Real estate sentiment at 44-year low

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Consumer Confidence Consumer confidence: The Westpac/Melbourne Institute survey of consumer sentiment rose by 2.5 per cent to a 4-month high of 97.9 in September. The confidence index is down 4.4... Read more continue reading

Australia no longer the cheapest: CommSec iPad/iPhone indexes

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Economic trends Is the Aussie dollar too strong? According to CommSec iPhone index Australia is now the 25th cheapest country in the world (of 57 nations) to buy an Apple iPhone... Read more continue reading

Weekly market update – week ending 8 September, 2017

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Investment markets and key developments over the past week Share markets mostly fell over the last week as worries around North Korea continue, combining with concern about the impact of... Read more continue reading

Dividend bonanza: $26 billion to be paid out

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Economic and Financial market perspectives Cash payouts: Since the start of the financial year companies have paid out around $4 billion in dividends to shareholders. But dividend payouts really start to... Read more continue reading

Record expansion moves into 27th year

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National accounts Record expansion: The economy grew by 0.8 per cent in the June quarter after rising by 0.3 per cent in the March quarter. Annual economic growth held at... Read more continue reading

Record vehicle sales; Record rural exports

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Government Finance; Balance of Payments; Consumer Sentiment; Car sales Current Account: The broadest measure of the trade accounts – the current account – deteriorated in the June quarter (bigger deficit), with... Read more continue reading

How Harvey could impact the US muni bond market

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Craig Brandon, Co-Director of Municipal Investments at Eaton Vance, a leading global asset manager, notes that “the US muni market has held up well so far amid devastating floods in the... Read more continue reading

Weekly market update – week ending 1 September, 2017

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Investment markets and key developments over the past week Share markets were impacted earlier in the week by the latest North Korean provocation but generally bounced back. This left them... Read more continue reading

Confidence spikes: Now back above ‘average’

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Consumer sentiment; New home sales Consumer confidence: The weekly ANZ/Roy Morgan consumer confidence rating rose by 3.9 per cent, lifting from a near 12-month low of 109.2 to 113.5 in... Read more continue reading

Earnings season: Good, but not great

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Corporate Profit Reporting Season (preliminary figures) Each ‘earnings season’ or ‘profit-reporting season’ CommSec tracks all the earnings results of ASX 200 companies to obtain a comprehensive picture of the aggregate... Read more continue reading