FNArena’s Weekly Insights – September 04 2023
In this week’s Weekly Insights:
-Outlook Negative, With Plenty Of Silver Linings
-Conviction Calls & Best Ideas
By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck, Editor
One of the stand-out features of the August results season has been the resilience of household spending in Australia, which proved pivotal in keeping the balance of the season skewed towards not-as-bad-as-feared outcomes from discretionary retailers in particular.
But to me the bigger issue that surfaced throughout the month was how vulnerable our traditional defensives turned out to be in the face of higher input costs, skilled labour shortages, rising wages, rent increases, and costlier debt.
Ahead of August, I worried about extreme volatility and relentless punishment in case of perhaps only mild disappointments. That inkling has certainly been proven correct. On UBS‘s assessment, August 2023 has been one of the most volatile and challenging reporting seasons in local history.
