Tuesday’s market highlight came before the opening, when diversified miner BHP reported a bumper half-year result. Strong commodity prices – in particular, record iron ore and coking (steelmaking) coal prices, and buoyant copper prices – enabled BHP to pay a record interim dividend for the third straight year. Revenue rose by 27%, to US$30.5 billion ($42.7 billion), while underlying…
The Australian sharemarket pushed higher on Monday, led by the resources stocks, as petroleum producers gained on fears of an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine and gold miners rose on the back of gold’s traditional role as a safe-haven asset in times of geo-political stress. The S&P/ASX 200 Index rose 26.6 points, or 0.4%, to 7243.9 points,…
A promising February on the Australian ran into a roadblock on Friday, with the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index surrendering 71.2 points on the day, or 1.0 per cent, to 7217.3 points. While that was the biggest loss in more than two weeks, the index was still up 1.4% for the week, in its second straight rising week. Ten…
The proliferation of data and information has done little to improve the outcomes for self-directed investors. With information on almost any issue and a social media system built to reinforce our own beliefs or views in many cases, making sound investment decisions has never been harder. As an experienced financial adviser, I like to think…
After a bruising 6.4% loss in January, the Australian share market is trying to pick up the pieces, with Thursday being its sixth positive session in eight trading days so far in February, and a third straight gain. The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 index gained 20.2 points, or 0.3 per cent, to 7,288, while the broader All Ordinaries also closed about 0.3 per cent…
The S&P/ASX200 continued a recent strong run gaining another 1.1% on Wednesday with Commonwealth Bank (ASX: CBA) a key contributor. The financial and technology sector are seeing strong support as earnings season steps up another gear, they gained 2.6 and 4.2% respectively. In an about-face from recent weeks, the energy and material sectors underperformed after BHP (ASX: BHP) fell due to another warning…
The S&P/ASX200 recovered the ground lost on Monday, increasing 1.1% on Tuesday as the iron ore price showed no signs of slowing down. Having oscillated between a new commodity supercycle and a bear market, a resumption of steel production supported a 2.2% jump in the materials sector and 3.7% for BHP Group (ASX: BHP). Every other sector was higher barring technology, which fell…
The S&P/ASX200 managed a solid fightback during the session falling as much as 1% at the open but finishing down just 0.1% for the day. There were only three sectors higher, being energy, materials and technology gaining 1.6, 0.8 and 0.6% respectively, whilst the healthcare and real estate sectors both fell 1.3%. Among the largest drags on the market, today was ANZ Banking Group (ASX: ANZ)…
The S&P/ASX200 looked beyond the sharp selloff in technology stocks overnight to post a 0.6% gain on Friday. The result was broad-based with almost every sector higher, with materials, energy and technology all finishing over 1% in the black. This came despite Meta’s massive selloff in the US session. Boral (ASX: BLD) shares fell 41.8%, representing the amount of the capital return and special…
Global fixed-income manager PIMCO delivered a reasonably positive outlook for the global economy in its 2021 Q4 Cyclical Outlook report, titled ‘Investing in a fast-moving cycle’. On the back of the robust global recovery in 2021, PIMCO remains convinced that the long-term outlook will be more uncertain and volatile, with ‘cycles becoming shorter in duration,…
