I hope everyone had a wonderful 'Straya Day yesterday and didn't get too pissed and sunburnt. For our North American friends, "pissed" here means drunk, not
. Anyway, tomorrow is a Public Holiday which leaves us 3 very important days left in January. We'll have the quarterly report which will more than likely come out on the 29th and this time, unlike the last quarterly, Greg will choose his words very carefully. Remember his statement last report, "we remain hopeful in our ability to bring FID...." What a disaster the word "hopeful" created! SP crashed down to 40 cents until he tweeted a statement with the word "confident" to counteract the damage done when he said he was hopeful. Personally I didn't mind as I bought up more at such a giveaway price. I'm sure he now realizes that at this stage of the game, anything he puts in his report will be heavily scrutinized. Even more so that usual. Fingers will be poised above buy/sell buttons, especially the wretched bots, ready to dictate the resulting share price movements.
We then have the high level Chinese delegation visiting Washington on the 30th and the 31st to sort out trade issues with 1 month remaining on the cease fire. Resolving the trade imbalance will be the easiest to commit to and Soybeans and LNG are the two commodities at the top of the list and always mentioned when the subject comes up so we may see some action on that front as a first step. Wilbur Ross mentioned it again last week. With Trump getting thumped on Friday he will be keen to claim a victory of any sort and certainly before Feb 15th when government may be shut down again. I am of the belief that in a drawer of someone's desk in either Houston or China there is contract for a BTA of 8.8 Mtpa just waiting for a signature as soon as the Chinese powers that be say "You may sign the contract now." This week could tell us just how soon ink will hit paper. To that end, I remain confident, far more than hopeful!
Cheers
MW
