Dear %%first_name%%,
Apologies for Saturday:
Switzer on Saturday was written as per usual but our supplier of email-connecting services let us down. It seems it’s OK for them to accept payments for services provided on the weekend from The Switzer Report but it doesn’t mean that they’ll work themselves to fix up problems that could disappoint our subscribers. Let me apologise and only say that I felt the pain. I not only enjoy reading the entire Report on a Saturday, I actually get up at 4.30am to complete it! Unfortunately, we are still resolving some of these technical issues so if the links within this newsletter aren’t working, you can access the articles directly from the Switzer Report website.
To today’s Report, and after a great start for stocks earlier in the year, the question is: can markets keep going higher? A likely Labor victory could frighten investors locally but the US setting for stocks looks very positive. All up, in the Report today, I maintain it’s still good to go for stocks during 2019.
Following the recent sale of its petrol business, Woolworths has announced the return of $1.7 billion to shareholders via an off-market share buyback. Due to the high franked dividend component, Paul Rickard says this is a no brainer from a tax point of view for low rate or zero rate taxpayers to accept.
Meanwhile, 2018 wasn’t a great year for floats on the ASX, with 77% of companies that listed finishing the year below their issue price. The three big floats of 2018 were Coronado Global Resources, Viva Energy and Coles – which are down 25%, 24% and 2.6% respectively. James Dunn looks at how the big three are travelling.
In Buy, Sell, Hold, – What the brokers say, for the week ending Friday 5 April, FNArena registered only four upgrades, and three of those stopped at Neutral/Hold.
With the dust settling since the Federal Budget was announced last Tuesday, equity analyst Julia Lee from Bell Direct looks at what the budget means for Australian shares and the share market and gives her 3 top picks.
And finally, in our Hot Stock today, CMC Markets’ Chief Market Strategist, Michael McCarthy explains why he likes Incitec Pivot (IPL) but doesn’t like Altium (ALU).
Last Friday, we held our April webinar with Stephen Bruce, Portfolio Manager of Perennial Value, on ‘how will the federal budget and upcoming election affect your portfolio?’ Click here to watch the full webinar. And as always, don’t forget our upcoming Switzer Investor Strategy Day to hear from top fund managers and experts on how to invest in a politically challenging 2019!
Click on your city to register for free tickets:
Enjoy the read and your week!
Sincerely,
Peter Switzer