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31 January 2025
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Global defence spending has inflected higher, bringing huge opportunity to a group of companies that have already outperformed broader market indices over the long-term.
Investors often express their views on markets by tilting their portfolios towards certain sectors, in the hope of generating excess returns. Factor investing is a more sophisticated tool that can help to achieve better results.
Every economic cycle has its distinct characteristics where different sectors take up leadership. US tech has led markets higher since 2014, yet that looks stretched now, and other sectors like energy are set to outperform.
Dividend paying stocks play an important role in income portfolios. But they can also run the risk of being too narrowly focused, which can limit both income potential and upside participation when equity markets rise.
In the last decade, ETFs have become a mainstay of many portfolios, with broad market access to most asset types, as well as a wide array of sectors and themes. Is there a favourite of a CEO who oversees 30 funds?
Best-in-class or ‘pure-play’ companies concentrate on one business really well, while companies with diverse operations lead to inefficient capital allocation and underinvest in the best opportunities.
Powerful structural themes such as technology disruption and demographic changes may disguise what is driving company success. Watch these broad categories as they may not apply in ways you expect.
It's time for equity prices to more closely tie to a company’s underlying near-term earnings trajectory and financial strength. Despite the market trading at record levels, some stocks have been left behind.
Compared with most years in the last decade, FY20 performed poorly due to the virus, and now dividends are falling. There are three things to watch this year as support policies are wound back.
With the market hitting a five-year high this week, it’s a good opportunity to pause and examine the performance of the 11 sectors that make up the ASX: what’s worked, what’s lagged and what’s just plodding along?
If you are not happy to own the entire business for a decade, you should not be comfortable owners of even one share for just a few minutes. Time is the friend of the extraordinary business but the enemy of the poor business.
The housing market was subdued in 2024, and pessimism abounds as we start the new year. 2025 is likely to be a tale of two halves, with interest rate cuts fuelling a resurgence in buyer demand in the second half of the year.
This examines the performance of key asset classes and sub-sectors in 2024 and over longer timeframes, and the lessons that can be drawn for constructing an investment portfolio for the next decade.
The renowned investor has penned his first investor letter for 2025 and it’s a ripper. He runs through what bubbles are, which ones he’s experienced, and whether today’s markets qualify as the third major bubble of this century.
2024 was a banner year for equities, with a run-up in US tech stocks broadening into a global market rally, and the big question now is whether the good times can continue? History suggests optimism is warranted.
Check out the most-read Firstlinks articles from 2024. From '16 ASX stocks to buy and hold forever', to 'The best strategy to build income for life', and 'Where baby boomer wealth will end up', there's something for all.
Getting regular, growing income from stocks is tougher with the dividend yield on the ASX nearing 25-year lows. Here are some conventional and not-so-conventional ideas for investors wanting to build a dividend portfolio.