Once again, the expectation of lower interest rates was enough to drive stocks higher today, with comments from the RBA that implies rates were more likely to go down than up from here…"Given the amount of spare capacity in the labour market and the economy more broadly, members agreed that... Show More
Europe is growing at trend again, after last year’s disappointing weakness. This was, though, largely due to a series of one-off factors which are estimated to have negatively impacted GDP growth by up to 1%. These included: low Rhine River levels (which restricted the ability of barges to move goods)... Show More
There was a brief period when “Faded (Where are we now)” topped the charts recently and we thought it would be an apt title for this week’s blog. Late last year, our Head of Macro and Risk did an excellent piece looking at how markets behave once the Federal Reserve goes... Show More
The Reserve Bank has been doing some stargazing lately. Not the kind that sit high in the sky but rather the kind that help it determine how tight or how loose monetary policy is. The bank's conclusion from this latest analysis is that the neutral setting of monetary policy has... Show More
Australian residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) provide a source of highly rated assets with consistent income generation. Two questions immediately come to mind when looking at them: how risky are they and how they should be priced? As will be discussed, RMBS are often maligned as being riskier than facts would... Show More
The only thing Aussies love more than sport ... is a punt on the sport. Or just punting in general for that matter. Gambling is a very common Australian pastime and many profitable Australian businesses have emerged as a result. Just ask Aristocrat (ASX:ALL) or Ainsworth (ASX:AGI) with their slot... Show More
After being told how well the trade negotiations between China and the US had been progressing, financial markets were shocked when Trump ordered additional tariffs against China after a complete breakdown in negotiations. Further to this, Trump also threatened additional tariffs against Mexico for purely political reasons around immigration, further... Show More
Select Harvest (ASX:SHV) is an Australian-based grower, processor and marketer of almonds and almond-based value-added products. The business owns and leases over 7,500 hectares of almond orchards across New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia and has two processing facilities located in Victoria. SHV has been held in the Perpetual Equity... Show More
The 1980s saw the emergence of Apple and Microsoft as major global technology players. It was PC versus Mac; Steve Jobs versus Bill Gates. Fast forward to today and Microsoft is the world's largest company with a market value of just over US$ 1 trillion. Apple is not far behind,... Show More
A fairly lacklustre Monday across the board with the banks/utilities offsetting some weakness amongst the material stocks + the telcos were weak as a sector thanks to the pulled VOC bid from AGL. Seems something smells with VOC that each potential acquirer works out pretty quickly when they enter the... Show More
