The Sorry Tale Of GPT/Rio's Mad Swings
GPT has confirmed it's looking to raise between $1.6 billion and $1.9 billion to recapitalise its business, and says it will now be concentrating on Australia.
GPT has confirmed it's looking to raise between $1.6 billion and $1.9 billion to recapitalise its business, and says it will now be concentrating on Australia.
Because of annual meetings, updates and quarterly statements, this week has given us an unusually large number of reports from a wide mix of retailers, possibly the widest for a week that we have seen for some months.
Predictably, the early media reports on the ANZ Bank's profit for 2008 and highlight the 23% drop in cash earnings to $3.02 billion, and the rise in write-offs and losses to $1.9 billion.
Japan's trade performance continues to weaken as the slowing US and European economies are joined by sluggish demand from Asia.
China's economy is now slowing significantly. The AMP's Dr Shane Oliver says it has slowed significantly on the back of slowing exports and a domestic property slump. The share market is off 70%.
On Wednesday, Australian stocks fell again following a weak Wall Street lead, losing almost all of the gains from previous day. It was hurt by a fall in resources stocks on global recession fears and by disappointing US company earnings that stoked worries about the outlook for profit growth.
The market has followed Wall Street's lead overnight and is struggling – down 177 or 4.3%. The SFE Futures suggested a 191 point fall this morning. Resources getting smashed – down 8.6% overall - led by BHP (down 8.5%) and Rio Tinto (down 14.8%) at midday. Ninety-two companies in the All Ords have hit a fresh yearly low today – most notable being Lend Lease, Goodman Group, Seek, News Corp, Newcrest and West Australian Newspapers.