Author: roymorgansocial

US stocks brace for grim reporting season

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Original article by Timothy Moore
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 23 : 8-Apr-19

Michael Wilson of Morgan Stanley expects the quarterly US reporting season to signal the start of an earnings recession. He says the March 2019 quarter is likely to be the first since the June 2015 quarter that the S&P 500 will record year-on-year negative earnings growth. The S&P 500 has gained 15.4 per cent so far in 2019, closing at 2,892.74 points on 5 April. Morgan Stanley expects it to end 2018 at 2,750 points, while Capital Economics forecasts that it will reach a 2019 low of just 2,300 points.

CORPORATES
STANDARD AND POOR’S 500 INDEX, MORGAN STANLEY AND COMPANY INCORPORATED, CAPITAL ECONOMICS LIMITED, FACTSET RESEARCH SYSTEMS INCORPORATED, CITIGROUP INCORPORATED, BANK OF AMERICA CORPORATION, JP MORGAN AND COMPANY INCORPORATED, WELLS FARGO AND COMPANY, THE GOLDMAN SACHS GROUP INCORPORATED

Woolworths and Aldi grow grocery market share in 2018

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 8-Apr-19

Roy Morgan’s latest ‘Supermarket & Fresh Food Currency Report’ shows that Woolworths increased its share of Australia’s total grocery market to 34% in 2018, an increase of 1.4ppts. Coles’ share of the total grocery market fell 1.6ppts to 27.6% in 2018, while Aldi’s market share grew by 0.5ppts to 11.4% and IGA’s market share was down 0.4ppts to 7.1%. Over the last year Woolworths has grown its market share in dollar terms across all four fresh food sub-categories (fresh meat, fresh deli, fresh bread, and fresh fruit and vegetables) and increased its lead over nearest rival Coles. The report is compiled from data collected as part of Roy Morgan’s Single Source survey, which involves more than 50,000 in-home, face-to-face interviews each year, including more than 12,000 detailed surveys of grocery and fresh food buying behaviour.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, WOOLWORTHS GROUP LIMITED – ASX WOW, COLES GROUP LIMITED – ASX COL, ALDI STORES SUPERMARKETS PTY LTD, IGA

Apple TV+ targets market of over 17 million Aussies

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Original article by Roy Morgan
Market Research Update – Page: Online : 8-Apr-19

Research by Roy Morgan shows that the potential market for the Apple TV+ streaming video service is huge, given that over 17 million Australians aged 14+ (83.4%) currently access streaming video services or own Apple-branded devices. This includes 14.7 million Australians (71.8%) who already use streaming video services such as Netflix, Stan, ABC iView and others who would be interested in the Apple TV+ streaming service, as well as nearly 11.7 million Australians (57%) who own Apple devices. Analysing this potential market by Generation shows the biggest potential for Apple TV+ is with the 4.6 million Millennials who use streaming services or use an Apple device capable of streaming. This is closely followed by the over 4 million members of Gen Z and just under 4 million members of Gen X who use streaming services or use an Apple device capable of streaming.

CORPORATES
ROY MORGAN LIMITED, APPLE INCORPORATED, APPLE TV+, NETFLIX INCORPORATED, STAN ENTERTAINMENT PTY LTD

Per capita health spend is falling, says academic

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Original article by Andrew Tillett
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 6 : 5-Apr-19

Analysis of the April 2019 Budget papers by the Centre for the Health Economy shows that the federal government’s per capita spending on healthcare will rise by just 1.5 per cent in 2019-20. This compares with growth of 6.7 per cent in 2016-17. Per capita spending will grow by just 0.4 per cent between 2019-20 and 2022-23 when population growth is taken into account. Centre for the Health Economy director Henry Cutler adds that ending the freeze on Medicare rebates may not result in lower co-payments for visiting a GP.

CORPORATES
MACQUARIE UNIVERSITY. CENTRE FOR THE HEALTH ECONOMY, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF HEALTH

Minimum wage is living wage by UK standard

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Original article by David A Harvey
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 7 : 5-Apr-19

The federal government has used its submission to the Fair Work Commission to argue that the minimum wage is now about 61 per cent of the median wage when the earnings of both full-time and part-time employees are taken into account. This is the benchmark used in the UK to determine that country’s living wage. In contrast, the ACTU wants a living wage to be based on the median earnings of full-time workers. The ACTU is seeking a six per cent increase in the minimum wage in 2018 and a further rise of 5.5 per cent in 2020.

CORPORATES
AUSTRALIA. FAIR WORK COMMISSION, ACTU, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, GREAT BRITAIN. LOW PAY COMMISSION, AUSTRALIAN CHAMBER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY, ORGANISATION FOR ECONOMIC CO-OPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT

Workers warned over approval to protest

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Original article by Ewin Hannan
The Australian – Page: 8 : 5-Apr-19

ACTU secretary Sally McManus claims that nationwide rallies to be held on 10 April are political protests rather than industrial action. The ACTU hopes the anti-Coalition rallies will attract 250,000 workers. Meanwhile, the Australian Building & Construction Commission has warned that building industry workers risk fines if they take time off work to attend the rallies without written permission from their employer.

CORPORATES
ACTU, AUSTRALIAN BUILDING AND CONSTRUCTION COMMISSION, ONESTEEL LIMITED, FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Tax cuts will cost less because of productivity lift

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Original article by Joanna Mather
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 5 : 5-Apr-19

John Humphreys of the Centre for Independent Studies says a key measure in the federal government’s April 2019 Budget will have limited net economic benefit. He argues that the proposed increase in the low and middle-income tax offset is unlikely to have much impact on productivity, output or economic growth. His analyses also suggests that the government’s tax cuts package will cost about $122bn over 10 years, compared with Treasury’s forecast of $158bn, as a lower marginal tax rate will encourage people to increase their taxable income.

CORPORATES
THE CENTRE FOR INDEPENDENT STUDIES LIMITED, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY, UNIVERSITY OF QUEENSLAND

EV rollout threat to power grid

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Original article by Ben Packham
The Australian – Page: 4 : 5-Apr-19

Energy Networks Australia has used a submission to a Senate inquiry to warn that the nation’s electricity grid may not be equipped to cope with the growing use of electric vehicles. The peak energy network body argued that incentives will be necessary to encourage consumers to recharge their electric cars during off-peak periods. Labor recently announced that it will require electric vehicles to account for 50 per cent of new car sales by 2030 if it wins the upcoming federal election.

CORPORATES
ENERGY NETWORKS AUSTRALIA, AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY, INFRASTRUCTURE PARTNERSHIPS AUSTRALIA, COUNCIL OF AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENTS, AUSTRALIA. DEPT OF THE TREASURY

Rio lashed over probe records

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Original article by Paul Garvey
The Australian – Page: 20 : 5-Apr-19

Rio Tinto has admitted that it had failed to provide the US Securities & Exchange Commission with a large number of documents relating to its ill-fated investment in Mozambique-focused coal producer Riversdale Mining. The SEC is investigating the conduct of Rio Tinto executives – including former CEO Tom Albanese – regarding the timing of a write-down of the Riversdale assets. Rio Tinto has blamed "technical problems" for its failure to provide some 25,000 documents to the SEC.

CORPORATES
RIO TINTO LIMITED – ASX RIO, UNITED STATES. SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION, RIVERSDALE MINING LIMITED, DISTRICT COURT OF UNITED STATES, GIBSON DUNN AND CRUTCHER LLP, AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION, FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA

Facebook bans foreign-funded political ads during May election

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Original article by Max Mason
The Australian Financial Review – Page: 3 : 5-Apr-19

Facebook is the latest social media company to advise that it will not accept foreign payments for political advertisements on its platform during the upcoming federal election. Twitter has previously announced such a ban, while Facebook has also banned foreign-funded political advertising in Indonesia during that nation’s presidential election. Meanwhile, Facebook has responded by the issue of fake news by establishing a fact-checking unit in partnership with Agence France-Presse.

CORPORATES
FACEBOOK INCORPORATED, TWITTER INCORPORATED, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE