A Finsec View – New inflation numbers, World’s most intimidating asset class, Hero to zero and more
18th November 2022 It's been a long time coming, but underlying US inflation finally appears to be easing. More on this in our market update below. One factor that will influence future inflation is demographics. This week, the world reached a milestone, with the global population officially hitting 8 billion. Australia has played its small part. New figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) show life expectancy in Australia actually increased during the COVID-19 pandemic (one of the few countries). From 2019-2021, life expectancy for both men [...]
Weekly Market Update – 11th November 2022
Investment markets and key developments Global shares surged over the last week helped by lower than expected US inflation for October, which is seen as taking pressure off the Fed and ultimately other central banks including the RBA (as US inflation led inflation in other countries including Australia on the way up). For the week US shares rose 5.9%, Eurozone shares rose 4.8%, Japanese shares gained 3.9% and Chinese shares rose 0.6% (helped by more signs of an easing in Covid rules). The positive global [...]
Weekly Market Update – 4th November 2022
Investment markets and key developments over the past week Shares saw another week of big swings, particularly with the Fed signalling that the peak in interest rates may be higher than previously expected. This saw US shares fall 3.3% for the week, but Eurozone shares rose 1.6% and Japanese shares rose 0.3%. Chinese shares rose 6.4% helped by talk of a relaxation in China’s zero Covid policy. Despite the poor global lead Australian shares managed to rise by 1.6% for the week helped by a somewhat [...]
A Finsec View – What investors, retirees, downsizers and SMSFs need to know about the budget
4th November 2022 In a macro sense, last week's Federal Budget was incredibly modest. Looking at the spending packages as a proportion of GDP they came in at just 0.1%. Really it was just about delivering on the election promises. In the context of previous budgets, in May 2022 spending initiatives came in at 1.7% of GDP, in 2021 during covid they were 4.1% of GDP and in 2020 5.5% of GDP - Even pre-covid the numbers were far larger. The reason of course for [...]
Weekly Market Update – 28th October 2022
Investment markets and key developments over the past week Sharemarkets continued to rally this week across most countries with Australia up 1.6%, (all sectors rose except consumer staples, energy and materials), US +3.9% (with all sectors up except tech communications) thanks to solid earnings results, Japan +0.8%, Eurozone +3.9% but China was weaker with shares down 5.4% as investors took the National Party Congress as a negative sign for Chinese growth prospects both from an economic and political point of view. Global yields moved down on [...]
A Finsec View – Q4 Themes, Super Cap Whispers, Yr12 Economics, Cyber Security Month and More.
21st October 2022 If you could talk to a younger version of yourself, what advice would you give? Wear more sunscreen, drink more water, make better money choices? As it turns out, professional investors are also not immune to the odd moment of "if only I had ...". This week, the AFR spoke to nine professionals about the lessons they'd teach their past selves, given the chance. The insights include recognising that volatility doesn't last forever and that the future is unknowable, no matter how much [...]
A Finsec View – Inflation and rates – how much more?, Subjective value, The bigger picture and More.
7th October 2022 How financially smart do you think you think Australians are? Be honest. In a finance quiz by think tank The Conexus Institute in June, less than half of the 1040 respondents got all six questions correct. How best to arm Australians with more financial knowledge is a pertinent question, especially as Treasury considers how to expand access to and improve the quality of financial advice. Even more so when you consider rising interest rates and the effect on millions of homeowners and [...]
Weekly Market Update – 7th October 2022
Investment markets & key developments Share markets had a strong bounce in the middle of the past week from very oversold levels, helped along by the UK tax backflip, softer US manufacturing and job opening data which may take pressure off the US Federal Reserve (Fed), and for Australian shares, the dovish hike from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). However, the bounce was short lived, with solid US jobs data being seen as keeping the Fed hawkish for now, so US and European shares [...]