Weekly Market Update 3 August 2018

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 …

Weekly Market Update 13 July 2018

Weekly Market Update 13 July 2018  Investment markets and key developments over the past week There was plenty of volatility this week as equities initially got hit following more detail from the US around additional tariffs on Chinese imports. The announcement actually contained nothing new, as Trump said in late June that the US would look to impose an additional 10% tariff on $200 billion of Chinese imports if China was to retaliate against US trade tariffs (which …

Econosights – Should we worry about emerging markets?

Econosights – Should we worry about emerging markets? Key Points Emerging market equities have performed poorly since the beginning of the year. More recently, trade tensions between the US and China, a rising US dollar and issues in individual emerging market economies have hit emerging markets. The last emerging market downturn was in 2015 on the back of Chinese growth concerns, a devaluation in the Chinese Yuan and Fed interest rate hike fears. Emerging market …

Weekly Market Update 6 July 2018

  Weekly Market Update 6 July 2018 Investment markets and key developments over the past week Trade war fears continued to cause nervousness over the last week, weighing on Chinese, Japanese and Asian shares generally but US and Eurozone shares rose partly on hopes for a resolution but also helped by good data and Australian shares also pushed higher helped by a rebound in Telstra. Bond yields were generally flat to down excepting in Italy where …

Weekly Market Update 29 June 2018

Weekly Market Update 29 June 2018  Investment markets and key developments over the past week The past week saw geopolitical concerns around trade, and particularly the US-China relationship, continue to dominate investment markets. This saw most share markets fall, with the Chinese share market falling particularly sharply, but the Australian share market held up pretty well with higher oil prices boosting energy stocks. Bond yields continued to fall on the back of safe haven demand, except …

Weekly Market Update 22 June 2018

Weekly Market Update 22 June 2018 Investment markets and key developments over the past week The past week saw geopolitics continue to cause gyrations in markets with political tensions around immigration in Germany and Trump upping the ante on trade with China. This saw most major share markets fall, particularly in Europe and China and at the same time emerging markets remained under pressure not helped by the rising $US fuelling fears about a dollar …

Weekly Market Update 15 June 2018

Weekly Market Update 15 June 2018 Investment markets and key developments over the past week The past week saw most share markets gain as strong US data more than offset worries about a more hawkish Fed and tariffs, the ECB remained dovish, Italian risks receded a bit and the US-North Korean summit was seen as successful. Chinese shares were not helped by soft economic data but gains in global shares generally and lower bond yields helped …

How are Australia’s states and territories tracking?

How are Australia’s states and territories tracking? An end to the fall in mining investment is helping to stabilise growth in Australia’s mining states and territories (WA, Qld and NT to a lesser extent) while a slowing housing sector is starting to act as a drag on NSW and Vic. Tas is benefitting from a lift in population growth and housing “refugee” demand from Sydney and Melbourne. Growth in SA and the ACT has been …

Weekly Market Update 8 June 2018

Weekly Market Update 8 June 2018 Investment markets and key developments over the past week The past week saw share markets rebound as investors refocussed a bit away from the geopolitical soap operas back to favourable underlying global growth. This saw major share markets rebound, although Eurozone shares were constrained by ongoing weakness in Italian shares, and bond yields rise which was accentuated by indications that the ECB is getting closer to phasing out its …

China’s economy is pretty stable – but what about high debt levels and other risks?

China’s economy is pretty stable – but what about high debt levels and other risks? Introduction It seems there is constant hand wringing about the risks around the Chinese economy with the common concerns being around unbalanced growth, debt, the property market, the exchange rate and capital flows and a “hard landing”. This angst is understandable to some degree. Rapid growth as China has seen brings questions about its sustainability. And China is now the …