Opinion

China is at it again, this time announcing grand plans to become the world’s first country to launch its own digital currency. But the thing is, China is not the first. To date, Ecuador, Senegal, Singapore and Tunisia have already issued their own cryptocurrencies. Estonia, Japan, Palestine, Russia and Sweden are next on the launchpad,…

Wesfarmers (ASX: WES) – Dubbed one of the big sectoral “COVID winners,” consumer staples stocks had an easy path through the pandemic and its forced lockdowns. While businesses across the country were forced to shut up shop, grocery chains, supermarkets and a few essential retailers were given the all-clear to remain open, but with conditions….

Plenty of companies assert that “innovation” is their guiding principle, but Melbourne-based Hydrix Limited takes it more literally than most.  Four years ago, when it arrived on the ASX through a merger with the listed Panorama Synergy, Hydrix was a product engineering consultancy that designed and developed prototypes for clients from around the world, from…

From a sudden coronavirus collapse, the Aussie housing market is back. Headline figures are showing a surprising recovery that puts the housing market back in “bubble” territory. According to property research firm CoreLogic, Australian home values posted their fastest monthly growth in 32 years, increasing 2.8 per cent in March, reigniting bubble concerns. The coronavirus-recovery…

As the industry fund sector embarks on what will be a busy and decade shaping year, Rainmaker’s recent release of its latest batch of AAA-rated super funds couldn’t be more timely. The research house seeks to assess the quality of 692 products issued by 178 superannuation funds including both industry (or so-called ‘not for profit’)…

Morningstar’s Australian and New Zealand stock analysts have upgraded a2 Milk, a New Zealand-based ASX-listed dairy success story of recent years, to a five-star rating. A dip in price over the past month has made the stock a better buy. a2 Milk has both a geopolitical and a corporate political challenge to weather at the…

ASX investors are very well-used to the SaaS, or “software as a service” business model, under which customers pay to use software hosted on a remote computer – in the “cloud” – rather than buying a software licence and installing it on their physical computers. Under the SaaS model, customers subscribe to a software product…

The Australian exchange-traded fund (ETF) sector has seen stellar growth in recent years: after finishing 2020 at $94 billion, it likely surpassed $100 billion in assets under management in early 2021. As is the case for many aspects of financial markets, the structure, opportunities and purpose of these funds seem lost on the army of…

Despite another week of solid economic and market announcements, the outlook for the economy and more importantly asset markets remain as uncertain as ever. On the one hand, Australian unemployment falling back below 6% should be seen as an emphatic show of strength, supporting a risk on view towards sharemarkets. Yet the threat of an…

Listed fintech RAIZ Invest (ASX: RZI) this week announced they had ‘established the process to allow SMSFs to invest’ in their diverse range of ETF model and Custom Portfolios. The announcement flags an acceleration of the $665 million platforms growth strategy as it continues to disrupt the Australian investment landscape. RAIZ has traditionally focused on…

February in the rear-view mirror – bonds, corrections and inflation The Australian economy has emerged from the pandemic almost unscathed, with the economy growing 3.1% in the December quarter, among the fastest in the developed world. For the full year, the economy contracted by just 1.1%, with China one of the few countries recovering faster….

Almost overnight when COVID-19 hit, Australian businesses switched to a cashless world to conduct business transactions and accept payments that would otherwise have been completed using physical cash. The switch to cashless – or rather, the rapid acceleration of what had been a slow trend – occurred out of necessity rather than choice. As the pandemic swept through, health…