The S&P 500 was up by 9.52points or 0.48%on Monday and closed at 1997.92.  The S&P 500 was unable to hold the 2,000 mark after moving above the milestone level for the first time on Monday, but still managed to close at a record high,buoyed by financials and biotechnology stocks.On a total-return basis the S&P 500 has more than tripled from its 2009 low hit during the financial crisis.

Morgan Stanley which has heavy exposure to Europe, rose 2.2 percent to $34.20 while Goldman Sachs Group Inc , was up 1.4 percent at $177.87. Burger King is in talks to acquire Canadian coffee and doughnut chain Tim Hortons Inc. InterMune Inc. surged 35 percent after Roche Holding AG purchased the biotechnology company for $8.3 billion.  The Nasdaq Biotech index rose 2.4 percent and is up 8.6 percent for the month.


Morgan Stanley Daily Chart (Source – Thomson Reuters)

S&P ASX 200was down by 10.7points or 0.19 %on Monday and closed at 5634.9 points. BHP Billiton slid 1.5 per cent to $37.25 and Rio Tinto lost 1.3 per cent to finish the day at $64.54. BlueScope Steel shares plummeted 12.8 per cent to $5.32 after the company reported a net loss of $82.4 million. Caltex Australia posted a marginal increase in half-year profit to $173 million. Caltex shares rose 7.4 per cent to $27.45.

M2 Group reported a full-year profit of $67.1 million, an improvement of 53 per cent on the previous corresponding period. Spotless reported a $34.7 million loss. Shares gained 1.6 per cent to $1.905. Orora announced a 44.8 per cent gain in profit to $104.4 million. nib declared a final ­dividend of 5.75¢ as well as a special dividend of 9¢. Profit to the end of June rose 4 per cent to $69.9 million. Among the top performers on ASX 200 was BURU Energy. To read the latest report on BURU Energy Click Here


Orora Daily Chart (Source – Thomson Reuters)

The top gainers on ASX 200 were:- 



Stock of the Day – Fairfax Media (FXJ)

Newspaper publishing in its traditional form is a sunset industry. Eyeballs are migrating to the digital arena where there are lower cost choices, and advertisers are rapidly following suit. Against this negative structural backdrop the fate of a legacy publisher depends on how it maintains audience in the ultra-competitive digital age and whether it has the financial as well as editorial resources to prevail longer term.





FXJ Revenue Breakdown (Source – Company Reports)
 
After three years of decline fiscal 2014 normalized net profit managed a rebound of 23% to AUD 158 million. The result was bolstered by the performance of the metropolitan media segment posting earnings before interest and tax or EBIT growth of 52% to AUD 60 million. While revenues for the division fell 9% aggressive cost base re-engineering led to a strong lift in EBIT margin to 7.4% up from 4.5%.


Fairfax Revenue (Source – Company Reports)

Indeed cost performance was commendable across the group with AUD 107 million stripped out in fiscal 21014. Management also announced that it is on track to deliver AUD311 million in annualized cost savings by end of fiscal 2015. This will come at aggregated cost of AUD 290 million since the transformation program began in February 2012 one off restructuring costs which are increasingly becoming recurring.


FXJ Daily Chart (Source – Thomson Reuters)

At current levels shares in Fairfax Media are overvalued relative to our fair value estimate. The market appears to be encouraged by the green shoots in the company’s earnings profile. However we are not yet prepared to declare that an inflexion point has been reached particularly as the community media division (by far the biggest profit generator) now seems to be on the verge of accelerating earnings decline. We believe the stock is expensive at its current price and would review the stock at a later date.