Welcome to Friday. Here are the five things I'm looking at today on the Australian sharemarket.
- The S&P/ ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has opened slightly higher, up 0.3%, with Santos Ltd (ASX: STO) and QBE Insurance Group Ltd (ASX: QBE) leading the way in the top 20 stocks. Santos was up 1.6%, while QBE had gained 1.3%.US stock markets closed fairly flat overnight, with the Dow Jones losing 0.1%, as the S&P 500 and the NASDAQ.
This time the falls were blamed on European Central Bank's (ECB) president Mario Draghi, with Wall Street disappointed there was no announcement of dramatic stimulus measures to ignite growth in Europe, following the ECB meeting overnight.
- Economist Bill Evans from Westpac Banking Corporation (ASX: WBC) yesterday became the first big-four bank economist to forecast the Reserve Bank will cut the cash rate early next year.That follows similar calls by Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank, with both predicting we could be looking at a cash rate of around 2% sometime next year.
Bad news for term deposit rates and the Aussie dollar, outstanding news for dividend paying stocks on the ASX.
- The big news of the day is Mount Gibson Iron Limited (ASX: MGX). The iron ore miner has effectively placed its Koolan mine on care and maintenance, following the collapse of the Main Pit seawall last week. The majority of the workforce will be made redundant, the carrying value of its assets are likely to take a massive writedown, and the future of the company is unclear.At the end of November, the company had $360 million in cash, but the miner seems to be burning through it at a rate of knots.
Shares have fallen 40% so far this morning to 24.5 cents.
- Tweet of the Day
Pie Face products are being sold in 15 Woolworths stores in Sydney https://t.co/GM862WGnF9
SmartCompany (@SmartCompany) December 4, 2014Can this save the Pie franchise? Who knows, but given the giant retailer's dominance over suppliers, it may be the last desperate act.
- Stock of the Day – brought to you by Ryan Newman – Vocation Ltd (ASX: VET). The troubled education provider has seen its share price smashed recently. You can find the gory details here.
