Australian Investment Blog

Three markets we are currently watching very closely On the surface, markets feel very quiet with US stocks only 0.8%, below their all-time high and the S&P500 noticeably moving less than 0.5% for 9 consecutive days. The ASX200 remains around the 5400 area, where it has treaded water for the last 5 weeks and it currently feels like the end of financial year (EOFY) may become a non-event for our local stocks. With the BREXIT vote looming in 2 weeks and the market keen to see whether last week's poor US unemployment data was a once off, it’s easy to predict a few more weeks of relative calm for stock markets. However its often during these very periods of market consolidation / relative inactivity that large moves commence, just after complacency sets in and stocks move earlier than expected in anticipation of future good or bad news. We are watching three markets closely at present that may determine our next investment decisions. We are currently holding ~36% in cash, we regard this large holding as comparatively aggressive to when we went 97% fully invested in stocks near the lows of 2016, but we are prepared to go higher into cash if circumstances dictate. ASX200 Weekly Chart