Category: Australia & NZ

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Forex: Euro, Pound Sterling, Australian Dollar and Canadian Loonie

The Euro is testing support at $1.28. Breakout would respect the primary down-trend, warning of another test of primary support at the 2010 low at $1.19/1.20. Reversal of 63-day Twiggs Momentum below zero would strengthen the signal. Recovery above $1.32 is less likely but would indicate an advance to $1.35/$1.36*.

Euro/USD

Pound Sterling rallied off support at €1.225 against the Euro. Breakout above €1.26 would indicate an advance to €1.29. A 63-day Twiggs Momentum trough above zero — and respect of the rising trendline — would both indicate a healthy up-trend. Breach of support at €1.225, however, would signal a primary down-trend.

Pound Sterling/Euro

* Target calculation: 1.26 + ( 1.26 – 1.23 ) = 1.29

Canada’s Loonie is testing support at parity against the greenback. Respect would indicate an advance to $1.06*. Breach of resistance at $1.03 would strengthen the signal and a 63-day Twiggs Momentum trough above zero would confirm. Failure of support, however, would warn of another test of primary support at $0.96.

Canadian Loonie/Aussie Dollar

* Target calculation: 1.03 + ( 1.03 – 1.00 ) = 1.06

The Aussie Dollar broke resistance at $1.04 after the RBA announced that it would not cut interest rates, leaving them on hold until December. Expect an advance to $1.06*. 63-Day Twiggs Momentum oscillating above zero suggests a primary up-trend.

Aussie Dollar/USD

* Target calculation: 1.04 + ( 1.04 – 1.02 ) = 1.06

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Australian court finds S&P liable for ratings opinion | Bloomberg

An Australian judge has found S&P [MHP] liable for its opinion in assigning AAA ratings to two ABN Amro structured debt issues in 2006, which lost over 90% of value during the GFC — the first time a ratings agency has been held liable for such an opinion.

S&P was “misleading and deceptive” in its rating of two structured debt issues in 2006, Federal Court Justice Jayne Jagot said in her ruling released today in Sydney.

via McGraw-Hill Plummets After Australian Court Ruling – Bloomberg.

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Australia: Falling job ads

ANZ job ads fell 4.6 percent in October after a 3.9 percent fall in September. The index is down 15 percent over the last year.

From ANZ:

“The ANZ job advertisement series measures the number of jobs advertised in the major daily newspapers and Internet sites covering the capital cities each month. It has historically proved to be a very good indicator of future labour market conditions and thus, is extensively relied upon for forecasting employment growth.”

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Australia: Terms of trade down 4.2%

Westpac reports Australia’s terms of trade (for goods) weakened for the fourth consecutive quarter, down 4.2% in Q3 and 14.7% over the last four quarters.

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Global QE

Observation made by Philip Lowe, RBA Deputy Governor:

Since mid 2008, four of the world’s major central banks – the Federal Reserve, the ECB, the Bank of Japan and the Bank of England – have all expanded their balance sheets very significantly, and further increases have been announced in a couple of cases. In total, the assets of these four central banks have already increased by the equivalent of around $US5 trillion, or around 15 per cent of the combined GDP of the relevant economies. We have not seen this type of planned simultaneous very large expansion of central bank balance sheets before. So in that sense, it is very unusual, and its implications are not yet fully understood……

via RBA: Australia and the World.

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Chinese TV Host Says Regime Nearly Bankrupt | Epoch Times

A sobering assessment of China’s economy reported by Matthew Robertson:

Larry Lang, chair professor of Finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said in a lecture that he didn’t think was being recorded that the Chinese regime is in a serious economic crisis — on the brink of bankruptcy.

The youtube audio requires translation:

http://youtu.be/comHcv7qSBg

Robertson summarizes Lang’s assessment into five key points:

  1. The regime’s debt sits at about 36 trillion yuan (US$5.68 trillion).
  2. The real inflation rate is 16 percent, not 6.2 percent as claimed.
  3. There is serious excess capacity in the economy, and private consumption is only 30 percent of economic activity.
  4. Published GDP of 9 percent is also fabricated. According to Lang, GDP has contracted 10 percent.
  5. Taxes are too high. Last year, direct and indirect taxes on businesses amounted to 70 percent of earnings…..

via Chinese TV Host Says Regime Nearly Bankrupt | Business & Economy | China | Epoch Times.

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Australia: Stocks may be fully priced

Christopher Joye from the AFR suggests that Australia’s sharemarket may be “fully priced”:

New analysis from UBS poses an interesting puzzle: we have yet to see ASX earnings per share recover to pre-crisis levels. Top-rated UBS strategists Matthew Johnson and Andrew Lilley find that “aggregate equity market data shows declining earnings and weakening corporate balance sheets” in 2012…..

via Sting in inflation surprise.

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A Hard Landing Down Under | The Big Picture

Andy Xie has a bearish outlook on China and believes 2013 could be a tough year for Australia:

The market went from not believing in China’s growth story a decade ago to extrapolating past performance into the infinite future……The year 2008 should have been the end of this boom cycle. China’s stimulus misled the market into believing otherwise…..The Australian economy is probably a bubble on top of China’s overinvestment bubble. The latter’s unwinding will sooner or later trigger the former to do so, too…..

via A Hard Landing Down Under | The Big Picture.

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Australia: ASX 200 trend channel

The ASX 200 failed to hold on to early gains Monday. Reversal of 21-day Twiggs Money Flow below zero indicates medium-term selling pressure. Expect a test of the lower trend channel. Weakness in US or Asian markets could cause a breach of the 4400 support level, indicating a correction to 4000. Respect of support, however, would indicate a healthy up-trend — and an advance to 4900*.

ASX 200 Index

* Target calculation: 4450 + ( 4450 – 4000 ) = 4900

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Australia's cultural revolution

Benjamin Herscovitch writes:

“Any genuine liberal democracy will be multicultural: a commitment to liberal rights and freedoms is counterfeit unless it comes with a commitment to cultural diversity. Beyond a corruption of liberalism, the idea of a monolinguistic and monocultural Australia is only plausible if we deny who we are. Australia is Chinese, Indian and Vietnamese just as it is Irish, English and Italian. Multiculturalism is not a collective aspiration; it is not a policy that can be terminated. It is unapologetically an Australian reality.”

Be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water. Australia’s strength lies in its core values, many of which stem from its Anglo-Celtic past. One of those strengths is an open society that has successfully integrated successive waves of immigrants into mainstream Australian culture. Our culture has been enriched by the experience.

A unified society requires a cohesive set of values to which everyone subscribes — no matter their ethnic background, language or religion. We should celebrate our ethnic and cultural diversity but not use multiculturalism as an excuse for failing to properly assimilate some minorities. We need to be tolerant of diversity but intolerant of anything that conflicts with our core values of fairness and tolerance. To act otherwise would be simply un-Australian.

A cultural revolution to celebrate | The Centre for Independent Studies.

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