Sharemarket now depends on earnings
Philip Baker | If retail investors remain cautious, as they have been of late, offshore managers wind back their buying of shares as the US tapers down its quantitative easing, and super funds maintain their sharemarket exposure, then any further decent gains for stocks must come from earnings growth.
Top analysts pass judgement on Telstra
Five of the best equities analysts watching Telstra have given their views on whether you should buy, sell or keep your shares in Australia’s biggest telecommunications carrier.
News Corp out, as eight Aussies make Fortune 500
News Corp has fallen off the Fortune 500 list of the world’s biggest companies, as 21st Century Fox makes it debut, and BHP remains the leading local company.
Jakarta governor Jokowi takes early lead in unofficial count
Jakarta governor Joko Widodo has taken a slight lead in the race for president of the world’s third- biggest democracy .
Big banks targeted in anti-coal push
Pressure on Australia’s big four banks to join the global coal divestment movement is growing, with a Whitsunday tourism operator who fought the Abbot Point port expansion in now targeting Australia’s biggest banks.
Qantas scraps carbon surcharge; won’t cut fares
Qantas Airways has officially abandoned a carbon surcharge on its domestic and regional fares in anticipation of the likely repeal of the carbon tax. But don’t expect airfares to get lower.
Kathmandu founder ‘failed and paid the price’
Kathmandu founder Jan Cameron has virtually ruled out a second attempt to regain control of her discount retail empire, saying “I failed and have paid the price for that failure.”
Navitas founder Rod Jones loses $100m as shares plunge 30pc
Shares in education group Navitas have plunged 30 per cent, wiping about $100 million off the fortune of founder Rod Jones, after Macquarie University ended an 18-year agreement with the Perth-based company.
Boral ‘black banned’ by union, inquiry told
Updated | Boral chief executive Mike Kane has told the union royal commission that militant Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union state secretary John Steka engaged in “blackmail” and “cartel behaviour”.
Telstra uses belt tech to track employees
If it is not enough that your boss tracks you on social media, scrutinises your expenses, as well as what time you start work, employers are now strapping movement belts to their staff.
Undercover bosses: mapping secret powerbrokers
Mapping staff interaction can reveal that the most important employee is someone you’ve never heard of.
BAML names Leigh Gardner equity sales head
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Bank of America Merrill Lynch has appointed Leigh Gardner as head of equity sales in Sydney, replacing Evans & Partners-bound Sam Fletcher.
Pope sacks Vatican Bank bosses
Pope Francis plans to replace the board, executives at the scandal-plagued Vatican Bank.
Germany look beyond Brazil win
Germany have lost in the semi-finals of two consecutive World Cups, this time they were determined not to let their chance slip away.
Six stocks SMSFs will love
With everyone treading carefully around SMSFs, its no surprise that new equity market strategies are emerging.
What to wear to get to top
Fiona Smith | What we wear can dictate whether we make a good or bad impression – and that first assessment can be very hard to change.
The surprising way you spend $11,000 a year
Office workers spend an average $230 per week on lunch and coffee in a given week, contributing to the $10 billion annual retail spend.
From Holt St to 54 Park
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Rear Window | Change management expert Jane Adams - reviled by News Corp veterans - has now popped up at magazine publisher Bauer Media.
How to unpickle an alcohol-soaked brain
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If you’ve consumed too much alcohol in the past years, it is possible to unpickle your brain – but there’s a catch.
Will your job exist in 2025?
Collaborative technologies, robots and artificial intelligence will transform the nature of work – and that means some jobs will become obsolete.
Samsung Galaxy Tab S: get your hands on it
This Digital Life | I wish everything in life had a fingerprint scanner on it. I wish my front door had a fingerprint scanner.
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National
Boral ‘black banned’ by union, inquiry told
Updated | Boral chief executive Mike Kane has told the union royal commission that militant Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union state secretary John Steka engaged in “blackmail” and “cartel behaviour”.
- No delay to disability insurance plan
- Coalition fails in carbon tax ambush
- Japan’s Shinzo Abe warns of China threat
- CBA faces new Senate inquiry
- Abbott urges minor parties to pass $34b in policies
- Union settles with BGC over case of the concrete pour
- Bob Carr unconcerned by return of Tamils to Sri Lanka
- Japanese troops will war game alongside Australia
- Macquarie Group could be removed from $700m pastoral fund
Rio Tinto built on the ‘back of Japanese investment’
Rio Tinto chief executive Sam Walsh has welcomed Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the mining giant’s Pilbara operations, noting second biggest iron ore exporter was “born on the back of Japanese investment”.
Opinion
Keep your enemies close, your tax agent closer
Among the professionals that anyone with a DIY super fund can engage, one service provider that doesn’t attract as much attention is the tax agent.
From FTAs to genuine trade reform
Tony Abbott has cleverly used bilateral “free trade” negotiations with Japan, Korea and China to promote unilateral micro-economic policy objectives.
TV these days requires viewers to watch from the start
Mark Lawson | In television’s days of yore all matters could be dealt with in a single hour episode, less commercial time, of whatever series you happened to be watching.
World
News Corp out, as eight Aussies make Fortune 500
News Corp has fallen off the Fortune 500 list of the world’s biggest companies, as 21st Century Fox makes it debut, and BHP remains the leading local company.
- Jokowi takes slight lead in unofficial election count
- Pope sacks Vatican Bank bosses
- Indonesian economic roller-coaster poised to roll again
- China consumer prices rise less than expected
- It takes a village (and a composer and writer)
- Swiss bank secrecy traditions live on
- Iran sends three fighter jets to aid Iraqi government
- UK steps up fight for City of London in court clash with ECB
- HSBC draws fire after HK stock downgrade
Ireland’s rising house prices raise new bubble fears
House prices in Ireland are on the rise again, raising the spectre of another housing bubble in the nation still scarred by the crash of 2007.
Business
News Corp out, as eight Aussies make Fortune 500
News Corp has fallen off the Fortune 500 list of the world’s biggest companies, as 21st Century Fox makes it debut, and BHP remains the leading local company.
- Top analysts pass judgement on Telstra
- Navitas founder Rod Jones loses $100m as shares plunge 30pc
- Salteris put Tenix stake on the block
- Big banks targeted in anti-coal push
- Qantas scraps carbon surcharge; won’t cut fares
- Scentre raises more than $3b in bond issue
- Yellow Brick Road buys Resi Mortgages
- Lang Walker claims big name in biotech board fight
Kathmandu founder Jan Cameron says she ‘failed and paid the price’
Kathmandu founder Jan Cameron has virtually ruled out a second attempt to regain control of her discount retail empire, saying “I failed and have paid the price for that failure.”
Technology
3P Learning disappoints on debut
The biggest software float in Australian history is off to a disappointing start. At midday on Wednesday, shares in educational software company 3P Learning opened 4.6 per cent below their $2.50 offer price at $2.39.
- Time’s up for Crazy John’s
- Gadget fans left disappointed by Japan agreement
- Smartphones weigh on Samsung as guidance disappoints
- Wotif takeover a warning for tech players
- Steve Jobs’ tablet sales prediction to come true next year
- NBN Co strengthens Telstra bargaining power with FTTN build
- All eyes on 3P Learning ahead of tech IPO rush
- Cloud provider Box raises $US150 million ahead of IPO
- E-book sales plateau and young readers stick with paperbacks
BlackBerry Passport: a square peg in a square hole?
BlackBerry has come up with a reason why your next phone might want to be square. It has to do with the number 66.
Markets
Worst day for shares in seven weeks as nerves build ahead of US reporting season
Australian shares got swept up in a global share sell-off on Wednesday, taking their biggest daily tumble in more than seven weeks.
- $A seesaws as eyes turn to jobs data
- China consumer prices rise less than expected
- 3P Learning disappoints on debut
- Confidence up but consumers still wary
- $A to reach US96¢ by year end: Citi, DZ Bank
- Alcoa beats expectations on higher premiums
- Dow back under 17,000 in broad market decline
- Rajaratnam cleared by jury in insider trading case
- Fed’s Lacker sees inflation moving toward target
Globally nearly every asset class is booming
Welcome to the everything boom (and, quite possibly, the everything bubble), from stocks and bonds; emerging markets and advanced economies; office towers to Iowa farmland.
Personal finance
Beat the IPO market at its own game
Amid a global IPO boom, investors can see floats as a do-or-die affair. They either join the dogfight and jostle for scraps in high-quality offers, or avoid them completely.
- Do the sums on the true cost of private schools
- Apartment traps for first-home buyers
- FoFA backflips land us with a contradictory system
- Time to reduce your portfolio’s risk
- How to create a business from nothing but contacts
- Give me choppers (and truffles) any day
- Financial planning’s ‘bad apples’ must go
Tips from managed funds that stick out a mile
The past five years have been an endurance course for professional investors. So how do the funds that produced significant outliers explain what went right, or wrong, in those exceptional years.
Lifestyle
Definition of cool: a private chef
Securing a name restaurant chef to cook for you at home is challenging, but definitely worth it.
BMW 435i convertible will flip your lid
Midwinter driving with the top down is a breeze: there is a wind deflector, air collars and rollover protection.
Paris menswear plays with the categories
Next season’s trends, unveiled in a cascade of light and sound, include elegant sportswear and softened masculinity.
Off the cobblestones in Prague
The Czech capital is changing: even locals haven’t heard of all the new art galleries, bars and neighbourhoods.
Latest TV
So-so rebound in consumer sentiment
Consumer sentiment has turned around after a huge drop after the 2014 Budget, but there's still a lot of ground to make up.
Apartment traps for first-home buyers
Apartment owners legally own the paint on their walls and their carpets – but the walls themselves and the floor are common property, collectively owned.
European capital markets lure Aussie companies
Scentre Group’s successful $3 billion European bond raising is further proof that offshore capital markets offer the cheapest, long-term debt funding in six years.
Solly Lew could target Myer, Pacific Brands
If he sells his David Jones' shares, retail veteran Solomon Lew could have a $2b war chest to make his next retail move on targets such as Myer and Pacific Brands.
