Archives: Reports
A soft session for the ASX to round off a volatile week for equities, a mixture of macro uncertainty around interest rates and a pullback in commodity prices, coupled with a bunch of results/trading updates that were a mixed bag at best.
US stocks endured a tough day at the office overnight, with the Real Estate and Utilities faring the worst after the Fed minutes saw investors reduce bets for rate cuts into 2025. Also, we saw firm economic data, which compounded the nervousness post Fed with Services and Manufacturing data printing strongly. Nvidia (NVDA US) soared after delivering a solid earnings beat, but it wasn’t enough to turn around the concerns arising from the Fed Minutes – note that the stock is to undergo a 10-1 split; hence, it won’t be trading above $US1,000 for long!
A big pullback in commodities overnight cast a shadow over the ASX early – the market off ~84pts at its low, however, some aggressive buying of the dip more than cut that loss in half, the index only mildly lower by the close.
Cutting losses defines a portfolio’s performance as much as picking winners; hence, this morning, we revisited the 3 stocks in our Active Growth Portfolio that are in the worst shape on paper. Taking a loss is never fun, but it’s all part of investing and an area that many seem to struggle with. We’ve gotten better at it over the years and approach the decision with very little emotion, and we hope to pass that ability onto our readers. We run real money portfolio’s published on the Market Matters Website and members can see our recent sales at the bottom of each portfolio going back several years, although there are few we would rather not be reminded of!
It was a flat session for the ASX today, although a lot was happening under the hood with a bunch of trading updates causing some big moves on both sides of the ledger. Early strength was sold into as equities shied away from a crack at all-time highs today.
We are making a number of changes to the Emerging Companies Portfolio.
The potential ~$64bn takeover of Anglo-American (AAL LN) by BHP has dominated the news in recent weeks, but the clock is ticking, at 5pm London time tonight, the door will close, for now at least. It will come as no great surprise if BHP walks as Anglo’s CEO Duncan Wanblad and the rest of the AAL board appeared to have no interest in discussing a bid – at least at the current price point BHP’s offer was implying. However, there is still a chance that BHP could lob in a “best a final” conservative bid aimed at disgruntled shareholders before the window closes, making BHP a tricky proposition at current levels.
A lacklustre session at the index level today, although a few bits of corporate news created some interest, mostly on the downside with slightly softer guidance a common trait.
We are taking profit on an international holding
Gold made new all-time highs this week as precious metals continued their advance even when fund managers, according to the recent Bank of America Fund Managers Survey, believe they are the most overvalued since 2020. The recent move was aided by a pullback in bond yields on renewed optimism towards rate cuts and the subsequent weakness in the $US. We are a little torn towards what comes next for gold and its related stocks, although if we were traders, it would be “long or square”, most definitely not short.
