Fisher & Paykel Appliances annual meeting, which was held yesterday afternoon, was downbeat but there was some good news for shareholders. The company is facing particularly strong headwinds at present but second half earnings are expected to show some benefits from the relocation of its manufacturing operations to Thailand.

CEO John Bongard told shareholders that the company was facing high raw material costs and depressed consumer demand. The New Zealand and United States markets are depressed, Australia is showing signs of slowing and the outlook in Europe is uncertain.

Its finance company operations were also under pressure with demand slowing, funding costs rising and bad debts, particularly for the Q credit card operations, increasing.

Bongard told the meeting that normalised net earnings for the first half of the current year would be 50% down on the same period in 2007/08 and full year earnings are expected to be at the lower end of …

“Finance is the art of passing money from hand to hand until it finally disappears,” said Robert W. Sarnoff. This is certainly the way it looked last week as the fall-out of the credit crisis deepened.

Markets had investors feeling dazed and confused after another roller-coaster week amid further evidence of the deteriorating health of the US financial sector and a renewed rise in oil prices. Adding to the pain, Barron’s Randall Forsyth said: “Now that the bear market has officially arrived, it may stick around and gnash its teeth for a while – until it’s scared away those who remain.”

Government Sponsored Enterprises (GSEs) Fannie Mae (FNM) and Freddie Mac

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Last week I told you the U.K. could see a worse economic downturn than the U.S., and said that would weigh heavily on the British currency. Meanwhile, one of my readers who resides Down Under recently told me that he's afraid to trade the Australian dollar. Reason: He sees the economy first hand, and he's starting to see a disconnect between on-the-ground conditions and the Aussie dollar's rocket-ride to multi-decade highs. Clearly, the risks aren't just limited to the United States ... at least not anymore. And today I want to tell you about another currency that looks ripe for weakness ... New Zealand: From Fairy Tale to Tail Spin Known primarily for its agricultural activity and natural resources, New Zealand has been quietly living the good life. After all, the ...

Sentiment deteriorated further during the past week as oil prices rebounded, more bad news in the financial sector surfaced, economic woes mounted and inflationary pressures intensified, compounding already-jittery investors’ anxiety.

Status Quo’s lyrics “Down down deeper and down” came to mind as global stock markets took a battering. The Dow Jones Industrial Index, for example, plunged by 3.8% over the week to below 12,000 – its lowest level since March. Commensurate with extreme bearishness, short interest on the New York Stock Exchange jumped to an all-time high during the week.

At the centre of investors’ angst was the perception that the credit crisis has not yet played itself out. These fears were supported by Goldman Sachs analysts who

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For the currency markets I follow, and every other financial market right now, inflation is the buzz word. Each and every new report of rising prices releases new concern — whether the threat is revealed in Brazil, the United States, Europe or even your local grocery store. No one likes forking over more cash this month than they did last month ... for anything. But this inconvenient fact is being increasingly realized across the world. And that's where currencies come into play. Currencies are the medium of exchange you use on a daily basis to purchase goods and services. And you depend on that purchasing power holding its value. Soaring inflation means, among other things, that the credibility of the legal tender in your wallet is being called into question. ...

Long time readers will know I follow New Zealand as an investment destination, I just wrote about a couple of stocks there recently.Lately I have been thinking about buying some NZ sovereign debt. The yields are high as you probably know. Two years yields 6.93%, five years yield 6.59% and ten years yields 6.40% (all yields as of June 9).New Zealand has all sorts of issues that make it a tricky destination. Housing numbers are bad, it is hard to get a job, there are deficits galore and the central bank’s recent announcement of holding rates steady was taken as dovish which threatens the currency. In the last couple of months the kiwi has come down from above $0.81 to below $0.76.None of the factors cited above (plus any others you would care to throw in) are new, …

I wanted to follow up on the farm land, and related, stocks. Allow me to disclaim the hell out of this research. I do not vouch for the accuracy of any of the ticker symbols as things get lost in the translation going from the symbols on the local markets and the US five letter identifier. Further I have not done what I would call proper research on any of the names this merely an acknowledgment that these companies exist. This post is just my sharing what I have found so far but there is more looking still to be done. Remember the big macro which I think is that the dynamics of supply and demand for food are changing. There has been a combination of more demand from incrementally richer countries, investment demand for certain products, funky weather in some places (Australia had ...

It has been a while since I’ve posted anything about New Zealand.Over the last 12 months the NZ 50 Index is down about 17% versus 8% for the S&P 500. The NZ dollar in that time is up against the greenback by close to 10%.I sold out of New Zealand across the board a little over two years ago but have always kept tabs on what’s going on. I am quite certain I will go back in one way or another at some point.Here is a news item about Fonterra, a privately held dairy co-op that the management has talked about taking public but the farmers who belong to the co-op do not want it to go public as they feel their payout would be cut.The idea behind going public is to raise the capital …