Property up, while retail falls. Retail sales fell, but building approvals remained strong in December, especially for private owner occupied dwellings, a sign the building and property boom still has some way to run in 2010.

Retail sales fell 0.7% in the month of December, as total building approvals jumped 3.1% and houses 2.2%, a sort of tie in terms of the approach to analysing these figures with regard to the Reserve Bank’s thinking on interest rates.

Figures released this morning from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed that while shoppers were cautious in the run up to and after Christmas and sales fell 0.7% from November (up 1.5% in November), there was still a strongish contribution to the December quarter with positive growth of 1.1% (after a fall of 0.7% in the September quarter).

This fall compares with economists’ forecasts for growth of 0.2% (wrong) and 1.1% for the quarter (spot on).

The ABS said sales fell, in seasonally adjusted terms, across four retail industry groups: Department Stores (down 3.5%), Clothing, Footwear & Other Personal Accessory Retailing (off 1.9%), Food Retailing (down 1.3%) and Household Goods Retailing (-0.3%). Sales rose in Cafes, Restaurants & Takeaway Food Services (2.5%). Other Retailing (0.0%) remained flat.

“South Australia (-3.7%) recorded the largest fall in sales in December, followed by Tasmania (-2.0%) , Victoria (-1.0%), Queensland (-0.6%), the Northern Territory (-0.4%), the Australian Capital Territory (-0.4%) and Western Australia (-0.1%),” the ABS said.

For the building sector achieved a different result in December after the softness seen in November. The ABS said this morning that the number of approvals for private sector houses rose 3.1% in December 2009 following a fall last month.

The ABS said Victoria saw a 4.6% rise, Queensland 2.2%, South Australia half a per cent, and Western Australian was up 3.3%.

Overall, the number of dwellings approved in Australia rose 2.2% with Tasmania (up 21.7%) and Victoria (up 11.1%) recording the largest increases.

The ABS also said there was a rise in the number of approvals for private sector dwellings other than houses ( up 9.1%) in December.

The value of total building approved fell 3.7% in December with non-residential building approvals down 9.4%. However, the value of approved new residential buildings increased by 3.0%, another solid sign.

Both figures will have no impact on the RBA’s thinking because it is busy doing new soundings with industry for the next board meeting in March. The unemployment figures for December will be much more important when released next week.

Pay TV in play? Time for someone to again toss money at regional pay TV operator Austar? The question springs to mind with the news that its major shareholder, John Malone’s Liberty Global, is selling its stake in Jupiter Telecommunications, Japan’s largest cable television operator, for $US4 billion ($A4.5 billion).

“Exiting the Japanese market at a substantial premium allows us to redirect our capital into more strategic consolidation opportunities in our core markets as well as our ongoing stock buy-back initiatives,” said Mike Fries, Liberty president and chief executive. He’s also the chairman of Austar, in which Liberty Global owns about 54%.

Austar now stands out in the Liberty portfolio as its last big asset in Asia, a region it apparently doesn’t want.

Foxtel had a nibble at Austar back before the GFC: it wanted to pay about $1.80, Liberty wanted $2. The Seven Network also had a sniff, but Kerry Stokes is now stalking Foxtel, a much bigger fish, via Cons Media Holdings. Austar trades at about $1.26. A premium similar to the 65% obtained for its Japanese business would boost the price closer to that $2 a share level that Liberty global wants. That would boost Liberty’s take to more than $1.1 billion.

The power and the glory. Was this a Rosebud moment for Citizen Murdoch as he recovers his confidence after taking a hit in the GFC? Here’s an excerpt from the News Corp analysts’ briefing after the release of yesterday’s second-quarter figures. Speaking is 78-year-old R. Murdoch. Cue the music. Wind Beneath my Wings, etc etc.

We’ve endured the most severe recession since the great depression but have emerged from this turbulence and turmoil. I think it’s the world’s pre-eminent content company … From a crisis comes clarity, and the strength of our company and our strategy is clear for all to see. Excuse the immodesty, the News Corporation’s pre-eminence as a content creator comes as the debate over the primacy of content is over. Content is not just king, it is the emperor of all things electronic … We are on the cusp of the digital dynasty for which our company and our shareholders will profit greatly. Devices and platforms are proliferating but this clever technology is merely an empty vessel without any great content … Machines are not powered by batteries, but by creativity and ingenuity, by content that’s original, accessible and trusted. Those characteristics define the nature of our company, and are the pillars on which we are building a profitable future.

Car sales up, but still spluttering. January 2010 was a long way from January 2009 for the world car industry. In the US, Ford boasted of boosting car sales 24%, and journalists and the company ignored the fact that a year ago sales were down 40%, so the company is still 16% behind. It was the same for GM, Chrysler etc, but not Toyota, whose January sales in the US fell 16% . A year ago they were down 30%. Oops. Honda and Chrysler had down months in both years. Industry sales in January 2009 were down 37%, last month they were up 6%. So they are still more than 30% below the level in January 2008.

In Australia it was a better month. Official figures from the Federal Chamber of Automotive Industries shows that 74,864 passenger cars, SUVs and commercial vehicles were sold in January, up 11.6% (or 7,785 vehicles) on the same month in 2009. But more than 82,000 vehicles were sold in January 2008. Car sales were off 15.6% from December because the tax break for small business ended on December 31.

Meanwhile, Toyota can’t get rid of its problem. Now the Prius, the green car so beloved of “aware’ governments, councils and individuals”, is reported to have worrying brake problems, with complaints in Japan and in the US.

The Toyota recall in the US covers 2.3 million vehicles and involves 2009-10 RAV4 crossovers, 2009-10 Corollas, 2009-10 Matrix hatchbacks, 2005-10 Avalons, 2007-10 Camrys, 2010 Highlander crossovers, 2007-10 Tundra pick-ups and 2008-10 Sequoia SUVs. The recalls also extend to Europe and China, covering nearly 4.5 million vehicles overall. What springs to mind, why was the pedals in the Corollas made in the US different to those made in Japan and elsewhere?

Blame the snow? The snowy, cold winter in much of northern Europe really hit retail sales. In the 16 eurozone countries sales fell 1.6% in December on the same month of 2008, and showed no increase from November, despite the boost that usually comes from the Christmas season. In the wider 27-country European Union area, sales were down 1% in December from a year earlier. The figures are preliminary and don’t include Greece, which is grappling with an emerging financial time bomb. The figure was well below market expectations for a 0.5% increase. November’s 1.2% slump was more than halved in revisions to a fall of 0.5%, but that is still negative. Adjusted for inflation, it is the lowest Christmas figure since 2005 and is the third consecutive year of lower December retail sales. But it gets worse: retail sales over 2009, fell 2.3% compared with 2008 in the eurozone and by 1.7% in the wider area. This is what economists in Europe call recovery. And remember the UK cheered when growth in the 4th quarter came in at 0.1%, ending the recession. Break out the barley water.

The bullsh-t cupboard is still overflowing. Lucy Kellaway, the highly readable Financial Times management columnist, delivers some reassurance in her her first column for 2010:

Every year at around this time I hand out awards for paradigm-shifting, best-in-class management guff. I had expected the 2009 Guff Awards to be a sorry affair, as the bullsh-t industry has been suffering its worst slump since the Great Depression. But as I went through my bullsh-t cupboard I was surprised and reassured by the quality of the material. Even in bad times, it seems, some managers can still push the envelope and go the extra mile … ” Read on.