Market Update

Investment markets and key developments Middle East oil crisis averted so oil down but shares up to near record highs. While the past week started with uncertainty as to how Iran would retaliate against the US strike against its nuclear facilities, things quickly settled down after Iran’s retaliation was seen as merely symbolic and aimed at de-escalation which quickly saw President Trump verbally impose a ceasefire between Israel and Iran. This saw the oil price plunge below levels seen before [...]

Investment markets and key developments I don’t think that a quiet week in markets exists anymore. While there were no specific changes to US tariff rates this week (yay, I was getting sick of updating our tariff chart), Trump and his team never fail to produce material for us to digest. The TACO (Trump Always Chickens Out) trade continued (which basically implies Trump just uses tariffs to negotiate so don’t take them too seriously), with shares up this week despite [...]

Investment markets and key developments Shares were mixed over the past week. Despite the Trump administration talking up trade deals US shares fell slightly, but Eurozone shares rose slightly, and Japanese and Chinese shares saw strong gains. Given the mixed messages Australian shares fell around 0.1% with strong gains in utilities and IT shares offset by falls in health and finance shares. Bond yields were also mixed – up in the US, Japan and Australia but down in Europe. Oil [...]

Investment markets and key developments After a relatively quiet start to the week, news on US auto tariffs has unnerved markets. Prior to this, the US share market had rallied 5% from its mid-March bottom (after having declined by 10% from its high). Over the week, US shares have still managed to rise by 0.5% (so far) with all sectors up except for tech, health and utilities. Australian shares are also up by 0.5% with financials and energy higher, consumer [...]

Investment markets and key developments Global share markets mostly rebounded over the last week from oversold conditions helped by an absence of new tariff comments from Trump and as the Fed helped calm recession and inflation fears. While US, European and Japanese shares rose Chinese shares fell though partly due to disappointing stimulus announcements. The absence of new tariff announcements saw the Australian share market bounce around 2% over the last week from oversold conditions with gains led by supermarkets [...]

Investment markets and key developments While US shares rose slightly over the last week making a new record high gains were tempered by concerns about consumer spending. Meanwhile shares fell in Europe, Japan, and China. And Australian shares saw a sharp fall of around 3% on the back of disappointing earnings news particularly from the banks and resources companies and cautious RBA comments on the outlook for further interest rate cuts. The falls were led by financials, resources, and retail [...]

Investment markets and key developments Global shares rose over the last week helped by hopes that Trump’s tariffs won’t be as bad as feared following more delays to their start up along with strong US earnings. For the week US shares rose 1.5%. Eurozone shares rose 2.9%, also getting a boost from perceptions that US-Russia Ukraine talks may be good for Europe in the short term (even though it might be more concerning for Ukraine and Europe in the medium [...]

Investment markets and key developments The week was dominated by ongoing announcements from the Trump administration. After only being in office for 2½ weeks Trump and his team have been busy making changes (not including legislation which requires votes from the House and Senate) and appear much more coordinated compared to 2017. This week’s changes included everything from tariffs (more on that below), Elon Musk’s D.O.G.E department shedding Federal workers, a dismantling in USAID and Trumps plans for the US [...]

Investment markets and key developments Global shares were mixed over the last week. US shares fell 1% as tech shares fell on the back of the rise of DeepSeek’s AI app and a less dovish Fed and Trump’s tariff vows weighed. Japanese shares fell 0.9%, but Eurozone shares rose 1.3% to a record high helped by a dovish rate cut from the ECB. Australian shares also surged to a record high on the back of expectations for a February rate [...]

Investment markets and key developments Shares mostly rose over the last week helped by lower-than-expected underlying inflation in the =US which boosted confidence that the Fed was still on track to continue cutting interest rates this year. Japanese shares were the exception reflecting the increasing likelihood that the Bank of Japan will raise rates in the week ahead. The positive global lead also helped boost the Australian share market which is on track for a rise of around 0.3% for the [...]