Evans and Partners, Modern Ideas. Traditonal Service for Stockbroking in Melbourne Australia

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RESEARCH & MARKETS
ASX200
FusionCharts.
World Indicies
Market IndexLast (Pts)% Chg
US
Dow Jones Ind.10,320.10.5%
S&P 5001,090.10.9%
NASDAQ2,200.01.1%
Europe
FTSE 1005,371.00.1%
DAX 306,083.90.0%
Asia
NIKKEI9,062.81.5%
HANG SENG20,868.91.2%
All data above as of close 02/09/2010
Morning Wrap
  • US stocks rose overnight on a mix of economic data ahead of the August employment report. The Dow Jones rose 50.6pts or 0.5% to 10,320.1pts, the S&P500 was 0.9% higher to 1,090.1pts and the NASDAQ climbed 1.1% to 2,200pts.
  • The National Association of Realtors said US pending home sales unexpectedly rose in July – its index increased 5.2% from June, ahead of an expected 1% decline. The Labour Department said weekly jobless claims dropped 6,000 to 472,000, better than the 475,000 forecast. The Commerce Department reported a 0.1% rise in factory orders in July on strength in the transport sector – excluding transport, orders were down 1.5%. On Friday’s monthly jobs report, the private sector is expected to have added 40,000 jobs in August, while a reduction in census workers will result in a 100,000 drop in payrolls.
  • Consumer discretionary, materials and industrial stocks led the S&P 500 higher for the session. Alcoa (+3%), Home Depot (+2.6%) and Honeywell (+2.8%) led blue-chip gains. Merck (-0.8%) and American Express (-0.5%) declined. Retailers lifted the market after posting August sales ahead of expectations – Nordstrom (+8.1%), JC Penney (+3.2%). Dell (+2%) withdrew from the bidding contest for 3Par (+2.5%) after HP’s (+1.2%) successful $33 per share offer. Burger King (+25.1%) rose sharply after the fast food chain confirmed it is being sold to 3G Capital for $3.3bn. The ten year treasury yield rose 5bps to 2.62 percent.
  • European markets ended mixed overnight - FTSE 100 (+0.1%), CAC 40 (+0.2%), DAX 30 unchanged. Construction stocks were among the major gainers, aided by positive US housing data – CRH (+0.8%), Saint-Gobain (+1%). Telecom and banking stocks led the decliners. The euro edged higher following a successful Spanish bond auction while the ECB held its benchmark rate unchanged at 1% and revised growth forecasts higher. Miners ended weaker – BHP (-0.1%), RIO (-0.5%).
  • Crude oil rose 1.5% to US$75.0/bbl and gold edged 0.4% higher to US$1,253.4/oz. On the LME base metals were stronger – Copper +0.4%, Zinc +1.9%, Nickel +2.9%, Aluminium +1.8%. The AUD/USD fell 0.1% to US$0.9105 and the EUR/USD rose 0.1% to US$1.2822.
03/09/2010
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Investment Strategy
Evans and Partners will always look for, and promote, the simplest investment solution for each individual client. We promote our investment strategy ideas through three regular publications, the weekly View from the Outer, monthly Financial Engineer and monthly Investment Chartbook keep clients up to date with our key investment themes and ideas.
The Chart of the Day

The primary driver of equity market performance in 2010 has been PE compression. This time last year, the Australian market was trading on a forward multiple of 16.8x. The multiple is now 12.1x. The contraction reflects the application of a higher risk premium. It is interesting that the forward multiple, both here and offshore, has stabilized over recent months.