Weekly market & economic update – week ending 23 May, 2014

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Investment markets and key developments over the past week Most share markets managed to rise over the last week, but the lack of momentum seen all year remains a feature. In some ways it seems that after the strong gains in global and Australian shares last year, they are now undergoing a bit of a

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26 May 2014

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Weekly market & economic update – week ending 14 February, 2014

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 Investment markets and key developments over the past week Shares rose over the past week thanks to a combination of soothing comments from Janet Yellen, good Chinese trade data, talk of more easing in Europe and, in Australia, good earnings results & soaring dividends. Emerging market worries seem to be fading a bit. Growth optimism

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17 Feb 2014

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Weekly market & economic update – week ending 6 September

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Key events of the past week and implications While share markets mostly rose over the past week helped by a delay to action regarding Syria and on the back of more evidence that the global economy is improving, gains were limited as bond yields rose sharply as stronger US data fuelled expectations that the Fed

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09 Sep 2013

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Weekly market & economic update: Week ending August 30

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Key events of the past week and implications Share markets had another volatile week with concerns about a strike on Syria weighing on confidence, and emerging market assets, particularly currencies, coming under significant pressure. The concern in the run up to any US led military involvement in the Middle East is that it will lead

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02 Sep 2013

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Oliver’s Insights: another mid year bout of weakness in shares?

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This edition of Oliver’s Insights looks at the outlook for shares following recent wobbles. The key points are as follows: After strong gains shares are at risk of a correction as we move into a seasonally weaker period of the year and given ongoing risks in Europe, a possible soft patch in US economic data

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12 Apr 2013

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A new bull market in shares?

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After recent strong gains, shares are overbought and vulnerable to a correction. February is often a soft month with risks regarding Italy, Spain, the US budget and earnings results in Australia. However, the pattern of rising highs and lows since late 2011, reasonable valuations, improving global economic news and easy monetary conditions suggests shares have

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08 Feb 2013

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The Santa Claus effect

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Is there a Santa Claus effect? CommSec has always been sceptical about research showing whether there is a ‘right’ time to be buying shares. But we decided to re-visit the data, dissecting monthly figures on the sharemarket over the past 70 years to assess whether there are consistent trends on ‘good’ and ‘bad’ times to

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11 Dec 2012

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Darkest before the dawn

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Is the recent pick-up in several major stock markets more than just another short-lived rally? The latest headlines are not often the best indicator of the direction of the market, as investors look to the future while economic statistics focus on the rear view mirror. They can tell different stories at the same time. Dominic

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12 Sep 2012

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Shares & the long term – how long is long?

A few weeks ago after producing a graph showing shares outperform cash and bonds over the long term I was asked a question along the lines “if shares outperform other asset classes over the long term how come over the last decade equity dominated balanced funds (which returned 4.5% pa) have underperformed cash (which returned

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07 Nov 2011

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The best performing shares over the past 20 years

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In these current uncertain times, investors are opting to leave more of their funds in cash rather than shares. However the fact remains that shares have out-performed all asset classes over the past 20 years. Since October 1991 total returns on Aussie shares have grown by 433 per cent or 22 per cent per annum.

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11 Oct 2011

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