S&P 500was down by 5.21 points or 0.28% to 184.34 on Friday. US Stocks fell for the week, giving benchmark indexes their biggest loss since January, as mounting tensions in Ukraine and signs of a slowdown in China overshadowed reports showing an improving American economy. General Motors Co. slid 9.6 percent after the automaker was said to face a U.S. investigation into a vehicle recall. Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. declined at least 3.1 percent, helping to lead loss among financial companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. Newmont Mining Corp. and Barrick Gold Corp. climbed more than 5 percent as gold prices jumped.

Investors will start the week early as the Sunday referendum to decide if Crimea becomes part of Russia or remains Ukrainian will likely reverberate in markets worldwide. A majority of Crimeans chose to join Russia in a disputed referendum, exit polls showed, deepening the worst crisis between Russia and the West since the end of the Cold War. 


S&P 500 Daily Chart   (Source – Thomson Reuters)

 
S&P ASX 200was down 83.2 points or 1.54% and closed at 5329.40 points on Friday. Hochtief, the owner of Leighton Holdings, has warned jobs in the Australian group’s 56,000-strong global workforce could be cut and operating brands such as John Holland and Thiess merged or ditched, as it urged investors to accept its $1.2 billion takeover offer. The Sydney Morning Herald remains Australia’s ­best-read masthead, but key News Corp metro publications have improved their readership, according to the latest figures.

Beacon Lighting Group will begin trading as a publicly listed company next month after retiring partner Martin Hanman cashes out his 45 per cent stakes in a payday of nearly $64 million. The Australian dollar is lower as escalating tensions between Russia and the West overshadow positive economic data from the US.
 

S&P ASX 200 Daily Chart (Source – Thomson Reuters)

The top gainers on ASX 200 were:-
 

Code	Name	Price	Change	%Change
AQG	ALACER GOLD CORP.	$3.52	$0.13	3.83%
WHC	WHITEHAVEN COAL LIMITED	$1.73	$0.06	3.29%
RFG	RETAIL FOOD GROUP LIMITED	$4.48	$0.08	1.82%
MRM	MERMAID MARINE AUSTRALIA	$2.27	$0.04	1.79%
HZN	HORIZON OIL LIMITED	$0.33	$0.01	1.56%

 
Stock of the Day – Iress (IRE)

IRESS provides market data services, trading platforms and financial planning software. The business is divided into wealth management and financial markets and is deemed to have 90% market share in the sell side trading systems and market data and 60% in the financial advice platform in Australia and New Zealand. We believe management’s strategy of building technological scale and leveraging technical expertise into different geographic segments will yield success in the long term.

IRESS’s result was somewhat hit and miss with fiscal 2013 underlying net profit after tax, or NPAT of AUD 53.2 million was in line with market expectations but guidance was a little disappointing. Revenue increased 21% and underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization or EBITDA increased 5.8% to AUD 88 Million. Excluding Avelo Acquisition revenue grew a modest 4.2% with a 4.9% EBITDA decline in the Australian financial markets division sending group EBITDA backwards by 0.6%. While a recovery in group earnings will not unfold in fiscal 2014 as we previously expected, we view the disappointment as largely tied to trading conditions and not a negative reflection on IRESS’s competitive advantages.
 


Source - Iress
 
Iress’s fast growing wealth management business is well placed to take advantage of tougher regulatory requirements, increasing demand for software that improves accuracy and lower costs. We expect the financial markets business to benefit from rising equity markets and improved investor confidence. Rising equity markets have begun to assist business conditions and IRESS is seeing early signs of improving demand but there is a lag before the firm receives an earnings uplift.


Iress Daily Chart  (Source - Thomson Reuters)

Management guided to 20% earnings growth in fiscal 2014, but this solely driven by Avelo with Australian financial markets still facing decline. We believe that the stock is too expensive at its current price and would review the stock at a later date.

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