Welcome to Thursday. Here are the five things I'm looking at today on the Australian sharemarket.
- The S&P/ ASX 200 Index (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) is up 0.3% in early trade, again taking its lead from overseas markets. The Dow Jones, S&P 500 and NASDAQ all posted gains of more than 0.5% overnight.
Weak US retail sales data suggest the US Fed won't be forced to raise rates sooner than anticipated. The mantra of 'low rates for longer' continues to drive investors into equities, with the relatively high returns available from capital growth and dividends.
- The biggest news on the ASX today has to be Telstra Corporation Ltd's (ASX: TLS) $1 billion share buyback and increased dividend. The telco reported a 14% increase in net profit to $4.3 billion, a second-half dividend of 15 cents and that it was buying back up to $1 billion of its shares. Shares are up 1.5% in early trade. Full marks to Fairfax for their Markets Live headline, "Billion dollar baby".
- Speaking of Fairfax Media Limited (ASX: FXJ), shares in the media company are up more than 6%, after the company posted a full year $224 million profit, after a $16 million loss in 2013. The sale of holiday home booking site, Stayz, for $220 million certainly helped, but the groups operating businesses look to be turning the corner too. Fairfax also repaid its debt, and ended the year with net cash of $68 million.
- Tweet of the day
This is the best article on investing I've ever read. An Honest Stock Market Update: https://t.co/IHaMwA3oBj via @themotleyfool
Daniel Kelly (@dkellyChi) August 12, 2014
Couldn't agree more. What a fantastic article. - Stock of the day is brought to you by Bradley Murphy – CSL Limited (ASX: CSL). Bradley owns shares in CSL, and makes the case for CSL to form a core position in any long-term focused portfolio is this article. I couldn't agree more, holding CSL in my own portfolio.
