The FinSec View

End of March Market Update Both Australian and US markets finished the month up by 1.8% and 4.4% respectively. March also tied off an eventful yet positive quarter for both markets which saw the All Ordinaries rise 3.6% and the S&P 500 rise 6.2%. March saw bond yields continue their steady rise which caused a mild sell-off in some of the most popular tech names during the quarter and a rotation into value stocks. The financials, energy and consumer [...]

Due to a glitch in our system, Friday's customary view comes to you a weekend late. For those in South Australia, we trust you enjoyed a relaxing and restful long weekend. In the spirit of International Women's Day (yesterday), we take a moment to acknowledge and celebrate the work, spirit and resilience of all the women in the FinSec community. It's rare that there is so much focus on bond yields and inflation, and it's mainly due to their potential impact on [...]

Issue: Friday 19 February 2021 Last week was GameStop; this week, it's Bitcoin with some similar themes - waves of money, speculation and a movement behind it. Thanks mainly to a tweet from Elon Musk, Bitcoin has risen more than 30% in just over a week and is currently sitting just above $US50,000. Tesla's explanation for their $1.5 billion plunge into the cryptocurrency - it had updated its investment policy to provide it with more flexibility to diversify and to [...]

Issue: Friday 5 February 2021 Welcome 2021 Traumatic events have a habit of etching themselves in our mind. We can remember where we were and what we were doing even if it was from thousands of miles away and we didn't have anything to do with it personally. For different generations this will mean different things. The GFC, the 9/11 bombings, Princess Diana's crash, JFK's assassination and so on but, for all of us 2020 will be one of those [...]

Issue: Friday 18 December 2020 In the words of Bob Dylan "Doesn't expecting the unexpected make the unexpected expected?" But what we weren't expecting... A pandemic on a global scale; Masks and social distancing our new normal; Children home-schooled; Borders closed; All gatherings and celebrations cancelled; The fastest bear market in history Businesses told to operate virtually or not at all; Almost 200 of the largest public companies in the US reaching zombie status; and Central banks the heroes, [...]

Issue: Friday 04 December 2020   The recession is officially over Adding to a year of wildly fluctuating data, figures released on Wednesday show the Australian economy grew by 3.3% in the July-September quarter. It's the largest quarterly increase since 1976 and comes after a 7% contraction in the April to June quarter, the largest quarterly fall on record. The growth spurt was powered by a rise in household consumption growing by 7.9%, the largest rise in the 60-year [...]

Issue: Friday 20 November 2020 It is hard not to be proud of the pragmatic and stoic way South Australians have responded to the state's hard lock-down. Perhaps not quite as much pride in the circumstances surrounding today's announcements and why we are now in a position to lift restrictions three days early... Regardless, we must count ourselves lucky, a few days is a far cry from the months our Melbourne friends and families endured. Only three confirmed cases [...]

US ELECTION SPECIAL EDITION: Friday 06 November 2020 A close race, but it would seem Joe Biden has it. Yet, with millions of votes still to be tabulated and Trump now calling for counting to stop, exactly when a winner will be declared, is still unclear. What is clear, is that this time it really seems to matter. With non-compulsory voting in the US, the historical challenge has always been to convince people to make the effort. Not this [...]