Insights

Bank shares have surpassed valuation metrics as investors continue to dive in for yield. Is this a viable strategy?

At current share price levels the clinical workflow company is a prime takeover target.

We review our recommendations for these three stocks following their half-year results.

With activist investor Dan Loeb agitating for change, the Japanese robotics company could finally begin returning its sizeable cash pile to shareholders.

Reporting season is revealing a new thematic for investors to capitalise on ... A positive outlook for retailers.

The potential for a temporary agreement on funding Greece's debt is likely to see the stock market open on a firm note this morning. The extent of investor enthusiasm towards the news on Greek debt may be limited by its temporary nature and ongoing uncertainty.

After a shaky start, the ASX200 has firmed up about half a percent, buoyed by the Financial, Property and Discretionary Sectors. The big four banks have pushed up from the open and the much watched Commonwealth Bank traded near the $90 level, springing off its lows.

When markets are said to be "climbing a wall of worry" it means they're rising despite mounting negative sentiment. I suspect the renewed concerns about Greece's debt crisis may be such a situation. As I wrote in my February commentary "Bull's Buck Is Not a Bust," I believe Greece may ultimately prove a distraction, which hasn't altered my view that European equities still have upside potential this year.

A quiet but important regulatory change happened last month when APRA's new Liquidity Coverage Ratio took effect, making it far more expensive for financial institutions to offer investors deposits of less than 30 days. But the reason is more fundamental and impacts all term deposit rates, not just short-term.

The stock market heads into the final day of a busy week with a broadly neutral macro setting from international markets.

In the last five years, the public's affinity for ETFs raised assets under ETF management by 152 percent, to $2 trillion, up from $793 billion. Mutual fund assets only rose 53 percent during the same period.

Nobel Prize-winning economist Robert Shiller told CNBC on Wednesday he's thinking about shifting his personal money away from U.S. stocks. The Yale University professor said on "Squawk Box" he has about half his portfolio in stocks. "I'm thinking about getting out of the United States somewhat. Europe is so much cheaper."

Over the last couple of months we have been looking for an opportunity to invest more directly into the European equity markets and we have now initiated on this view; implementing an allocation of between 1.2% and 8.6% depending on the portfolio risk weighting

Given that valuations at the start of the year were already above-average and earnings expectations are barely positive, one could only put the early 2015 Australian share rally down to central bank policy, both domestic and foreign. The February RBA rate cuts and reductions in 13 other countries and a QE in Europe has reignited the global search for yield and increased demand for our higher yielding securities in both equity and bond markets.

Futures markets are indicating a soft start to trading today. The key question is whether the international investors who are the marginal buyers of Australian shares will be active. With the Australian dollar still around 78 US cents and 93 Japanese yen, the answer is probably yes, bringing the potential for further moves towards the six thousand mark for the Australia 200 index.

Most funds aim to track and/or outperform a "benchmark" index. For example, an Australian equities fund may be benchmarked against the S&P/ASX200 index. The reality is, a majority of fund managers don't beat their benchmark index, and here's two reasons why...