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Thursday, 9 December 2021
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The forecasts were wrong. In COVID, banks were expected to face falling house prices, high unemployment and a lending downturn. In the recovery, which banks are awarded gold stars based on the better performance?
In reporting season, companies must deliver their results and many issue guidance for the next year. The response often send prices up or down and the market may make swift and not well-considered decisions.
It's an incredible turnaround. One bank reported 121,000 home loans in deferral in 2020 but only 2,000 remain in hardship a year later. Profits have recovered, loan losses are tiny ... but which are the best banks?
Residential property attracts little interest from institutional investors and the listed market. Here are three reasons why retail investors have an advantage over well-resourced institutional investors.
Banks severely cut dividends in 2020 but are expected to improve payments in 2021. History provides clues to when the banks will return to their 2019 levels of profitability, but who is positioned the best?
While the shutting of Australia’s borders to international travellers and quarantine measures is damaging to certain sectors of the economy, it is not uniformly negative for all companies.
I prefer not to make market forecasts but I need to take personal investment decisions. I'm expecting a stockmarket fall in 2022 as central banks tighten policies but the mainstays in my portfolio will not be sold.
A lower starting withdrawal rate doesn’t always mean living on less. The latest research on sustainable withdrawals offers flexibility for retirees to improve the chances of not running out of funds prematurely.
Small caps might require more work than large cap stocks but they are often worth it. After all, all large companies were small once, and there can be clear benefits of investing in and backing management early.
The biotech industry has seen an explosion of new techniques which will lead to innovative areas of growth in the use of cells and genes as medicine. Money for funding life sciences and biotech pharma has soared.
Multiple factors have seen gold fall in 2021, despite the rise in inflation. But given gold has performed strongly across longer periods of higher inflation, gold may benefit under the current inflation outlook.
Retirement solutions uniting the three pillars of retirement funding - the age pension, mandatory super and voluntary savings - are essential. Global experts discuss solutions that might work for Australia.
With stronger capital positions, improved brand equity and the potential to benefit from a robust post-pandemic recovery, the global banking sector is presenting significant opportunities for investors.