Should ASX CEOs dress better to improve their stock prices?

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?

US stocks “lost their path” in the last 30 minutes of trade (Dow was up by more than 100 points at one stage), mainly due to Alcoa’s flat earnings and a weaker USD, boosted commodities….

The big catalyst for the next two weeks will certainly be US earnings….

Analysts are projecting profits for S&P 500 companies will contract 10 per cent this quarter, compared with calls for flat earnings growth at the start of the year.

In Oz, failure of direction means we are still hovering below the 5,000 level…

We certainly need US Earnings and local data to “boost” confidence …. With Oil moving above $40/barrel, maybe this will be the main catalyst?

What's on today?

Local data: NAB business survey at 11.30am, CBA/HIA house affordability 1st Qtr

Overseas data: UK CPI (March), UK ONS house prices (Feb.); German CPI (March);US NFIB small business optimism (March), US import prices (March), US budget statement (March)

Overseas earnings: Fastenal, CSX

The SPI is down 2 points this morning. 

Niv

Niv Dagan is an Executive Director of Melbourne based boutique funds management and corporate advisory firm, Peak Asset Management (www.peakassetmanagement.com.au). He is also a regular financial commentator on Sky Business.