The latest on Brexit and Italy Europe has once again become a source of concern for investors this year, with Brexit and Italy’s new populist government the latest causes of volatility amid fears they could threaten the European Union. But investors need to put those concerns around Italy and Brexit in context. In 2016, a non-compulsory referendum of the British people voted in favour of leaving the EU. Britain is now in the process …
Weekly Market Update 21 September 2018 Investment markets and key developments over the past week The past week saw “risk on” with the latest escalation in the US/China trade conflict being less than feared and reports that China is planning cuts to its import tariffs. This saw shares rally, bond yields rise, commodity prices gain, the US dollar fall and the Australian dollar rise. While the Australian share market participated in the global share market …
Weekly Market Update 14 September 2018 Investment markets and key developments over the past week The past week saw most share markets rise helped by good economic data, talk of another round of US/China trade talks and a bounce in emerging market shares after Turkey raised interest rates. However, while US, Eurozone and Japanese shares saw strong gains, Australian shares only rose marginally, and Chinese shares remained under pressure. Bond yields mostly rose. Commodity prices …
Weekly Market Update 7 September 2018 Investment markets and key developments over the past week The past week saw share markets fall on the back of worries around emerging markets, trade wars and the potential regulation of US social media stocks. After being resilient to global threats over the last few months Australian shares also got hit and fell 3.1% to their lowest since June. Bond yields were generally little changed although they fell in Italy. …
Five things you need to know about the Australian economy Key points The Australian economy grew solidly over the last year. While recession remains very unlikely, the combination of a slowing housing cycle, constraints on consumer spending and still subdued business investment will likely see growth slow going forward to around 2.5-3%. As a result, spare capacity is likely to remain significant, keeping wages growth and inflation low. We don’t expect the …
Weekly Market Update 31 August 2018 Investment markets and key developments over the past week The past week saw most share markets rise helped by US shares pushing further into record territory, but gains were capped by ongoing turmoil in the emerging world (notably Argentina and Turkey) and nervousness ahead of the next round of US tariffs on imports from China. Australian shares also rebounded after being hit by the previous week’s political turmoil. Bond yields …
Weekly Market Update 24 August 2018 Investment markets and key developments over the past week The past week saw most global share markets rise as Turkey slipped out of the headlines, but Australian shares were hit by political uncertainty. Bond yields fell a bit in the US and Australia, were unchanged in Japan and were up a bit in Germany. Oil and metal prices rose but the iron ore price slipped. While the US dollar slipped …
Weekly Market Update 17 August 2018 Investment markets and key developments over the past week Share markets had a bit of a messy ride over the last week – first falling on worries about Turkey and then bouncing back to varying degrees on news of new US/China trade talks. This saw Australian and US shares up, Japanese shares flat but Eurozone and Chinese shares down. Bond yields were little changed although they are back above …
Weekly Market Update 10 August 2018 Investment markets and key developments over the past week Share markets mostly rose over the last week as economic and profit news was mostly favourable and there was nothing really new on the trade war front. Bond yields generally fell slightly but there wasn’t a lot in it. Commodity prices were mixed with oil down, metals flat to up a bit and iron ore up. The $US pushed higher and …
Weekly Market Update 3 August 2018 Investment markets and key developments over the past week US shares rose 0.8% over the last week, helped by strong earnings results, a bounce back in tech stocks and another“Goldilocks” jobs report. However, Eurozone shares fell 1.1%, Japanese shares lost 0.8%, Chinese shares fell 5.9% and Australian shares lost 1% as trade war fears continue to escalate. Despite this, bond yields were flat to up. Iron ore prices rose but …
