August 15, 2024

After June’s dip, many analysts and economists were worried that US retailing was slowing to a crawl and trimmed their estimates for July sales to a modest 0.3% rise. In fact, that was too modest. US retail sales rose a strong 1% in July, considerably more than anyone had expected and much better than the […]

The American economy is not in, nor heading for, a recession, no matter what the naysayers in the markets and elsewhere might claim. Thursday provided further confirmation of this point. Walmart shares surged more than 8% (and closed more than 6% higher), hitting a new all-time high after its latest quarterly sales easily topped forecasts.

US stocks surged on Thursday as upbeat consumer and labour data fuelled a rally, easing recession fears and bolstering investor confidence. The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared 554 points, or 1.39 per cent, to close at 40,563.06. The S&P 500 climbed 1.61 per cent to 5,543.22, marking its sixth consecutive day of gains. The broader

Australian shares extended their winning streak on Thursday, with the benchmark index rising 0.2%, despite a decline in the mining sector. The positive market sentiment was driven by a stronger-than-expected jobs report, offsetting concerns about China’s economic slowdown. While several companies reported solid earnings, others, including Cochlear and Origin Energy, disappointed investors. The Australian dollar

The monthly labour market report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics has again confounded many gloomy analysts and economists by easily surpassing job creation estimates of around 20,000. While the seasonally adjusted jobless rate rose to 4.2% last month, its highest point since November 2021, nearly 60,000 new jobs were created. Hours worked increased, and

China’s property black hole continues to suck life out of the economy, with nothing positive to report from July’s data from the embattled sector. In fact, the major negative from the data wasn’t the actual weakness but the fact that government measures to try to arrest the slide, as well as two interest rate cuts

Australia’s global industrial property developer, Goodman (ASX:GMG), is aiming to boost earnings again this year as it focuses on expanding its involvement in data centres for cloud computing and artificial intelligence. The company, already active in this sector, plans to increase its footprint across Australia, Asia, and Europe. As a result, Goodman forecasts its operating

AustralianSuper’s strong opposition to Origin Energy (ASX:ORG) folding and agreeing to be bought late last year by a joint venture of Canadian and US investors has certainly paid off for Origin shareholders. The final price in the offer from the two bidders was $9.53 each, and Origin’s shares were up 11% from that level at

Hearing implant group Cochlear (ASX:COH) will reward shareholders with a sharp rise in dividend and a buyback after reporting a record result for the year to June, with total revenue exceeding $2 billion for the first time. The company informed the ASX on Thursday that revenue surged 15% to $2.24 billion for 2023-24, up from

Telstra (ASX:TLS) has lifted its final dividend for the 2023-24 financial year to nine cents a share, despite a 13% drop in profit due to higher costs resulting from job cuts and restructuring. The increase from 8.5 cents a share a year ago brings the full-year payout to 18 cents a share, in line with