Welcome to Thursday. Here are the five things I'm looking at today on the Australian sharemarket.
- The S&P/ ASX 200 (Index: ^AXJO) (ASX: XJO) has opened 0.4higher.Overnight, the Dow Jones soared 1.1%, the broader S&P 500 also gained 1.1%, while the NASDAQ put on 1%.
Media reports suggest investors are hoping the European Central Bank (ECB) will rollout stimulatory measures to prevent the region falling backwards. HSBC's London Strategist, Robert Parkes said, "We think they will deliver quantitative easing (bond buying) in the first quarter, and that will offer support to European stocks."
- The oil and gas sector could see a wave of writedowns, project delays and job losses according to the Australian Financial Review (AFR), thanks to the falling oil price. Global oil prices have fallen by more than half since June 2014, putting new oil, gas and LNG projects at risk of being postponed or cancelled.Not only that, but existing projects may come in for writedowns, given they may no longer be worth as much as previously – when oil prices were above US$100 per barrel. Woodside Petroleum Limited's (ASX: WPL) planned Browse LNG project, with an estimated cost of $40 billion, could be one of the first casualties.
Santos Limited (ASX: STO) and Origin Energy Limited (ASX: ORG) could be at risk of writing down the value of their respective Queensland LNG plants.
- Short sellers are expecting retailers to announce disappointing earnings results in the next few months, with the sector heavily represented on the list of the ASX's most shorted stocks. Myer Holdings Ltd (ASX: MYR), JB Hi-FI Limited (ASX: JBH), Metcash Limited (ASX: MTS) and Super Retail Group Ltd (ASX: SUL) all have more than 10% of their shares on issue short sold.
- Tweet of the Day
Warren Buffett says Mr. Market is a 'drunken psycho' https://t.co/VsCWR7aSqY #ausbiz #businessnow #Markets pic.twitter.com/op0i4reuBo
Business Review (@aus_business) January 7, 2015You can watch the full interview here.
- Stock of the Day – brought to you by Andrew Mudie – Lynas Corporation Ltd (ASX: LYC). Andrew thinks Lynas' shareholders have suffered enough and might want to consider selling out. You can read why here.
