s&p 500

Records fell last week with both the Dow Jones and S&P 500 reaching all-time highs amid a furious rotation into ‘value’ stocks. The record week came on the back of the successful passing of the US Government’s US$1.9 trillion stimulus bill supporting all range of beneficiaries from airlines to state governments and individuals in the…

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….

With the onset of COVID-19 and the lockdowns that followed, the move to digital accelerated, becoming a shift of necessity rather than choice. The move occurred almost seamlessly. Bricks-and-mortar retailers shifted online, triggering a move to digital with buy-now, pay-later (BNPL) vendors popping up offering solutions to replace physical cash. This is just one example…

The time seems right to review my investment strategy calls of 2020 and put forward some ideas on the most important action to take before the year comes to a close. In general, the big calls have delivered, particularly the decision to hedge any overseas exposure, with the A$ staging a remarkable rally on the…

With 2020 behind us, the first year of the pandemic is now history, but recent headlines suggest it is far from over. The virus continues to spread, intermittent lockdowns have become the norm and Australia will soon roll up its sleeves after securing 53.8m doses of the AstraZeneca and 10m doses of the Pfizer vaccines….

Stock market volatility is arguably one of the most misunderstood concepts in investing, especially for new investors trying to dip their toes in.  Put simply, stock market volatility is a term used to describe fluctuations in the market, which may refer to factors like stock prices, the volume of trading or the amount of investors participating…

The Dow Jones was the latest index to join the all-time high club in 2020, breaching 30,000 points this week. Despite being owned by Standard & Poor’s the index is regularly seen as the poorer cousin of the S&P 500 or tech focused Nasdaq Composite. Why is that the case? Despite being around since 1896…

In a year of pandemic-forced lockdowns, record high government spending, lower corporate earnings and zero growth in interest rates, asking for a high dividend is a little Oliver Twist-like: “Please Sir, I want some more.” Even the most reliable of “reliable” dividend-paying companies ditched or lowered their dividend payouts because it simply wasn’t feasible to…

Platinum Asset Management’s recently released September quarter update wasn’t pretty. The long-term value manager has been left behind by surging growth stocks, with recent underperformance placing pressure on fund flows. In 2020, over half the group’s funds have underperformed their relevant benchmarks but continue to benefit from longevity in the form of strong longer-term returns….

The sound was deafening. It was the early stages of an unexpected global pandemic that had sent the entire world into meltdown. Both the short- and long-term impacts remained uncertain, the only certainty was that the movement of people around the world had ground to a complete halt: the worst-case scenario for investors in the…