s&p 500

While active management can provide pockets of outperformance both here and globally, research from S&P Global suggests maintaining above-benchmark returns is difficult to maintain.

There is a hidden bifurcation in the S&P 500 that retail investors may not be seeing, but it has private investment manager Neuberger Berman showing a degree of caution.

With inflation running at its highest level in decades and the global economy getting hotter than anticipated, investors are wondering what to do. Bonds offer slim returns. As inflation has jolted higher, and central banks keep interest rates low, the real returns on bonds in rich countries have hovered below zero.    Shares seem little…

Conversations on investment matters are wide-ranging. Many enjoy the ethereal world of big picture debates. Identifying these in the long run has been critical, but only a handful matter. Interest rates are the perennial, though rarely has the consensus been right. Over much of the past decade the expectation has been that rates will inevitably…

As investors start to look past the pandemic, the economic cost and scarring from Covid-19 has been significant. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) says “unlike the 2008 crisis, emerging markets and developing economies are expected to suffer more scarring than advanced economies”. In the same way that the US and Australia were able to provide…

The first quarter of 2021 saw renewed confidence in global equity markets supported by positive developments in the fight against coronavirus together with better-than-expected economic data. Fiscal stimulus and vaccine rollout have far exceeded expectations causing equity markets to overcome bouts of volatility. The Dow Jones and S&P 500 indices hit new all-time highs. The…

Superannuation research house Chant West, part of the Zenith Investment Consulting group, this week published their quarterly performance update on the industry fund sector. Despite the volatility experienced in March, which spanned both bond and equity markets, returns continue to surprise on the upside in March. Chant West’s research seeks to differentiate between the, at…

The persistent era of disruptive services has its counterpart in companies considered ripe for extinction. History, however, suggests one should not be quite so fast in judging. The advent of affordable motor vehicles (and of course, other factors such as urbanisation) resulted in the waning of mail-order catalogues and the rise in the department stores,…

In an imaginary world, being a hedge fund investor called Seth Klarman with a fund called Baupost would be fun, based purely on unusual names, but also on the longevity of his loyal followers. In the past week, this ‘renowned’ (there are a few after all) investor noted that the concept of risk has vanished…

The time seems right to review my investment strategy calls of 2020 and put forward some ideas on the most important action to take before the year comes to a close. In general, the big calls have delivered, particularly the decision to hedge any overseas exposure, with the AUD staging a remarkable rally on the…