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ASB Securities Morning Brief for Tuesday, 09 February 2010
New Zealand Headlines John Key will unveil measures aimed at cooling New Zealand's love affair with property investment in a speech today that is expected to outline major tax reforms... Read more New Zealand looks likely to ditch the wholesale funding guarantee for banks soon, after Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan announced on Sunday his country's version would end next month... Read more Banks should stop relying on the government guarantee for deposits, which provided no real benefit to customers, KPMG banking specialist Andrew Dinsdale says... Read more Prime Minister John Key's insistence that New Zealand can close an income gap with Australia has been dealt a further blow, with the signing of an $85 billion deal to export coal to China... Read more Telecom is expected to post a quarterly profit of between $60 million and $90 million on Friday when it reports its results for the three months to the end of December... Read more Genesis Energy is the latest power company to go for a chunk of the once-lucrative Dunedin retail electricity market, following the announcement of electricity reforms that will give it access to generation capacity in the South Island for the first time... Read more Electricity retailers will experience pressure on their profit margins in 2010, thanks to higher wholesale electricity prices, transmission system upgrade costs, and investment in new generation capacity, says Fitch Ratings in its latest outlook... Read more The New Zealand dollar may weaken this week from a five-month low as concern about sovereign risk in Europe drives investors to the relative safety of the greenback and the yen... Read more Pyne Gould’s Marac finance unit has turned up irregularities relating to a business loan and will take a $2.5 million provisions against its first-half results... Read more Marac's chief investment officer, Craig Stephen, yesterday refused to comment on whether the discovery of the unauthorised loan had anything to do with the temporary disappearance last week of the company's chief risk officer, Grant Atkinson.... Read more Kiwibank is the first bank to change its floating mortgage rate this year, cutting it by 14 basis points to 5.65% which is the second lowest floating rate behind BNZ's TotalMoney product offered at 5.59%... Read more Home building is forecast to pick up in the next couple of years, but still be at least 10,000 a year short of expected demand, so house prices are likely to keep rising, according to an industry forecast... Read more Inland Revenue says it will come down hard on companies that abuse new tax rules for income earned by foreign subsidiaries which could lead to more production and profits going overseas... Read more New Australian employment research has shown skill shortages in many sectors - leading to fears that more skilled New Zealanders may soon head across the Tasman to fill gaps in the Aussie job market... Read more AXA New Zealand's new owners, regardless of who they are, have no reason to mess with a winning formula, according to the life insurer's chief executive Ralph Stewart... Read more John Armstrong. It isn't every day that the governor of the country's central bank publicly scotches a fundamental plank of the ruling party's economic agenda as not achievable... Read more Fran O'Sullivan. How will business judge John Key's economic plans? Pretty well - if he meets the five criteria that leading business players bring up... Read more Phil Macalister. I have warmly welcomed the moves by some finance companies of offering non-guaranteed product to the market. So far only Marac and PGG Wrightson have done so, but others, I hear, will follow soon. It’s good for a number of reasons... Read more Daily Sharechat. The Warehouse Group's report of flat trading over Christmas points to a lacklustre first-half result although recent share price weakness seems overdone, says Daniel Reynolds, an analyst at Craigs Investment Partners... Read more NZ Market Report. New Zealand shares fell, pushing the NZX 50 Index to a five-month low as Pyne Gould Corp. said it would take a charge against loan on Marac’s books and Pike River Coal fell amid expectations it will tap investors for more fund... Read more
Australian Headlines Australian Market Report. Australian shares struggled to hang on to their early gains, closing slightly higher as a small recovery rally fizzled in the afternoon... Read more JB Hi-Fi's incoming chief executive, Terry Smart, has sought to reassure investors about the company's rapid growth trajectory.... Read more Macquarie Group is expected to return to credit markets before the expiry of the funding guarantee, to try to roll over more than $2 billion of funds... Read more The Federal Government's announcement that it will withdraw its banking guarantee may be a sign of the strength of Australia's major banks, but it has also raised concerns about competition in the sector.... Read more The axing of the wholesale funding guarantee for Australian banks is expected to increase competition in the retail deposits market.... Read more The Australian market for legal services faces a major shake-up, with global firm Allen & Overy bursting on to the scene.... Read more Sydney is playing host to some of the world's top money men and women to celebrate the 50th birthday of the Reserve Bank ... Read more The chief executive of PIMCO has warned Australian investors against taking a passive approach to fixed-income portfolio management in the fluidity of the current economy... Read more Unions are set to launch their most aggressive minimum wage push in years, calling for pay rises of between $30 and $40 a week for the country's lowest paid workers... Read more The way is open for National Australia Bank to negotiate with Axa SA for the takeover of Axa Asia Pacific Holdings, after AMP's exclusivity agreement with the French life insurance giant expired at the weekend... Read more APRA steps up warnings to superannuation industry over money being illegally taken from super accounts... Read more Business confidence has improved dramatically, with higher expectations of profit growth and staff numbers pointing to a better year ahead, according to the latest business survey by Dun & Bradstreet... Read more Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan sets aside party politics to pay tribute to his Coalition predecessor Peter Costello.... Read more BHP Billiton has appointed former nickel executive Chris Campbell as iron ore president, as the $US116 billion ($134bn) merger of its West Australian iron ore operations with Rio Tinto's gathers pace, spurring top-level restructuring at the mining giants... Read more Clive Palmer's ''$60 billion'' export coal deal may be nowhere near as watertight as it sounds, China's state-controlled news agency said yesterday... Read more The Australian dollar rose yesterday as regional markets bided their time... Read more A review by the Australian Securities Exchange has found the growing popularity of algorithmic trading in Australia has done little to harm the integrity of the market, despite creating an appearance of manipulative trading... Read more BHP Billiton has cut projections for its proposed Yeelirrie uranium mine in Western Australia by nearly a third... Read more Santos says its joint venture with Malaysia's Petronas has a "proven and probable" gas resource.... Read more Incitec Pivot will restart work on the $935 million Moranbah ammonium nitrate plant in central Queensland... Read more Australian junior Aurox Resources has signed a binding but conditional deal with Metallurgical Corp of China.... Read more The chief executive of Xstrata, Mick Davis, says the medium term outlook for commodity demand remains ''very promising''.... Read more Director Patricia Cross will step down from the Wesfarmers board after husband Paul Meadows was hired as part of an organisational restructure... Read more Canada's Barrick Gold will take over Perth-based African gold explorer Tusker Gold in an agreed $80 million cash bid... Read more The pay-TV industry has criticised the Rudd government's decision to slash $250m off commercial free-to-air networks' licence fees.... Read more The options trader Tony Famularo has failed in his attempt to overturn the liquidator's decision to reject his claim for a $103 million debt from failed margin lender Lift Capital.... Read more Administrators have so far been unable to satisfy themselves about the value of another $52 million invested in a Trio Capital-managed fund.... Read more Toyota's accelerator recall and new fears over Prius brakes have taken the shine off the carmaker's launch of the Australian-built Hybrid Camry.... Read more The collapse of a Pyrmont building company, leaving $27 million in unpaid debts, has left many small businesses facing ruin... Read more Sydney's Pitt Street Mall is to emerge as a financial hub after it was revealed that a 25-storey office tower to be built will have stockbroker JPMorgan as its main tenant... Read more Ian McIlwraith. Even the experts cannot agree on whether the world's jittery sharemarkets are having a hiccup or a heart attack... Read more Andrew Main. The sooner lenders are on a level playing field, the better... Read more Adele Ferguson. With the government guarantee on wholesale funding removed, it could be harder for smaller players to raise money at a decent price... Read more John Durie. If new JB Hi-Fi boss Terry Smart is so good, why does Richard Uechtritz need to hang around on the board and as a paid consultant?... Read more Michael Evans. The ASX has come up short in its initial review of the technologically charged and highly profitable world of high-frequency trading, preferring to highlight the dangers of a world in which it is no longer the monopoly market provider... Read more Ian Verrender. Not for the first time, Graeme Samuel is shaping up to be the kingmaker. This time it is in financial services; the industry that is the new millennium's version of the 1800s gold rush... Read more Stephen Bartholoemusz. An increasing number of Australian traders are relying on algorithms. However, there are concerns that some of these trading methods could lead to market manipulation... Read more
International Headlines U.S. Market Report. An updated report of the latest action on Wall Street... Read more World Market Report. An updated report of the worlds' latest market movements... Read more Toyota is to issue a formal recall in Japan of its latest-model Prius petrol-electric hybrid, and may do the same in the US and other markets, following complaints about problems with its brakes, people close to the situation said... Read more Global economic leaders sought to reassure markets that the debt contagion spreading across southern Europe was under control, expressing confidence that Greece could bring down its debt levels without outside intervention... Read more Group of Seven finance ministers promised to spend now and save later as they try to spur the global economic rebound without incurring the wrath of investors increasingly focused on mounting debt... Read more Japanese brewing and food groups Kirin and Suntory have called off merger negotiations.... Read more Anglo-Swiss Mining group Xstrata is to resume dividend payments despite reporting a drop in full-year profits... Read more India says its economy is set to grow by 7.2% this financial year, raising the chance that state support could be withdrawn... Read more The chief executive of SAP unexpectedly resigns after his contract is not renewed, the company says... Read more Small businesses are becoming the Achilles heel of the U.S. recovery by limiting growth and job creation... Read more Acer Inc., the world’s second-largest personal-computer vendor, plans to boost sales of more-profitable servers this year as it takes on Hewlett-Packard Co. and Dell Inc. in offering computers to companies... Read more Mobile phone maker Nokia has said it will defend itself "vigorously" against a class action filed in New York alleging the firm misled investors... Read more World-renowned short seller Jim Chanos -- the hedge fund manager who called the fall of Enron and the systemic problems cause by subprime mortgages --recently turned his gimlet eye on China. He saw a country whose rapid rise was hiding massive flaw... Read more Police in China shut down what officials think was the largest training Web site for computer hackers, local media said... Read more A proposed partnership between the French government and Google is stoking fears in France that the country's literary treasures will fall under commercial control of a U.S. technology company... Read more The longest cocoa rally in three decades is ending as growers boost output, widening profit margins for chocolate makers who’ve already shrunk the size of candy bars and substituted cheaper ingredients to save money... Read more John Thain, the ousted chief of Merrill Lynch & Co., was named to lead CIT Group Inc., the commercial lender that emerged from bankruptcy in December, after almost a four-month search for a replacement... Read more
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