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Hedge Clippings | Friday, 20 January 2023 Welcome to the first edition of Hedge Clippings for 2023. Firstly, good riddance to 2022, which for most investors and the majority of fund managers was a year they'd happily forget. The cause of most of the damage was the sharp increase in interest rates, triggered in turn by an outbreak of inflation, as noted by L1 Capital in their December performance report:
The last sentence reveals why so many funds struggled in 2022. No one expected an inflationary break out, thus market expectations - including those of central banks - for rates rises were subdued, to say the least. Throw in the unexpected invasion of Ukraine in February, plus turmoil in China, and it's easy to see why only 29% of the 700+ funds in the FundMonitors database, (including the above mentioned L1 Capital's Global Long Short Fund which returned 9.8%) provided positive returns for the year, and less than a quarter of all equity funds managed to outperform the ASX 200 Accumulation Index. Put bluntly, central banks, including our own RBA, and economists were caught looking in the wrong direction, and thus fund managers had to readjust to the new environment, which by the last quarter of the year many had managed to do. The ASX fared better than most global markets, falling 1.08% on an accumulation basis, while the S&P500 was down 18%, and the NASDAQ fell 33%. Unusually in times of equity market turmoil, bond markets didn't provide a safe haven. Looking forward, it seems inflation, while still a major issue, may have peaked in the last quarter of 2022, particularly in the US where it dropped to 6.45% in December, down from 9.06% in June. Meanwhile, in the UK the December annual inflation figure was 10.5%, down slightly from 10.7% the previous month. That may allow central banks to ease off on further rate rises, but we are unlikely to see rates fall until much later in the year, by which time the looming recession will have been confirmed. So while the path ahead is not going to be easy, and is still uncertain, hopefully, there are less unknowns: The war in Ukraine will drag on, and hopefully not escalate further. China remains a 50/50 bet, although a far cry from the economic and political juggernaut it seemed to be a couple of years ago. COVID, whilst remaining a threat thankfully seems to be receding or at least becoming more manageable. Of course, thinking that the bad news is already out there is dangerous - the unexpected is always just around the corner. But compared to this time last year, surely markets are more prepared for what might lie ahead? |
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News & Insights Market Commentary | Glenmore Asset Management Market Update | Australian Secure Capital Fund December 2022 Performance News Glenmore Australian Equities Fund Argonaut Natural Resources Fund 4D Global Infrastructure Fund (Unhedged) Insync Global Quality Equity Fund Bennelong Long Short Equity Fund Quay Global Real Estate Fund (Unhedged) |
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