FinSec Post

Investment markets and key developments over the past week Share markets have had a good week reflecting news regarding Greece, better-than-expected Chinese economic data, the nuclear agreement with Iran and benign comments from US Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen. This has seen most share markets put in good gains led by Europe. Australian shares also saw good gains with the still-falling Australian dollar also helping the profit outlook. Bond yields were flat to down, but with sharp falls in peripheral Eurozone [...]

Investment markets and key developments over the past week The Greek population has voted NO in the referendum on agreeing to proposed austerity measures. Greece may now have to confront the prospect of Europe withdrawing financial support, which could result in a herculean task of stabilising its banking system, exiting the Euro and introducing a new currency. As with Greek mythology, there are few prosperous endings when debt and politics are involved. Greece's crisis has dramatically intensified with political squabbling, bank [...]

Investment markets and key developments over the past week Shares had a mixed week with mostly good economic data, but increasing nervousness regarding Greece and worries about a Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) outbreak in Korea weighing on some Asian markets. While US shares (+0.1%), Australian shares (+0.8%) and Chinese shares (+2.9%) rose, European shares (-0.2%) fell slightly as did Japanese shares and some other Asian markets. Bond yields mostly fell late in the week. Despite stronger US economic data, the [...]

Investment markets and key developments over the past week Shares had a rough week as Greek worries continued to weigh, the back-up in global bond yields resumed and worries about a Fed rate hike continued. US shares fell 0.7%, Eurozone shares fell 1.7% and Japanese shares lost 0.5%. Chinese shares were the exception bouncing 8.9% after the previous week's softness. Australian shares fell 4.8% on the back of the weak global lead, messy Australian economic data and the RBA's failure to [...]

Investment markets and key developments over the past week Shares had a mixed week with US shares down 0.9% and European shares down 2.5% on worries about Greece, US economic data and the Fed and Chinese shares down 1%, but Japanese shares up 1.5% and Australian shares up 2%. The US$ rose on the back of stronger US economic data and this weighed on commodity prices and the A$. Bond yields also fell they've been moving inversely to the US$ lately [...]

Investment markets and key developments over the past week Global share markets mostly rose over the last week, as mixed US economic data was seen delaying Fed hikes and likely to ensure they are gradual, even though inflation perked up a bit in April. A European Central Bank (ECB) official talked about front-loading quantitative easing and talk of further Chinese easing continued. US shares gained 0.2%, Eurozone shares rose 2.5%, Japanese shares rose 2.7% and Chinese shares surged 8.1%. Australian shares [...]

Investment markets and key developments over the past week While the bond sell off initially continued into the last week it showed signs of stabilising with yields falling later in the week and this helped shares a bit. In fact, while Eurozone shares fell 1.2%, US shares rose 0.3% to a new record closing high, Australian and Japanese shares both rose 1.8% and Chinese shares rose 2.4%. Meanwhile, the $US continued to fall on some soft US data and this saw [...]