Sydney is Number 2 (and weekly market report)

The title is not what you may think. It reflects that Sydney has been eclipsed by Melbourne as the nation's leading tourist destination, new figures show, earning $400 million more less than its southern rival.

March statistics from Tourism Australia showed that Melbourne earned more from domestic tourism spending than Sydney - for just the second time in published records, according to the industry group Tourism & Transport Forum. Domestic overnight visitors to Melbourne also spend more per person - $698 - than visitors to Sydney, who spend an average of $610.

Being from Sydney myself I cannot imagine that it would be number two to Melbourne in anything other than AFL. Then again I am biased and Sydney is home for me, not a holiday destination.

With that, here is Finance ViewPoint's resident expert guest commentator - Dale Gillham - and his Weekly market report

If we review this week’s budget announcements, it is quite obvious that the government has taken of a cautious approach to managing the economy and in my opinion I don’t believe it adequately addresses the issues needed to curb inflation. Given this, the prospect that interest rates will fall in the coming year is very slim. Instead I think we will see interest rates rise.

As a society, we have been borrowing to excess for years without consideration for the consequences and many are now paying the price. There is an old saying that cash is king, and in times such as now I would strongly recommend to people who are highly leveraged to start using the extra cash they receive in future from this week’s budget announcements to dramatically reduce their negative debt. For those who are already cashed up, the next year or two will present some great opportunities in both the share and property market.

So what can we expect in the market?

The probability that the 4 year low occurred on the All Ordinaries Index on 17 March is now very high, which if correct means we can expect the current bull market to rise for at least 6 to 8 months, although I believe it will last well into next year before we see any major pull back. As a fund manager I am still being a little conservative given that we have plenty of time to profit from the next bull run.

In the short term, you will remember I indicated in my previous report that the current rise will last until around 26 May before finding some resistance. I still expect this to occur with the market likely to peak in the second half of next week or early the following week before falling away again. However, I am confident that the fall will only be short in both time and price, and once it is confirmed it will present some great opportunities to purchase shares at better pricing.

Dale Gillham , chief analyst of share investment company Wealth Within