This year’s top 10 stories included a peek into AustralianSuper’s international equities build out in London, AMP’s move to slash employee benefits, and plenty of hard-hitting analysis of the issues that matter in institutional investment. But the real story is how readers helped shape all of that coverage.
Orbis’ Stuart Place is riding from Melbourne to the Moon and Back to fund a treatment for the “monster of a disease” that his youngest son was born with. The investment industry is rallying behind him.
ASX rallies on strong global lead, Amcor sales slow, ERA’s big clean up
It was another strong day for the S&P/ASX200, overcoming negative sentiment around valuations and inflation to deliver another 1.2% gain.
Almost every sector finished higher, with utilities the primary underperformer after Origin Energy (ASX: ORG) dropped 2.6%.
The standout was energy once again, gaining 2.8% and materials, which finished 2.0% higher as investors flocked to both construction material providers, Boral (ASX: BLD) and AdBri (ASX: ABC) sending their shares up 3.9 and 4.2% respectively.
On the negative side, was news that Energy Resources Australia, part of Rio Tinto, had seen a further blowout in their rehabilitation of the Ranger uranium mine to as much as $2.2 billion, which may well be an insight into the future of ‘stranded assets’.
Telstra (ASX: TLS) has continued its long-awaited evolution, agreeing to invest around $1.5 billion in two major telecommunications projects in the next five years.
One is a ground infrastructure play with Viasat, which will support a satellite rollout, the other a new inter-city fibre network; both have been marked as ‘nation building’ opportunities.
Amcor passes on costs, RBA provides more guidance on rates
Packaging company Amcor (ASX: AMC) which is no longer listed on the ASX, garnered headlines after announcing they had been able to pass on price increases totalling $650 million to customers during the quarter.
These represented higher input costs faced by the company but hid what appears to be slowing sales growth elsewhere.
According to the report, organic sales growth without inflation grew by just 2%, with net profit adding a similar amount. Despite the slowdown, the group has increased their share buyback program.
RBA Governor Philip Lowe spoke to journalists and economists today, offering wide-ranging insights into various parts of the economy.
He flagged the potential for rates to increase in 2022 but reiterated that this decision would be solely focused on wage growth, not on short term inflation rates.
It is more likely that the conditions required for a hike will occur in 2023.
Global markets push higher, PayPal tanks by more than 20%, Google surges
It was another mixed but broadly positive day for US markets with gains in healthcare and technology offsetting losses in the financial and travel sectors.
The Dow Jones added another 0.6%, the S&P500 delivered 0.9%, a fourth straight day of gains and the Nasdaq slightly weaker up 0.5%.
Private jobs reduced by more than 300,000 in January as Omicron hit in a sign the economy may not be as strong as it looks.
All eyes were on PayPal (NYSE: PYPL) however after the company abandoned its target of 750 million users by 2025.
The share price fell by more than 24% after reporting a near 50% fall in profit and flat revenue growth.
The group is losing its monopoly over eBay payments and revenue growth is now expected to be anywhere between 6 and 14%.
Alphabet (NYSE: GOOGL) reported a third straight quarter of record sales benefitting from a surge of advertising over the Christmas period, with revenue jumping 32% to US$61.9 billion.
Profit jumped 30% and cloud revenue continues to grow at a torrid 45% pace, albeit below Amazon and Microsoft.
Markets cheered the decision to split the stock to make the share price more palatable; shares gained 7%.
