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Economic Statistics
The market's now-mindless optimism was dealt comething of a shock today with the release of much softer-than-expected economic data.
- Building Approvals were expected to be flat, but they actually fell by 2.4% - taking the total decline over the last 7 months to 16.4%;
- Retail Trade was expected to grow by 0.7%, but it contracted by the same amount (maybe they just got the sign wrong...);
- Market Crack Cocaine shipments (oops, I meant Consumer Credit) rose by 1.2% for the month and 13.9% year-on-year, while a subcomponent - lending for housing - rose 1% for the month.
All things considered (yesterday's Banana Repubic balance of trade, for example), this does not represent an economy that is in good fundamental shape; the only "good" indicator is that the government rapes more money off taxpayers than it wastes.
You might call that "fiscal prudence", but frankly that's crap. When 50c in almost every dollar of private sector income goes to the government in direct or indirect taxes, the government has absolutely no excuse to ever run a deficit.
Major Market Indices
Another record high... but it was a squeaker.
I read a piece of supposedly "institutional research" the other day - one that emanated from one of the newly-merged gangs of ticket-clippers. It sounded like it was written by the sales department, or someone from Danoz Direct or the Shopping Channel.
4000 is "just a matter of time"... blah blah blah.
Sure thing, dickhead - but then what?
Honestly, if that's the sort of output that insto readers are getting, what sort of dross do retail clients get?
I won't name names, ... sure I will. It was Goldman Sachs JB Were and if they had any dignity they would be ashamed ofthemselves. And you thought Merrill were wankers!
It is my hope that eventually brokers will get paid what they're worth - nothing - and that there will be one brokerage firm (let's call it TDGSMerrillWereOrdsMorganCommSecSanford) which will just be 3 PCs and a little chap with a funny accent to make sure they all run OK.
I'm digressing again...
XAO intraday 1-minute Chart - today...
As you can see from the chart, there were basically 2 "trades" during the day - one before lunch, and one after. Two little "moonshots" driven primarily by arb traders and some insto money. Any time apart from that was as boring as a brokers barbeque.
I have to consult with The Red Menace, but it smells to me like we are running out of gas; Christmas Rally be damned.
| Code | Name | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
| XAO | All Ordinaries | 3942.8 | 4.7 | 0.12% | 620.55m |
| XTL | S&P/ASX 20 | 2102.3 | 7.4 | 0.35% | 131.11m |
| XFL | S&P/ASX 50 | 3861.8 | 5 | 0.13% | 271.31m |
| XTO | S&P/ASX 100 | 3190.9 | 4.6 | 0.14% | 407.1m |
| XJO | S&P/ASX 200 | 3931.3 | 4.5 | 0.11% | 506.04m |
| XKO | S&P/ASX 300 | 3940.2 | 4.4 | 0.11% | 570.71m |
| XMD | S&P/ASX Mid-Cap 50 | 3868.9 | 9.4 | 0.24% | 135.79m |
| XSO | S&P/ASX Small Ordinaries | 2308 | -6.4 | -0.28% | 163.6m |
All Ordinaries Market Internals
More stocks fell than rose - by a decent margin - but volume was tilted just as strongly to the gainers. Smells like "circling the wagons".
| Advances | 171 | |
| Declines | 216 | |
| Advancing Volume (m) | 332.27 | |
| Declining Volume (m) | 225.77 |
S&P/ASX200 GICS Sector Indices
WOW and CML had a rest after making multi-period highs yesterday, which dragged down the crappily-named "Consumer Staples" sector and weighed on the market more broadly as major Resources stocks also had a rest. Property Trusts were bought - another example of wagion-circling.
| Code | GICS Sector | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
| XEJ | Energy | 7162.6 | -122 | -1.67% | 30.94m |
| XMJ | Materials | 6577.7 | 12.5 | 0.19% | 125.2m |
| XNJ | Industrials | 4735.4 | 33.2 | 0.71% | 80.52m |
| XDJ | Consumer Discretionary | 2338.5 | 10.6 | 0.46% | 38.28m |
| XSJ | Consumer Staples | 5397.4 | -40.8 | -0.75% | 36.6m |
| XHJ | Healthcare | 4397.6 | 1.7 | 0.04% | 10.97m |
| XFJ | Financials | 4646.9 | 6.7 | 0.14% | 141.24m |
| XIJ | Information Technology | 371.3 | 0.9 | 0.24% | 8.74m |
| XTJ | Telecommunications | 1756.3 | 9.4 | 0.54% | 29.68m |
| XUJ | Utilities | 4275.2 | -17.3 | -0.4% | 3.87m |
| XPJ | Property Trusts | 1773.5 | 10.3 | 0.58% | 60.54m |
| XXJ | ASX200 ex Property Trusts | 4644.1 | 0.8 | 0.02% | 80.7m |
All Ordinaries Volume Leaders
| Code | Name | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
| NEO | Nuenco | 0.044 | -0.01 | -15.38% | 50.34m |
| LIO | Lion Energy | 0.01 | 0 | 8.33% | 48.25m |
| CUL | Cullen Resources | 0.069 | 0.01 | 18.97% | 44.11m |
| CAZ | Cazaly Rsc | 0.65 | 0.38 | 136.36% | 43.7m |
| QAN | Qantas | 3.58 | 0.03 | 0.85% | 39.93m |
All Ordinaries Top Gainers
| Code | Name | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
| SRI | Sipa Resources | 0.15 | 0.03 | 25% | 6.49m |
| HWE | Henry Walker Eltin | 0.57 | 0.05 | 9.62% | 7.91m |
| SRV | Servcorp | 2.68 | 0.23 | 9.39% | 50492 |
| ALU | Altium | 0.3 | 0.03 | 9.09% | 817827 |
| QPX | QPSX | 0.14 | 0.01 | 7.69% | 183299 |
All Ordinaries Top Losers
| Code | Name | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
| PSG | Palm Springs | 0.15 | -0.02 | -9.09% | 727000 |
| UNI | Unitract | 1.01 | -0.09 | -8.18% | 459118 |
| OMI | Occupational Med | 1.4 | -0.1 | -6.67% | 54915 |
| CGX | Central Asia Gold | 0.66 | -0.04 | -5.71% | 113500 |
| NHC | New Hope Corp | 1.51 | -0.09 | -5.63% | 203311 |
Elsewhere in the Region...
Japan's Nikkei was soft after economic data showed that the Japanese economy was softer than expected. The Kiwi market was far more impressive than their cricket team (who really aren't a proper Test side; they are terrific at proper Rugby, but they - along with Bangladesh - should be chucked out of Test cricket).
The KOSPI was the best-performed market in the region, which is odd considering that South Korea is - by virtue of its proximity to North Korea - in a great deal of danger at present. perhaps traders in the South think that the Yanks are going to have their hands full with Iran for the foreseeable future.
| Country | Name | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
| New Zealand | NZSE50 | 2990.796 | 2.49 | 0.08% | 25.3m |
| Japan | Nikkei 225 | 10899.25 | -78.64 | -0.72% | 67671 |
| Korea | KOSPI | 878.06 | 12.66 | 1.46% | 324596 |
| Singapore | Straits Times | 2040.56 | 1.84 | 0.09% | 57.48m |
| Hong Kong | Hang Seng | 14098.68 | 31.77 | 0.23% | 579.71m |
| Malaysia | KLSE Comp | 911.6 | -4.3 | -0.47% | 42.88m |
Main SFE Futures Contracts
| Code | Instrument | Close | +/- | % | Volume |
| SPI04Z | SPI200 Index SFE | 3922 | -13 | -0.33% | 17942 |
| IR04Z | 90-day Bank Bills SFE | 94.72 | 0.04 | 0.04% | 88574 |
| YT04Z | 3-yr Bond SFE | 95.01 | 0.04 | 0.04% | 108226 |
| XT04Z | 10-yr Bond SFE | 94.77 | 0.01 | 0.01% | 29077 |
