Another study confirmed Australia's high-quality of life after the city of Melbourne was named on Tuesday by the Economic Intelligence Unit's yearly Liveability Survey as the most liveable city in the world. It is the fourth consecutive year that Melbourne was recognised as the best city in the world where to live.
The winning streak continued with shares hitting fresh six-year highs, rising for a third day and remaining above the key 5600pt level. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) improved by a modest 0.1 per cent despite mixed performances from global markets overnight. The US economy expanded at a faster than expected 4 per cent annual pace in the June quarter, while comments by the US central bank relating to inflation has increased the market's expectations of an earlier rate rise. The default of Arge...
European telecommunication companies are on a buying mode, and they are targeting telcos in North and South America.
Equities extended their gains in overnight trade as investors responded to downgraded geopolitical risk. Russia and Ukraine are reportedly progressing talks to end the conflict, while Iraq is making progress against the militants. The economic calendar was relatively light, but positioning is likely to start gearing up as we head towards the business end of the week. The US dollar will be the main point of focus with the FOMC meeting minutes and Jackson Hole taking centre stage. Any indications ...
Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott normally shuns anything that had to do with political acts of nemesis, former Prime Minister Julia Gillard. But not for the uranium deal with India, which Mr Abbott is expected to ink an agreement in his next visit to the Asian giant.
As it is, Australia looms to become the biggest export of liquefied natural gas by 2017. On Monday, American oil firm Apache announced that it has discovered an oil field in Australia that is potentially the biggest discovery in the last 30 years.
To help boost seat sales, Malaysia Airlines had offered Australian travel agents doubling of their commission to 11 per cent, The Australian reports. The air carrier, which suffered financially because of the two tragedies involving its Boeing 777 jets within four months, advised the agents that by September all tickets issued in and all travel originating from Australia would enjoy the new commission rate.
Kuwait's regulator suspended on Sunday the trading of shares of listed companies that did not submit their quarterly results. However, despite the action, two of three indices in the Kuwait stock market still posted gains.
The ASX200 enjoyed a flirtation with both buyers and sellers over the course of the first trading day of the week. In early trade the index started with a gain of 16 points before quickly surrendering the improvement. At the lows of the day shortly thereafter the market was up by almost a point. In the late part of the morning buyers once again exerted themselves and the index commenced a rally that took in almost 18 points. The move higher wasn't validated by investor interest with volume on...
Earnings season hits full swing this week, with over 70 ASX-listed companies due to report; the key picks are BHP, WES, FMG, WPL and QBE.
Local shares have finished the week on a solid footing. One of the encouraging aspects of the session was the recovery from a late morning slump. Thereafter the ASX 200 moved on to make new highs for the session. Over the course of the week the index rose 2% recovering the 2.2% that was surrendered in the previous week. Most sectors enjoyed buying support over the course of the day although energy names were being held back on weaker oil prices. World oil prices slumped in the last day reflectin...
The Australian sharemarket is up for the fourth time this week, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) rising by 0.25 per cent. This takes the gains so far this week to 2.3 per cent; the best week in six months and completely making up for last week's 2.1 per cent slump.
Zillow Inc., the biggest real estate Web site in the US, is set to acquire the second-largest online real estate company Trulia Inc., for around $3.5 billion in stock. Both companies registered more than 68 million visitors in June, or about 71 per cent of online users under ComScore's real estate category.
The geo-political troubles of last month continue to slide off the front page; both Iraq and Ukraine are showing signs of reaching equilibrium in the respective conflicts, meaning the markets are refocusing on central banks.
In US economic news, new claims for unemployment insurance rose by 21,000 in the latest week to 311,000, above forecasts for a result near 295,000. Import prices fell by 0.2% in July while export prices were flat. Both results were slightly firmer than forecast.
The winning streak continued with shares hitting fresh six-year highs, rising for a third day and remaining above the key 5600pt level. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) improved by a modest 0.1 per cent despite mixed performances from global markets overnight. The US economy expanded at a faster than expected 4 per cent annual pace in the June quarter, while comments by the US central bank relating to inflation has increased the market's expectations of an earlier rate rise. The default of Arge...
The Australian sharemarket has been unable to replicate yesterday's 1.3 per cent surge at lunch, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) down 0.3 per cent. Today is one of the busiest days for markets in the region with a barrage of earnings results out in Australia, Japan's quarterly growth update issued this morning and plenty of Chinese data scheduled for release this afternoon.
The choppy price action in equities continued with the pendulum swinging in the way of the bulls this time around. Perhaps the lack of fresh bad news on the geopolitical front calmed investor concerns. This gave investors a chance to focus on the raft of economic releases across the globe, with significant emphasis placed on disappointing US retail sales data. Given negative US data is now being perceived as positive for equities again, this reading helped ease fears of an early Fed funds rate h...
In US economic news, retail sales were flat in July, short of the expected 0.2% gain. Excluding autos, sales rose 0.1%, again short of forecasts for a 0.4% gain. The mortgage market index fell by 2.7% in the latest week, dragged down by a 4% fall in refinancing. Business inventories rose by 0.4% as expected in June.
The Australian sharemarket has been unable to replicate yesterday's 1.3 per cent surge at lunch, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) down 0.3 per cent. Today is one of the busiest days for markets in the region with a barrage of earnings results out in Australia, Japan's quarterly growth update issued this morningand plenty of Chinese data scheduled for release this afternoon.
The ASX 200 started the second session of the week on the front foot with the index happily building on the previous day's gains. The market was trading close to session highs at lunchtime with a gain of points 55 points after US stocks held their recently improved tone into the start of the week overnight.
It certainly seems to be a headline geopolitical risk driven market at the moment, as any news out of Russia, Ukraine or Iraq dictate sentiment. This time around the news wasn't too constructive with investors concerned about Russia using humanitarian efforts as an excuse to send troops across to Ukraine. Additionally, it doesn't seem like much progress has been made on the Gaza front ahead of the expiration of the ceasefire.
In European economic news, Germany ZEW economic sentiment index fell from 27.1 to 8.6 - the lowest level in 18 months and well below expectations. The ZEW current conditions index fell from 61.80 to 55.5. No surprise that the weakness was driven by the escalation of tensions between Russia and the West. News reports suggest a growing number of the 6,200 German firms active in Russia are warning about a hit to their business. The survey was based on 222 analysts and investors, and conducted betwe...
The winning streak continued with shares hitting fresh six-year highs, rising for a third day and remaining above the key 5600pt level. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) improved by a modest 0.1 per cent despite mixed performances from global markets overnight. The US economy expanded at a faster than expected 4 per cent annual pace in the June quarter, while comments by the US central bank relating to inflation has increased the market's expectations of an earlier rate rise. The default of Arge...
Brisbane Times columnist Marcus Padley identified on Monday some 26 stocks in the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) 200's industrial sector and listed shares that investors consider vulnerable because of their high price-to-earning (PE) ratios.
Melbourne real estate technology professionals have launched a mobile application that could prevent realtors from undervaluing a property and could eventually lead to the creation of similar apps.
The ASX 200 started the second session of the week on the front foot with the index happily building on the previous day's gains. The market was trading close to session highs at lunchtime with a gain of points 55 points after US stocks held their recently improved tone into the start of the week overnight.
Russia has taken a further step back from the Ukrainian crisis, after having pulled back strike fighters from the border (however, Russian troops still remain).
The specter of higher rates putting pressure on corporate earnings spurred investors to redeem a record setting $11.38 billion from High Yield Bond Funds and pull over $19 billion - a 26-week high - from U.S. Equity Funds, according to the latest data from EPFR.
In broad terms the ASX 200 was able to maintain the levels that had been established in the early part of the day, although sellers had gained an edge in mid-afternoon trade when the index retreated from 5470 back towards 5455. Buyers returned in the final half hour of trade seeing the market close at 5457.