We delve into five bottom drawer stocks - CSL (CSL), Macquarie (MQG), Worley (WOR), NextDC (NXT), and Netwealth (NWL) - the investing themes they align with and the reasons we believe they should be held over the long-term.

Including Australian gold miners in our equity portfolio offers several advantages. Their long-term performance, diversification benefits, and potential for outperformance in a rate-cut environment make them an attractive investment at this point of the cycle.

Despite recent underperformance in the Australian healthcare sector, we maintain our conviction in its potential to regain dominance and deliver compelling returns over the next 12 months.

The Australian equity market has seen a downward shift in earnings expectations over the past three months, signalling that the market is moving firmly into a downgrade cycle. In the near term, earnings revisions will be an increasingly important driver of relative company performance, in our view.

The Australian equity market has seen a downward shift in earnings expectations over the past three months, signalling that the market is moving firmly into a downgrade cycle. In the near term, earnings revisions will be an increasingly important driver of relative company performance, in our view.

The retail sector has witnessed a sell-off in response to soft trading updates and the prospect of further interest rate hikes, with the rising cost of rent and the sharp increase in the minimum wage further impacting the industry. Retail stocks may appear cheap, considering the recent sell-off. However, a critical consideration is the reliability of earnings reflected in price-to-earnings (PE) ratios.

Gaming revenues have shown resilience over time, as the industry tends to be relatively unaffected by economic downturns. Gaming stocks offer the Focus Portfolio resilient growth in a part of the cycle where we believe this is key to outperformance. In this report, we outline our viewpoint on gaming, and detail our key holdings in the sector.

While copper has weakened recently due to global economic concerns, long-term we are structurally bullish when it comes to the copper price. Demand for copper is currently subject to a degree of cyclicality, given its wide range of industrial uses which ebb and flow with the state of the broader economy. Longer term, significant structural growth in demand for copper as significant quantities will be needed for the energy transition.