Author: roymorgansocial

AMP bids to reassure investors on outflows

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Original article by Cliona O’Dowd
The Australian – Page: 17 : 23-Oct-20

AMP CEO Francesco De Ferrari says the company has been resilient during the coronavirus pandemic. However, the wealth manager has reported net outflows of $8bn for the September quarter, with net inflows of just $6bn. The AMP Capital division has posted net outflows of $1.1bn for the period, while its assets under management fell 0.4 per cent to $189.2bn. Meanwhile, AMP Bank’s deposits increased by $52m to $17bn during the quarter, but its loan book fell $303m to $20.6bn.

CORPORATES
AMP LIMITED – ASX AMP, AMP CAPITAL INVESTORS LIMITED, AMP BANK LIMITED

NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern set to sweep to a crushing election victory on Saturday

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 16-Oct-20

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is set to be returned for a second term on Saturday with Labour Party support at 47.5% in September, an increase of 10.6% points since the 2017 New Zealand Election. Support for the main opposition National Party is unchanged at 28.5% in September, but down a massive 16% points from the last Election. If these results are repeated on Saturday, the governing Labour Party will be on the cusp of winning a majority of seats in its own right with a projected 61/120 seats set to be won by Labour and National on track for 38 seats in the new Parliament. Interviewing for this survey in September encompassed the period during which Auckland was subject to Stage 2.5 restrictions and the rest of New Zealand was in Stage 2 up to and including the first leaders debate between Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Opposition Leader Judith Collins. This latest New Zealand Roy Morgan Poll on voting intention was conducted by telephone – both landline and mobile – with a NZ-wide cross-section of 911 electors during September.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, LABOUR PARTY (NEW ZEALAND), NATIONAL PARTY OF NEW ZEALAND, NEW ZEALAND. DEPT OF THE PRIME MINISTER AND CABINET

Unemployment hits 6.9pc as 30,000 jobs go

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Original article by Matthew Cranston
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 4 : 16-Oct-20

The locked-down Victorian economy shed 36,000 jobs in September, although the state’s unemployment rate is estimated to have fallen by 0.5 percentage points due to a decline in the participation rate. The national unemployment rate increased from 6.8 per cent to 6.9 per cent in September, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics’ latest estimate. The ABS jobs data does not include people who have given up looking for work. UBS economist George Tharenou suggests that the nation’s real unemployment rate is likely to be around 10 per cent at present.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BUREAU OF STATISTICS, UBS HOLDINGS PTY LTD

ASIO foils plot to infiltrate Australian government

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Original article by Anthony Galloway
The Age – Page: Online : 16-Oct-20

ASIO has stated it uncovered and foiled a plot that could have seen classified information about Australia’s intelligence services fall into the hands of a foreign government. ASIO revealed details of the plot in its latest annual report, stating that the plot was detected and disrupted in 2020. ASIO director-general Mike Burgess says there are currently more foreign spies and their proxies in Australia than there were "at the height of the cold war", while he says right-wing extremists are have become "more organised, sophisticated, ideological and active" than in previous years.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN SECURITY INTELLIGENCE ORGANISATION

Gas intervention could backfire: Santos

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Original article by Perry Williams
The Australian – Page: 17 : 16-Oct-20

Andrew Liveris, an adviser to the federal government, contends a gas price of $4 a kilojoule is an achievable target for the east coast market. However, gas producers believe such a target is not realistic, and Santos CEO Kevin Gallagher has told the annual Citi Annual Investment Conference that the $4 target is too ambitious. Gallagher says "meddling on price settings" by the federal government would put at risk new supply and investment, while he says that increasing gas supply will help to bring about lower prices.

CORPORATES
SANTOS LIMITED – ASX STO

Wider travel mooted in Andrews’ revised road map

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Original article by Alex White, Alanah Frost
Herald Sun – Page: 9 : 16-Oct-20

Victoria recorded six new coronavirus cases on 15 October, but the number of active cases fell to 175. Melbourne’s 14-day rolling average of new cases has fallen to 8.9, as the state government prepares to announce some easing of lockdown restrictions from 19 October. Deputy Chief Health Officer Allen Cheng has indicated that scrapping the 5km travel limit for Melbourne residents is among the measures that are being considered in the government’s revised ‘roadmap’. There has been speculation that this could be expanded to 20km. Victoria’s death toll from COVID-19 remains unchanged at 816.

CORPORATES
VICTORIA. DEPT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

Big banks’ wealth retreat may be short-lived

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Original article by Aleks Vickovich
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 22 : 16-Oct-20

IOOF CEO Renato Mota does not think Australia’s big banks will be involved in the wealth management sector over the next five years, although he expects them to return to the sector eventually. The major banks have either exited the sector or are in the process of doing so as a result of damning revelations at the Hayne royal commission. Netwealth’s joint MD Matt Heine notes that banks also got out of wealth management in the UK but re-entered the sector within 10 years, although "with very different propositions". Hub24 MD Andrew Alcock says the thought of the banks returning to wealth management does not perturb him.

CORPORATES
IOOF HOLDINGS LIMITED – ASX IFL, NETWEALTH GROUP LIMITED – ASX NWL, HUB24 LIMITED – ASX HUB, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA, WESTPAC BANKING CORPORATION – ASX WBC, AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND BANKING GROUP LIMITED – ASX ANZ, NATIONAL AUSTRALIA BANK LIMITED – ASX NAB

RBA lays ground for Cup Day cut

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Original article by David Rogers, Patrick Commins
The Australian – Page: 13 & 20 : 16-Oct-20

Expectations of an official interest rate cut in November have been heightened by comments made by Reserve Bank of Australia governor Philip Lowe. He has told the Citi Investment conference that further easing of monetary policy is likely to "get more traction" as the economy re-opens than it would have at the COVID-19 pandemic’s peak. Kristina Clifton of the Commonwealth Bank says the RBA is likely to reduce the cash rate from 0.25 per cent to 0.1 per cent in November, and expand its bond-buying program to include five and 10-year government bonds.

CORPORATES
RESERVE BANK OF AUSTRALIA, COMMONWEALTH BANK OF AUSTRALIA – ASX CBA

Life on the outside

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Original article by Maureen Dowd
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 1, 6 & 7 : 16-Oct-20

James Murdoch quit the board of News Corporation in June, having at one point of time hoped to lead the media company. Murdoch cited differences in certain content published by some of its news outlets, along with some other strategic decisions, as his reason for leaving at the time. He has established a company called Lupa Systems, while his investments include a comic company whose publisher once worked for Marvel. Murdoch says he decided to leave News Corp because he believed he could be "more effective outside" the company, while friend Matthew Vaughn believes that Murdoch will now start his own empire.

CORPORATES
NEWS CORPORATION – ASX NWS, LUPA SYSTEMS

Federal police drop case against ABC journalist

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Original article by Lilly Vitorovich
The Australian – Page: 7 : 16-Oct-20

The Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions will not take legal action against ABC journalist Daniel Oakes over a series of reports known as ‘The Afghan Files’. The CDPP has deemed that the public interest does not require a prosecution in the case of Oakes; the Australian Federal Police has subsequently advised that its investigation into allegations that Oakes obtained classified information has been closed. ABC MD David Anderson says the matter should never have gone as far as it did.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, AUSTRALIA. DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC PROSECUTIONS, AUSTRALIAN FEDERAL POLICE