If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a chart is worth a million of them. So we asked the experts to isolate the charts you need to be watching right now. Read on to see 5 charts that Australia’s investment experts never take off their screens, and to... Show More
The fed is now unwinding the biggest monetary experiment in history, which saw $3.6 trillion of asset purchases from the Fed between 2008 and 2015. This is unknown territory, so when we sat down with Charlie Jamieson, CIO at Jamieson Coote Bonds we took the chance to get his perspective. Show More
Sometimes it seems like there’s nowhere to hide. Equity investors were smacked in the face over the month of October, with waves of selling hitting sharemarkets from Sydney to Shanghai and London to New York. Something like $7 trillion was wiped off the value of global sharemarkets. Tighter financial conditions,... Show More
As expected (by me and pretty much everyone else) the Fed held interest rates unchanged and announced that it would commence its balance sheet normalization plan in October. The balance sheet normalization plan involves gradually ceasing reinvestment of principal from maturing bonds, and will result in a passive/automatic run-down... Show More
Quantitative Easing (QE) is the term used to describe artificial purchasing of bonds by central banks globally. The aim has been to suppress interest rates and stimulate ‘normal’ economic activity in the aftermath of the GFC. Show More
The latest FOMC meeting included the release of plans for balance sheet normalisation or a transition from QE to QT . Show More
When the US Federal Reserve (“the Fed”) Chair announced the much anticipated increase in the Federal Funds or cash rate on 15 March, she noted that the Fed intended to maintain the size of its balance sheet through this calender year. In other words the Fed would, for at least... Show More
The first half of FY2017 has certainly delivered some unexpected outcomes - Donald Trump's election as the 45th President of the United States and the following positive market reaction stunned the world. Amidst the resulting volatility in bond and equity markets lies a wealth of opportunity for those who care... Show More
The FTSE 100 share index is now up 30% over five years, while earnings have fallen by 80%. On an earnings yield of 1.6%, the stock market could fall by 80% and, provided profits did not fall, would be on a 13x P/E multiple. The Bank of England is proud... Show More
They will call it something else but “helicopter money” is coming. With interest rate cutting and quantitative easing reaching the limits of their effectiveness, central banks are pressed to come up with new tricks. If this does in fact come to fruition, there will need to be a number of... Show More
Janet Yellen has some of the fastest feet in the West. As she danced her jig around the topics of Fed Funds rates and future monetary policy 'toolkits', a lot was said without actually saying very much at all. Her speech did little more than demonstrate an inept set of... Show More
Currency wars, increased market uncertainty and pending foreign election outcomes may see an adoption of more unconventional economic monetary policy in Australia. We believe investors need to take a conservative approach to portfolio construction, with a greater spread of assets and heightened awareness of risk in the bond market. Show More
Balanced funds are reporting positive (all be it small) returns for '15/'16 in the wake of a poorly performing Australian stock market. This therefore suggests that those positive returns were generated elsewhere. We attempt to breakdown those figures to identify which asset classes actually delivered. http://www.clime.com.au/investing-report-archive/balanced-funds-returns/ Show More
Nobody wants a recession but sometimes recessions can be better than the alternative policies which not only destroy incentive structures but also create wrong price signalling, which in fact creates more mayhem as production reacts to misleading signalling, and ultimately leads to governments becoming even more involved in the economy.... Show More
When central banks want to help economies grow, they take actions such as reducing the interest rates they charge on loans to banks or, more recently, buying assets. In theory, both of these will add to the funds in circulation and encourage economic activity. The lower rates are, and the... Show More
Quantitative easing came out of Fisher’s work on business cycles in 1935. For him, what created the depression was the cycle of over-indebtedness allied to overcapacity, which ensured when prices declined, loans could only be repaid by assets being sold off. The debt paid back made the debt still owing... Show More
In our view, the current risk pricing environment for high-quality assets is quite extraordinary in a historical context. Pricing for sovereign credit, high quality corporate and financial credit and other high-quality defensive assets is at, or near, record highs at present. The pricing of high-quality assets reflects the prevailing environment... Show More
Good Afternoon, Show More
This week the Bank of Japan decided to continue with its QE program. “Governor Haruhiko Kuroda and his colleagues continue to put on a brave face and act as if everything is going according to plan; but it’s not”, says Max McKegg, MD of Technical Research. The BOJ’s outlook showed... Show More
The ECB is poised to step in and buy rotten Greek debt off the financial system to stop contagion. We believe that the fairly stable response from markets on Monday (Europe) and Tuesday (Australia) indicate that markets have been too pessimistic regarding Greece. The ECB will unleash the full force... Show More