Its been a while,

G’day Crew,

I know its been a while, lets just say sometimes life throws up a few tough decisions, and in this case i had to focus on other areas rather than posting blogs for a while. But I'm back, and just in time before Santa hits the scene and the sacrificial turkey slaying day arrives. This Christmas looks as though its going to be a hot and very merry Christmas, as the La Nina pattern has well and truly kicked in with non stop rain in NSW for the month of December. Currently the what temperature in Sydney is around 17c! But that’s more so from a massive under water eddie sitting of the coast. Swell has not really been our friend of late as its been avoiding our part of the coast and i have noticed not to many other places have been firing around the world too. Currently the ASP World Tour is on hold at Pipeline, Hawaii due to no swell and with Kelly already earning his 10th world title this year, this comp is more about Andy Irons and his brother Bruce who is riding for him. One thing to note is that the Eddie competition has still plenty of time for its waiting period!

The global markets have been favourable to us over the last few weeks, as the European’s got there PIGS in order, and the US continues to show off how good there economy is fighting back. Australia on the other hand is running against the wind, as it has done for the last few years, and there are now big questions being raised over the state of our housing market and level of individual debt! The retail sector has been the worst performing sector in our market this year, and they are all reporting more doom and gloom for stores. Basically it looks as though if your not involved in mining in some way shape or form, then life is quite expensive.

Christmas is now even closer with only 1 weekend to go, so its time i should get some Christmas shopping done. I hope your a little bit more prepared than me and are set to have a great Christmas break. Get outside today and enjoy a great summers day, no one works in the month of December in Australia!

Enjoy

Shooter

Plodding along,

G’day Crew,

Well after an ecstatic weekend for the Manly Surfing Festival, everything has quieten back down and now we are just plodding through the working week. The weekend of sunshine however continues and summer definitely feels like it has arrived. Today being no different with not so much as a cloud in the sky, the wind is still for the moment, and its already quiet warm. Right by summer’s side is the summery surf conditions with little to no waves and high tide set for mid morning.

Not to much is happening in global markets either as Ireland has taken the same rescue hand that the Greeks did from the EU. Whilst that interruption subsides markets are waiting for more good news in relation to the economic reporting in the US. Until that happens the markets attitude seems a little lacklustre. Last night the US index’s finished 0.5% down as did Europe. Our market is not that much different although the good news is around QR National which floated yesterday and managed to stay positive. I could imagine everyone that was involved especially the Queensland Government is massively relieved.

With all this sunshine Crew, get out side and plod along with the sun.

Enjoy it Crew,

Shooter

Stay focussed,

G’day Crew,

Hot and humid morning today with a lot of mist hanging over Manly. Maybe because its a Monday but there is a eerie silence to go with the mist as well. There is no wind around as well as not a lot of swell. After what seemed to be a perfect weekend (i was in Melbourne) with sun and a little wind swell, it looks as though this week might have patches of rain throughout it. Not a great deal of swell on the horizon either as there is a massive high pressure system stuck in between us and New Zealand. There are not a lot of deep low pressure systems either in the pipeline so we are set for sum summer conditions.

It seems Australian sport cannot win anything either at the moment as Mark Webber just missed out on the World Title for F1, which his ‘team mate’ won. The Australian Rugby League team loss to the Kiwi’s and the Australian Rah Rah Rugby team loss to England! All we need now is to loss the Ashes, lets hope the Australian Cricket team is focused!

So with no surf, nor sun, and no winning teams on the paddocks best watch the markets instead. Last week we had a little cooling as global index’s fell around 2%. This week is full of US economic reporting and if there is any strength shown then the markets should respond positively to it. Our dollar fell back to USD$0.98 and there is a sensation that Australian households might just be that little bit over leveraged/borrowed. Any sign of strain in our economy will see our banks (and market) get hammered. Any sign of spreads in the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain) bonds widening and the global markets will get slammed. All in all though those are some pretty big movements to happen and highly unlikely until after Christmas.

So get all the work out of the way early this week Crew, as there is not a lot to keep you sidetracked at the moment. So stay focused and get rewarded later on with so easy days leading into the weekend.

Enjoy this week Crew,

Shooter

Great Day,

G’day Crew,

I know its been a while but things just have not slowed down for me of late. Today however is a great day to take it easy, slow it all down, and just enjoy it. It’s almost the perfect day out there. The sun was up early and is belting down now, and because it was so still overnight the temperature is already rising. The only thing missing from today is some swell. The little bit we do have is from the north-east which is great for Manly, however its just not big enough so you need a lot of board under you. It is smack bang low tide right now (8:30am) too.

Since my last update we have seen the surfing community hold tight and celebrate another awesome victory by Kelly Slater. Not only did he win the Rip Curl Search Pro in Puerto Rico, but he also won his 10th ASP World Title! The guy truly has a connection to the waves and that shows in his surfing. It was good to see him dedicate his win to AI. From there the surfing world focuses on Hawaii for the next month up until Christmas. Already the swell has been pretty good over there, so the competitions should be pretty good to watch.

There has not been to much to watch in the markets of late, as pretty much all major international index’s reach 2 year highs and are now having a breather. Of course its the European’s that had to put the dampener on things, as concerns are now for Ireland in its ability to pay its debt. Whilst Ireland and Portugal bonds are trading with an increasing yield, everyone is watching Spain’s yield to see if the ‘risk’ trade comes off the market. If so look for our market to fall by 10% and our great Aussie dollar to be back around USD$0.93.

Well we have made it through another week Crew, and the weather is turning it on for us this weekend. Much better than lat one! Make sure you get out and enjoy it as much as possible.

Enjoy it,

Shooter