ASB Securities Morning Brief for Monday, 08 March 2010

Softer than expected inflation, retail sales and employment data and signs the housing market recovery has stalled will likely mean Reserve Bank governor Alan Bollard leaves interest rates unchanged on Thursday and he will reiterate the first rate hike is likely about mid-year... Read more

Financial markets expect a "so far, so good" monetary policy statement from the Reserve Bank on Thursday which reaffirms its intention to start raising the official cash rate around the middle of the year... Read more

Food security will dwarf climate change as the world's most pressing issue in the next few decades, and New Zealand may have seen the first signs of rich or powerful nations trying to secure food supplies... Read more

House values rose 5.5% in the year through February, though the speed of growth is beginning to slow down, according to QV Valuations... Read more

Blue Chip liquidator Jeff Meltzer says he's seen no evidence of fraud during his investigations into the collapse of the property investment group... Read more

A high profile mortgage broker being investigated by the Economic Development Ministry for allegedly setting up a phoenix company has resigned from the board of the New Zealand Mortgage Brokers Association.... Read more

Much-hyped digital recording device TiVo has had a disastrous launch, despite a $10 million dollar investment by Television New Zealand.... Read more

In the wake of problems with its XT network, Telecom has cut back on advertising.... Read more

Telecom says it is "speculation" that it is considering selling its Telecom International division to Canadian company Rogers Communications... Read more

Farming industry body Meat and Wool New Zealand is to get a new name following a sheep farmers' vote last year to stop paying the wool levy... Read more

Contrary to aspirations to be a financial services hub, proposed regulations may make New Zealand a "laughing stock" in international investment circles, experts say... Read more

Television New Zealand's exclusive deal for the "Heartland" channel on pay TV signals a wider and significant change in the media landscape.... Read more

The Government official in charge of monitoring KiwiSaver schemes has called for greater powers to keep the schemes in line.... Read more

Diligent Board Member Services' recent share price rise has been attributed to the early partial repayment of a loan and the expected cancellation of some shares, says its new chairman David Liptak... Read more

Air New Zealand chief executive Rob Fyfe has joined the board of the body, bath and home fragrance provider backed by the founders of 42 Below.... Read more

Phil Macalister. Next week is shaping up to be fairly a interesting one for the housing market and where it is headed... Read more

NZ Market Report. New Zealand's NZX 50 Index edged up to a six-week high, in relatively light trading, amid optimism companies have room to lift earnings this year, stoking equity valuations... Read more

Australian Market Report. Australian stocks look set for a bright start on Monday, after equity markets rallied and commodities prices firmed during the offshore session... Read more

Insurers are bracing for hefty payouts after being swamped by thousands of claims following Saturday's violent storm.... Read more

Job advertisements grew modestly in February led by strong increases in the number of professional positions, new figures show... Read more

Australia's reputation among global infrastructure investors has taken a battering following the NSW government's decision to shelve the $5 billion Sydney Metro project... Read more

Australians could be paying a massive $8.2 billion in superannuation commissions a year, triple what they are paying now, if the federal government fails to stamp out the many hidden commissions investors unwittingly pay financial planners... Read more

BHP Billiton has won a 55 per cent price increase from a key Japanese steel maker as supplies of coking coal tighten... Read more

A landmark quarterly coking coal export contract prodcured by BHP Billtion has sounded the dealth-knell for the system of annual renewals.... Read more

Rising production at a time of historically high prices is set to result in the value of Australia's gold production bursting through $10 billion this year.... Read more

Commodity prices will continue on their upward path for the foreseeable future, a leading mining adviser has said... Read more

Budget airliner Virgin Blue Holdings Ltd incoming chief executive officer John Borghetti says that corporate market will return to airlines as the economy recovers from he global financial crisis, despite the the recent trends of airlines reducing their first class and business class services... Read more

The Qantas-majority owned travel retailer Jetset Travelworld has failed to capitalise on record numbers of Australians flying overseas on holiday... Read more

The surviving operational arm of the failed Babcock & Brown investment group is understood to be paying as much as $15 million a year to lease nine empty floors in the premium office block Chifley Tower at 2 Chifley Square... Read more

Australia's biggest independently owned mortgage broker, Mortgage Choice, is poised for a direct assault on the home lending market.... Read more

Queensland Rail could be floated as early as October and the $3 billion-plus sale will include its coal network business... Read more

Upmarket retailers Myer and David Jones are expected to confirm early signs of better trading and improving margins this week.... Read more

Evidence of expanding earnings margins during the first-half reporting season suggest company profits could be higher than expected as the economic recovery gathers pace, according to research from Deutsche Bank... Read more

Oil producer AWE is about to start drilling the Hoki well off the New Zealand coast, hoping for a 250 million barrel oil find worth $22bn in revenue.... Read more

Rio Tinto is planning to invest $532m in a diamond mining project in Indian state of Madhya Pradesh... Read more

Macarthur Coal's takeover of Gloucester Coal would create an Australian coal giant with a market capitalisation around $3.9 billion... Read more

Seven Network is considering a push for representation on the board of its regional affiliate, Prime Media Group, amid calls from some key shareholders for the Paul Ramsay-controlled regional broadcaster to divest its non-traditional media businesses... Read more

News Corporation held a high-level meeting of 50 or so newspaper executives from around the globe in New York late last month to discuss the company's plans to charge for online content.... Read more

The revolt of the Ansett children against the last wishes of their father, Reginald Ansett, has succeeded with three winning more than $1 million each.... Read more

The Australian beer market is undergoing the sort of renaissance seen in the wine sector 20 years ago... Read more

Bookmaking is facing a slow death as fewer and fewer punters go to the races... Read more

The building materials and sugar conglomerate, CSR Ltd, has changed the lawyers advising on its troubled attempt to split into two companies.... Read more

The receivers of the failed agribusiness investment group, Great Southern, are to shortly begin selling off its vast landholdings in a move which offers the company's bankers their best hope of recovering combined loans of $600 million... Read more

An examination into the collapse of ABC Learning reconvenes in Brisbane today with senior employees being called to give evidence during the week, along with controversial associates such as Frank Zullo - the former brother-in-law of the company's founder, Eddy Groves... Read more

Brazilian mining giant Vale's Australian operations have been rocked by the departures of more key employees as its spat with Eagle Downs joint-venture partner, Aquila Resources, appears headed for the courts... Read more

Apple's new iPad will sold in Australia by late April, a month after it was first slated to arrive... Read more

John Garnaut. Barely a week goes by without another multi-billion dollar reminder of the gap between the supply and demand of credible information and analysis on China... Read more

Ross Gittins. Just about everyone associated with healthcare professes to have a soul above money. It's only the best interests of patients they care about - unless they discover their incomes are threatened, of course... Read more

Adele Ferguson. As the competition regulator prepares to deliver its verdict on NAB's takeover offer for AXA, the bank is understood to have suspended talks with the country's second biggest financial planning dealer group, Professional Investment Services... Read more

David Simon. If you're owed money by a mate with neither assets nor a steady income you have two choices: either write off the debt, or find a way to help get some funds into his pocket so that he can repay you. Which brings us to Nexbis, the Sydney technology company that's baffled the market with its knack for announcing lucrative Asian government security contracts, only to have the trail go cold before the deals bear fruit... Read more

Barry Fitzgerald. There is nothing punters in oil and gas stocks like more than the drilling of a high impact exploration well. AWE showed that on Friday when it confirmed it was about to spud the Hoki 1 exploration well (50 per cent interest and operator) in the Taranaki Basin in New Zealand... Read more

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

Voters in Iceland overwhelmingly reject a plan to repay debts to the UK and the Netherlands in the wake of the Icesave collapse... Read more

Sales at U.S. retailers probably declined in February as blizzards kept Americans away from malls and auto-dealer showrooms, economists said before a government report this week... Read more

China plans to nullify all guarantees local governments have provided for loans taken by their financing vehicles as concerns about credit risks on such debt surges... Read more

Top Chinese officials said the nation's trade surplus is shrinking and urged caution in exiting crisis policies, suggesting that the yuan may not appreciate soon against the dollar... Read more

Premier Wen Jiabao may struggle to keep inflation at his 2010 target of about 3 percent, after banks flooded the Chinese financial system with money to drive the nation's economic rebound... Read more

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the European Union must support Greece or risk destroying the euro as Prime Minister George Papandreou heads for Paris to lobby support for the debt-laden country... Read more

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker said European officials are lucky that the euro region's first major crisis was sparked by one of its smaller members and he's confident the currency will survive... Read more

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said the Greek crisis shows the euro region should consider creating an organization with powers similar to the International Monetary Fund... Read more

Takeovers in Latin America are off to the best start in at least a decade, bucking a global slump, as economic recoveries in Brazil and Mexico spur consolidation in the telecommunications, food and commodities industries... Read more

American International Group Inc.'s board of directors approved the sale of a non-U.S. insurance division to MetLife Inc., according to two people with knowledge of the matter... Read more

When its shares closed at $218.95 Friday, Apple became one of the five biggest U.S. companies by market capitalization, right below Wal-Mart and above Berkshire Hathaway... Read more

Walt Disney Co.'s WABC-TV cut its broadcast signal to Cablevision Systems Corp. in a fee dispute, leaving 3 million homes in the New York area without cable-TV access to the Academy Awards telecast tonight on ABC... Read more

Glencore International AG, the world's largest commodity trader, is seeking to sell at least $US1 billion of assets in three to six months to help fund its repurchase of the Prodeco coal unit from Xstrata Plc... Read more

NMDC Ltd., India's biggest iron-ore producer, has teamed up with ABS Consulting of Saudi Arabia and Boulder Steel Ltd. to make a $US230 million bid for a stake in an Australian iron-ore project owned by Atlas Iron Ltd.... Read more

Tidjane Thiam, chief executive of British insurance heavyweight Prudential, said he embarked on a controversial US$35 billion takeover of the Asian assets of collapsed American group AIG to give something back to Britain... Read more