Insights

The IPO pipeline is filling up with several large floats planned for 2015, as Australia's first medical marijuana stock debuted on the ASX.

European and US sharemarkets rose on the back of the ECB's announcement of its €1.1 trillion bond-buying program, while oil prices continued to tumble.

The ECB's move is likely to worsen uncertainty in the troubled region and discourage European governments from embarking on much-needed reforms.

Where there is crisis, there's often opportunity -- and crude oil's tumbling fortunes are a case in point.

Australian investors with a long-term view would do well to navigate international waters for opportunities, but they'll have to withstand volatility in the near term.

The European Central Bank announced an expanded asset purchase programme at its meeting on 22 January 2015. The size of the programme and that it was open-ended beat market expectations and shows the ECB is determined to fight against the prevailing force of deflation and to raise inflation expectations.

Five years is a long time in financial markets, for companies, countries and investors. It feels as though the rate of change in the last five years has been particularly rapid (although perhaps it always does). That is certainly true of emerging market equities as an asset class, and the changing nature of the benchmark (the MSCI Emerging Markets Index) is an interesting lens through which to view this change.

The highlight for December was almost certainly the stunning collapse in oil prices, which was associated with further weakness in the Australian dollar.

Ever-increasing public pressure from a fed-up citizenry has seen pollution skyrocket to the top of the government's list of priorities.

Fuel surcharges are a PR exercise designed to shift blame for higher fares away from the airlines, but the reality is that consumers have been getting a great deal at airline shareholders' expense.

The Aussie wind farm developer has paid for the anti-wind farm lobby to take its best free shot at linking wind turbines to health woes - by cherrypicking 6% of the data from three households, it's got its answer.

Falling oil prices offer a window for countries to implement carbon taxes, which are probably superior to cap and trade schemes. And one way to circumvent the politics might be to tie a tax's implementation to a low oil price.

The industry has historically refused to put panels on south facing roofs yet they still produce 75% of the output of a north-facing panel. It's an awful lot of real estate and opportunity we can't afford to pass-up.

Chairman Vickki McFadden was wise to tread carefully in her rejection of Programmed's proposed merger but the market's reaction suggests Skilled's smaller competitor may not return with the terms she's looking for.

If not addressed, China's shrinking labour force could have calamitous social and economic implications.

While illegal downloads do not equate directly to lost sales and do create new audiences, these alternative income streams have their limits. Online piracy is killing our creative industries.