The Future Made in Australia Policy The ‘lucky country’… The phrase “Australia, the lucky country” is frequently misunderstood. ‘The Lucky Country’ was the title of a book published in 1964 by noted academic Donald Horne. Far from being complimentary, Horne uses the term with irony, arguing that Australia’s abundance of natural resources has allowed us […] The post What happens when the luck runs out? appeared first on Betashares ..read more

A new dawn for technological innovation ChatGPT has alerted the world to the transformative potential of Generative AI (GenAI), capturing global media attention and sparking a massive AI arms race by companies. The global GenAI market is expected to grow to US$1.3 trillion in 2032 from just US$40 billion in 20221, an increase of more […] The post GenAI – How sustainable is this US$1.3 trillion energy guzzling new tech? appeared first on Betashares ..read more

Across Betashares’ range of ethical and impact ETFs1, in the quarter ending 30 June 2024, we voted at 254 shareholder meetings on 3,419 individual proposals. We voted FOR 2,658 times, AGAINST 623 times and withheld or abstained 138 times. We voted WITH management 2,690 times and AGAINST management 729 times. Among the proposals, we supported […] The post Proxy voting and company engagement Q2 2024 appeared first on Betashares ..read more

This information is for the use of financial advisers and other wholesale clients only. It must not be distributed to retail clients. We have now seen the first signs of a rotation in US equities. A trend of soft inflation prints has brought forward US rate cut expectations and the market is reacting. In the week following US June CPI print we saw: The Magnificent 7 down 7.3%, the S&P 500 Equal Weight Index outperform the S&P 500 Index by 4.2%, and the small cap Russell 2000 Index return 7.2%. Counter to conventional wisdom, the higher rate environment acted as a tailwind for the US ..read more

Building wealth through long-term investing is a well-established strategy. However, are you inadvertently hindering your own progress? Many investors begin confidently, selecting core ETFs and embracing a buy-and-hold approach. However, emotional triggers can arise – a negative news headline, a friend’s panicked advice. These external influences can lead to impulsive decisions like market timing or chasing fads, potentially derailing your long-term goals. In this article, we’ll examine the data to help you understand why leaving a high-quality portfolio alone to work its magic is a tried-and ..read more

This information is for the use of financial advisers and other wholesale clients only. It must not be distributed to retail clients. Having previously laid out the case for a quality investing approach in Australia, we wanted to examine the performance of Betashares AQLT Australian Quality ETF over the financial year just ended. As a refresher, in seeking a core portfolio of Australian companies with high exposure to the quality factor, AQLT holds a blend of the largest companies on the ASX along with the highest quality mid and smaller cap companies all weighted by their quality attributes ..read more

The Australian ETF industry ended the financial year on a record high, reaching the $200 billion mark in total assets under management after recording robust growth for the half year. We explore the numbers. The post Infographic: Shaping Australia’s $200b ETF Landscape appeared first on Betashares ..read more

Financial adviser use only. Not for distribution to retail clients. Welcome to Betashares Best & Worst for June 2024, bringing you insights into our top and bottom performing funds for the month, as well as a spotlight on some funds with interesting recent performance stories. The focus in June was once again on economic data, with soft US inflation, retail sales and unemployment numbers adding fuel to investor’s hopes for an imminent US Fed rate cut1. The news cycle was dominated by politics, with a left-wing election victory in the UK, right wing victories in the European parliament and ..read more

Bitcoin hit highs last week that haven’t been seen in over a month. The cryptocurrency, along with the broader crypto market, finished the week higher. Helping push prices higher was the increased likelihood of a second Trump presidency following the assassination attempt a week ago. In addition, a global IT outage caused by a software update by cybersecurity service provider CrowdStrike impacted many industries, but blockchains were not affected. Bitcoin and Ethereum were up 10.72% and 8.57% respectively, over the 7 days to 21 July. Bitcoin’s market capitalisation is up to US$1.31 trillion. T ..read more

Global markets Fears related to potential bans on US tech exports to China hurt global stocks last week, especially the US large-cap market darlings. As was the case the previous week, relative weakness in US large-cap technology stocks contributed to the ‘great rotation’ theme – from growth to value – permeating global markets. Meanwhile, the overall ‘soft landing’ theme, supportive of both bond and equity markets generally, remains firmly in play. The major global data highlight last week – in a relatively quiet week – was strong-than-expected June US retail sales, suggesting reports of the ..read more