Australasian Investment Review (AIR) is a free daily news service with a weekly online magazine covering global financial markets with a focus on Australia, New Zealand and Asia.
George W Bush's legacy for investors is seen in the above graph: a 40% drop in the US share market from 2000 to this week, as shown by the key indicator, the Standard & Poor's 500, and a 30% drop in the value of the US dollar in the same time.
News Corp's share price was hammered by unhappy investors yesterday as the shares suffered their biggest one day fall in 17 years after Rupert Murdoch sprung a surprise earnings downgrade on the market in a teleconference.
Amid the continuing flow of earnings downgrades (News Corp) and corporate failures (Allco and ABC Learning) we have had some moments of optimism.
The credit freeze has hurt Australia, some companies are laying off people, downgrading earnings and in retailing some are reporting falling sales.
The market is struggling – down 155 or 3.6% - on the back of heavy falls on Wall Street overnight. The Faith-o-meter has hit rock bottom again. Resources doing most of the damage – BHP down 7% and Rio down 8.3% - they have lost all of yesterday's big gains. ANZ has gone 74c ex dividend.
Further evidence that the global resources boom is well and truly punctured with the world's biggest steel maker announcing further cuts to production and forecasting a sharper than expected slump in fourth quarter earnings.
The federal government slashed its budget surplus forecast for the 2009 financial year and said economic growth will slow and unemployment will rise as the global financial crisis drains tax revenues.
A surprise expansion in the trade surplus for September (the biggest in 11 years), the Aussie dollar was a bit firmer, but the building approvals for September were miserable.
The market was cautious about the improvement reported by West Australian Newspapers, the shares edged higher, but finished down 1 cent at $6.69.
