The ASX edged higher with most of the gains coming late in the day, strong buying in the match with light volumes and options expiry playing around with prices - some big lines in the banks went through today ahead of what should be a fairly quite Friday leading into... Show More
Seth Klarman's annual letter to Baupost investors does the rounds at Davos (and I've got a copy to share with you); Capital Economics forecasts the AUD to fall to 60c; and NAB data suggests Christmas spending will disappoint. Here's what's happening in markets today. Show More
Over the past few months, rising energy prices have dominated newspaper headlines, treating readers to the sight of politicians wringing their hands, promising to get to the bottom of this issue and find out who is responsible. Large power generators, energy retailers and transmission companies are accused of being behind... Show More
Welcome to the FNArena Reporting Season Monitor for the August result season 2018. The Monitor reports ratings and consensus price target changes, along with brief summaries of the collective responses, from FNArena database brokers for each of the 300+ stocks. Week 3 is now available with coverage of 213 stocks. Show More
In this daily reporting season update, we provide first impressions on key takeouts from companies reporting today, including Santos, Flight Centre, South32, Qantas Airways, Stockland, Alumina and Qube Logistics with links through to more detailed reports. Show More
Over the past twelve months small companies (as measured by the ASX’s Small Ordinaries) have returned 22%, outperforming large caps (ASX Top 100) by almost 10%. This has led to numerous articles in the financial press claiming that small is beautiful and that investors should look beyond large Australian companies... Show More
Here is the ASX 200 results calendar - the results season is still a couple of weeks away. As usual, it is a best endeavours calendar, some companies simply don’t set a reliable date. The big companies generally do. Show More
A recent market report from Pitcher Partners found that M & A activity in 2017 increased 55% compared with the prior year, with numerous industry players such as Morgan Stanley, KPMG, and more all suggesting that M & A activity is showing no signs of slowing down just shy of... Show More
A recent article from Tony Boyd in the Australian Financial Review shone a light on just how active the domestic Australian market has been for M & A activity in 2018. Our last Livewire submission seven months ago touched on a few key things to look out for when trading... Show More
The index was choppy early, edging higher in the first hour before heading lower from at around 11am onwards which coincided with Santos resuming trade after snubbing the harbour bid. It was the real estate names that supported the market once again today with 7 of the top 8 performers... Show More
It is a fact not often highlighted by investors in energy and mining stocks, but financial market participants tend to treat producers of crude oil and natural gas more favourably than they do mining stocks. Show More
A bullish day overall despite the market only adding +9pts, it was the strong move up from the daily lows (+34pts) that caught the eye - CBA interesting here and its starting to look reasonable from a technical standpoint as it enters a seasonally strong period (as discussed in the... Show More
The market was sold hard early today with the SPI Futures unwinding down around 50pts before buyers really stepped up into the low volume post Easter trade – so although we closed in the red (only just) the market did rally +27points from the daily cash lows with some big... Show More
The chaos of reporting season makes a good case against markets being efficient. It will take weeks, if not months, to fully parse the recent data download of many hundreds of reports, and to also process views gleamed from the ensuing company roadshows. Reporting season can thus generate a long... Show More
Whilst abnormal losses flagged in the first half pulled the statutory profit into the red, Santos’s core Net profit after tax (NPAT) at US$336m was 5% ahead of our forecast of US$323m. It was also above January analyst consensus forecasts, but these were subsequently revised upwards to US$348m leading into... Show More
After years of incredibly easy monetary policy globally we are finally amid a synchronised global economic recovery the likes of which we have not seen in over a decade. Show More
In part one of a two-piece series on financial statement trickery, we are going to look at some measures a company can take to “dress up” their financial results to create an unclear picture of their financial health. Show More
For many investors Paradice Investment Management is synonymous with high-performing small cap funds. What most wouldn’t know is that Paradice is also home to an Australian large cap portfolio that was opened in 2007. The strategy, which was closed shortly after inception due to overwhelming investor interest, has delivered in... Show More
“I don't see any sign of slowdown in the ability to digitize cash. I think the best description an analyst had coming off of our Investor Day was something like, I like Visa because they have a weak competitor called cash” Vasant Prabhu, CFO, Visa Show More
The chronology of events this past 24 hours is rather curious and provides somewhat of a conundrum as to how to play the current machinations. Santos has stated today that on the 14th of August the company received a confidential, non-binding, conditional and indicative proposal to acquire all the shares... Show More