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Difficult (ie negative) market conditions continue to persist. At the time of writing, the ASX 200 is down 10.95% for the year. Before you get overly concerned, this particular index doesn’t include dividends, which always generate a positive return of approximately 4.5% (excluding franking credits). S&P/ASX 200 Index - 1 yr movement to 18 October
There’s no avoiding the fact that it has been a difficult few months for investment markets. The Australian share market, as measured by the ASX200 is down 10.6% since this year’s peak back on the 21st of April. S&P/ASX 200 Index - 6 mth movement to 28 July 2022 Source: Bloomberg Markets Likewise,
As shown in the chart below, the Australian share market has recovered to its previous high-water mark which was back in August last year. This in spite of the significant falls in January (caused by inflation fears) and in late February (caused by Putin’s invasion of Ukraine). S&P/ASX 200 Index - 1 year movement to
On Tuesday 29 March 2022, with the next federal election looming, the Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg delivered his fourth Federal Budget. This Budget is focused on providing relief from increasing cost of living pressures and continuing to support the economy in the context of ongoing geopolitical pressures. Superannuation No changes to super or contributions There were
In the process of writing our February newsletter, Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine and, as a postscript to that newsletter, we provided evidence that staying invested (ie not panicking) was the best course of action. In the three and a bit, weeks since that newsletter came out, we’ve seen the horrific consequences of the
Late last year, when Harvest was thinking about factors that would drive the investment landscape in 2022, four key themes emerged. Just quickly they were: Monetary & Fiscal Policy (reduced Quantitative Easing and increased Government spending)Inflation (inflation now looking to be more systemic than transitory)Interest rates (now clear the US Federal Reserve will increase US
As you can see from the chart below, the Australian Share market (as measured by the ASX200 Index) peaked back on the 13th of August. Since that time, the market has shown increased volatility (ie more extreme day to day movements) and more or less tracked sideways but with a bit of a downward trend.
Although share markets in the developed world have recovered in recent days (see Chart below), the falls that occurred in the previous few weeks all have a single point of origin: China! Source: Bloomberg Markets The first reason for this is the Government mandated reduction in steel production. This flows on to to
Interest rate announcement - September 2021The RBA last changed the cash rate in November last year, reducing it to an unprecedented low of 0.1%. This was an unprecedented move from the RBA which reveals that, while the economy has begun to bounce back, the path to full recovery from impacts of COVID-19 is likely
Back in our March newsletter we discussed rapidly rising bond yields and how, traditionally, this is seen as a strong signal of imminent inflation. Some commentators at the time also expressed concern that rising bond yields would cause equity markets to fall (this is based on the fact that the discount rate used to
