COVID-19

Markets continue to fall, travel stocks hit as Sydney faces lockdown, Costa enters trading halt The ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) finished 0.6% lower on Wednesday despite a strong overseas lead, with news of the extended Sydney travel restrictions impacting travel and consumer stocks. Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) fell 0.3%, Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT) by 3.4%, and Corporate Travel…

Bank rally not enough, Westpac hike dividend, job ads continue to surprise The ASX200 (ASX:XJO) rose just three points to begin the week, with a powerful day from the financials sector (+1.4%) which represents some 30% of the index not enough to overcome broader weakness. Energy and materials continue to detract amid signs that inflation is being…

ASX200 0.4% higher, quiet day of news, Fortescue (ASX:FMG), Zip Co (ASX:Z1P) among the strongest The ASX200 (ASX:XJO) finished 0.4% higher on very light volume with most participants clearly opting for a long weekend. The consumer and IT sectors continued to outperform behind the likes of Zip Co (ASX:Z1P) and Kogan (ASX:KGN), which finished 2.6% and 3.8% higher respectively. Despite the…

ASX falls 0.8%, retail in the spotlight, China’s economic miracle, QBE gets slammed The ASX200 (ASX:XJO) started the week on a negative footing, falling 0.8%. The discretionary retail (0.2%) and IT (0.5%) sectors were the only highlights but weren’t sufficient to offset a fall in the materials sector (-1.9%). It was the normal culprits pushing the market…

Winning streak hits seven weeks, A2 Milk (ASX:A2M) and Mesoblast (ASX:MSB) battered The ASX200 (ASX:XJO) managed to overcome a 1.2% fall to cap off the seventh straight week of gains, adding 0.5%. The IT sector continued to lead the way behind Afterpay (ASX:APT), finishing 5.9% higher, whilst energy lost 2.4% as the US economy appeared to weaken. The biggest…

It seems like National Australia Bank Ltd (ASX: NAB) is recovering from the impacts of COVID-19. Are NAB shares a buy for dividends? What has the NAB share price been doing? The NAB share price is still down 16.5% from where it was before the COVID-19 decline. But it has gone up 23% since the start of November and…

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….

One of the stocks most hammered by the COVID correction in February-March was Qantas, which plummeted from $6.67 to $2.14, a fall of 68%, as the effect of the pandemic on air travel began to sink-in to the market. Like most of its peers, Qantas found itself in “the most challenging period in its long…

And just like that, pharmaceutical behemoth Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) seemingly comes through with the goods, announcing a 90% effective COVID-19 vaccine. Global markets rejoiced, punching the air in delight screaming ‘pandemic over’. First Joe Biden is elected, the US rejoices in happiness, and now this. It could not get any better. As Bob Marley would say,…

The last few months have been an IPO bonanza for investors after a flurry of small-cap tech companies listed on the ASX at a most opportune time. A recovery rally, together with a COVID-19 inspired move to digital, saw both the tech and healthcare sectors boom. Simple logic would tell you, that listing during a…