Threadneedle Investment Strategy Update April 2011

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Risk assets have absorbed an awful lot of bad news over the past month and their resilience can be ascribed partly to the attractive valuations that have long underpinned our

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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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Lloyds International: A global perspective on the local economy

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Lloyds chief economist on inflation, interest rates and the outlook for the Australian economy x The Australian economy will continue to grow rapidly in 2011 buoyed by the continuing resources

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Lending at 5-year low; Petrol at 30-month high

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Lending finance Lending slumped in February. Total lending finance fell by 5.7 per cent in February after sliding by 6.1 per cent in January. Lending totalled $49.3 billion in February –

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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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Trade account back in the red

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Trade: New Vehicle Sales Australia has recorded its first trade deficit in 11 months. The trade balance eroded from a surplus of $1,433 million in January to a deficit of

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Home loans fall to near decade lows

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Housing finance Loans for the purchase of newly erected dwelling slumped by 12 per cent in February. Over the past three months loans are down almost 36 per cent – marking

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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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Investor Signposts: Week Beginning March 6 2011

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The big picture The Reserve Bank Governor isn’t one to gloat. But you can certainly sense from the latest interest rate decision that Glenn Stevens is pretty pleased with the

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Businesses bank on second half recovery

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Private New Capital Expenditure; Average weekly earnings New business investment rose by a less than expected 1.3 per cent in the December quarter. Manufacturing dominated investment plans with investment in

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