Hedge Clippings | Friday, 25 June 2021
Hedge Clippings in Lockdown as the EOFY approaches!
Last week's Hedge Clippings referred to the Federal Reserve's warning that inflationary pressures would bring forward interest rate rises to 2023, and that equity markets would react accordingly.
Which they did - for one solitary trading session - and then it was back off to the races with the S&P500 scaling new heights, along with the Nasdaq which hardly even skipped a beat. The ASX200 didn't fare quite as well, thanks to the COVID outbreak in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs which is threatening to lock parts or all of the metropolitan area down, and dampen the complacency that seemed to be the norm just a couple of weeks ago.
If nothing else it might at least encourage more Sydney-siders to get vaccinated, which, when there didn't seem to be much risk of catching COVID, hadn't seemed to be much of a priority, and now provides them a better understanding of what Melbournians have been putting up with off and on for the past year or so.
Elsewhere cryptocurrencies have continued their wild swings, with Bitcoin falling below $30,000 (from over $60,000 in early May) momentarily as China announced a crackdown on crypto miners, and various central banks indicated an interest in the space - one way or another. While the volatility will damage some crypto fund's returns, others such as Digital Asset Fund (Digital Opportunities Class), managed a return of 28% for the month.
With equity markets still powering towards the end of the financial year next Wednesday, FY2021 results for the ASX and S&P 500 will re-write the record books, as 2020 and 2021 re-write the history books. To the end of May, the ASX200 Accumulation Index rose 28% over the previous 12 months, and the S&P 500 rose 40%, and the Nasdaq closer to 50%.
Against this backdrop, 95% of funds in the www.fundmonitors.com database have provide positive returns over the past 12 months to May, and 62% of equity based funds have outperformed the ASX200 over the same period.
When the results for June are tallied (and assuming no capitulation over the next few days), these numbers will no doubt result in some happy investors - and happy fund managers - at EOFY drinks.
In Sydney at least, without singing, dancing or shouting to celebrate!
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