COVID-19

Harindra de Silva from Allspring Global Investments shares insights with James Dunn from The Inside Network on “What are the lessons from the market’s reactions to Covid-19?”

The emergence of omicron has seen plenty of blood in the streets, and the quiet vindication of one of Australia’s most divisive investors. But doomsday has been postponed again. Like him or hate him, Hamish Douglass was (probably) right. Lambasted for the subpar performance of Magellan’s flagship global equity strategy during an incredible bull run…

The economic aftermath of Covid-19 was never going to be as bad as it seemed at the time. But governments will be hooked on splashing cash. “Economic scarring” was all anybody could talk about in the immediate aftermath of the first wave of Covid-19, and for good reason; it’s well understood that the effects of…

Dutch asset management giant, Robeco, tips a mainly positive, if subdued, outlook for equities over the next five years but with a high degree of uncertainty ahead in a decade it dubs the ‘Roasting Twenties’. In its new five-year forecast returns paper, Robeco says “we expect risk-taking to be rewarded in the next five years,…

ASX fights back, COVID winners back as lockdowns extended, oil at three-year high The ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) overcame a negative lead to finished broadly flat on Monday. COVID-19 outbreaks in almost every state barring Victoria have sent the market back into the realm of 2020’s top trades. On the one hand, travel and tourism-facing stocks suffered,…

Markets continue to fall, travel stocks hit as Sydney faces lockdown, Costa enters trading halt The ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) finished 0.6% lower on Wednesday despite a strong overseas lead, with news of the extended Sydney travel restrictions impacting travel and consumer stocks. Qantas Airways Limited (ASX: QAN) fell 0.3%, Flight Centre Travel Group Ltd (ASX: FLT) by 3.4%, and Corporate Travel…

Bank rally not enough, Westpac hike dividend, job ads continue to surprise The ASX200 (ASX:XJO) rose just three points to begin the week, with a powerful day from the financials sector (+1.4%) which represents some 30% of the index not enough to overcome broader weakness. Energy and materials continue to detract amid signs that inflation is being…

ASX falls 0.8%, retail in the spotlight, China’s economic miracle, QBE gets slammed The ASX200 (ASX:XJO) started the week on a negative footing, falling 0.8%. The discretionary retail (0.2%) and IT (0.5%) sectors were the only highlights but weren’t sufficient to offset a fall in the materials sector (-1.9%). It was the normal culprits pushing the market…

Winning streak hits seven weeks, A2 Milk (ASX:A2M) and Mesoblast (ASX:MSB) battered The ASX200 (ASX:XJO) managed to overcome a 1.2% fall to cap off the seventh straight week of gains, adding 0.5%. The IT sector continued to lead the way behind Afterpay (ASX:APT), finishing 5.9% higher, whilst energy lost 2.4% as the US economy appeared to weaken. The biggest…

With rising insurance premiums and continued fears about the impact of climate change – and whether the world is reacting effectively enough – insurance-linked securities and catastrophe bonds are going through a growth spurt. The March market slump due to COVID-19, which weighed heavily on returns for the first quarter, enabled the asset class to…