Economic Update

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Australia’s strong job market

From Craig James - Chief Economist - CommSec

Labour force Employment rose for the 33rd time in 34 months, up by 41,100 jobs in July after a revised 2,400 fall in jobs in June (previously reported as an increase of 500 jobs). Full-time jobs rose by 34,500 with part-time jobs up by 6,700. Economists had tipped an increase in total jobs of around […]

16 Aug 2019

Fastest Victorian annual wages growth in 5½ years; Consumer views on home purchases hits 5½-year high

From Craig James - Chief Economist - CommSec

Wage Price Index; Consumer confidence Wages: The wage price index rose by 0.6 per cent in the June quarter (consensus: +0.5 per cent). Annual wages growth was steady at 2.3 per cent – near 4½ year highs. Public sector wages were up by 0.8 per cent in the June quarter – the biggest increase in […]

15 Aug 2019

Insight Multi-Asset weekly update: Interest rate cuts overshadowed by ongoing US-China trade war

From Insight Investment

Market and economic review This week’s economic data overshadowed by trade war concerns While the primary driver of risk assets last week has been the escalation in US-China trade tensions, key economic data did play some part in moving the market. The US non-manufacturing ISM fell to its lowest level since August 2016. Chinese exports […]

13 Aug 2019

Weekly market outlook – week ending 9 August, 2019

From Shane Oliver - AMP Capital

Investment markets and key developments over the past week The past week saw a roller coaster ride in share markets with sharp falls after China responded to Trump’s latest tariffs by letting the Renminbi fall in value and ordering state owned enterprises to halt agricultural imports from the US and the US responded by labelling […]

12 Aug 2019

Insight multi-asset weekly update: US-China trade concerns returned to the fore, affecting risk sentiment

From Insight Investment

Market and economic review US-China trade concerns returned to the fore and weighed on risk sentiment last week. Equity markets fell 2-6% over the week following the unexpected announcement of additional tariffs on Chinese exports into the US on Thursday. Unsurprisingly, returns from Chinese and eurozone equities were notably weaker over the period while sterling […]

07 Aug 2019

Property Listings Declined in July 2019

From SQM Research

Figures released yesterday by SQM Research reveal national residential property listings continued to decline in July by 2.8%, to 316,391 from 325,404 in June 2019. Compared to 12 months ago, listings were up by 0.7%. All states experienced a decline in property sales listings over the month, with Sydney experiencing the highest decline at 7.6% […]

07 Aug 2019

Australian Fixed Income outlook- Domestic economy gets a kick start but global trade a risk

From Legg Mason Global Asset Management

Domestic Investment Opportunities – credit still a focus Western Asset, a leading fixed income investment manager affiliate of Legg Mason, in its recent midyear market outlook notes: “Trade negotiations have caused a substantial drag on sentiment, particularly over the past year. This has been feeding into softer trade figures and economic data, particularly manufacturing data, […]

07 Aug 2019

Weekly market update – week ending 2 August, 2019

From Shane Oliver - AMP Capital

Investment markets and key developments over the past week It was back to “risk off” over the last week as the resumption of the US/China trade war, a less dovish than expected Fed and mixed economic data pushed global share markets down. The Australian ASX 200 followed the All Ords index to a new record […]

05 Aug 2019

Takeaways for the loan market after the Fed cut

From Eaton Vance

The U.S. Federal Reserve (Fed) has cut its policy rate for the first time in more than a decade, marking just the fourth time over the past 20 years that the Fed has pivoted from raising to lowering rates. Boston – based Craig P. Russ, Co-Director of Floating-Rate Loans and Christopher Remington, Institutional Portfolio Manager at […]

02 Aug 2019

Australian shares hit record highs – is the decade long underperformance versus global shares over?

From Shane Oliver - AMP Capital

Key points The long time taken for Australian shares to regain their 2007 high and their underperformance compared to global shares this decade reflects a combination of payback after their strong performance last decade, tighter monetary policy, the strong $A into 2011, the slump in commodity prices and property crash phobia. High dividend payouts are […]

31 Jul 2019