Residential house price expectations on the rise, but consumers still pessimistic: Midday Roundup

Westpac’s consumer house price expectations index posted a strong rise in January, increasing 16.1 points from 9.0 in October.

However, despite the highest reading since April last year, and the first gain since January 2010, most consumers still do not expect house prices to rise in 2012.

Just under half, 47.6%, expect price gains, 30% expect the market to be flat, while the remaining 22.5% expect prices to fall further.

Westpac said in a statement that “the mix shows lingering uncertainty around the house price outlook, but a material improvement on three months ago”.

The bank credited the RBA interest rate cuts in November and December with triggering the shift in consumer price expectations.

Australian sharemarket slightly higher

The Australian sharemarket is trading slightly higher, up nearly half a percentage point at 11.00 AEST.

The ASX200 gained 24.40 points to 4242.30, up 0.58%, while the broader All Ordinaries index rose 0.54% to 4303.90.

This followed positive offshore leads, with all major markets currently in the black.

Most widely held stocks were up, though Telstra and Woolworths posted small losses.

Miners enjoyed some of the largest gains. Paladin Energy shares continued their rise, up 6.78%. The uranium miner expects prices to improve this year. Lynas Corporation gained 4.25%.

eBay reports higher Q4 earnings

Online retailer EBay saw its net income grow sharply in the fourth quarter, helped by its divestment of its remaining stake in Skype, strong holiday sales and growth at its online payments system PayPal.

The company improved its earnings fourfold on a year earlier, earning $1.90 billion in the October-December quarter, up from $537.42 million for that quarter last year.

In a conference call with analysts, CEO John Donahoe called 2011 an “inflection point for shopping”.

“For consumers and retailers we intend to make shopping more locally convenient and more globally accessible,” he said.

“This means enabling retailers of all sizes to reach consumers when, where and how those consumers want to shop.”

eBay says its long-term plan is to meld the online and offline shopping worlds.

It is testing a service to allow consumers to use their PayPal accounts to shop in brick-and-mortar stores.