Bulls N' Bears (Commercial Content)

Good Morning, today is the silver donut's day… No, we're not talking about Homer Simpson, we are talking about Macquarie Bank.. who releases their FY results. Unlike the Big 4 Banks, Macquarie's earnings are largely based on deal origination, equity capital markets (ECM) and their fixed income and funds management businesses. Macquarie has done exceptionally well in diversifying their income streams in mortgage broking via Yellow Brick Roads (YBR), its investment in shopping centres and airports…

Good Morning, happy Thursday… Yes, it's not quite Friday, but hey, we're getting there… Last night, I went out for dinner with the management ofWeebit Nano (vending into RAD), an Israeli tech company “disrupting” Flash memory. Did you know that over 2% of America's total energy usage is being used by data centres? Photos, videos, Instagram, emails…. The “cloud” is not somewhere in space…

Troy Resources have re-negotiated a debt deal with an excellent outcome that will free up cash to further develop their Karouni Gold Mine resource in South America. Karouni re-wrote the playbook when Troy managed to take the project from vacant land to producing gold bars in just 2.5 years having built the $130m mine in 9 months. it now produces gold at an amazing USD$412 an ounce.

Accomplished base metals explorer Sipa Resources has experienced a breakthrough in their exploration activities at the Akelikongo project in Uganda. The company recently reported the discovery of an 11 meter mineralized zone that intersected matrix to semi-massive sulphides, potentially opening up a new high grade nickel/copper target area.

You might be forgiven for thinking commodities such as gold and Lithium are hot right now but MGC Pharma were literally knocked over in the rush during their recent medical cannabis capital raising. They went to market for just $3.5m at 4.4c a share but received $11m worth of bids into their book which was managed by Sanlam Private Wealth Pty Ltd.

Good Morning, an early start this morning as we head into Sky News to talk interest rate cuts, discuss impacts of the federal budget and last night's movements… for those wanting to watch, tune in to Sky @ 8:15am. Super Tuesday, you certainly lived up to expectations! Glen, thank you for listening…. It has taken you around 2 months to get off the couch and yes, the popcorn is nice and salty, but I do appreciate your input… it's all about the budget this morning and ANZ, you're the only bank to not pass yesterday's interest rates cut in full… lift your game…

Good Morning, we have a “Super” Tuesday today… No… we're not talking about the US election.. What is happening? At 2:30pm AEST, we hope that the RBA cuts interest rates to 1.75%.... then the much awaited, federal budget… will the new treasurer cut taxes? This is what we want to see… the question: how do we fund it?

There's nothing quite like the hunt for magnetic conductors in the exploration business to get the nickel and copper bulls dusting off their cheque books – especially when your ground is only 120 km from the goliath Nova Bollinger nickel find. Legend Mining have split 2 conductors into 5 with new ground surveys and are now planning to drill test them this month.

Hammer Metals have paid just $83 000 in cash and shares to secure an exciting copper/gold/cobalt exploration project near their Mt Isa operations that boasts historic drill results of up to 19m at 1.27% Copper, 0.38% Cobalt and 0.7g/t gold including 6m @3.45% Copper, 0.32% Cobalt and 2.0g/t Gold. It is just 16km west of CuDeco's goliath Rocklands mine.

Good Morning, yes… It is Monday morning…. and guess what? It's May… “Sell in May and go away?”… will this be relevant in 2016? Maybe… Global markets appear to be fragile, with US earnings providing to be “some-what” positive (although coming off a very low EPS expectations). On Friday,the Bank of Japan sat still and didn't unleash any further stimulus… so what can we expect from AUS bank earnings today? WBC comes out first… how big will the SGH write-down be? Will net interest margins fall? Cash earnings remain flat… all likely..

Good Morning,Happy Friday…Yes, another short-fuelled week and the weekend is here, once again…

At an ASX meeting on 13 April 2016 the ASX raised the prospect of a number of potential changes to the Listing Rules. The changes are intended to apply from 1 July 2016. The changes may be subject to a brief consultation period.

ASX listed medical cannabis company MGC Pharma has spread its wings into the Czech Republic after inking a deal to acquire Panax Pharma, a company that holds a medical cannabis breeding license in that country. Most licenses restrict the amount of THC in the plant however Panax comes with a license that is considerably more generous with regard to THC, potentially opening up new opportunities for MGC Pharma.

Blackham Resources have been working overtime to get their resource at the Matilda Gold project in Wiluna upgraded and ready for production expected to start as soon as next quarter – and they rarely miss when they put a drill hole down. Latest results are headlined by an 8.7 metre intersection grading 8.99 grams per tonne gold which included a 6m @ 11.95 g/t gold.

“The S&P 500 is at what I consider to be a key resistance area in that 2,090 range, so it's going to take some good news to push through that,” said Alan Gayle, a senior strategist at Atlanta-based RidgeWorth Investments, which has about $37 billion in assets.

Good morning. It's been a great long weekend but it is now time to get back to business. Historically, May hasn't been a great month in equities and we're cautious, given the rally in global equities. the "Fear" and "Greed" index is now hovering around 75 and it appears the consumer confidence is on the rise... but is the rally losing steam?

Stargroup has easily placed the 16% of its stock held by retiring director David Dickinson in an oversubscribed on market book build managed by the company's Executive Chairman and CEO Todd Zani that raised $1.78m. Stargroup's two major shareholders, Mr Zani and Arthur Ognenis stumped up half a million dollars to support the book build.

Good Morning, happy Friday! It's been a great week for global markets, driven by better than expected earnings and a pick-up in commodities…TheXJO is now above 5,300…. A level that it hasn't witnessed for nearly six months.Iron ore closed up 8% last night to over $70/tonne… wow…. Remember that it was only a few months ago, when iron ore was trading near $38/tonne…

Unique Australian shark deterrent and detection company Shark Mitigation Systems have raised $3.5m and will officially list on the ASX today at 10am. The company are seeking to further commercialize two exciting new shark deterrent technologies that have been partnered by Google and Optus and researched by the University of Western Australia.

So what happened last night? US stocks closed higher (Dow Jones +42 points), following weaker US oil production, sending Crude to the highest level in over 4 months…This is good news, as a rising oil price, is usually strongly positively correlated with economic growth…….

Good morning. Global markets rallied last night as the USD continues to get “crunched” on the back of stronger corporate earnings and better-than-expected Chinese data. To add “fuel to the fire”, analysts are pushing back their interest rate revisions and we don't see interest rates rising in the US or the rest of the world for the next six months…. Big call? Sure…….

Good Morning, a “fight back” in crude oil and a great report from Walt Disney, saw the Dow Jones close +106 points. So we should have a good day, right? More than 90 companies are scheduled to report results this week, including Goldman Sachs Group, Starbucks and American Express. Analysts are projecting a 9.5 per cent decline in first-quarter profit, compared with forecasts for almost flat growth at the start of the year. ..

Neometals have signed a global license to deploy the technology they plan to use at the goliath Barrambie Titanium Project in W.A. Neometals says their proprietary process has the potential to bring the cost at Barrambie to produce a tonne of titanium dioxide down to around US$572 per tonne from a more traditional industry standard price of up to US$2300 per tonne.

The greed index is showing that at 70, investors are starting to feeling “good” about the prospects of the economy… should they be?Retail sales were poor last month (-0.3%), unemployment is still high at 5.7% and the government may even call an early election? Where is theCertainty? A big week ahead in US earnings will provide clarity…

Good Morning, happy Friday…. This week has gone fast, right? We have seen crude oil break through $40/barrel (the DOHA meeting this weekend is strongly in focus on whether Russia and Saudi Arabia will cut production)…If they cut production, we see upside to $60/barrel as demand starts to pickup on the back of weaker inventories. So this weekend's meeting is crucial…

Red Mountain Mining's strategic funding partner for their Batangas Gold project in the Philippines, Bluebird Merchant Ventures, has listed in London after raising GBP1.675m. AUD$1.7m of that money will now flow to Red Mountain Mining to complete the DFS at Batangas, achieve final permiting for the project and to drill out some high grade gold targets.

Good morning, global stocks rallied as JP Morgan “smashed” expectations… Citigroup rallied more than 6%.... Dow Jones +187 points… here we go….. "While JPMorgan had a tough quarter, they still beat estimates. If earnings come in better than expected - with expectations so low - if we have even a decent beat, you may see us break out." Banks have been heavily shorted over the past several months, however, it appears that a lot of the bad news is largely factored in and we expect some buying momentum to build……..

An ill-considered, ill-advised and poorly executed plan to replace the Directors of Drake Resources failed to even secure the votes of the people that proposed it this week. A motion to roll the Drake board garnered just 3,333,666 out of the 432,477,198 votes cast. Neither the proponents or the proposed new directors attended the meeting to argue their case.

Dairy industry upstart and carbon plantation manger Alterra have wasted no time in clearing the decks of all debt after the sale of their NZ forestry assets for approximately $3.2m. With $2.4m in cash and equivalents and $2.8m in annual forrestly income, the company is now well placed to pursue its intriguing new "System 5" dairy farming method.

Good Morning, global stocks closed higher (Dow Jones +165 points), following better than expected US earnings and crude oil above $42/barrel on “speculation” that Saudi Arabia and Russia reached a consensus on an oil freeze during talks on Tuesday. Energy producers led the rally…. In Oz, Bellamy's, Blackmores, A2 Milk & Bega Cheese are in “crisis talks” with Chinese authorities on a suggested 11.9% tax on products bought on ecommerce websites… Here we go….

Market darling Blackham Resources has again produced a solid set of drill numbers at Wiluna in the same week that much heralded Geologist Bruce Kendall was appointed Chief Geologist. Mr Kendall added a million ounces to the Stockman VMS project, a million ounces to the Sunrise Dam Gold mine and was named Prospector of the Year by AMEC in 2012.

Good Morning, so… the entire Geelong city council will be “kicked out” today out of parliament for “failure to deliver”… If you turned up to work every morning with purple hair and sunglasses, your boss may not be too happy, right? Image is important and you certainly don't see an ASX listed director coming to work looking like this… Maybe they should, boosting their stock prices for once?