Opinion

Despite the NSW, Victorian and South Australian lockdowns and protests that followed, the Australian share market is hitting record highs, and moving from strength to strength. Corporates are cashed-up and are poised to deliver a dividends bonanza, starting from the big miners to the banks. Buybacks and special dividends will be a key theme as…

The sell-off in Chinese equities has garnered all the headlines this week, as President Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) extended their regulatory crackdown. Among the hardest hit this week was the country’s booming home tutoring and private education services sector, with the likes of TAL Education (NYSE: TAL) falling as much as…

Trying to make a share price estimate of Westpac Banking Corp (ASX: WBC)? In this short article, we’ll take a look at the company through the lens of a good analyst. Westpac is the second-largest ‘Big Four’ bank, and a financial services provider, headquartered in Sydney. Alongside CommBank, ANZ and NAB, Westpac finances homeowners, investors, individuals (via…

When you think smartphones, almost everyone associates the sector with Apple’s ubiquitous iPhone. That is apart from those rare people who prefer the Android platform or are converts to the more flexible range of Samsung handsets. Based on the US$1 trillion ($1.37 trillion) market capitalisation of Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), one simply assumes that it dominates…

Start-up hopeful TechLend is disrupting the lending market by offering homebuyers interest-free, paperless, bridging loans with same-day pre-approval. Having dubbed itself as the “Afterpay of home loans,” challenges lie ahead in the company’s mission to deliver for customers. The business is the brainchild of Aaron Bassin and mortgage broker Nick Jacobs, who had become frustrated…

In its latest report, Morningstar has revealed its analysts’ economic outlook as well as top stock picks across 11 industry sectors. Published as part of the Quarterly Morningstar Australia and New Zealand Equity Market Outlook Q3 2021 report, the research firm has a number of strong positions. To sum it up, analysts found the broader…

For the first time in quite a while, Australia’s national telecommunications giant Telstra (ASX:TLS) looks to have turned a corner. Last week, the telco’s share price popped by 5.15%, and TLS is looking better and better every day. The stock has been quietly recovering, rising 27% in the year to date.  The recent rise came…

“I am unable to think of any critical, complex human activity that could be safely reduced to a simple, summary equation”.  Jerome Powell, Chairman of the US Federal Reserve This quote seems apt given the three months that has just passed. Whether in terms of the impact of the pandemic, government and central bank responses,…

Leading investment bank JP Morgan this month released an article titled ‘Are commodities still a good inflation hedge amid decarbonization’. The piece, penned by Kerry Craig, Ian Hui and Gareth Lam, offers a detailed analysis of what may be one of the most popular ‘reflation’ trades occurring at the present time. One would struggle to…

As highlighted in this article the Listed Investment Company sector has become a major focus of fund managers and investors alike in recent months. Last week, Magellan announced that they will be converting their Magellan High Conviction Fund (ASX:MHH) into an active Exchange Traded Fund or ETMF. This comes shortly after the long-standing Monash Absolute…

After an impressive rise in 2020, tech stocks have been hit by selling pressure so far this year. One tech sector that has defied the recent trend is robotics and automation. The ETFS ROBO Global Robotics and Automation ETF (ROBO) is up more than 4.9% in the first five months of the year, after rising…

Melbourne just endured its second busiest auction weekend of the year with auction clearance rates hitting 75.9% up from 71.5% even as supply increased with 1,414 homes going under the hammer. Australian house prices have usurped their previous highs. Despite the slow vaccine rollout, and dire economic predictions, a positive message is ringing true: “Australia…