Today I write about an interview this week with one of Australia's most successful and innovative funds management pioneers, Magellan's Hamish Douglass, who says he would have no issue with ASIC applying the Future of Financial Advice (FOFA) laws to the burgeoning listed investment company/trust (LIC or LIT) space to... Show More
Excerpt from my column in the AFR today in which I speculate ANZ will halve its workforce, move to a mostly branchless business model, and introduce a revolution in the form of risk-based product pricing that will offer every customer unique interest rates (click on that link to read free... Show More
ANZ has unveiled a first-half cash profit of about $3.4 billion, just below analyst expectations of a $3.5 billion profit. Show More
In The AFR I reveal that Australian house prices have jumped another 0.8% over September and by 2.7% in the September quarter, which is north of an 11% annualised pace in an embarrassing contradiction of the RBA's claims that its May and August rate cuts had not stimulated "a new... Show More
Every investor wants capital and dividend growth, but it’s easy to forget about risk. So far this reporting season, right or wrong earlier calls about risk are making all the difference to investor returns. Amongst the medium to large companies of interest to most investors, some large shifts in risk... Show More
Macro outlook: Low growth and low interest rates remain the key risks for financial stocks as global economies move from one disaster to another. The turnaround big banks offer better value in low growth outlook as they have relatively lower housing exposure and trade at a discount. Preferred picks are... Show More
Macro outlook: Global markets are expected to start the chase yield as macro risks start to subside. We continue to like globally diversified business models while small cap industrials remains the key preferred sector/size category on growth and yield to value basis. Bank sector is likely to be the main... Show More
I have published a brief analysis in the AFR of ANZ's decision to appoint Michelle Jablko as CFO and the ensuing controversy surrounding Angus Aitken's remarks on this subject. Excerpt: "Stockbroker Angus Aitken's comments were not remotely sexist...The suggestion is arguably scandalous. On any objective reading, there is not one... Show More
ANZ has broken ranks and signed up to Apple Pay but there’s a good chance the others won’t anytime soon. Show More
Tom Piotrowski speaks with CommSec Advisory’s Blair Hannon about earnings results out this week from Westpac, NAB, ANZ and Macquarie Group FOR MORE MARKET NEWS, VISIT https://www.commsec.com.au/market-news/the-markets.html Show More
ANZ’s results this morning were disappointing on a number of fronts. The headline profit drop of 24% versus the same period last year looks substantially worse than it is, with the new CEO “kitchen sinking” $717 million of one-off items including capitalised software write downs, impairments on equity stakes in... Show More
Aussie market started negative and went further negative on global investor selling before pulling back to slight negative on resource sector strength. Westpac lead the banking sector on the update season and it wasn’t pretty. The risk of falling currency and bad debt risk drove global investors to hammer the... Show More
Aussie market started weak and finished weak after showing some life in the middle of the day. Overnight market was giddy about the potential deal to freeze oil production at sky levels by the two main producers, but clarity soon prevailed and the deal need to see cuts and needs... Show More
Leading into the earnings reporting season, a lot of analysts are questioning whether AUS companies will hold their dividend yields... Credit Suisse has come out with the report recently that the dividend yield (DY) strategy has not been working in the last couple of years. We believe this is usually... Show More
In The AFR I review ANZ's decision to belatedly pull-back from Asia (I've been calling for this since 2009); offer hard-hitting new CEO Shayne Elliott gratis advice to ape Macquarie's decision-making and remuneration models; highlight---tongue-in-cheek---the fact that contrary to the popular myth of Aussie banking exceptionalism, 7 of the last... Show More
ANZ has announced that it has signed an agreement with Google for ANZ customers to be able to upload their credit and debit accounts to Android Pay. This will allow customers to use ANZ accounts to make contactless payments for goods and services. The major banks have resisted the pressure... Show More
Good Afternoon, Show More
The markets continue in their current state of uncertainty with few participants wanting to take significant overnight or new investment risk. The fading of our market yesterday and the US markets (although to a much lesser degree) overnight illustrates this risk aversion. Show More
Good Morning, Show More
ANZ’s capital raising shows how important pricing of assets is in these difficult markets. Everyone is at risk of misreading prices and values! Investors, shareholders, boards and indeed investment banks need to have a basis for assessing value because market prices are being shown to be volatile and illusory. Investors... Show More