After a sharp sell-off in the first quarter bond yields have surprised the consensus by falling in Q2. The US bond market has led the decline, although the Australian bond market has seen a similar pattern.

Oil prices are up +300% since bottoming in mid-2020, as global markets saw demand fall by over 20% in response to worldwide activity restrictions.

The announcement and subsequent progressive global rollout of multiple effective vaccines has sent equities back to pre-pandemic levels and indeed well ahead of pre-pandemic levels in the case of the US market. More than 2.01 billion doses have now been administered.

Lithium is one the lightest and most electro-conductive elements of the periodic table, making it ideally suited for Electric Vehicles (EV), which we expect will be one of the most disruptive technologies over the next decade.

Real assets typically refer to investments in unlisted real estate and infrastructure, as well as Physical Commodities (such as gold) and agriculture-based assets (e.g. timberland and farming).

As we draw nearer to the end of the 2021 financial year, it’s a good time for clients to speak with their Advisor to consider strategies that could be beneficial to their financial well-being.

The sustained rally in Australian equities since markets bottomed in March 2020 has so far taken place without any meaningful price correction.

The US CPI release for April suggests that inflationary pressures are picking up quite sharply. Two critical questions facing investors are whether these emerging inflationary pressures will persist beyond the next few months and how the Fed will respond.