markets.

At 1600 AEDT the Australia dollar was:

AUD/USD .8659
AUD/EUR .6348
AUD/GBP .5551
AUD/JPY 77.361
AUD/NZD 1.258
Latest International Stockmarket Indices
(get latest data...updated every 5 mins)
Watch Video

Market News

Morning Market Mood – Oil
09-Feb-2010

Morning Market Mood – Gold
09-Feb-2010

Morning Market Mood – Dollar
09-Feb-2010

[AVB] Positive results for Rio Verde Copper Project feasibility
08-Feb-2010

[BFE] Karibib Lithium Project – encouraging lithium rock chip geochemical results
08-Feb-2010

[JAT] Jatoil announces deal expected to produce first oil in 2010
08-Feb-2010

[FMS] First Indicated Mineral Resource for Flinders’ Pilbara Project
08-Feb-2010

[AET] Karabashmed ZAO Plant achieves production record
08-Feb-2010

Morning Market Mood – Oil
08-Feb-2010

Morning Market Mood – Gold
08-Feb-2010

Morning Market Mood – Dollar
08-Feb-2010

[LEG] Legend exercises its right to acquire 90% interest in Cameroon Project
05-Feb-2010

[NVT] Navitas announces fourth US college
05-Feb-2010

[EMG] Diamond core testwork confirms potential for high grade direct reduction iron concentrate
05-Feb-2010

[AED] AED expands its interests in S.E. Asia with two acquisitions
05-Feb-2010

[RMD] ResMed Inc announces record financial results
05-Feb-2010

Morning Market Mood – Oil
05-Feb-2010

Morning Market Mood – Gold
05-Feb-2010

Morning Market Mood – Dollar
05-Feb-2010

[SNR] Synergy Plus Limited anticipates profit of $1.5M to $1.6M for first half of financial year
04-Feb-2010

[GOA] Potential new gold vein discovery at Sao Chico, Brazil
04-Feb-2010

[AVX] Avexa announces ATC Phase III top line results
04-Feb-2010

[BML] Drilling at Airstrip Copper anomaly in Botswana
04-Feb-2010

[NQM] Resource estimate for Lone Sister deposit at Twin Hills
04-Feb-2010

[PDY] High grade hematite located at surface
04-Feb-2010

Morning Market Mood – Oil
04-Feb-2010

Morning Market Mood – Gold
04-Feb-2010

Morning Market Mood – Dollar
04-Feb-2010

[GGP] Fausse Point well update
03-Feb-2010

[NKP] Positive bankable feasibility study findings
03-Feb-2010

[MII] Extensional drilling by Meridian at Kapok West delivers excellent initial results
03-Feb-2010

[ENT] Enterprise secures options to acquire two iron exploration projects southwest of WA
03-Feb-2010

[ANP] Data on ATL1101 Published in Scientific Journal and Australian Patent Granted
03-Feb-2010

[CYU] Purchase agreement for Uranium Project Waterford, North Queensland
03-Feb-2010

Morning Market Mood – Oil
03-Feb-2010

Morning Market Mood – Gold
03-Feb-2010

Morning Market Mood – Dollar
03-Feb-2010

[RCP] Redbank advances toward 2010 production
02-Feb-2010

[AVZ] Additional high grade Fe results from the Thresher Prospect
02-Feb-2010

[EQN] Equinox establishes new US$400 million corporate loan facility
02-Feb-2010

[GBE] Further high grade infill drill results – Kanyika Niobium Project
02-Feb-2010

Morning Market Mood – Oil
02-Feb-2010

Morning Market Mood – Gold
02-Feb-2010

Morning Market Mood – Dollar
02-Feb-2010

[GCN] GoConnect, Uncover and PLW Entertainment sign MOU for merger
01-Feb-2010

[CSD] Major JORC Resource upgrade at Gillian Tin Project
01-Feb-2010

[EKM] Excellent gold recoveries averaging 97% from metallurgical testwork
01-Feb-2010

[XXL] Xiaoxiao Education Limited – admission to Official List
01-Feb-2010

[CBD] CBD raises $18 million
01-Feb-2010

[CHC] Charter Hall sells 50% stake of 275 George Street, Brisbane for $166 million
01-Feb-2010

Company Environmental Sector Rating (CESR) Reports
 

ASX Company Analysis Reports
 

NSX Company Analysis Reports
 

© Copyright 2009 The Australian Investor Financial News Pty Ltd ACN 124857236  Use of this site requires acceptance of disclaimer