Rising interest rates, falling house prices and persistent inflation may have left many Australians feeling pessimistic about the Australian economy, but not AMP Deputy Chief Economist Diana Mousina.
Most people’s experience of artificial intelligence has been the chatbot: ask a question, get an answer. That use is still growing. What is changing—and what matters for Contrarius’ Funds—is the next layer of demand.
Most people’s experience of artificial intelligence has been the chatbot: ask a question, get an answer. That use is still growing. What is changing—and what matters for Contrarius’ Funds—is the next layer of demand.
With interest rates at a decade-high and the RBA signalling potential rate cuts sometime next year, the current yields on mortgage funds present an attractive opportunity.
Mortgage funds have gained traction as higher interest rates have made lending to the commercial real estate sector increasingly attractive. This shift has occurred while traditional property investments such as real estate investment trusts are facing significant valuation challenges.
According to a recent report by investment firm Zagga, more investors are gravitating toward private real estate debt for property exposure in order to avoid the volatility typically associated with property markets. This trend is fuelled b
More than a few fund managers have highlighted that fixed income investing these days is a world away from what it used to be. They’d be right. The very structure of global fixed income markets has changed since the Global Financial Crisis.
As with all structural shifts, it pays to revisit the here and now on occasion to ensure your current strategy is fit for purpose. The reality is the strategies necessary to generate alpha in fixed income markets are different from the past.
With the Fed initiating a rate cutting cycle in September, investors are increasingly focusing on asset classes positioned to outperform in a falling rate environment.
Enter smaller companies. Historically, small-cap stocks have outperformed their larger counterparts during periods of declining interest rates — and this trend seems to be taking hold as both global and domestic small-cap benchmarks have shown improved performance in recent months.
With ‘brain drain’ increasingly being the name of the game in the publicly listed markets, not to mention the ever present pull of the US market for innovative emerging Australian businesses in the need of capital, it’s hard to ignore the growing role of private equity and direct start-up investing in most investors’ portfolios.
It’s also hard to ignore the fact that start-up investing entails its own unique risks. Many investors have been wrong-footed by the marked differences of start-up investing versus investing in publicly listed companies.
The good news is with the right strategy it’s possible to invest in a portfolio of start-ups without losing your shirt.
The inexorable rise of the SMSF continues with the SMSF count reaching 616,400 in March and the number of members hitting 1.1 million. Whilst that’s less than 5% of the Australian population, SMSF investors account for an impressive 24% of the $4 trillion invested in superannuation. In other words, SMSF investors are a wealthy and powerful bunch with growing financial clout.
In recent years, private credit investment has emerged as a frontrunner in the investment landscape. Private credit has topped the private markets globally in terms of both funds under management (FUM) growth and overall performance, capturing the attention of investors seeking stability in uncertain times. Private credit funds generate returns by acting as non-bank lenders, providing financing to businesses, and passing on the interest income from loans to investors.
The healthcare sector is back in focus, and for good reason. As the global economy slows and interest rates drop, investors looking for a safe haven are turning to the healthcare sector’s long-term growth potential.
With the vast array of information investors have at their fingertips, you’d think it would be easy to spot investment trends before the rest of the market. If only.
The problem is there’s too much available information for most investors to make sense of. After a while, reams of written text become just more words rather than a source of learning. Hence, interpreting and understanding the vast universe of words that relate to investing is almost impossible for most investors.
So the question is: how can investors side-step this information overload challenge to spot investment trends before the rest of the market?
In the words of Mark Twain: ‘It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so.’ Most investors can relate, but few are fully aware of the cognitive bias that explains this quote: the Dunning-Kruger Effect.
The Dunning-Kruger Effect is one of the more conspiratorial of the cognitive biases, and may just be sabotaging your investment returns without your knowledge or approval.
Australian shares have traditionally been a go-to for income investors due to their attractive dividend yields. However, the market is undergoing a significant shift and the record payouts that followed the resources boom seem to be coming to an end.
Recently, the base yield of the Australian market dipped below 4%, with rising costs and a weakening Chinese economy contributing to the decline.
Morgan Stanley forecasts that the S&P/ASX 200 dividend yield will drop to just 3.6% in FY25, potentially marking the lowest yield for the ASX 200 in decades, excluding the COVID-19 period.
Blackrock’s Q4 equity outlook report contains some useful intel to help investors make sense of global markets at this juncture. With the US election looming and the Fed’s initiation of a rate cutting cycle, there’s a lot for markets to worry about and celebrate.
One thing’s for sure: it’s unlikely to be a boring end to the year.
Innovation has moved beyond being just a nice-to-have at the periphery of most portfolios—it’s now a key focus in investment strategies. With sectors like AI, renewable energy, and biotech leading the way, more investors are adjusting their portfolios to capture the growth potential of these cutting-edge technologies.