Insights

The gaming solutions provider has delivered a robust set of numbers for the first half of FY15. More are to come.

We cease coverage of the two companies to look for better opportunities elsewhere.

With the best product on offer in the high-growth sector, this computer networking company is a compelling investment.

The oil & gas producer has been sold off amid the oil price plunge … But its prospects in the Cooper Basin remain bright.

This week we look at Qantas, Nine Entertainment, Harvey Norman, Suncorp and Cabcharge.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index has more than tripled since bottoming out at 676.53 on March 9, 2009. The bull has pushed through a U.S. debt crisis, an escalating conflict in the Middle East, renewed tensions with Russia over Ukraine and Europe's stagnating economy. So has this bull run its course?

While news of strong US job growth is good news for economies, it looks like triggering a downward adjustment in stock prices as investors adapt to the increasing likelihood of higher US interest rates.

What if you were exceptionally confident, indeed overconfident, in your investment acumen? You might invest your entire fortune in a single stock. Maybe you'd invest it all in a Canadian railway, as Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham, does. The railway goes bankrupt. The fortune disappears. The Crawleys must contemplate the sale of their beloved Downton Abbey.

A mini-Greece is about to go off in Europe's heartlands, and markets don't even know it

QE programs only have a real positive impact on an economy when markets are dysfunctional. This was clearly the case in 2008 in the US, but was not the case in both 2010 and 2012 and I don't think that the US central bank policy added much to the recovery once the global financial crisis had passed.

Payrolls rose by 295,000 in February and the unemployment rate fell to 5.5% in an unambiguous show of strength by the labor market.1 The strong payroll gains suggest the US economy continues to power ahead and the labor market continues to drive this growth. Less robust were the wage data, which showed that average hourly earnings of private-sector workers rose by 2% in February from a year earlier.

One of the biggest challenges for investors is to remain ahead of the curve, to anticipate changes rather than react to them after the event. It is much easier said than done because stock markets are forward-looking while the news agenda is at best focused on the here and now and at worst looking in the rear-view mirror.

Markets look set for a day of consolidation as traders mark time waiting for tonight's US jobs data.

European QE is finally here - better late than never. Importantly, Mario Draghi has left the door open to "do whatever it takes" as far as quantum goes. Euro currency debasement will likely be a feature for several years to restore competitiveness. At this point in the Eurozone, disinflation has taken a strong hold and outright deflation is on the cards.

In many ways, the current global monetary environment is quite extraordinary. There has been unprecedented money creation by the world's major central banks. Policy interest rates are negative across much of Europe. Long-term government bonds yields in most advanced economies are the lowest in recorded history. Lending rates for many private sector borrowers are the lowest ever. And some banks in Europe are now charging customers to accept deposits.

Falling US share prices overnight could not have come at a worse time for the Australian share market, at least from a technical point of view. After a failed attempt to rise through 6,000, the Australia 200 index finished yesterday finely poised just above the key 5,900 support level.