ASB Securities Morning Brief for Thursday, 18 March 2010

New Zealand’s consumer confidence ebbed in the past quarter, while remaining positive, according to the Westpac McDermott Miller Confidence Index... Read more

Telecom may be forced to cut its dividend payments, according to a hard hitting broker report written in the wake of Tuesday's rural broadband announcement... Read more

New Zealand’s government isn’t trying to undermine Telecom Corp. in measures such as bolstering rural broadband services, said Communications Minister Steven Joyce... Read more

New Zealand fresh produce exporters are getting the pip with some shipping companies as they get bumped on booked container space... Read more

Exporters said to be struggling to get their products on ships because of the seasonal bulge and reduced cargo space have the solution in their own hands, says the New Zealand head of shipping giant Maersk.... Read more

Cinema chain Hoyts is snapping up a competitor to consolidate its position as New Zealand's second biggest cinema chain even though it could be on the block soon... Read more

The poor and older people are expecting to be worse off after the Budget, when GST is expected to rise to 15 per cent, according to a bank survey... Read more

Two former Housing New Zealand managers and an Australian software firm have backed a whistleblower's claims that HNZ is wasting money on a $43.6 million software project.... Read more

Lawyers for Fairfax Media are due to front up at the High Court in Auckland today to fight a press ban on publishing details of a $19 million dispute between businessman Bill Birnie and two former associates.... Read more

TVNZ bosses are set to hack $5 million off the news and current affairs budget, affecting up to 75 jobs, as they try to return the state broadcaster to profitability... Read more

Auckland's commercial sector has been growing rapidly, adding 36,000 new businesses between 2000 and 2008... Read more

The housing market appears to be a game of two halves, with some areas seeing substantially more sales activity than others... Read more

The New Zealand dollar rose to a six-week high after the Federal Reserve reiterated its pledge to keep interest rates low for an extended period in the world’s largest economy, stoking the appeal of higher-yielding currencies such as the kiwi... Read more

State coal miner Solid Energy has announced a new appointment to lead it through a decade of coal technology developments, including Southland's multibillion-dollar lignite to fuel project... Read more

The global financial crisis, finance company failures and falling house prices are leaving many New Zealanders feeling unprepared for retirement despite the advent of KiwiSaver, a survey shows... Read more

Default KiwiSaver provider Mercer is says there needs to be an improvement in disclosure requirements with KiwiSaver.... Read more

The New Zealand Superannuation Fund grew by 1.88% last month to add a theoretical $296 million to the size of its total pool of investments... Read more

New Zealand advertising has reached its lowest revenue level since 2004, but John Buckley, head of 360interactive, is not concerned... Read more

Wellington broking firm McDouall Stuart says inadequate future returns and a trend towards increased capital requirements for clearing house participants are behind its decision to resign as a trading and settlement member of NZX... Read more

SPI Capital has allegedly breached a property syndicate Deed by borrowing $1.2 million against a property without the knowledge of investors and lent the money to an unrelated entity unrelated... Read more

Diligent Board Member Services, the online provider of services to boards of directors whose shares have soared 370% in the past 12 months, has secured a new line of credit from Spring Street Partners LP for the next 18 months... Read more

A New Zealand-made inflatable ball will be the official symbol of the next Winter Olympics, but its creator has mixed feelings about its use... Read more

Daily Sharechat. Delegat's Group has a "corked" macro outlook as a result of the high New Zealand dollar and the current wine glut, says Adrian Allbon at Goldman Sachs JB Were... Read more

NZ Market Report. New Zealand shares fell, pushing the NZX 50 Index down for a second day, as Telecom sank to a new record low and a resurgent kiwi dollar damped the prospects for companies including Fisher & Paykel Appliances... Read more

Australian Market Report. Australian shares close 1.2 per cent higher after a positive Wall Street lead... Read more

The Australian Government has expressed concern at a decision by Chinese officials to conduct parts of the trial of Stern Hu and three other Rio Tinto executives in secret.... Read more

China has taken the advice of former Australian competition tsar Allan Fels that it has the right to challenge the Rio-BHP Pilbara merger.... Read more

US investment bank Greenhill & Co has swooped on Caliburn Partnership in a $200 million ($217m) agreed deal... Read more

Almost three-quarters of Australian retail investors have lost faith in the corporate regulator, our newest Investor Pulse survey reveals... Read more

The department store chain David Jones has reported a record first-half profit of $100.5 million... Read more

David Jones has echoed Myer's concerns about the fragile state of the nation's economic recovery - after unveiling its biggest half-year profit in 15 years... Read more

Australia's consumer price index is among the worst in the developed world, according to the Reserve Bank... Read more

Reserve Bank of Australia assistant governor Guy Debelle expects interest rates to rise further, backing market expectations that the cash rate will be moved up towards normal levels in coming months as growth picks up... Read more

Strathfield has posted a small profit and says it is on the mend... Read more

Shares in agribusiness AWB plunged more than 10 per cent as the group downgraded its guidance for full- year profit... Read more

The taxman has lost an appeal in a $2.2 billion tax case against the financial arm of mining giant BHP.... Read more

Kerry Stokes has transferred more than $100 million of property out of his earth-moving business, WesTrac, to his private company, Australian Capital Equity, and will lease it back to the merged Seven Group Holdings for $18 million a year... Read more

The Aussie dollar rose after Standard & Poor's affirmed its rating on Greece's debt and the World Bank raised its growth outlook for China... Read more

Three National Australia Bank's executives, including its chief executive, Cameron Clyne, have missed out on hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of share-based payments after the bank's performance lagged its rivals over the past year... Read more

Australia's $1.2 trillion superannuation sector will more than quadruple in size over the next 20 years... Read more

Mystery yesterday surrounded the reported bid by disaffected Gunns shareholders to persuade controversial chairman John Gay and two other Tasmanian directors to stand aside, amid suggestions the group may requisition an extraordinary meeting to have them replaced... Read more

Uncertainty surrounding emissions trading and the drop in value of renewable energy certificates has seen investment in renewables fall more in Australasia than anywhere else in the world... Read more

Great Southern's liquidator has cut a last-minute deal with the proposed buyers of its olive groves to save this year's harvest and preserve likely value from future crops for creditors... Read more

United Airlines has made its most aggressive push on the Australia-US route since an airfare pricing war broke out a year ago by announcing plans to double services over the Christmas holidays.... Read more

Sometimes it doesn't matter how rich you are, you still can't get exactly what you want. Ask Sean Howard, the multimillionaire Sydney businessman, founder of OzEmail and now a retirement-resort developer, whose dream of owning a luxury yacht turned into a blistering nightmare.... Read more

Investors are responding to calls from the government and consumers for greater competition in the home loan market, with increasing support for small lenders looking to raise money from credit markets... Read more

US retailer Staples has launched a $5.60-a-share takeover bid for Corporate Express Australia.... Read more

Coal is continuing to fetch higher-than-expected prices. Prices for low volatile pulverised injection coal, used in steelmaking, have been settled at $US170-$US180 a tonne, double last year's price. About $US140 a tonne had been expected... Read more

The battle for lucrative aviation resources in northern Queensland is heating up... Read more

AngloGold Ashanti's massive Tropicana gold discovery in Western Australia could be even larger than first thought, the Johannesburg-based miner says... Read more

Minerals Corporation has signed a deal to form a joint venture in China with a major steel mill... Read more

A former union boss, John Maitland, has amassed a $9.8 million stake in a controversial coalmining project, after the state government granted an exploration permit through a deal which has been slammed as a favour to union mates... Read more

Shares in Australian LNG companies gained ground yesterday following bullish forecasts about the fuel from Royal Dutch Shell... Read more

Malcolm Maiden. The Caliburn takeover is an attempt to create global investment banking scale in mergers and acquisitions advice without the drawbacks... Read more

Elizabeth Knight. Commentary from David Jones boss Mark McInnes on the release of the company's first-half profit yesterday, serves as a reinforcement of Myer chief Bernie Brookes's admission that Myer was sold too soon into its turnaround to justify the price investors paid... Read more

Adele Ferguson. Retail investors are furious with the federal government and the corporate regulator, ASIC. Their anger is over two recent decisions that prevent them from taking part in shareholder class actions against collapsed companies or ones that have breached continuous disclosure obligations... Read more

Ian Verrender. Unless you have been hiding under a very large rock for the past year and a half, you no doubt would have gathered the impression that the Australian economy is a shining beacon in an otherwise very dark world... Read more

Stephen Bartholomeusz. There is serious real end-value to be created from growing a local advisory firm to the point where it becomes desirable to one of the international firms... Read more

Alan Kohler. Beyond all the posturing over an NBN-Telstra deal, Telstra's universal service obligation would seem to make the future more certain than either side has yet publicly stated... Read more

David Symons. Gunns, Australia's largest woodchipping company, has been trapped in a swirl of speculation in recent days. Its chairman, John Gay, has hit back, seeking to stave off demands from institutional investors that three long-term Tasmanian directors resign... 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

The European Union criticises the UK and other European nations for having "optimistic" growth assumptions and bloated deficits.... Read more

The UK unemployment and claimant count totals both fall, but the number of long-term unemployed rises.... Read more

Wholesale prices in the U.S. fell in February more than anticipated, led by a drop in fuel costs and signaling there are few inflation pressures building in the early stages of the economic recovery... Read more

Four major banks have been ordered to stand trial in Italy in a fraud case related to derivatives trading... Read more

The Bank of Japan’s decision to double the size of a liquidity program for banks may prove more effective in placating the government than stemming deflation... Read more

Russia, the biggest economy still cutting interest rates, will probably deploy a three-pronged strategy to steer an uneven recovery as the ruble soars, inflation hovers at a 12-year low and bank liquidity swells... Read more

Google's business partners in China are asking the company to clarify whether it will stay or go.... Read more

British Airways criticized attempts by the union representing the airline's cabin crews to internationalize their planned strike among sympathetic labor organizations around the world... Read more

General Motors Co. Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell said the biggest U.S. automaker may be profitable in 2010, ending five years of annual losses.... Read more

Dubai’s property market will recover by the end of 2011 as mortgages become easier to obtain and more people move to the city, according to the developer of a $US4 billion hotel and residential project... Read more

Panasonic Corp., which acquired a controlling stake in battery maker Sanyo Electric Co. in December, may boost annual profit by more than 80 billion yen ($US885 million) in three years by merging operations... Read more

The Organisation of Oil Exporting Countries has agreed to keep to its existing oil output quota. The decision was widely expected but nonetheless sent the price of the UK benchmark, Brent crude oil, up by 72 cents to $US81.25 a barrel.... Read more

Fast Retailing Co., Asia’s biggest clothing retailer, expects overseas sales to overtake domestic revenue in as soon as four years, driven by expansion of its Uniqlo stores in China and South Korea... Read more

In the next couple of weeks, U.S. lawmakers are expected to unveil an unprecedented climate change proposal that may open up more areas for offshore drilling and cut emissions through a cap on greenhouse gases and a tax on gasoline... Read more

The golfing industry may be breathing a collective sigh of relief after Tiger Woods penciled in his return to the game at the Augusta Masters, but it may not be enough to help golf courses bearing his name around the world... Read more

Paul La Monica. Has Jeff Immelt finally made General Electric investors forget the legendary Jack Welch? That's a stretch. But the current GE CEO -- and the company's shareholders -- finally have a lot to smile about... Read more