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The economic good news keeps on coming – stocks will follow.

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Doomsday merchants were given another kick in the pants, with the US reporting a staggeringly good jobs number and Wall Street lapped it up. Some 228,000 jobs showed up in November, when only 200,000 was the economists’ guess. And the Dow Jones Index shot up over 100 points, which is not bad for an index in record territory staring down the barrel of a Fed meeting next week, which should bring an interest rate rise, especially after these figures.

The only negative from the jobs report was a 0.2% rise in hourly wage rates, when 0.3% was expected. This is the impact of digital disruption and all the price-killing aspects of the online world nowadays. Who has pricing power and then has the profits to make great pay rises? Apple does but most businesses aren’t in the Apple class.

This wage issue will be a key determinant of how many rate rises happen in the US next year. Currently, three rises are expected by market smarties.

While overseas, and another shot in the arm for the global economy and stocks, with European and the UK Brexit negotiators agreeing upon three particular issues that had impeded negotiations, paving the way for the next phase of discussions.

These two stories are the kinds of things that can really encourage Santa Claus rallies! ‘Yo ho ho’ seems appropriate!

Back home and it was the week that saw the Trump tax cuts get passed but it ended up a fizzer for stocks. We did end up in positive territory, though it was only a four-point gain, with the S&P/ASX 200 Index finishing at 5994 after a 16.7-point spike on Friday.

But that damn 6000 level keeps teasing us – we just might need some help from Santa over the next few weeks. Market experts say the rally time is actually in the last week rolling into the first couple of days of January but it can come early, depending on the news flow.

A plus for us is the slip in the dollar to 75.12 US cents and I did like hearing that Deutsche Bank’s equity team thinks banks look cheap, with a P/E of only 13, following the ‘terrorization’ since the May Budget right through to the Austrac blow up and now the Royal Commission.

It really wasn’t a bad effort this week for the market to end in positive territory, with the banking sector down 0.4% and the miners off 0.9%.

And what a difference an upgrade can make, with Mac Bank giving Telstra the thumbs up after an earnings revision up, with the telco’s share price up 7.9% for the week.

Contrarian plays on good companies tend to work but I guess many of us ponder just how good Telstra is. It should be a killer company but just hasn’t proved that argument yet.

Other significant economic highlights of the week include:

What I liked

What I didn’t like

Good news on Chinese debt

Fairfax reported a Bloomberg story that said: “There are signs that China’s attempts to rein in leverage levels is bearing fruit. Total debt for almost 4,000 non-financial firms listed on the mainland is now on average about the same size as earnings, down from 2.4 times a year earlier, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Their operating profits can now cover over 18 times interest expense, a significant improvement from just five times in 2016.”

China doubters won’t like this one!

The Week in Review:

Top Stocks – how they fared

screen-shot-2017-12-08-at-5-05-27-pm

 What moved the market?

Calls of the week

The Week Ahead:

Australia

 Overseas

Food for thought:

“Business is a game, played for fantastic stakes, and you’re in competition with experts. If you want to win, you have to learn to be a master of the game.”  ― Sidney Sheldon

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 shows how this has changed compared to the week before.

 shortstocks_20171208_graph

 Charts of the week

istock-jpg

Source: Commsec

Value of Bitcoin over one week

istock

 Source: worldcoinindex.com

Top 5 most clicked:

  1. James Dunn – 4 platform stocks to watch [3]
  2. Peter Switzer – My contrarian stocks play on the passing of Trump’s tax bill [1]
  3. Tony Featherstone – 3 stellar stock ideas for 2018 [4]
  4. Charlie Aitken – Aristocrat is a very Big Fish (ing) opportunity [5]
  5. Rudi Filapek-Vandyk – Buy, Hold sell – What the Brokers say [7]

Recent Switzer Super Reports

Monday 4th December – Tax bill passed [21]

Thursday 7th December – Time to go fishing [22]

Important: This content has been prepared without taking account of the objectives, financial situation or needs of any particular individual. It does not constitute formal advice. Consider the appropriateness of the information in regards to your circumstances.