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Bad week for big bank haters and Johnny Depp!

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Big bank haters have had a disappointing week, with our big banks helping the S&P/ASX 200 to a nine-month high. And in case you don’t count these kinds of things like I do, this is the seventh ‘up’ week in a row!

But wait, there’s more for bullish types.

We finished above the psychologically important 5400 level on Friday. The 18-point gain took the index to 5406 and it was August last year (and pre-Glencore’s dramas) when we were last around these levels.

I know I’m laying this on thick but this has been a great buy-the-dip episode, as we were at 4707 in early February. That was the best advice I could give to you and it’s nice that it’s working out. That’s a 14.8% gain but don’t worry, I won’t annualize that return (but if I did, it would be heaps).

Look, I know there’s a lot wrong with our banks in certain divisions but they’re still a pretty good investment commodity. Even the debt ratings agency, Fitch, underlined this yesterday. I know the media tried to emphasize the worst aspects of this Report into our banks but I simply looked for hints that they were looking to downgrade the banks.

Hats off to the AFR, which came out with a headline ‘Dividendosaurus’ banks on the nose but Fitch says don’t panic, which is a pretty good effort for Fairfax. I might joke around with eco-market stuff but I love serious, objective analysis.

Sure, there are challenges for our banks. And one is the fact that everyone is long them, which makes it a crowded trade but this was the important line in the AFR’s report: “But the banks are not about to implode either, although fintech may change that scenario in years to come.”

And I liked this objectivity too: “The ratings agency also warns that pockets of Australia’s property market face potential oversupply of new residential housing. This could hurt housing prices in those areas. But it doesn’t sound too worried about how this will impact the majors either, noting their tightened lending criteria.”

All the other risks underlined, embellished and made scary (as only journalists looking for recognition can do) were all ‘known knowns’ (as former US Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld might put it).

(On Monday, I’ll put banks under a more intense microscope.)

Back to the great week that was and we were up 55 points. Undoubtedly, oil continues to pump this rally. So when we drive past our local service station and see the petrol price rise, it now seems to be a plus for our stock market, for two reasons.

First, it says that the oil price spike effect on stocks is still on. Second, our dollar must be sliding because these are the two reasons why we’re paying more at the bowser. (There’s a third reason – oil companies gouging but that’s a fact of life we ignore.)

This dollar down story continues overnight, with the Oz at 71.89 US cents. This partly explains why the likes of CSL and Macquarie have had great weeks at the office this week. The Big Mac was 5.4% higher and my colleague Paul Rickard reckons he was onto this early and tipped it so. And he did but I’ve always been a millionaires’ factory believer, as regular readers might’ve observed. And it goes double as the dollar dives and the US economy perks up, as they make a lot of money out of the Yanks nowadays.

On the subject of banks – let’s go to the world’s best-known banker, Janet Yellen. Yellen was on slip-of-the-tongue watch overnight with a speech she made at Harvard. Her best comment was that “the Fed is doing everything to avoid another crisis.”

Interestingly, she said a rate rise “in the next few months” would probably be appropriate. Of course, she said a lot and clearly observed that the US economy is improving and it all adds to the key reason why stock markets aren’t giving into gravity right now. Despite Brexit fears, Trump troubles and all the other crazy curve balls out there, the US economy is looking better and more capable of copping another interest rate rise.

If the US can creep closer to a normal economy, as the world’s biggest economy, then the global economy could be a step or two closer to a pre-GFC normalcy. Better signs out of Japan, Europe and China, compared to what was predicted by markets in January-February, underpin why stocks are sneaking higher.

By the way, both of my charts guys, Lance Lai and Gary Stone, predicted as much maintaining their damn good call rate.

What I liked

What I didn’t like

Away from markets and the economy, I did like seeing Mathias Cormann say something nice about Bill Shorten, even if he mistook Bill for Malcolm! I thought he was turning into a political ‘girly man’ before our eyes!

And the Johnny Depp versus Barnaby Joyce mind game battle was a cracker. If you missed it, it’s in our Call of the Week below. Barnaby is priceless and should be listed. Ticker code? MAD.

Top stocks – how they fared

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The week in review

(click the blue text to read more)

What moved the market

The week ahead

Australia

Overseas

Calls of the week

Food for thought

If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.

Anthony Robbins, US motivational speaker

Last week’s TV roundup

Stocks shorted

ASIC releases data daily on the major short positions in the market. These are the stocks with the highest proportion of their ordinary shares that have been sold short, which could suggest investors are expecting the price to come down. The table also shows how this has changed compared to the week before.

This week one of the biggest movers was MMA Offshore with its short position increasing by 2.21 percentage points to 8.19%. Metcash went the other way, with its short position reducing by 1.42 percentage points to 15.36%.

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Source: ASIC

My favourite charts

The power of mid cap stocks

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Who said bigger was better? The middle of the pack is where it’s at with the Mid-Cap 50 index (that’s companies ranked 51-100 in terms of share market capitalisation) performing strongly, hitting an 8-year high of 5,523 this week.

Hold and stay in May?

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Our technical expert Gary Stone shows how May 2016 bucked the ‘Sell in May and go away’ trend, with the ASX 200 showing signs of strength during the month of May and breaking out of a key resistance zone. Can we move higher from here?

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