Out of our hands

The events overseas still dominate the domestic markets as the reporting season gets under way. So far the reports have been OK. Telecom was more cost cutting than improvements to revenue streams and the XT outage has yet to be fully factored into the next quarters earnings. However with the dividend remaining at 6 cents per quarter the current dividend yield gross is around 10%, this should offer some support to the share price. This week most eyes will be on Freightways seen as a barometer for the Economy.

Elsewhere the main driving force is overseas with the EU coming out and making all the right noises in-regard Greece, but as yet we haven't seen the details as to what the actual compsition of the aide package will be. China is also firmly in focus with speculation that the authorities will allow the currency to strengthen to help cool the economy - forecast to grow around 9% for this year according to the World Bank though Goldman Sachs forecast 11.4% for 2010 according to Bloomberg - NZ is expected to grow around 2.0 - 2.5% for 2010.

Data still supports higher prices for shares and looks like the market wants to trade higher once we get the Greece story out of the way - it will get sorted , interesting to note there are ample buyers (well respected professionals) of Greek debt indicating that the markets don't believe they will default on their Debt. Buy dips and look to ride the market for the first half of 2010.