How populism may impact financial markets

There is growing evidence of increasing populism in the world today. We would argue President Donald Trump was elected on both occasions in part due to this anti-politician narrative. Then more recently one of the most recognisable cities and potentially a poster child for capitalism New York elected Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani as Mayor. His … Read more

Gold and oil – The big questions

QUESTION 1 – Oil markets are in contango. What do you make of this – excess supply concerns or demand concerns which, reading between the lines, could be signaling increasing recession risks? Firstly, we consider many indicators when looking for cues on impending recession risks and of course oil is a widely followed one. With … Read more

The upcoming US midterms & macro themes

U.S. President’s approval rating As investors start to look towards 2026, there is a key event which will take place toward the end of 2026 – the U.S. midterm election. Leading up to and the result of this midterm election could have a material impact on the economy and financial markets. U.S. President Donald Trump … Read more

Earnings season…

It has been a busy month and half with companies from around the world (with a particular focus on the U.S.) and Australia providing an earnings update. Perhaps more importantly investors were interested in hearing managements’ commentary on the current trading environment and their twelve-month outlook statements. While share prices may bounce around over the … Read more

Quick update: Thoughts on CSL valuation

CSL is well owned across Australian investor portfolios, including Banyantree Australian Core Equity strategy. The recent share price decline has caused us as much angst as anyway else. CSL’s recent share price decline and overall trend over the past 1 year (price down from ~$310 to $220) has raised a few questions. In our report (attached … Read more

Gold – is it still worth it?

On gold, the question we are not asking is whether the price will go up or down and concerns around the price being at an all time high. The question for us is more a portfolio construction and diversification one. Do we believe gold [as perceived by the market (remember: in our view history rhymes … Read more