Gold smashed through US$1,400 in convincing fashion today and has almost done the same in Aussie dollar terms too. Although the precious metal is always capable of delivering a sharp pullback from time-to-time, the gold bull is still very much in place. Indeed, gold has pushed significantly higher in all currencies, including the British pound at GBP873 and more than 1,000 euros per ounce.

Westfield’s announcement last week that it intends to break out half of its Australian and New Zealand retail assets into a separate listed entity represents an interesting change of strategy for the company. It was only 6 years ago in 2004 that Westfield was trumpeting the benefits of consolidating its three separate trusts into Westfield Group.

Coeur D’Alene’s trading days on the Australian Stock Exchange are due to come to an end next month (December 7). As we said in FAT492, we retain a favourable view of the company. We therefore advise those Members with the capacity and inclination to trade US stocks to convert their holding to the NYSE listing.

It was perhaps foolish of us to assume that the long-running LCS (Littoral Combat Ship) saga would proceed to its conclusion without a few final twists in the story. We had thought that the rather surprising timing of Austal CEO Bob Browning’s resignation in late September was the final curve ball. Last week however we awoke to the news that the US Navy had decided to award 10 LCS contracts to both Austal and competitor Lockheed Martin.

Avoca delivered 64,783 ounces of gold through the three months to 30 September 2010. The group achieved a healthy cash operating margin of $673 per ounce, which includes state royalties of $110 per ounce. The margin benefited from gold’s price strength, with cash operating costs a rather high $577 per ounce.

After too many years in rags, Myer is finally looking like a department store worthy of a ticket to the ball. Much of the remediation work is complete and the company is now turning to the positive issues of growing sales and profit.

Improving mining volumes and a more strategically focused business means Orica is very likely to continue its impressive run of profit growth. Over the last eight years, the group has delivered compound annual profit growth of 13.9%. Orica’s exposure to high growth mining activity, in high growth regions and providing specialised products and services is a recipe for robust shareholder returns.