The Fed has been fixated on inflation over the last year as it hiked Official Interest Rates more than 5% peaking at today’s 5-5.25% target range but we’re finally seeing signs that Jerome Powell et al might stand back and observe the economy for a few months/quarters before raising rates again in 2023:
The ASX200 rallied over +0.5% on Thursday although again we saw some selling into strength with the market relinquishing ~40% of its early morning gains. Under the hood, we saw over 60% of the market advance with Tech names continuing their march higher, this time helped by the bullish sentiment following a positive earnings report from Xero (XRO) which ultimately closed +8.9% higher, the “tech v Miners” elastic band which MM has been discussing at length recently continues to stretch ever higher.
Fertilizer and explosive business IPL fell -7.8% yesterday giving it the unenviable position of the worst performing stock on the main bourse after its 1H23 earnings missed the mark by around 7-10%, weakness in its fertilizer division received the most blame. Earnings were also hurt by floods and the prices of commodities used to make the said fertilizers, not ideal scenarios with both of the these issues uncontrollable by IPL making their earnings harder to predict. This morning we have briefly looked at IPL and a couple of other related businesses which have endured a tough few months to evaluate if its time to start considering these out of favour names – note we have focused more on the fertilizer side as IPL’s explosives division remains solid.
Global central banks maintained their fight against inflation this month with the Bank of England, Fed, ECB and RBA all hiking interest rates, most moves were expected but the rhetoric has remained on the hawkish side which has restrained equities although they are still largely close to their multi-month highs. The minutes from the RBA’s May meeting did stocks no favours on Tuesday as they reiterated that “further increases in interest rates may be required” although such a move would depend on how the economy and inflation travelled through 2023/4. In our opinion a major risk to the “risk on” trade is markets are looking for a central bank pivot leaving plenty of room for disappointment for the dovish investors:
Tax loss selling involves selling investments that have incurred capital losses in order to “net out” or offset capital gains realised elsewhere during the year, while this can occur at any stage through the financial year investors have a tendency to “clean the decks” into June which by definition can accelerate the decline of stocks who are already under pressure. This morning we have briefly looked at 4 stocks that have endured a tough FY to date with one eye firmly on levels where we believe both value and risk/reward may present themselves.
The RBA, Fed and ECB all raised interest rates earlier this month and the Bank of England (BOE) joined the party last week when they hiked rates by 0.25% taking their main bank rate from 4.25% to 4.5%. The BOE also added they no longer expect the UK economy to enter a recession this year, the overall accompanying rhetoric was mildly hawkish although the UK short-dated gilts only ended the week slightly higher.
This week was the famous Sohn Investment Conference in the US, the original event that is now also run in Australia under the Hearts & Minds banner. At Market Matters, we do our best to consume as much information as possible, and distil it down into actionable insight for our members, applying our own lens. This week’s event had some interesting nuggets as always and we’ll touch on a few in today’s note, but here’s what we gleaned from a high level.
The ASX200 edged marginally lower yesterday, although it was a choppy session with an upside bias throughout the day. National Australia Bank (NAB) & Bank of QLD (BOQ) traded ex-dividend weighing on the index that saw a very muted reaction from the Federal Budget that was released on Tuesday evening, as we said yesterday morning, budgets don’t typically have a major influence on markets despite the continual probing of what stocks will or won’t benefit, a topic discussed yesterday here.
In April, the $250bn Future Fund said it was now backing active fund managers switching out of the passive approach they had employed for the past 6 years. The changing economic backdrop now lends itself to active management, with Chief Executive Raphael Arndt declaring that “Conditions have changed. Economies are diverging and companies can better distinguish themselves in a more challenging environment”. We certainly agree at Market Matters with our portfolios enjoying the changing dynamics that are at play as tougher macro conditions are making it easier to distinguish the haves and have-nots.
There has been phenomenal hype in recent years around Lithium and other key commodities that underpin the global move towards Electric Vehicles (EVs), and we think there is a solid foundation to this sector, however, the shorter-term movements in the Lithium price for example, where a pullback of ~70% has recently played out, highlights a theme that MM often speaks of, around crowded trades creating risk.
The ASX200 rallied over +0.5% on Thursday although again we saw some selling into strength with the market relinquishing ~40% of its early morning gains. Under the hood, we saw over 60% of the market advance with Tech names continuing their march higher, this time helped by the bullish sentiment following a positive earnings report from Xero (XRO) which ultimately closed +8.9% higher, the “tech v Miners” elastic band which MM has been discussing at length recently continues to stretch ever higher.
Fertilizer and explosive business IPL fell -7.8% yesterday giving it the unenviable position of the worst performing stock on the main bourse after its 1H23 earnings missed the mark by around 7-10%, weakness in its fertilizer division received the most blame. Earnings were also hurt by floods and the prices of commodities used to make the said fertilizers, not ideal scenarios with both of the these issues uncontrollable by IPL making their earnings harder to predict. This morning we have briefly looked at IPL and a couple of other related businesses which have endured a tough few months to evaluate if its time to start considering these out of favour names – note we have focused more on the fertilizer side as IPL’s explosives division remains solid.
Global central banks maintained their fight against inflation this month with the Bank of England, Fed, ECB and RBA all hiking interest rates, most moves were expected but the rhetoric has remained on the hawkish side which has restrained equities although they are still largely close to their multi-month highs. The minutes from the RBA’s May meeting did stocks no favours on Tuesday as they reiterated that “further increases in interest rates may be required” although such a move would depend on how the economy and inflation travelled through 2023/4. In our opinion a major risk to the “risk on” trade is markets are looking for a central bank pivot leaving plenty of room for disappointment for the dovish investors:
Tax loss selling involves selling investments that have incurred capital losses in order to “net out” or offset capital gains realised elsewhere during the year, while this can occur at any stage through the financial year investors have a tendency to “clean the decks” into June which by definition can accelerate the decline of stocks who are already under pressure. This morning we have briefly looked at 4 stocks that have endured a tough FY to date with one eye firmly on levels where we believe both value and risk/reward may present themselves.
The RBA, Fed and ECB all raised interest rates earlier this month and the Bank of England (BOE) joined the party last week when they hiked rates by 0.25% taking their main bank rate from 4.25% to 4.5%. The BOE also added they no longer expect the UK economy to enter a recession this year, the overall accompanying rhetoric was mildly hawkish although the UK short-dated gilts only ended the week slightly higher.
This week was the famous Sohn Investment Conference in the US, the original event that is now also run in Australia under the Hearts & Minds banner. At Market Matters, we do our best to consume as much information as possible, and distil it down into actionable insight for our members, applying our own lens. This week’s event had some interesting nuggets as always and we’ll touch on a few in today’s note, but here’s what we gleaned from a high level.
The ASX200 edged marginally lower yesterday, although it was a choppy session with an upside bias throughout the day. National Australia Bank (NAB) & Bank of QLD (BOQ) traded ex-dividend weighing on the index that saw a very muted reaction from the Federal Budget that was released on Tuesday evening, as we said yesterday morning, budgets don’t typically have a major influence on markets despite the continual probing of what stocks will or won’t benefit, a topic discussed yesterday here.
In April, the $250bn Future Fund said it was now backing active fund managers switching out of the passive approach they had employed for the past 6 years. The changing economic backdrop now lends itself to active management, with Chief Executive Raphael Arndt declaring that “Conditions have changed. Economies are diverging and companies can better distinguish themselves in a more challenging environment”. We certainly agree at Market Matters with our portfolios enjoying the changing dynamics that are at play as tougher macro conditions are making it easier to distinguish the haves and have-nots.
There has been phenomenal hype in recent years around Lithium and other key commodities that underpin the global move towards Electric Vehicles (EVs), and we think there is a solid foundation to this sector, however, the shorter-term movements in the Lithium price for example, where a pullback of ~70% has recently played out, highlights a theme that MM often speaks of, around crowded trades creating risk.
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