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17 June 2026
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Quality strategies shine globally, but Australia's concentrated market tells a different story. Limited diversification and sector dominance can constrain the defensive outcomes investors have seen in broader markets.
The conditions which made the major banks the default trade for a generation of Australian investors have all reversed simultaneously. What replaces them is a market that rewards earnings durability over index weight, and pricing power over passive ownership.
While the quality factor has delivered strong, defensive outcomes globally, its effectiveness in Australia is more nuanced due to its smaller size and concentration by stock and sector.
Stability is on edge as conflict, inflation, rates and valuations continue to unsettle the global economy. For patient investors, this new regime may create opportunities that reward more selective exposures.
With gold miners demonstrating operating leverage, bond markets anticipating a muddle through, and small companies outperforming, explore the opportunities and risks ahead in global markets.
VanEck's latest analysis identifies the global risk factors most likely to move markets and the overlooked assets gaining prominence against a growing loss of faith in US exceptionalism.
Beneath the dominance of the ASX's largest stocks, much of the market has been left behind. High-quality companies are now trading at levels rarely seen, offering opportunities for investors willing to look deeper.
Something unusual is happening in markets. The winners are pulling further ahead at an extraordinary pace. As return dispersion hits extreme levels, volatility is rising and the investing landscape is becoming harder to navigate.
Extreme wealth concentration is no longer just a side effect of growth. As inequality deepens, its consequences are shifting from a social concern to a broader threat to economic stability and democratic resilience.
AI exuberance is colliding with economic reality. Cracks are emerging as spending surges, ROI remains uncertain and enterprise behaviour shifts. The next phase may look less like an expansion and more like a reckoning.
The 2026 budget has reignited Australia’s tax reform debate, but more work remains. Beneath the surface lies a harder question: what structural reforms are needed to make the country's tax system fit for the future?
The Budget's negative gearing changes defer deductions rather than deny them, yet a worked example shows quarantining can halve the tax benefit's present value for buyers of established dwellings.
In just four years, Australia's private capital landscape has transformed. We are seeing changes across who deploys capital, how deals are structured and why new platforms and investor pathways are rapidly emerging.