Insights into our corporate health

Equity markets traded with an unfamiliar level of volatility during August as investors contended with a deluge of information, both international and domestic. Global growth concerns have heightened in tandem with an escalation in the US-China trade dispute. This has resulted in the US yield curve inverting between the 2-year and 10-year durations (usually a sign of an impending recession), and we now have over US$14tn in global bonds trading with negative yields. In fact, in an historical first, a Danish bank recently launched a negative interest rate mortgage where loans to homeowners are being charged at minus 0.5% per annum! Against this uncertain backdrop, many of our local listed companies were also active, releasing their earnings results. This is an important time for investors as we get greater insight into the financial performance being achieved by our companies and, of equal relevance, their views on the outlook for the economy and their business in particular.