Archives: Reports
A tough day for Aussie stocks coming off weakness in overseas markets while an escalation in the Russia/Ukraine saga saw a big risk off swing right across Asia. News reports broke around 1pm Sydney time of a nationally televised speech from Vladimir Putin saying Russia doesn’t plan to “occupy” its southern neighbour but is looking to defend itself from those who took Ukraine “hostage”. While all this is very unsettling and there will be real human and economic consequences, this isn’t new news from a markets perspective, so I’m mildly surprised about the aggressive nature of today’s sell-off, ~3% down is a big move.
We are amending both the growth and income portfolios.
The ASX200 enjoyed a strong recovery yesterday even after US stocks fell over 1%, the buying was broad based with less than 30% of stocks falling as the “risk on” button was re-engaged taking the market up 0.6% with tech stocks finally coming to the fore – time will tell but perhaps MM nailed it with Tuesdays report : “What Matters Today: Hold on tight but tech looks set for a decent bounce!“. More on some of the Australian tech stocks a little later but this note won’t be 1-way traffic even if we…
Risk back on today with the market rallying 0.60% led by the recently under pressure technology stocks while the more defensive areas (Utilities & REITs) lagged. It’s often true that the threat of something eventuating is more harmful to prices than the actual event itself and that could well be the case for the current geopolitical mess. At the corporate level, earnings are dominating – a huge day today and another tomorrow with a handful of our stocks delivering results.
MM are trimming Wells Fargo (WFC US) & to upweight Microsoft (MSFT US) in the International Equities Portfolio
We are adding to our existing position in Altium (ALU)
Tuesday saw the ASX200 get smacked 1% as Vladimir Putin ordered troops into the breakaway zones of Ukraine, it looks like sanctions and geopolitical uncertainty are on the menu over the coming weeks / months. Unfortunately the Russian President appears very comfortable to test the UN’s resolve as he starts advancing his pawns in an initial gambit towards Biden and the West, unfortunately this is a very real game with peoples lives at stake as opposed to an enjoyable game of chess.
A volatile session for Aussie stocks today with the market moving in a ~100pt range on news this morning President Putin ordered his defence ministry to despatch Russian troops to ‘maintain peace’ in eastern Ukraine’s two breakaway regions. This was viewed as a significant escalation in the crisis over Ukraine and stocks quickly lost any semblance of support until late in the session where buyers stepped up to the plate. Understandable to see Energy +1.94% on the news given…
The ASX200 enjoyed a sharp turnaround yesterday as the news crossed our screens in late morning that Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin had agreed to hold talks over the Ukraine / Russia situation – the can gets kicked down the road and war is averted at least for now. We cannot imagine Russia will mount an assault into Eastern Europe after so much stoushing between the respective parties, it would hardly be a surprise attack although it doesn’t feel like anyone will actually stop them. After months of brinkmanship on Ukraine’s border it’s…
A weak start to trade this morning with the overhang of the weekend news flow (remarkably bearish on most fronts) pushing the ASX 200 down ~70points at the lows before more encouraging news around Russia & Ukraine prompted a strong rally. The ASX eventually closed a touch higher with the Utilities (+3.71%) & the Consumer Staples (+2.34%) the standouts while IT (-2.74%) was the laggard again – a decent turnaround in the end.
