Articles by Marcus Padley

US year-on-year housing starts were down 16.5% to 853,000 — well below expectations of 985,000.

US industrial production was -0.5% in April, missing the forecast of +0.1%, with March’s gain revised down to 0.3%.

The budget is largely irrelevant, the story is that the prospect of a further fall in the A$ is seeing international equity investors sell to avoid the currency risk.

Better than expected economic data was outweighed by an article in The WSJ that stated that the Federal Reserve had started to map out a plan to slow the pace of its asset purchase plan (third round of quantitative easing), generally seen as bad news for the equity market.

The US Federal budget deficit was US$112.9 billion in April — missing a forecast of US$106.5 billion,

Good US weekly jobless numbers were down by 4000 to a seasonally adjusted 323,000 last week — the lowest level since January 2008.

The materials sector performed well on the back of China’s better-than-expected trade balance numbers yesterday and Rio Tinto’s AGM statement saying it expects iron ore demand to remain intact.

Chinese trade numbers beat expectations. Jan-Apr iron ore Imports were 250 million tonnes up 3.9% on year. The Aussie dollar rose to US$1.0192 from US$1.0165.

The market is down 20. Dow Jones finished down 5 on well below average volumes. The Dow was up 15 at best and down 33 at worst with no economic data overnight. Best sectors — financials, technology. Worst sectors  — consumer staples, utilities. Apple jumped 2.4% after Barclays lifted their target price to $525 from $465. Eurozone retail sales […]

The US unemployment rate fell from 7.6% to a 4.5-year low of 7.5%.

Weekly jobless claims were down 18,000 to a five-year low of 324,000, beating the forecast 345,000 and the previous reading of 342,000.

The mining services sector was particularly weak today.

Our market hit a 57-month high yesterday breaking the recent high of 5163 on the ASX 200.

US pending home sales were up by 1.5% last month, beating the forecast and previous reading of 0.1%; this was the highest level since April 2010.

The final reading of consumer sentiment for April was 76.4, beating the previous result of 72.3 and forecast of 73.2.

The German press cited a confidential Bundesbank opinion paper, which strongly opposed the ECB’s implementation of Outright Monetary Transactions (quantitative easing).

European markets posted their biggest intraday gains in more than seven months on a good Spanish bond auction.

US existing home sales were down 0.6% to 4.92 million in March, missing the forecast of 5.02 million and the previous reading of 4.95 million.

Finance leaders of the G20 countries said that more efforts are required to boost growth: “Much more is needed to fulfill our commitment to address the ongoing weakness in the global economy.”

The Dow was down 123 at worst and up 32 at best on soft economic data and company earnings.

Westfarmers has posted an increase in sales at its Coles division driven by strong volume growth particularly in grocery.

The Westpac-Melbourne Institute Leading Index was 4.2% above its long-term trend of 2.8%. The index indicates that Australian economic growth is expected to pick up in the coming year.

Gold is down $153.60 (10.23%) to $1347.80, its biggest intraday fall in over four years and its largest two-day fall in 30 years.

Chinese GDP numbers have come in at a disappointing 7.7% annualised — down from 7.9% and below the 8.0% expected.

The market is up 13. ASX 200 Futures were up 11 this morning. Dow Jones finished up 69 on below average volumes. The Dow was 85 at best and down 17 at worst on strong economic data. The S&P500 hit a fresh record high of 1597 during the session. Info tech stocks underperformed as PC […]