What Matters Today in Markets: Listen Here each morning
The ASX200 was hit hard yesterday morning following a disappointing earnings result from National Australia Bank (NAB) which sent the stock down -6.4% dragging both the sector and index along for the ride – remember one of MM’s favourite old sayings is the market (ASX) can’t go up without the banks. However, it wasn’t all bad news on Thursday as the broad market recovered strongly from the weak opening to erase over 90% of the early losses led by gains in the Resources, Tech and Real Estate Sectors i.e. investors switched as opposed to outright selling stocks.
Equities look and feel nervous as they start trading through the seasonally weak “sell in May & go away” period plus there are numerous macro headwinds to unsettle investors including hawkish central banks, ongoing unease in the US regional banking sector, a potential recession on the horizon and of course the “mortgage cliff” looming in Australia. Our Growth & Income portfolios are already positioned defensively and at the moment it feels too early to increase risk across either but never say never as quality stocks fall away:
- Flagship Growth Portfolio: We hold 11% in cash, 8% in gold plus 13% in healthcare stocks.
- Active Income Portfolio: We hold 7% in cash and 33% in fixed income/hybrids.
Following another weak session on Wall Street the SPI Futures are pointing to a -0.35% dip this morning with a 50c fall by BHP in the US suggesting support by the miners won’t be forthcoming today.
- No change, we are sticking to our “buy weakness and sell strength” mantra for 2023 but we remain comfortable adopting a defensive stance at the moment.
