Daily FNArena News - Australia

The index of consumer confidence by Westpac/MI reached its highest level ever this month.

For UXA it presents the opportunity to have a class act in on the exploration of uranium. For Newcrest it’s a hope that gold will also be found.

Santos will buyback $300m in shares offmarket and pay a significant fully franked dividend, but shareholders better account for the risks and returns when assessing whether to get involved.

For at least six months, stock analysts have declared Leighton overvalued. The market has had different ideas, doubling the share price over that time.

Austock Securities sees benefits for the Australian players if the domestic grain market follows the lead of the Canadian market and deregulates.

Brokers have finalised their reviews of bank profit results in recent weeks and made minor changes to estimates, CBA being the winner and St George the loser in the process.

Merrill Lynch’s Vicky Binns doesn’t believe BHP is in the market for Rio. She made a few observations at a conference in Dublin.

Australia’s unemployment rate is at 32-year lows, suggesting the RBA’s tightening bias will remain in place and rates will go higher before they come down.

What do you do if sales of bowling uniforms aren’t working? Buy into uranium exploration of course!

Fast growing telco minnow M2 has applied the accelerator to its FY08 outlook, but investors may find it hard to jump on the runaway train.