MARKETS

The restructuring spree of HSBC Holdings Plc is likely to continue as the European bank aims to improve its performance. It is widely speculated that HSBC CEO Stuart Gulliver will inform about further downsizing and sales of some assets on the 15th of May. Investors expect to hear that a 3-year restructuring plan has started bearing fruits.

Australian shares are slightly firmer at lunchtime in the East, following a mixed offshore lead and ahead of the release of the Federal Budget in Canberra tonight.

By Alexander Green, Investment U Chief Investment StrategistIn Friday's column, I laid out what I believe is the greatest threat facing financial markets today: the propensity of national governments to tax, spend and regulate too much.

By Andrew NelsonThe spot uranium market crawled along last week, with a handful of trades and a fairly small amount of product changing hands.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 26 points, or 0.2%, while the S&P closed flat at 1633 and the Nasdaq was also as good as flat.

Gina Rinehart, Australia's richest person, just added more money to her wealth. On Friday, she and another female billionaire were awarded $200 million after they won a lawsuit against Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO).

The Australian share market closed only slightly higher on Monday, despite strong gains offshore on Friday night which saw European markets reach five year highs and US markets close at record highs.

The Australian sharemarket is flat after a slightly weaker start this morning. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down by just 0.3pts to 5,190.8. A fall in the business conditions survey reading has been keeping stocks subdued. Last week however, the local market rose by around 1.68 per cent, making it three straight weeks of improvements.

SPX500 Forecast To Trade To Record PeaksBy David Rodriguez, Quantitative StrategistSPX500 ?Retail CFD speculators are now their most short the SPX500 contract on record, and we see little choice but to take a contrarian bias to crowd sentiment and calls for fresh SPX500 highs.

Guide: The FNArena database tabulates the views of eight major Australian and international stock brokers: BA-Merrill Lynch, CIMB, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan, Macquarie and UBS.

Friday's session largely boiled down to a tug of war between the resources and banks. As has been the case all week the miners won and financials underperformed. At face value Friday's performance appears underwhelming. The ASX200 finished with a gain of almost 8 points, having squandered an early lead of 44 points at its best levels which were seen in late morning trade. Investors appeared happy for some book squaring ahead of the weekend after the market gained 1.7% in the last 5 days.

The main talking point in the early part of Asian trade has been the sharp rally in the US dollar as the Wall Street day was winding down. Many unilluminating rationalisations for the move have been offered, most of them turning around the US Fed's mindset towards quantitative easing. The better reading overnight in relation to the number of US unemployed claiming benefits was seen as adding credence to this view.

What a strange world it is where global capital flees persecution by global central banks into the safety of the high priced Dow and the S&P500. Overnight, we saw another record high in the US indexes. As Dan Denning has been saying, we're in for a global melt-up in the big blue chips as capital seeks a refuge at the 'core' of the financial system.

A mood of prophecy, perhaps brought on by a large helping of osso bucco from our local Italian restaurant, came over us last night. We looked into the future. And there we saw a grim world.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 22 points, or 0.2%, while the S&P fell 0.4% to 1626 and the Nasdaq lost 0.

The Australian share market closed flat today, following subdued Chinese inflation data and volatile jobs numbers.

In the olden days - let's say back in the 13th century during the Mongol invasions of Europe - if you wanted to escape the Horde you retreated behind big thick city walls.

What about that Dow! Overnight, it punched through the 15,000 mark, on its way to 16,000, 17,000 and beyond. Could it happen? Well, markets are clearly in melt-up mode. But how far can they melt-up before the bust?

The Australian market has extended its gains following much better than forecast job numbers and an unsurprising inflation report in China. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up 0.2 per cent or 11.7 pts to 5,189.6, making it the third day of improvements this week. There were 50,100 jobs added in April, 34,500 of which were full-time positions. The unemployment rate eased from 5.6 per cent to 5.5 per cent and the participation rate (the percentage of working-age Australians either employed or loo...

By Kathleen Brooks, Research Director UK EMEA, FOREX.comFX is playing second fiddle to stock markets today.

Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) expects to benefit from the rising demand for steel by China with higher iron ore sales, a company executive said at an international conference in Singapore on Wednesday.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed up 48 points, or 0.3%, while the S&P gained 0.4% to 1632 and the Nasdaq added 0.

The ASX 200 Index closed at a near five year high today, as investor sentiment was boosted by record closes on the US Dow Jones and S&P 500 Indices, as well as better than expected Chinese trade data. The ASX 200 closed just shy of 5200 points, its best finish since June 30, 2008.

The Australian market is rising thanks to a better than expected Chinese trade surplus and US shares closing at record highs. The All Ordinaries index (XAO) is up 0.7 per cent or 35.8 pts to 5,158.5. A US$18.16bn trade surplus in China at 11.49am (AEST) pushed local shares slightly higher initially while the Australian dollar recorded a more obvious rise to US101.9 cents.

By Bo Becker and Victoria IvashinaFixed-income investors that have targets based on imperfect risk measures are tempted to take on additional risk to raise their portfolio yields.

Out of the blue, Paul Walsh, successful chief executive officer at Diageo Plc, informed that he would retire after successful and fruitful 13 years managing the drinks giant. As it was made public, he would be succeeded by Diageo COO Ivan Menezes.

They are not called Virgin employees for nothing. Female attendants of Virgin Train are protesting the new uniform of the transport form because the blouses are too short and so flimsy.

By Greg PeelThe Dow rose 87 points, or 0.6%, while the S&P gained 0.5% to 1625 and the Nasdaq added 0.

- RBA saw need to support economy- Economists predict more cuts will be required- Westpac and Macquarie see a 2% cash rate aheadBy Greg PeelIs the Reserve Bank of Australia "behind the curve"?In its April monetary policy statement, the RBA suggested "Global growth is forecast to be a little below av...