The Australian dollar has experienced a notable rebound from its recent April lows, up 11% post ‘Liberation Day’, when risk-off sentiment and heightened volatility weighed heavily on markets. In spite of all this, from a long-term perspective the Australian dollar continues to look cheap.  This report looks at the outlook for the Australian dollar in light of these developments, as well as the implications for portfolio allocations.

The price of gold has soared this year-to-date by 39%, with another surge over the past month of 5%. This suggests gold may be overbought in the short-term. This report provides a rundown of gold’s history as an investment, and explores its future prospects in light of geopolitical uncertainty, de-dollarisation and global monetary policy trends.

Bond yield movements have been attracting heightened attention recently, with competing narratives buffeting bond markets and the very long end of yield curves rising across the G7. This report examines the key factors currently impacting the US and Australian bond markets, and the outlook for fixed income securities.

…From a Walk to a Jog. Australia’s real GDP grew by 0.6% in the June quarter and 1.8% year-on-year, beating consensus expectations of ~0.4% - 0.5% growth for the quarter. Private demand improved in the quarter led by the household sector. This report looks at Australia’s current economic performance and the broader implications for rate cuts and asset markets.

The Australian market has continued its strong price performance through the August reporting period, with the ASX200 index up 3%. This takes the 12-month total return performance to 15%. This report looks at the implications of the August reporting data for the upcoming performance of Australian equities, and where opportunities are set to lie.

Tech is by a wide margin the best performer since the market’s April lows. Market concentration, or “Tech leadership” has been a periodic concern in recent years. This report explores the Tech sector’s rising prominence amongst US equities, and whether or not the market is seeing the re-emergence of a bubble in the wake of the AI boom.

US inflation surprised in both directions last week, with headline surprising to the downside while core inflation surprised to the upside. Market pricing for a September cut firmed, while the US equity market jumped.  This report looks at the implications of Trump’s tariffs and the latest inflation data for rate cuts by both the US Fed and the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).

After an extended period of resilience, recent data releases suggest the US economy is losing momentum. Q2 GDP confirmed H1 growth of just 1.1% versus last year’s run rate of 2.6% while the non farm payrolls report shocked the market with large downward revisions. This report explores this downshift in economic data, alongside the implications for rate cut decisions from the Federal Reserve and the outlook for US equities.