News

The Australian regulator has removed the restriction for banks to cap shareholder dividend payouts at 50% of profits from the start of 2021.

The US Federal Reserve held its last meeting for the year this morning, and the Fed decided to keep interest rates unchanged in its December meeting after slashing them to near-zero in an emergency meeting in March due to the fast-spreading coronavirus.

The dispute between NZR and ZEL moved up a notch yesterday.

We are constructive heading into 2021 given the backdrop of cheap money and an economic recovery boom. However, we remain cognizant of risks such as issues with vaccines, higher inflation/interest rates, and central bank / government policy missteps.

The US FDA formally approved emergency use authorisation for Pfizer and BioNtech’s Covid-19 vaccine over the weekend. 

NZ Cabinet has agreed in-principle to establishing a travel bubble with Australia within the first three months of 2021. The arrangement will depend on there being “no significant change” in the Covid-19 situation in both countries, and the bubble getting

Global markets continued to rally on Friday (S&P 500 index +0.9%) with major US market indices hitting all-time highs and small-cap stocks outperformed.

A rally in cyclical stocks that has propelled global benchmarks to record highs in recent weeks lost momentum on Monday, but the Nasdaq hit another high as big tech stole the show.

A key sentiment indicator for US stocks has reached its most bullish level in two decades.