All the news today is about the record one-day slide in the share price of Facebook, now rebranded Meta. But not all technology companies are doing it tough. Indeed, after the market closed overnight, Amazon just reported its fourth quarter result with the share price jumping 14 per cent initially. Amazon’s profits nearly doubled during the Christmas holiday season.
After two years of largely uninterrupted asset price gains, January provided a rude awakening for many investors, as equity markets around the world took a tumble. And it wasn’t just profitless tech stocks that took a beating.
In response to recent trading updates, the share prices of many listed retailers have been hit for six. With retail sales falling short of expectations, supply chain disruptions, and the risk of excess inventories, some investors have been spooked, and have headed for the exits.
With global markets pulling back sharply over recent days, it was pleasing to see the positive trading update by Codan Limited (ASX:CDA). The company – which makes communications, metal detection and mining technology – has been a significant contributor to The Montgomery Fund’s performance for a long time.
Business loan books are growing at their fastest rate since the GFC, as firms start investing again and government support is pared back. One lender that is making hay is small business loan specialist, Prospa Group (ASX:PGL). Prospa is well positioned for accelerating revenue growth, and has a strong balance sheet to fund its growth.
City Chic Collective (CCX. ASX) provided a better than feared 1H22 trading update highlighting strong sales outperformance against a challenging trading backdrop, plagued by rapidly rising COVID-19 infections and ongoing global supply chain disruptions.
The Montgomery Fund (The Fund) closed an impressive 2021, outperforming the S&P/ASX 300 Accumulation Index by 7. 61 per cent, after fees. Over the year The Fund also paid a solid distribution at 30 June and a smaller one at 31 December, which collectively represented approximately 4.
In this video Gary Rollo joins Macquarie Telecom Group (ASX:MAQ) Chief Executive, David Tudehope at their data centre in Macquarie Park to discuss the site plans and the benefits and synergies of one single data centre campus as well as the latest developments from Macquarie Telecom.
Given the sell-off in bond yields so far this year, rising inflationary expectations, and the collapse of the Evergrande Group in China, it is unsurprising many global share market indices took a breather and recorded a relatively lacklustre December 2021 half-year in terms of performance. Of the major markets the Hong Kong Hang Seng Index was down 18.
A year ago, I wrote an article in The Australian which set out the factors I thought would make it a very good year for equities. So far, the local market has behaved as expected – despite all the turmoil in the world – with the All Ordinaries up 13.
