How Australian supermarket profits are presented to the masses

Been a while since written a social and investor behaviour post….

Australian supermarket retailers Coles and Woolworths reported their full year 2023 financial results.

I was aghast while watching last night’s tabloid magazine TV programs.

(I don’t know why the television was on that channel, at that time)

The ‘revolting’ headline said Coles posts $1 billion in profit.

The sub text implied “all this profit while many are struggling to make ends meet”.

Such a critical headline aimed at the financial results of a corporation does not appear on American TV. Only in Australia….

I don’t need sensitivity training nor am I sympathiser to the supermarkets. I am objectively flabbergasted by the stupidity being peddled to the masses as I’m drowning in pragmatism.

These businesses are ‘for profit’ organisations owned by shareholders.

There is a huge amount of trade that these supermarkets create. They pay large electricity bills and rent, rely on refrigeration mechanics, cleaners make the place shine, there is a hugh supply chain, truck drivers deliver those goods, they employ a combined 230,000 people whilst they inventory and perishable risk.

Many Australian visit these supermarkets for their staples yet we are the quickest to lambast them.

I have an idea…….Let’s (somehow) force the closure of these supermarket goliath’s.

What then…..are we all going to find conveniently located community co-ops providing competitive pricing with broad ranges whilst supporting the supply chains and providers (which incidentally carries on the circle of commerce) ?

Coles fiscal year revenues were A$40.5 billion and they made a net profit of A$1.04 billion. A net margin of 2.6%.

Woolworths reported fiscal year revenues of A$64.3 billion and its net profit was A$1.7 billion. A net margin of 2.6%

That’s an awful lot of product, receipts and payments to handle and process for a measly 2.6% profit margin. This is their risk to take to our convenience.

This is also why I don’t like investing in supermarket stocks. They are a terrible net margin business.

By the way, privately owned Aldi has global revenue close to an equivalent of A$190 billion.

But hey, let’s just listen to some TV reporters guiding us towards what we should be angry about.

Buying straw hats in a Chinese winter

While ‘everyone is short’ China…..in the study below, the vertical lines intersect moments when the China A50 Index is below its 100 week moving average, trading 2.5 standard deviations below its weekly mean and where the weekly RSI reading is 37 or less.

August 22, 2023

by Rob Zdravevski

rob@karriasset.com.au

Macro Extremes (week ending August 18, 2023)

A weekly Macro, Cross Asset review of prices trading at extremes which may generate future investment ideas and opportunities.

The following assets (on a weekly timeframe) either registered an Overbought or Oversold reading and/or have traded more than 2.5 standard deviations above or below its rolling mean.

Extremes “above” the Mean (at least 2.5 standard deviations)

German, Swedish, Spanish and French 10 year government bond yields

TBT

LNG and JKM LNG 

Orange Juice 

CAD/AUD

Overbought (RSI > 70)

U.S. 3 month bill yields

Uranium

GBP/JPY

And Turkiye’s BIST 100

The Overbought Quinella – Both Overbought and Traded at > 2.5 standard deviations above the weekly mean)

U.S. 20 and 30 year government bond yields

CHF/AUD

Extremes “below” the Mean (at least 2.5 standard deviations)

LTLT

IDR/USD

INR/USD

Amsterdam’s AEX

and Stockholm 30 equity index

Oversold (RSI < 30)

Lithium

NZD/USD

The Oversold Quinella – Both Oversold and Traded at < 2.5 standard deviations below the weekly mean)

Chinese 10 year government bond yields

AUD/GBP

AUD/EUR

AUD/CHF

Notes & Ideas:

Equities broadly fell, for a 3rd week. This shouldn’t be a surprise for many indices appeared as ‘overbought’ within this newsletter in the preceding 4 weeks.

The declines amongst equities were sizeable. No equity indices amongst my universe rose during the past week.

Although, European and American indices fell as much, if not more than Chinese counterparts, which would be contrary to how the financial media framed it.

The Nasdaq Composite is at its lowest close since 10 weeks ago, while Helsinki’s OMX 25 Index is very near an oversold reading.

The SOX has sunk 10.5% in the past 3 weeks weeks, while the the Nasdaq has fallen 7.3% and the China’s CSI 300 eased 5.7% over the same timeframe.

And finally, the ASX Small Caps fell less than others.

Commodities were mixed.

Oil and Gas were generally weaker, with the exception of the bounce seen in LNG.

Incidentally, JKM LNG has risen 36% over the past 2 weeks.

Some metals saw weakness, yet Uranium is overbought.

Agricutural’s caught a bid, while Coffee is nearing oversold territory

WTI Crude and Gasoil saw their 7 week winning streak come to an end.

Heating Oil continues its rising run to its 8th week while Silver is in a 5 week losing streak.

In currencies, the AUD was weak everywhere again and is in its 5th week of losses versus the USD.

The AUD/EUR and the AUD/GBP pairs saw their lowest closing prices since April 2020.

And there are many streaks abound….

Amongst weekly losing streaks, the AUD/EUR is in its 9th, the SEK/USD is at 5 weeks, as is the EUR/USD and the CAD/USD, the AUD/CHF is at 9 weeks and the CLP (Chilean Peso)/USD has declined for 7 consecutive weeks and 9 of it the past 10 weeks.

The winning streak favours the U.S. Dollar as referenced by the DXY Index in its 5 week winning tear.

Bond yields rose again albeit less than the media may have been implying. 

In fact, many yields are yet to make new new highs and in some case there are mixed signals, such as the U.S. 7’s and 10’s which have reached a new weekly closing high but they haven’t broken the intra-week highs seen in October 2022.

Brazilian, Japanese and New Zealand bond yields rose the most. For example (week over week), Brazilian 10’s moved from 10.77% to 11.20%, JGB’s rose from 0.59% to 0.63% and Kiwi 10’s climbed from 4.87% to 5.05%.

Notably, longer dated U.S. Treasuries are appearing in the overbought quinella category this week and a bunch of European 10 year bond yields are making their first visit to overbought territory since September 2022.

And Chinese 10 year yields are at their lowest close since April 2020.

The larger advancers over the past week comprised of;

Baltic Dry Index 9.6%, Cocoa 2.7%, Heating Oil 1.7%, Lumber 7.8%, JKM LNG in Yen 28%, Orange Juice 8.1%, Dutch TTF Gas 3.1%, Uranium 2.8%, Silver in AUD 1.7%, Oats 5.6%, Soybeans 3.5%, Wheat 2% and JKM LNG in USD climbed 25.9%.

The group of decliners included;

Brent Crude (2%), WTI Crude (2.8%), Cotton (4.9%), Coffee (4.9%), Lithium (4%), Natural Gas (7.9%), Nickel (2.5%), Palladium (3.8%), Gasoline (12.3%), Sugar (2.3%), Shanghai (1.8%), CSI 300 (2.6%), AEX (3.9%), KBW (5.6%), CAC (2.4%), DJ Industrials (2.2%), DJ Transports (3.1%), MIB (1.8%), HSCEI (6%), Hang Seng (5.9%), IBEX (1.8%), Bovespa (2.3%), Nasdaq Composite (2.6%), Kospi (3.4%), S&P MidCap 400 (3%), Nasdaq Biotech Index (2.2%), Nasdaq 100 (2.2%), Nikkei 225 (3.2%), Oslo (1.9%), Copenhagen (2.4%), Helsinki (2.2%), Stockholm (2.6%), Russell 2000 (3.5%), SMI (2.2%), S&P 500 (2.1%), STI (3.7%), TSX (2.9%), FTSE 100 (3.5%), ASX 200 (2.6%), ASX Small Caps (2.2%), KRE Index (6.4%), S&P SmallCap 600 (3.3%), Chile (2%) and Istanbul BIST 100 fell 2.6%.

August 20, 2023

by Rob Zdravevski

rob@karriasset.com.au

Oil and Copper (not Gold) track inflation better

Gold Bugs still think that owning Gold will provide them an inflation hedge.

The chart below combines the Gold price (in USD) with the U.S. Inflation Rate together.

In addition, the lower study plots the ‘correlation coefficient’. A reading of 1 signals perfect correlation. The highlighted rectangle shows a few moments when the reading is above 0.5 but never does it reach 1.

Gold isn’t really that wonderfully correlated.

The Copper and Oil price are better….

August 19, 2023

by Rob Zdravevski

rob@karriasset.com.au

Possible traps in many stocks, this edition…Northern Star and Santos

I’m back to watching who’s making lower lows and perhaps those who aren’t making higher highs.

Northern Star Resources (NST:AX) needs to hold the $10.14 low seen in late February 2023…..but there are gaps still below which should be filled.

The latter thought is voided if you receive a takeover bid….

Santos (STO:ASX) hasn’t broken the $8.09 high of early November 2022.

In NST’s case, the downtrend is picking up strength while Santos’ upward trend isn’t so robust.

August 18, 2023

by Rob Zdravevski

rob@karriasset.com.au

Caveat emptor in lithium

Hmmm…..a company that was recently trading at $1.50 per share thus giving it a market cap of $3 billion (incidentally with zero revenues) just announced a “successful” placement of $100 million of shares at a price of 40 cents.

“Successful” for whom?

The stock fell 25% today because it offered the new tranche of shares at a 26.6% discount to the previous day’s closing price.

Why did it need to sell shares at such a discount?

Moreover, the company chose to raise capital at a similar stock price that was last seen 2 years ago and 76% below it’s peak seen 9 months ago……..

But hey, at least the stock has reverted to a significant mean and technically, the stock is oversold again.

  • not personal advice.

Cooking with (Liquid Natural) Gas

This post dated August 9, 2023, talked about the bullish price action I saw developing in LNG prices.

Since then, the Japanese Yen priced LNG contract has risen 37%.

Today, the U.S. traded (CME) LNG Japan Korea Marker “JKM” (Platts) futures contract jumped 34%.

Annoyingly, the Dutch TTF Gas contract has risen 42% over the past 13 trading days.

I say ‘annoying’ because I’d prefer prices to move in an orderly fashion. 

Prices are no longer trading at extremes and cautioned is required chasing such quick moves as there are gaps below which are often ‘backed and filled’.

August 16, 2023

by Rob Zdravevski

rob@karriasset.com.au

Does the Aussie hold 64 cents?

Within today’s Australian trading day, the AUD/USD and the price of BHP have traded down to levels mentioned in my recent notes.

The Aussie is at the mid 0.64’s and BHP is 1 cent from A$43.35.

Iron Ore is also showing weakness.

Rio Tinto’s ASX listed stock has also visited the $105 level which I have published in separate client communication.

As per my recent note, where I am ‘warming to commodities’, the art will still be in the timing of the entry.

I see prices poised at these levels.

While on a daily basis, the AUD/USD is in its 7th consecutive day of losses, we could see a small bounce (which isn’t my bag)….I will yield towards waiting to see if my next (lower) target levels are visited, as I watch whether the strength in the current downward trends traverse from a daily timeframe into a weekly one.

August 16, 2023

by Rob Zdravevski

rob@karriasset.com.au

Japan is on sale for Europeans

In Euro’s, Japan is on sale…..

This study over a monthly basis shows the percentage that the Euro is trading above its 50 month moving average.

The circles mark the moments when it coincides with a monthly RSI Overbought reading.

Expect Eurozone/Japan relations to strengthen….

Who would’ve thought the Euro could exhibit strength.

August, 15, 2023

by Rob Zdravevski

rob@karriasset.com.au

The Swissie’s all time high vs AUD

The Swiss Franc has never been this strong compared to the Australian Dollar.

This makes Australian assets very attractive to Swiss (domiciled) businesses and there is a few of them, such as….

Glencore, Nestle, ABB, Roche, Novartis, Zurich Insurance, Holcim, Adecco and UBS.

(we may see more travellers from Switzerland too)

However, there is also another observation and correlation to watch.

When the CHF is overbought against the AUD (signifying that global investors are chasing safety) it portends a rally in the ASX 200.

The vertical lines in the weekly chart below shows the moments when 14 such moments have occurred over the past 30 years with only 2 dubious black lines.

This event also bodes well for selected commodities.

August 15, 2023

by Rob Zdravevski

rob@karriasset.com.au