Economic and investment
Economic and market developments
In the latest economic update, Brian Parker explains what’s been happening in financial markets and how they have fared over the last month.
He focuses on a few key topics:
- The slowdown of world sharemarkets in April,
- The Australian economy growing at below expectations causing the RBA to respond aggressively by cutting the cash rate by .5%,
- How the Australian economy's performing, and what it means for interest rates; and
- How equity markets still offer reasonable medium-term return prospects but it is still an uncertain environment and,
- What all this means for investors.
View the latest economic update video here.
Download the latest video script.
Investment briefings
You can find out about some of the latest issues facing investment markets by reading our investment briefings below.
MLC Investment Briefing - November 2011 - Uncertainty in Italy scares markets
MLC Investment Briefing - August 2011 - Making sense of a volatile world
Investment briefing - August 2011 - Common Sense Prevails - Sort of
Previous Investment Briefings
- Jan 2011 - The great experiment (PDF, 155KB)
- Nov 2010 - What the future holds (PDF, 143KB)
- July 2010 - Too much, too soon? (PDF, 1,864KB)
- May 2010 - Recent Market Volatility and MLC Performance Update (PDF, 74KB)
- May 2010 - Europe does shock-and-awe (PDF, 40KB)
- May 2010 - Spendthrifts, super-savers & currency cheats (PDF, 51KB)
- March 2010 - MLC Prospective Real Return Potential (PDF, 158KB)
- February 2010 - The Wall of Worry is covered in Olive Oil (PDF, 47KB)
- January 2010 - What a difference a year makes... but is it really over? (PDF, 138KB)
- August 2009 - Lights and tunnels (PDF, 51KB)
- May 2009 - Soul Searching (PDF, 35KB)
- March 2009 - The challenge of investing in desperate times (PDF, 316KB)
- March 2009 - Confessions of a contrarian (PDF, 41KB)
- February 2009 - Navigating uncharted waters (PDF, 45KB)
- December 2008 - Thinking the unthinkable (PDF, 50KB)
- September 2008 - Debt Deflation
- July 2008 - Gen - Y gets its recession? (PDF, 43KB)
- June 2008 - What's going on with commodity prices? (PDF, 60KB)
- April 2008 - History rhymes - where we are, how we got here and where we're going (PDF, 34Kb)
- February 2008 - Russian Roulette (PDF, 119Kb)
- January 2008 - Crisis fall-out - what next? (PDF, 136Kb)
For previous briefings, please speak to your MLC Representative.
MLC Viewpoints
MLC Viewpoint - December 2010 - Ireland's woes continue to highlight further bumps in the road (PDF, 318KB)