Don Hamson Quotations

We're still in a period of rising commodities prices. Even if they started to soften, the big mining companies have still locked-in long-term contracts which translate into a degree of earnings certainty.

I think there is a bit more competition in some of the areas they have with a lot of copycats coming out, making life a little more difficult for them.

Resource prices continue to rocket up and that is also supporting the market.

We're talking about some big global players here, so that's what driving the speculation behind the rest of the sector. Steel stocks have been gaining a small amount of momentum back after a poor run the past few months, and this is the kind of thing that could prompt some managers to have another look.

The thing is, the market keeps expecting it to set new highs. We have had two or three years of exceeding expectations, so you have to keep exceeding it more each year.

There's a lot of cash from retirement savings either propping up share prices already or sitting on the sidelines, looking for a chance to get in.

There's been a lot of talk but I don't expect much action. It's not a great time to be launching takeovers when changing advertising spending is transforming the entire media environment.

There's enough value left in resources stocks to remain optimistic. Commodity prices are locked in over fairly long-term contracts for many of them, so there's an element of safety too.

It's facing more and more competition each day and that's going to keep chipping away at profits. It's an ugly position to be in if you're trying to sell half the company.

It's pretty much in keeping with the reporting season so far where we've seen a mixed bag of good and bad results. The market is still close to its top so we're going to have to wait a bit before there's any real indication where it should go.

It was a pretty big upgrade. And it's a reflection that times continue to be probably better than people had expected.

The index nearly hit 5000 this morning, but never quite made it. For some, it represents some kind of psychological barrier.