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22 December 2024
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Accounting losses from a pandemic inspired bond buying spree have wiped out the RBA's equity and more, pushing its balance sheet into negative equity territory. How did it happen and what lessons can be learned?
As investors navigate a potential recession and the possibility of higher interest rates for longer, the lure of fixed income is understandable. Here a primer to help investors decide which bonds may be best for them.
After a dismal year, bonds' prospects are brightening. For investors looking to maximise returns from investment grade assets while also reducing interest rate risk, asset backed securities and RMBS provide opportunities.
The Fed has finally signalled its intention to control inflation by reducing demand, and investors must become less comfortable with their financial prospects. Investing has changed and the consequences are serious.
It's complicated. Rising bond yields reflect optimism about economic growth and improving business conditions. But as the recovery matures, increases in bond rates prove counter-productive, kerbing economic growth.
The recent spike in US Treasury bond yields is a clear warning that investors globally are again starting to worry about inflation and the potential impact it could have on monetary policy and financial markets.
Government bond yields are so close to their lower bounds that they are unlikely to provide the returns of the past, nor act as a counter to falling equity markets. What are the investment choices?
Many investors who hold offshore securities do not realise that much of the return comes from the FX hedge rather than the asset itself. And now US rates have risen, the benefit for Aussies has turned around.
Many experts expected the Aussie dollar to fall rapidly when US rates rose above Australian rates, but the fall has been modest. What factors are holding it up and what's the outlook?
Thirty years ago, at a time when Commonwealth Treasury still told Commonwealth Bank what to do, zero coupon bonds were launched, known as DINGOs. But it was the koalas that really got away.
With the possibility of rising interest rates, 10-year government bonds have turned from 'risk-free return' to 'return-free risk'. In the search for fixed interest yield, investors are moving away from traditional benchmarks.
* Australia has $270 billion of gross debt, mainly long term bonds, rolling over at the rate of almost a billion a week. Half is foreign-owned.
It’s with heavy hearts that we announce Firstlinks’ co-founder and former Managing Editor, Graham Hand, has died aged 66. Graham was a legendary figure in the finance industry and here are three tributes to him.
Last year, I wrote an article suggesting returns from ASX stocks would trample those from housing over the next decade. One year later, this is an update on how that forecast is going and what's changed since.
Australia is in the early throes of an intergenerational wealth transfer worth an estimated $3.5 trillion. Here's a case study highlighting some of the challenges with transferring wealth between generations.
The Future Fund's original purpose was to meet the unfunded liabilities of Commonwealth defined benefit schemes. These liabilities have ballooned to an estimated $290 billion and taxpayers continue to be treated like fools.
ASFA provides a key guide for how much you will need to live on in retirement. Unfortunately it has many deficiencies, and the averages don't tell the full story of the growing gender superannuation gap.
The Big Four banks have had an extraordinary run and it’s left income investors with a conundrum: to stick with them even though they now offer relatively low dividend yields and limited growth prospects or to look elsewhere.