Billabong will go on the casualty list of this year’s earnings season, with the stock suffering a wave of selling following the result. Looking at the share price movement alone, one would assume that the company had failed miserably last year. In actual fact, the result was only marginally below management’s previous guidance and it was a weaker than expected outlook that really concerned the market.

Now that the major acquisitions of the past year are completed, Amcor’s task is fairly straightforward. It must integrate each of the businesses and extract the identified synergy benefits. Thereafter, any rise in economic activity will provide the added boost of the operational leverage now built into the company.

The operational leverage of Fairfax’s business was on display in the second half of the 2010 year. The company will be breathing a sigh of relief as advertising volumes pumped some life into the operating earnings. But there is no sign yet that Fairfax has any pricing power to match. A big strategic review is underway which might determine how much sway the digital new kids in the company get on the 169 year old company’s future.

A higher Australian dollar, cycling of government cash stimulus payments, cautious consumer spending and stiff competition should have produced an anaemic result for Woolworths, but it didn’t. It is a testament to the foundation work, repeated every year, that the company delivered double-digit growth in net profit after tax, even as revenue growth slowed throughout a difficult year for the retail industry. The two beneficiaries of Woolworths’ tenacity are shareholders and shoppers.

Lihir's shares are currently suspended from trading as per the timetable for the Newcrest merger. Our advice to Members that wish to maximise their allocation of Newcrest shares is to do nothing. Shareholders that do nothing will default into the “Max shares” option.

It’s an all too familiar theme at present. The market shoots up 1-2% one day, only to retrace the gain the following day. The simple fact of the matter is that the market is undecided between the double-dippers and those that see an, albeit gradual, recovery. Market indecision manifests itself in increased volatility and that is what we are seeing now.