Investor Signposts: Week Beginning April 17 2011

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Upcoming economic and financial market events x The big picture Aussie businesses have to cope with a lot. The global environment has been far from stable in recent years, what with

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Jobs up, but slowdown clear over time

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Labour force Employment rebounded in March, lifting by 37,800 people. Economists had tipped job gains of 20,000 (range from +5,000 to +30,000 jobs). The February result was revised to show job

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Investor Signposts: Week Beginning April 10 2011

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Upcoming economic and financial market events  The big picture One of the sleeper issues at present is population growth. The latest data showed that Australia’s population grew by 1.6 per

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Mining drives Aussie sharemarket

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Financial market trends The mining sector is now the primary driving force behind the Australian sharemarket. In terms of volumes of shares traded in March, mining volumes were double that

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Investor Signposts: Week Beginning March 27 2011

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The big picture There is an old adage in economics – there are lies, damned lies and statistics. And when it comes to the issue of housing valuations and affordability,

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Investor Signposts: Week Beginning April 3 2011

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The big picture The Reserve Bank Board meets again on Tuesday to decide interest rate settings. But this month – as was the case last month – there is no

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Budget deficit soars to near record high

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Federal budget The underlying budget deficit deteriorated in January and now stands just shy of record highs. In the 12- months to January, the budget deficit totalled $62.3 billion, an

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La Niña weather event still dominates

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La Niña update Our last update on the La Niña weather event was published on February 14. At that time the Southern Oscillation index hit an 11-week low of +16.6

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Consumers start spending again

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CBA Business Spending index In line with anecdotal evidence, consumer spending strengthened in February. The Commonwealth Bank Business Sales Indicator (BSI) rose by 0.5 per cent in trend terms in

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Investor Signposts: Week Beginning March 20 2011

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The big picture If you wanted to get a good textbook example of a ‘fear-driven’ event it is the so-called Japanese nuclear crisis. It started with one of the biggest

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