Investing

After a punishing innings for her flagship ETF, ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood thinks investors need to stop living in the 70s. This time next year the Fed will be “running in the opposite direction” and deflation will dominate the market, she says.

For the right investor, investment bonds can provide a seriously beneficial after-tax return according to Foresters Financial chief executive Emma Sakellaris.

As the economy tilts toward recession, portfolio analysts are turning towards sectors and companies that handle cloudy conditions better than most. Healthcare, energy, consumer staples and utilities come into focus, while cyclical sector companies lose favour.

True to form, US stocks are outperforming Aussie shares on the back of a resurgence in technology-related company valuations. Economists warn against straying from diversification, however, with Aussie miners still offering investors capital returns on top of an underlying hedge against a US downturn.

The ATO’s review of income tax returns show nine in 10 rental property owners are getting their return wrong. Property expense claims, as well as SMSF returns and crypto transactions, are all on the radar this year.

Stakeholders have welcomed a recommendation from the Senate Economics Legislative Committee that the government review its controversial plan to limit franking credits stemming from capital raisings and share buybacks.

The benchmark S&P 500 index is characterised by “narrow, concentrated leadership” by a handful of mega-caps, leading to the “optical illusion” of outsized performance by US equities, says private investment manager Neuberger Berman.

The recent re-embrace of active equity management by Australia’s sovereign wealth fund may herald a shift in the active-versus-passive debate, industry leaders said, as market volatility prompts greater dispersion and allows active management – at the right price – to prove its worth.

For the world to meet climate targets, the supply of battery-grade lithium will have to ramp up greatly, prompting expectations that the price will keep rising for years to come. And Australian companies with proven lithium deposits could do well as M&A in the sector stays hot, analysts say.

With a successful and orderly energy transition “far from guaranteed”, disruptive themes are set to profoundly affect financial markets for years to come, the asset manager said in a new report. Investors should act – and potentially reallocate – accordingly.

The surge in passive investment options in recent years, along with a record of underperformance by active managers, has pushed the ongoing active-versus-passive debate to the fore. Proponents of both styles agree, though, that how each approach performs in volatility will be the key question in 2023.

Although more Australian companies are paying dividends in 2023, many have reduced payouts, with the year-to-date total slightly behind 2022’s figures, according to CommSec research. The big miners are leading the cuts, while energy producers are lifting dividends to reflect record high gas prices.