Shareswatch Australia

Friday morning traders and market participants awaited the key January employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The reaction to the supposedly wonderful report was a surge in the S&P 500 E-Mini futures contracts as well as several other key equity index futures.

It wasn’t that long ago when ex-Treasury Head Ken Henry talked about the Australian economy being in a ‘Golden Age’. I guess when you can retire on a lucrative public service pension and then parachute into a highly paid job as an advisor to the Prime Minister the future does probably seem bright. But now in early 2012 as unemployment appears set to rise and the economy is showing signs of weakness, Ken Henry’s ‘Golden Age’ comment might end up in the same category as Tim Flannery’s ‘Dams will no longer fill’ prediction.

In the midst this stock market turmoil there may be some battered down stocks which present the opportunity for investors to buy shares in quality companies at bargain prices. Three Australian companies that might fall into that category are Qantas Airways, Telstra Corporation and Onesteel Limited.

So far 2011 has not been a good year for the Australian stock market despite the ASX All Ordinaries  & S&P/ASX 200 flirting with the 5000 points level earlier in the year.  Over recent months the market has fallen back into bear market territory so a review at this stage of some 52 week stock price highs & low may give us an insight into how the market is tracking.

Over the past seven trading sessions we have seen stocks plummet in price because of the debt issues in the United States. I think a lot of individuals including myself thought that a bill would have been passed last week and with a plan underway money would flow back into stocks for a relief bounce at minimum. Instead, nothing was passed and that lead to strong selling into Friday’s close.

After some promising gains in the first part of 2010 the Australian stock market closed down today to finish the year basically unchanged. In plain English the share market essentially did nothing in 2010 and so if the Australian economy is really booming, then this is not being reflected in the performance of the ASX All Ordinaries or S&P/ASX 200.

Over the last few weeks most of the financial media have once again managed to draw the wrong conclusions on a range of issues from Australian dollar to the strength of the Australian economy.  Talk of the so called two speed economy seems to be back in vogue whereas I believe we should be focused on and worried by, the unbalanced nature of the Australian economy.

Today the Australian stock market is slipping back towards 4500 as once again investors are becoming concerned that the feeble global economic recovery is faltering. But rather than focus on the short term movement of the stock market let’s once again look at the 52 week share prices of some commonly held Australian stocks.

Stock markets around the world have had a very volatile run over the last few weeks with everything from debt levels in Europe to housing statistics in the U.S.  giving scaring investors. But during times of market volatility it is important to try and spot the longer term market trends and not get carried away by sensational headlines or daily market swings.

It has been a while since I have looked at the 52 week prices for some widely held ASX stocks, but now that the stock market has taken a bit of a tumble over the last week or so it seems like a pretty good time to have a look at them again. Have stocks hit new lows or have we simply seen some heat taken out of the market?

Over the last few weeks I have found it difficult to write much about the Australian economy or stock market simply because events have pretty much unfolded as I guessed they would some months ago. Despite the hype from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and some sections of the business media the fact is that the Australian stock market is still trading around 30% below the highs of 2007.

Now that it appears we are in the midst of the long awaited stock market correction it seems an ideal time to check how the 52 week stock prices have been tracking for a number of ASX listed stocks as this may tell us if the rally of the last 7 months is running out of steam.

One year ago I put together a fictional portfolio of stocks by simply using a random number generator and a list of shares that makes up the S&P/ASX 200 Index. Now 12 months later it is time to look at how these stocks have performed and see if they can tell us anything about the overall state of the Australian stock market.

The last few months have been more kind to Australian stock market investors however I have mainly been on the hunt for stock bargains rather than in selling mode. Therefore since May this year my focus has been on trying to buy some small parcels of shares in companies that I feel will do well over the next few years rather than profit taking.

The Australian stock market has recovered from what appears to have been the bottom of the bear market back in March, so now seems a good time to look at some stock prices and see if they are creeping up to their 52 week highs or still near their lows.

After enduring over a year of falling stock prices we are finally seeing some tentative signs that the stock market is coming back to life. The lows of March 2009 now seem almost a distant memory and as the world’s markets continue to rally more bullish commentators come out of the closet and a few bearish ones crawl into one. But does the current stock market rally have legs?