Encouraging pickup in car sales

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Car sales In December, 86,587 vehicles were sold, down by 2.4 per cent compared with a year ago. In seasonally adjusted terms CommSec estimates that sales rose by 1.5 per

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Investor Signposts: Week Beginning January 9 2011

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The big picture One thing we can never escape here in Australia is natural disasters. Whether it is drought, floods, bushfires, cyclones or hail storms, natural disasters are part and

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Home approvals slump but renovation in vogue

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Building Approvals; PSI The outlook for home builders is gloomy. Approvals to build news homes slumped by 4.2 per cent in November. The slide in approvals marked the seventh decline

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Petrol price war keeps pump prices low

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Weekly petrol; PMI The national average terminal gate or wholesale price of petrol currently stands at a 26-month high of 124.2 cents a litre. Fortunately for motorists, increased competition has

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‘Noughties’ over; ‘Teens’ begins

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Look back at 2010. Look ahead at 2011. Contrary to the expectations of the gloom and doomsters, 2010 turned out to be a positive year. The global economy expanded by

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Slowest housing lending growth on record

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Private sector credit (Lending) Private sector credit rose by 0.3 per cent in November to stand 3.6 per cent higher than a year ago. Housing lending to owner-occupiers stands 7.3

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Investor Signposts: Week Beginning December 19 2010

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The big picture One of the biggest furphies in 2009 was the claim that Australia had a ‘bubble’ in the housing market. It didn’t and still doesn’t but to some

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Wealth rebounds; Aussie companies cashed up

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Financial accounts; Imports Australian companies are maintaining very liquid balance sheets. Corporate Australia held a record $271.4 billion in cash and deposits as at September. As a proportion of total

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Tougher times for business; Dwellings slump

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NAB business survey; Dwelling starts The NAB business confidence index eased from +8.1 to +6.2 in November. The business conditions index rose from +1.6 in October to +3.7 in November.

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Petrol hits 25-month high; Consumers slash debt

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Credit/debit cards; Weekly petrol; Lending finance Petrol prices to lift further. The terminal gate or wholesale price of petrol rose by another 3 cents a litre last week to 25-month

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