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Quarterly Investment updates

December 2023

Global share markets delivered strong gains as market expectations about the future trajectory of interest rates changed markedly over the quarter. While the consensus view in the September quarter was for interest rates to remain ‘higher for longer’, the focus over the last three months was on the potential for the US Federal Reserve to successfully engineer a ‘soft-landing’ for the US economy (i.e. inflation coming back under control without unduly impacting the wider economy). Increased hopes for this goldilocks scenario, which is vastly more preferable than the economy slumping into recession, saw share prices surge.

Download December 2023 Update

September 2023

In some welcome news, the world economy is showing signs of resilience this year despite lingering inflation and a sluggish recovery in China. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) released its latest World Economic Outlook in July, where they noted this resilience is increasing the odds that a global recession may be avoided.

Download September 2023 Update

June 2023

As the grey clouds gather for winter,  it's pleasing to report the sun is still shining on portfolios. Don’t fall for the rise in disinformation and scams. Just about every week, a financial regulator somewhere is alerting people to this issue. Unfortunately, the perpetrators are becoming increasingly sophisticated. In New Zealand, the Financial Markets Authority says about 20% of the population has been targeted by investment scams.

Download June 2023 Update

December 2022

If you needed any reminder that investment markets  are forward looking, then the last quarter of 2022 provided the perfect example.

Download December 2022 Update

September 2022

The global economy has been buffeted by multiple challenges in 2022 and it is fast shaping as a year not many will remember fondly. During the drawn-out lockdowns and upheaval that accompanied the peaks of Covid-19, the world collectively pined for a seamless post-Covid recovery. The reality, however, has been rather bumpy.

Amidst a backdrop of sharply increasing inflation, tight labour markets, rapidly rising interest rates, and ongoing uncertainties surrounding both the war in Ukraine and the lingering pandemic, the global economy has stutter-stepped its way through 2022.

Download September 2022 Update

June 2022

Whether you own a TV or radio, read a newspaper, or get your news online, it’s a fairly safe bet that the bulk of the economic news you are receiving at the moment sounds fairly gloomy. Even if we could ignore the news, which is often more noisy than informative, we can’t easily ignore that the price of food, petrol and many other essential goods have been rising sharply in recent months, putting pressure on household budgets.

Download June 2022 Update

December 2021

The fourth quarter of 2021 rounded out another year when developed share markets posted strong returns, despite ongoing uncertainties relating to global supply chains, inflation, interest rates and, of course, emerging variants of Covid-19.

However, markets tend to look ahead. As a result, they weren’t distracted by this ‘noise’, and were instead driven much more by supportive economic and financial data such as positive economic growth, low interest rates and good corporate earnings.

Download December 2021 Update

September 2021

While it’s human nature to enjoy seeing the value of your investment portfolio increasing quickly, it’s also not reasonable for us to expect large gains each quarter.

In fact, if markets ever get too far ahead of themselves, it could increase the chances of a future correction. In that context, a small positive return can sometimes be more reassuring than a large one.

Following the extended strong bounce- back from the Covid-19 market crash in March 2020, the recent quarter represented both a consolidation of those prior gains and an opportunity for the market to digest new information.

And what a considerable amount of new information there was to digest.

Download September 2021 Update

June 2021

It still seems extraordinary that something we knew virtually nothing about just 18 months ago, has so utterly dominated global news, our feelings of economic and personal wellbeing, and the normal
functioning of our daily lives, ever since.

While individual countries have been wrestling with various approaches to Covid-19 suppression or elimination, an emerging international theme in recent weeks has been a move towards Stage 5 – Acceptance. This theme, propelled by rapidly advancing vaccination programmes internationally, marks another important step on the global road to recovery.

Download June 2021 Update

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