The last full trading week of 2025 is shaping up as an incredibly busy one right across the world. In the US, delayed jobs and inflation reports will take centre stage, despite both likely being subject to data quality issues due to the shutdown. Central banks will also be in focus, with monetary policy decisions…

As 2025 draws to a close, let’s reflect on a challenging, volatile, yet fruitful 12 months for investors. We started the year with Donald Trump being inaugurated as US President for the second time. Investors knew tariffs were on the cards, but his “Liberation Day” announcement in early April was still a shock. World shares…

The focus this week will be on central bank decisions, with the main event to be the Federal Reserve on Thursday morning (NZ time). Closer to home, the labour force report for November is due across the Tasman, while the September quarter manufacturing survey will be of interest here in New Zealand. Subscribe or follow…

Predicting investment returns isn’t easy. Nobody can do this with accuracy, regardless of their experience, intellect or resources. However, when the collective crystal ball gazing from some of the world’s leading investment firms is collated, it’s worth a look. US-based Horizon Actuarial has done just that with its annual survey of capital market assumptions. If…

Wholesale interest rates increased to more than three-month highs in the wake of the final RBNZ decision of 2025. The NZ dollar also rose strongly against most trading partners, as markets speculate the central bank is done cutting the OCR. Should we worry about that, or is it a good thing the RBNZ might be…

After a very strong period that has seen global sharemarkets hit new highs, volatility has returned. Despite economic activity holding up well, concern over high share prices and the booming AI space has seen optimism turn to caution. Even a better-than-expected earnings release from tech heavyweight NVIDIA couldn’t turn things around. The S&P 500 index…

A big week looms here in New Zealand, with the main event set to be the Official Cash Rate (OCR) decision and Monetary Policy Statement (MPS) from the Reserve Bank on Wednesday afternoon. Markets see a cut of 0.25% as a certainty, while pricing implies about a 50/50 chance of an additional cut beyond that,…

Last month the NZX 50 index hit a fresh record high, finally surpassing the previous peak from January 2021. It was a long time coming. Other sharemarkets recovered from their post-COVID hangover much more quickly, but we’ve taken almost five years. At first glance, this would all suggest that our market has regained all its…

There’s a lot to watch this week, including a string of delayed US economic releases. However, these might all be overshadowed by the world’s most important stock. Tech heavyweight and AI poster child NVIDIA is scheduled to release its latest quarterly earnings report on Wednesday in the US. Subscribe or follow for the latest insights,…

It was a “risk-off” week for global markets, with most indices slipping as investors became more nervous about extended valuations across parts of the US market. The local NZX 50 bucked the global trend with a small rise, while the NZ dollar continued to drift lower. It fell to US$0.56 against the greenback, the lowest…