FLAU News and Press, Franklin FTSE Australia From 07/01/22

The global economic outlook has deteriorated sharply; we now expect GDP growth to be well below potential in 2023. While the near-term economic outlook is challenging, not all downturns are catastrophic - unlike those during the pandemic and global financial crisis. The economic o...

Global equity markets outside of the United States are completing a second negative quarter, with the MSCI ACWI ex US IMI Index down 11.33% in the three months through June 24. Looking at the major regions, China and other Asian emerging markets are completing a difficult quarter, wit...

Recession fears and central-bank tightening are driving market volatility. Markets have faced a laundry list of concerns this year, including new COVID-19 lockdowns and an economic slowdown in China, the Russia-Ukraine war, surging inflation, and central-bank tightening. We think ...

Recessions have gone from being a potential consequence of high inflation and rapid monetary tightening to an increasingly likely scenario. A wrath of economic indicators are expected to confirm the trend of weakening business activity. The gas stand-off with Russia isn’t e...

Australia, Japan, and Singapore are the few markets within Asia Pacific that have achieved full liberalization of their power markets. Singapore, with the highest share of thermal capacity within its power mix, has been hit the hardest, followed by Australia where thermal generation m...

The construction industry has not been so resilient. The ongoing shrinkage has meant that the construction sector in Australia has not meaningfully contributed to Australian GDP growth since 2018. The current macro setting is not a bad one for construction, though on balance we wo...

Aside from the Bank of Japan, major central banks are in a hurry to tighten financial conditions even as a cyclical slowdown weakens demand. The Bank of England hiked its base rate by 25 bp, but increased its inflation projection and warned of more forceful action if necessary. Th...

The majority of global 10-year benchmark notes hit 3-year yield highs early in May after central banks around the world began to tighten monetary policy. Across Europe, inflation has soared, as the region continues to deal with the impact of the war in Ukraine and supply chain issues ...

While the easing of COVID-19 disruptions in Japan and Australia supported the sustained growth of services business activity, both countries saw manufacturing sector trends deteriorate midway into the second quarter amid heightened supply chain constraints. The deterioration of manufa...

It’s been another turbulent week in financial markets and there’s nothing to suggest it’s going to ease up any time soon. This week we may have got a clue as markets went into risk-averse mode and the dollar slipped while yields declined and gold rallied. Are rece...