What drove markets in November? Markets delivered an early Christmas surprise with November’s market performance delivering one of the best months of the entire year. The ASX 200 Index posted a whopping +9.96% gain while the Small Ords rallied +10.20%. In the US, it was a similar story with the S&P 500 Index posting its…
Australia-China relations took another turn for the worse following China’s refusal to apologise for posting a controversial image. This grotesque illustration depicts a ‘photoshopped’ Australian soldier holding an Afghan child’s throat. The image was shared on social media by a spokesperson for the Chinese Foreign Ministry after proof was found that 39 civilians and prisoners…
It has been an incredibly busy few months for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in general, with news this week that fund manager Pendal Ltd (ASX: PDL) had established positions in the currency. This follows a number of high-profile hedge fund managers including Stanley Druckenmiller and Paul Tudor Jones confessing their own allocations. Given the currency is…
With the onset of COVID-19 and the lockdowns that followed, the move to digitisation became one of necessity rather than choice. Traditional bricks-and-mortar retailers shifted online, triggering a frenzy of buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) vendors offering solutions to eventually replace physical cash. And quietly working in the background is the backbone supporting this transition: 5G. In…
A big-spending budget focused on improving regional Victoria, health, housing, education, and transport infrastructure but at the same time pushing debt to eye-watering levels during a recession were the main hallmarks of the Andrews Government’s state budget. To sum it up, it is a Budget tilted towards rebuilding the state economy from the ground up….
This year’s Sohn Hearts & Minds Conference, an annual one-day event that brings the finance and investment community together, saw a select group of fund managers fund manager share their best stock idea for the year ahead. This year’s recurring theme without doubt was COVID-19. But grief and tragedy aside, COVID-19 has forced us to…
In a year of pandemic-forced lockdowns, record high government spending, lower corporate earnings and zero growth in interest rates, asking for a high dividend is a little Oliver Twist-like: “Please Sir, I want some more.” Even the most reliable of “reliable” dividend-paying companies ditched or lowered their dividend payouts because it simply wasn’t feasible to…
Australia is facing yet another round of export bans after Chinese authorities knocked back tonnes of lobsters, timber from Queensland and barley from a second grain grower. Without warning, paid goods that had arrived at ports were sent back in what is known as a ‘soft ban’ that falls outside of current trade agreements. Authorities…
It is never a good feeling seeing the value of your shares tumble uncontrollably. Even worse is doing nothing about it until it is all but too late. This sometimes arrives in the blink of an eye; sometimes it’s a gradual process, almost unnoticeable. Even in a rising market, there is always a basket of…
Part of the “financial wellness” app category, WeMoney is a must-have for those that are bad with their money or anyone, for that matter, who is looking to streamline and manage multiple bank accounts. Founder Dan Joveski is a former banker at NAB and has experience with start-ups after launching a company called SwitchMyLoan, which…
