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ASB Securities Morning Brief for Friday, 27 January 2012
New Zealand Headlines NZ Market Report. New Zealand stocks rose, buoyed by the Reserve Bank's decision to keep official interest rates steady... Read more The Reserve Bank has signalled that the next move in interest rates is still likely to be up, not down, but will come later than the midyear it foreshadowed last month... Read more Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard's well-anticipated decision to hold rates steady was over-shadowed by the US Federal Reserve's statement it intends to keep interest rates at historic lows into 2015, much longer than previously indicated... Read more ASB, Bank Direct and Sovereign have cut their one to five year fixed rate home loan by between 10 and 20 basis points... Read more The government still expects to post a Budget surplus in 2014/15, but it will be smaller than previously forecast and could be ditched if the European debt crisis triggered a “major shock to the global economy,” Prime Minister John Key says... Read more Fisher Funds spent just under $21 million buying the troubled Huljich KiwiSaver scheme, new documents show... Read more KiwiSavers with most of their money in shares and property had a happier quarter.... Read more Rockforte Finance, the failed Gisborne lender, has received a total of 92 criminal charges which have been laid against all three of its directors by the Serious Fraud Office... Read more The liquidator for failed lender Five Star Finance has lost its bid to void a series of transactions worth some $929,000... Read more Former National Finance boss Trevor Allan Ludlow has had nine months added to his prison sentence for misleading investors... Read more The New Zealand dollar gained as much as 0.7 percent after Reserve Governor Alan Bollard steered clear of talking down the currency and held the official cash rate at a record-low 2.5 percent... Read more With the Crafar farms finally set to pass into Chinese hands, Prime Minister John Key has been accused of "weak-kneed leadership" over the sale.... Read more Baby boomers and Generation Y have resumed their spending sprees with demand for credit cards and mortgages on the rise following two years of falling demand, according to credit bureau Veda... Read more Federated Farmers has added its voice to the list of unbelievers that Government proposals to reform the milk market will bring down the retail price of milk... Read more The joint venture running the Tui oil field off the Taranaki coast will evaluate new drilling sites inside and near the field in the first quarter of the year, partner Pan Pacific Petroleum (PPP) said... Read more Xero, the cloud-based accounting platform provider, expects full year operating revenue to double as it boosts customer numbers... Read more A report to Bridgecorp executives weeks before the finance company collapsed warned of ''ongoing problems''.... Read more Auckland Council is denying it deliberately kept expansion plans for the city's port from the public, as users fear what it will do to their harbour... Read more Wellington Apple enthusiasts will soon be able to head to a new Apple concept store in Manners St to get their i-gadget fix... Read more The Co-operative Bank’s chief executive Girol Karacaoglu is leaving on March 1 to become a deputy secretary at the Treasury... Read more A "tongue-in-cheek" advertising stunt telling people they were being evicted from their homes has backfired.... Read more Patrick Smellie. There's an intriguing coincidence between the arrest of alleged global internet pirate Kim Dotcom and the imminent decision on the Shanghai Pengxin bid for the Crafar farms... Read more
Australian Headlines Australian Market Report. The domestic share market is expected to open higher when trading resumes following the Australia Day public holiday, with Wall Street providing a positive lead... Read more In a briefing note prepared for a G20 meeting, the International Monetary Fund downgraded Australia's growth forecast to a level well below figures presented by both the Reserve Bank of Australia and the federal government, according to a report by the Australian Financial Review... Read more Business leaders have made a strong showing in this year's Australia Day awards, with executives from a number of sectors recognised for their contributions to the nation... Read more Jet fuel prices will top the list of challenges facing Qantas and Virgin Australia this year... Read more Australian banks aggressively cut their exposure to Europe's troubled economies as the region's debt crisis intensified late last year, pulling more than a billion dollars in funds from Belgium, France and Spain... Read more One of the largest suppliers to window furnishings group Kresta has emerged with a 19.9 per cent stake in the company.... Read more Ports and rail operator Asciano Ltd has announced that it will dismantle its Patrick ports division in a strategic move that will see divisional manager Patrick Paul Garaty's position axed... Read more As Australia haemorrhages jobs in the manufacturing and service sectors, business figures say a more flexible labour market could be key to riding out the storm... Read more Sales by small businesses over the all-important Christmas period were better than expected, with mineral-rich WA leading the way.... Read more A shareholder activist revealed that Hong Kong apparently recognised a trumped-up principality in Western Australia's wheatfields as a place of incorporation.... Read more Producers are keen to get Americans excited about the regional subtleties of Australian wines... Read more The Australian dollar has continued to rise after the release of local inflation data, reaching above 106 US cents.... Read more For some businesses - notably pubs, butchers, grog shops and party suppliers - Australia Day is one of the busiest days of the year, as those celebrating January 26 get into the patriotic purchasing spirit... Read more Sickies are expected to cost employers $65 million today as workers give themselves an unofficial long weekend... Read more The head of the state's liquor licensing authority is concerned with the number of bottle shops in NSW.... Read more It is easy to paint Peter Coleman as the change agent charged with reining in the runaway train some say Woodside Petroleum had become under previous chief executive Don Voelte... Read more Retailers and the South Australian Government have declared Australia Day shopping in Rundle Mall a success.... Read more Adele Ferguson. In the next week or so, private equity companies will send their investors letters telling them just how much - or little - the companies they invested in are worth today... Read more Robert Gottliebsen. Barack Obama's 2012 state of the union address revealed how America has learned from mistakes made in the past half-decade – mistakes both Gillard and Abbott must avoid... Read more
International Headlines US Market Report. Wall Street edged lower on Thursday as housing and financial stocks lost ground after weaker-than-expected housing data gave investors reason to pause after a recent rally... Read more World Market Report. An updated report of the worlds' latest market movements... Read more Germany is preparing plans for a form of European stamp duty on shares linked to tougher trading rules as an alternative to a financial-transaction tax, as it seeks to win U.K. support for a European Union-wide levy... Read more Key talks between Athens and its private creditors are to resume later to try to agree a debt write-off that could free-up bailout funds... Read more Slowing growth in China is emerging as a concern in some of this quarter's earnings reports from U.S. multinationals that have long relied on strong growth in China and other emerging markets to drive their profits... Read more The World Economic Forum's signature closed-session on banking saw financiers increasingly hopeful that the euro zone's debt crisis can be resolved and confident of a deal to ensure Greece's now inevitable debt default will be orderly... Read more With concern lingering about the future of the euro zone, UK Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain donned his salesman's cap on Thursday and called on executives and bankers gathered in Davos, Switzerland, to invest in Britain instead... Read more The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will inject $750 million into the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates announced Thursday at the World Economic Forum... Read more New orders for U.S. manufactured goods rose in December and a gauge of future business investment rebounded, showing the U.S. economy ended the year with more momentum than previously thought... Read more New U.S. single-family home sales unexpectedly fell in December for the first time in four months and the median home price dropped, dampening some of the hopes the housing sector will boost the economy this year.... Read more The Federal Reserve has moved closer to embarking on a new round of its controversial money-pumping after the central bank and its chairman Ben Bernanke highlighted a grim outlook for the U.S. economy... Read more Mobile phone giant Nokia reports a loss for the final three months of last year, as sales of mobile devices fell sharply... Read more AT&T Inc posted a $6.7 billion quarterly loss as it was weighed down by a hefty break-up fee for its failed T-Mobile USA merger and other big charges on top of costly subsidies for smartphones such as Apple Inc's popular iPhone... Read more Airbus blamed a combination of manufacturing and design flaws as more examples of wing cracks arose during checks on the A380, while analysts said its bare-all strategy of addressing the problems in public should limit any lasting damage... Read more Japanese electronics firm NEC is cutting 10,000 jobs as it announces losses of 97.5bn yen ($1.25bn; £800m) in nine months... Read more Nintendo posted a sharp drop in quarterly profit and forecast a bigger-than-expected full-year loss as its dedicated games consoles lost ground to smart devices such as Apple's iPhone... Read more Two controversial US anti-piracy bills, now effectively dead in the water, attracted enormous lobbying attention on both sides... Read more Timothy Geithner has said he does not expect to serve a second term as US treasury secretary if President Barack Obama is re-elected... Read more President Obama this week defined what he believes should be the minimum "fair share" for millionaires and billionaires to pay in taxes. His answer: At least 30% of their income... Read more With the British economy flat on its back, the Jaguar Land Rover factory in Birmingham, the second largest city in England, is doing something unusual: hiring.... Read more Two-thirds of Americans want domestic companies to shoulder a lot of responsibility to keep manufacturing jobs in the United States.... Read more A staggering manufacturing system in China has made it possible for Apple and other companies to make devices almost as quickly as they can be dreamed up, but for workers, it can be dangerous.... Read more Stephanie Flanders. The time for reaching a Greek debt deal is fast running out. That's one thing everyone can agree on here in Davos... Read more Amy Goodman. Is this, finally, the moment Obama gets tough with Wall Street? The appointment of Eric Schneiderman to chair an investigation into lending abuses shows Occupy Wall Street's enduring effect... Read more
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