Intel

The Russia-Ukraine war has seemingly moved from the headlines in most of the developed world, with most attention now being paid to the challenge of a jump in the cost of living and the impact of higher interest rates on repayments and property prices. Yet, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has and will continue to have…

Several economists are now expecting the central bank will raise interest rates next week given a jump in inflation to a 21-year high of 5.1%, which would be the first rise in interest rates during an election campaign since November 2007, and coming ahead of several forecast rate rises in the second half of 2022. …

Following on from the Banking Royal Commission of 2017-18, the growing popularity of boutique independent financial advisers has grown consistently, with clients seeing value in advisers that are building strong personal relationships and providing a consistent high-quality service to their clients. Boutique advisory firms typically have a niche area of expertise where they can differentiate…

Evergreen Ratings has given the OurCrowd 50 Fund a “Commended” rating, highlighting the fund’s strong team of venture capital specialists. Evergreen Ratings is a subsidiary of Evergreen Consultants, and is a leading research house specialising in the analysis of higher-risk specialist wholesale funds. Heading up the OurCrowd team is successful venture capitalist Jonathan Medved, who…

Since Covid-19, Australia’s relationship with China has all but soured, with trade relations between the two countries grinding to a halt, except for iron ore. And yes, a sad state of affairs indeed. Many Australian companies with business operations in or exporting to China were hit hard. But as the old adage goes, “as one…

“Where are all the women?”. A memorable moment at the 2016 Fund Manager of the Year awards took place when Dame Quentin Bryce, the former Governor-General, turned to a leading female portfolio manager and asked, “where are all the women?” That was eight years ago. Fast-forward to today, and the industry is worth more than…

Reimagining portfolios for tomorrow’s reality Increasing inflation volatility represents the greatest challenge to investors for a generation. A new regime and the collapse of the financial market status quo requires us to reimagine portfolios. No longer can we rely on yesterday’s logic. “Inflation is the endgame. Just brace for inflation volatility first.” Do we still…

With reporting season now upon us, it’s that time of year again when ASX-listed companies begin sending in their earnings results for the December half-year of 2021 (for some, who use the calendar year as their financial year, it’s full-year result time.) Market analysts and broking houses are expecting results to be a bit of…

“Optimism and opportunity” are the best way to describe the outlook for the Australian equity market in 2022 according to Reece Birtles, of Martin Currie. In his role as chief investment oficer, reading the broader themes is as important as assessing the underlying portfolio companies. As the headlines in the financial press remain fixated on…

That nasty word keeps popping up. Stagflation. And it’s a worrying sign of things to come. Expectations for future price increases have suddenly gone from ‘transitory’ to ‘temporary’ after a rise in Australian government bond yields had the RBA scrapping its ‘yield curve control’ policy which looked to peg 2024 government yields at 0.1%. Expectations…

Post-pandemic, the global economic recovery has been effective, buoyed by strong government stimulus, both fiscal and monetary. While most of the world suffered limited scarring, many of the policy choices that were made will have an enduring impact, according to JP Morgan. The group presented its 2022 Long-Term Capital Market Assumptions (LTCMAs) which gave a…

It was a busy week for the now three-year-old Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). Among the most important institutions in the financial advisery sector, the external dispute resolution body deals with complaints against most parts of the financial and investment sectors in Australia. A pre-determined review of the operations of the group found that it…