Archives: Reports
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.
After only 7-weeks 2022 has certainly felt like a volatile year but a quick glance at the Volatility / Fear Index would question this interpretation, we may have experienced plenty of action above the average of the last 10-15 years but we haven’t witnessed any sheer panic as we did when markets fell in 2018 around bond yield concerns or like the chaos after US Debt Downgrade in 2011. We have 2 theories why the escalation in volatility has been relatively orderly:
The ASX200 again fell 1% on a Friday, it’s becoming an end of week habit! Its very easy to understand why investors / traders were scared to go home exposed this weekend as Monday is Presidents Day in the US making it a 3-day weekend for stocks i.e. plenty of time for further escalation of geopolitical tensions around the Ukraine. You could actually feel the realisation kick in at 3.30pm yesterday, the ASX was holding up really well considering previous falls on overseas bourses but in the last half an hour we succumbed to nerves and dropped almost 50-points to forgo the week’s gains.
A weaker session today for the ASX with much of the weakness coming late (as the intra-day chart below shows) however given the uncertainty on the geopolitical front, the market falling 1% was a reasonable effort, particularly into the weekend + the US is on Holidays Monday. Gold was the standout however there was also some interesting moves from a stock perspective with two stocks we hold in our Income Portfolio, namely Smart Group (SIQ) and Magellan Financial…
The ASX200 managed to close out Thursday in positive territory but only just after US equity futures turned lower following reports on social media alleging that Ukrainian forces had shelled Russian forces in the self-proclaimed Lugansk People’s Republic – the unconfirmed news reports came from the Sputnik Russian state-affiliated media. The rumours quickly wiped away 85% of the local markets midday gains with the drop illustrating the manner in which heightened geo-political tensions…
