Reading time: 3 minutes
In 2020, China announced to the world that it would join the race to lower carbon emissions. It pledged to reach peak emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. This falls roughly in line with the other two global heavyweights pledging carbon neutrality,

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SEPTEMBER 2021: ETF INVESTORS ‘BUY THE DIP’ WITH HIGHEST NET INFLOWS ON RECORD
In a month where both global and Australian equities fell, ETF investors ‘bought the dip’ leading to the highest monthly net inflows on record for the industry ($2.9B).

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Reading time: 4 minutes
While both exchange traded funds (ETFs) and listed investment companies (LICs) are exchange traded products, there are some important differences. These differences can be a source of frustration for investors who can confuse the two, and the expected performance profiles of each.
Let’s take a closer look.

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Despite India’s economy being relatively hard hit by COVID-19 over the past year, its stock market has been among the strongest performers. Helping underpin the Indian market outlook has been continued strong growth in the economy and corporate earnings. Indian companies that score highly on ‘quality’ metrics such as return on equity have also continued to demonstrate their relatively good performance within the Indian market.

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Key global market trends – higher rates take their toll

Global equities suffered a setback in September as a rebound in bond yields dragged down still lofty price-to-earnings valuations. The key market development in the month was a more hawkish than expected Federal Reserve policy meeting, which suggested a tapering in bond purchases would be announced next month and U.S.

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Reading time: 4 minutes
The online age has heralded a new era of warfare, which pits not only sovereign nations against one another, but also cyber criminals against businesses, individuals, and their intellectual property.
Cybersecurity incidents soared in Australia during the past financial year, according to the recent Australian Cyber Security Centre’s (ACSC) second annual threat report.

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Reading time: 2 minutes
Over the long term, ‘high-quality’ companies have tended to outperform the more cyclically exposed areas of the market as investors have searched for companies with lower debt, more consistent earnings and stronger profitability, offering dependable, secular growth in a low-growth world.
This is visible when comparing historical returns of an index of high-quality global companies to the broad global market over the past decade.

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Last week’s U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting suggested the world’s most important central bank was inching closer to tightening monetary conditions. This note considers the potential impact on bond yields and equity markets.
The Fed turns a little hawkish
The upshot of last week’s Fed policy meeting was that it signalled a likely tapering of bond purchases following the November policy meeting (which has long been my preferred timetable).

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With interest rates around the globe in low single digits, yield-hungry investors face the challenge of finding investment strategies that offer a satisfactory level of income. According to Trading Economics, there are currently around 50 countries that have an interest rate of 1% or below¹.

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Reading time: 4 minutes
With interest rates expected to stay low over the next few years and bonds delivering negative returns after inflation, traditional asset allocation for retirees may no longer work as well as it has in the past.
While the traditional 70/30 asset allocation split has served retirees,

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