A FinSec View – Fear, Aspiring prosperity, Markets and more
14th July 2023 Fear drives many facets of our lives. In her book "Fear Less", Dr Pippa Grange, a renowned psychologist who works extensively with elite athletes and sports teams (including the Australian Olympic team), highlights the pervasive role fear has in our lives. She argues that fear is often what holds us back from fulfilment and true success, and the ability to recognise and diminish its influence can lead to a transformative change. According to Grange, there are two types of fear: 'in-the-moment' fear [...]
Weekly Market Update – 7th July 2023
Investment markets and key developments Global share markets fell sharply over the last week on concerns that stronger than expected US economic data will result in higher for longer interest rates not helped by somewhat hawkish US Fed meeting minutes. Despite a weaker than feared rise in US payrolls US shares still fell further on Friday as wages growth was stronger than expected leaving the US share market down 1.2% for the week. For the week Eurozone shares fell 3.2%, Japanese shares fell 2.4% and Chinese [...]
Weekly Market Update – 30th June 2023
Investment markets and key developments Global share markets mostly rose over the last week supported by resilient economic data in the US, lower inflation readings and nothing new from central banks. For the week US shares rose 2.3%, Eurozone shares rose 2.8% and Japanese shares gained 1.2%, but Chinese shares fell 0.6%. Reflecting the positive global lead along with lower-than-expected monthly Australian inflation data the Australian share market rose 1.5% over the last week with gains led by IT, property, consumer discretionary and energy shares. Bond [...]
A FinSec View – Mid-year market & investment outlook, Foreign investment in Australia, 1559 times per day, Age pension changes and more
30th June 2023 An article by business columnist Robert Gottliebsen published in the Australian yesterday, summarised beautifully recent discussions we at FinSec have been having around inflation and interest rates - so much so the comment “did we write this?” was made. It is a conundrum that lies in the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) ability to use conventional interest rate mechanisms to bring inflation below the four per cent mark. While we briefly touched upon this subject in our last missive, we believe it [...]
Weekly Market Update – 23rd June 2023
Investment markets and key developmentsGlobal share markets fell over the last week with renewed concerns about central bank rate hikes triggering global recession and a slump in profits, not helped by falls in surveys of business conditions. For the week US shares fell 1.4%, Eurozone shares fell 3.1%, Japanese shares fell 2.7% and Chinese shares lost 2.5%. Reflecting the weak global lead along with ongoing RBA hawkishness and concerns about Chinese growth, Australian shares fell 2.1% with falls led by IT, resources, consumer discretionary and industrial stocks. [...]
A FinSec View – SuperConcepts Update, Juxtaposition, Bill Shock, ChatGPT & The View and More
16th June 2023 Earlier this week, the Albanese government released its first response to the Quality of Advice Review (QAR), an independent review commissioned by the previous government (led by Michelle Levy) with the goal of simplifying the laws governing financial advice. It has accepted 14 of the review's recommendations "in full or in principle" but left the door open on eight more. As a financial advice firm, we have been very hopeful about the results of this review, but we will spare you every [...]
Weekly Market Update – 9th June 2023
Investment markets and key developments The US S&P500 was up again over the week, rising by 0.4% (and is up by 12% since January) and the tech-heavy NASDAQ was 0.1% higher and this also follows a massive rally over recent weeks (with the NASDAQ up by 27% since the beginning of the year). Australian shares were down 0.3% over the week and are only up by 1.1% over the year, underperforming the US because of weakness in financials and energy (which have a larger weighing in [...]
Weekly Market Update – 2nd June 2023
Investment markets and key developments Global share markets were mixed over the last week with uncertainty about the US debt ceiling and interest rates along with worries about the Chinese recovery, but a strong boost to some US tech stocks from strong AI related demand. After a solid gain on Thursday and Friday on the back of AI enthusiasm and confidence that a debt ceiling deal will be reached US shares rose 0.3% for the week. The Japanese share market continued its resurgence rising another 0.4%. However, [...]