Peter Strachan

LAST week, global stock markets experienced possibly the worst days of trading that will be seen during the current bear phase.

GLOBAL share markets have entered a netherworld that no-one working in the finance industry has ever experienced before, unless they were alive in the 1930s.

A MID-DECADE housing industry boom in Australia, fuelled by an ultimately destabilising rate of population growth, diverts scarce resources, including funds, away from much more productive sectors of the economy.

RALLIES on global markets last week were a direct result of short covering and some over-exuberance by a few who have not yet lost all their investments or hope.

THE next stop for the Australian All Ordinaries Index now looks likely to be 4,300 points, which will be a 61.

TEN-YEAR government bonds effectively set a risk-free rate of return for investors, since these government-backed securities guarantee an investor's initial capital investment.

FOR much of 2007, iron was the mineral of choice for speculators.Companies like Midwest, Atlas, and Sundance Resources all rose like phoenixes out of the ashes, with paper fortunes made and more recently lost, as share prices tumbled. During this time, ma

In the current market, making buy calls on any share is a tough task.

During the past six months, the shape and size of Australia's listed oil and gas sector has changed and shrunk beyond recognition.

The reporting season has kicked off with some cheery results from the likes of Bradken, WorleyParsons and United Group, setting a strong pace for the local profit season.

Australia's iron ore industry has just become much more valuable.

In halls of power around the world, some very worried politicians and public servants are beginning to realise that peak oil production is real and it is happening right now.

Western Australian mining and mining service industries have experienced a huge rise in the demand for skills and equipment which, along with higher fuel costs, has driven up their costs of doing business.

Briefcase has previously predicted that economic conditions will deteriorate, both globally and locally.

In times of financial stress, such as those we are currently experiencing, investment patterns and behaviour should be informed and strengthened by lessons passed on from successful investors, such as Warren Buffet and the legendary Sir John Templeton.

Briefcase would like to take this opportunity to set the scene for the 2009 financial year.

ARC Energy's erstwhile substantial shareholder and its corporate thorn in the side, Mineralogy, finally announced a notice of ceasing to be a substantial shareholder in Arc on June 11, fully six months after it began to sell its holding last December.

It's not just Zambia and South Africa that have power problems.

Peter Strachan is the author of subscription-based analyst brief StockAnalysis, further information can be found at Stockanalysis.com.au

The arrival this year of global oil and gas heavyweights BG plc, Petronas and Royal Dutch Shell in Queensland is an extremely significant event for Australia's bourgeoning coal seam methane (CSM) business.

Faced with rising energy prices, Australia's politicians, like most politicians on the planet, are scrambling around looking for places to hide, or behaving like stunned rabbits in the lights of an oncoming vehicle (which unfortunately is not electric).

The oil market includes all types of crude oil, condensate, natural gas liquids, oil recovered from shale and oil sands, and now, increasingly, biofuels.

In the share market, it is extremely rare for anyone to be compelled to buy a share.

BRIEFCASE, having recently returned from a visit to the land of the free, has identified the source of a possible new financial scandal in the US, which holds the potential to rock the market in th

From uncertain beginnings in the early 1990s, Australia’s coal seam, or coal bed, gas (CSG) or coal seam methane (CSM) business has come a long way. Today, we see a large cohort of companies involved in the local industry, supplying more than 70 per cent

This week, Briefcase is able to report directly from the streets of New York, where the mood among stock and commodity traders has taken a bullish turn.

It is now apparent that the financial impact of problems on Wall Street is filtering down to ‘main street’.

Briefcase continues to survey directors’ recent buying and selling for clues in the search for investment value.

Mega-trends in the path of human society open up opportunities for investors and present threats, not only to your wealth. History is littered with examples of societies or indeed civilizations which flourished and then perished or withered away.

There seems to be a competition developing amongst finance journalists, along with some economists and market analysts, to be the first to call a base to the current bear market phase on stock markets.

I wonder if there are any readers who have not yet heard about the impending peak of global oil production.

Briefcase, in another guise, was strident in its opposition to last year’s private equity bid for Australia’s major airline and former national carrier, Qantas.