All five Living Cost Indexes jumped in the March 2024 quarter. But while employee households carried the brunt of higher prices, self-funded retirees emerged relatively unscathed.
China needs its 1.4 billion citizens to start spending. But its ageing population is reluctant to loosen the purse strings, especially while the social security net remains inadequate.
Market rally continues as bond yields fall to three-month low, Origin doubles revenue
The local sharemarket delivered another positive week for investors with the S&P/ASX200 gaining 0.8 per cent on Friday taking the weekly gain to 2.2 per cent.
Added to last week’s 2.8 per cent gain and the market is down just 6.7 per cent for the year. Every sector barring healthcare added to the strong result with real estate and utilities adding 3 and 2.5 per cent respectively.
Among the biggest highlights was Origin (ASX: ORG) which gained 4.2 per cent after reporting a doubling of quarterly revenue from the APLNG gas project.
The company gained $4.4 billion on hedging contracts but offset this with a $2.2 billion write-down in their energy markets business as they struggle to find coal and gas for their operations.
Ramsay (ASX: RHC) shares gained 0.5 per cent after KKR confirmed they were seeking to proceed with their due diligence on the company’s French assets which will likely lead to a binding cash offer.
Tech stocks Zip (ASX: ZIP) and Brainchip (ASX: BNC) was the most volatile on Friday falling 25.3 and 14.6 per cent respectively with healthcare the other sector to underperform.
Over the week, Zip still managed to gain 29 per cent despite Friday’s falls, with gold miner St Barbara (ASX: SBM) gaining 25.7 per cent.
EML Payments (ASX: EML) fell 12 and City Chic (ASX: CCX) 10 per cent as concern about the retail sector grows.
Market rally continues, Amazon, Apple beat expectations
All three benchmarks finished higher on Friday, buoyed by continued falls in government bond yields and hope that the worst may be over.
The Nasdaq continues to lead the way, gaining 1.9 per cent on strong rallies in both Amazon (NYSE: AMZN) and Apple (NYSE: AAPL), up more than 10 and 3 per cent respectively.
In the case of Amazon, a switch to profitability narrowed the quarterly loss to US$2 billion on the back of a 5 per cent increase in sales while Amazon Web Services continues to dominate profitability, growing revenue at more than 3 per cent and profit by around 20.
Shares in Apple were 3 per cent higher despite the company reporting an 11 per cent fall in profit, however CEO Tim Cook was positive about the company overcoming supply chain issues.
Revenue managed to increase by 2 per cent despite the challenges, driven by a slowing but still positive gain in iPhone sales at 3 per cent.
Shares in Intel (NYSE: INTC) fell more than 10 per cent after the company reported a US$454 million quarterly loss on a 25 per cent decline in revenue.
Over the week the benchmarks gains 3.1, and 3 per cent respectively, which are set to post gains of between 7 and 12 per cent for July, the best month since 2020.
Bond yields in focus, new Government sworn in, private valuations take a hit
Reading the headlines, it would seem that economic forecasters are always right and that anything that is priced into markets is set to occur with certainty.
Yet as it is with every market, bond yields or shares always seek to price in the events that lie ahead, not those that occurred in the past.
This fact was on show this week when the Australian 10-year bond yield fell towards 3 per cent after starting the year at 0.7 and moving as high as 4 per cent earlier this year.
While the headlines aren’t as powerful, the move suggests markets traders now believe rate hikes may end earlier than expected.
The Labor Government has finally sat in Parliament for the first time with a growing set of challenges ranging from pay rise requests, inflationary impacts and a weakening iron ore price that will hit tax revenues.
Aside from long-standing social issues, the fiscal policy looks set to remain the same with little interest in banning new mines as the minor parties suggest.
Among the more surprising results, this week was news that the Australian tech darling had seen its valuation reduced by 30 per cent by a long-standing investor.
This has an important flow-on effect with the major pension funds who own the company forced to reduce their valuations despite already having reported end-of-financial year returns.
Member equity is now coming into question as those who have been drawing pensions have ultimately been forced to sell this company at a higher valuation to younger members who continue to contribute; a continuing challenge for the industry fund sector.
