News

The US$10 trillion-plus exchange-traded funds market offers low-cost access to diversified investment opportunities, and Australian investors are capitalising, making A$10 billion in returns over the past year.

With inflation, interest rate hikes and other economic stress weighing heavily on Australian households, key recent data show consumer sentiment approaching new lows while overall spending continues to climb.

The continuation of an economic world built on linear consumption, LGT Crestone’s Rachel Etherington says, will further burgeoning social and economic issues that threaten to destabilize the global system.

The world’s second-largest economy remains handicapped by zero-COVID policies, hampering iron ore demand. Sean Sequeira, Australian Eagle Asset Management chief investment officer, discusses the longer-term outlook amid increasing inflation pressures.

Analysts say Macquarie Group, which posted a $2.3 billion half-year profit and an 11 per cent increase in net operating income, can continue to grow its performance fees revenue and profits even if share and bond markets fall.

The financial services minister is looking at tackling scammers at the source: “Does our barista down the corner really need my email address, my bank details, my name and my mobile phone number just to buy a cup of coffee?”

Senior secured loans act as an important inflationary hedge in times of rising inflation according to Invesco’s chief investment officer.

The Australian Taxation Office’s recent annual report shows a growing gap between collectable and collected tax figures, prompting the agency to go after delinquencies as the post-pandemic economic recovery continues.

ETFs have revolutionised the investing universe for many good reasons. But ultimately ETFs are just like stocks – there are the good, the bad and the ugly.

Jan Anton van Zanten, SDG strategist at Robeco, speaks with The Inside Investor about the asset manager’s new SDG scoring framework aimed at measuring companies’ sustainability impacts.

Moving to a sustainable investment portfolio can reduce an individual’s carbon emissions by 90 per cent, research from Stockspot has shown.

Commonwealth Bank-owned brokerage platform CommSec and former CBA subsidiary AUSIEX have been hit with $27 million in fines for violating ASIC’s market integrity rules, in the largest-ever penalty handed down for such breaches.