Welcome to the October 2020 edition of Leyland Lines. The unusual paradigm in which markets have lived in the past 9 months continues unabated. The normal drivers of individual company performance (predominantly profits) are being largely ignored by the market and replaced by companies with an exciting ‘story’. The macro direction of markets is driven …
The month saw most ASX listed companies report FY20 numbers, with 75% of companies reporting a profit. This is the weakest outcome in a decade, but encouraging given the economic backdrop. On aggregate, earnings have fallen 37%. Some stand-out sectors are: Gold – strong demand and record prices as investors sort a hedge against …
The new financial year greets us with the same challenges and uncertainties of the last. The recent movement in the sharemarket has confounded the skeptics and perennial bears, but that is not to say there will not be more short-term volatility. The correct action is to acknowledge the market is impossible to predict with any …
Imagine for a moment that you personally own a large mining conglomerate which consists of: Iron ore and nickel operations in Western Australia Copper & base metal operations in Chile; Potash operations in Canada: Uranium, copper, gold and silver operations in South Australia: Offshore oil operations. Coal mines in Queensland; Imagine also that your company …
The catchy finance industry adage of “sell in May and go away” has not been financially rewarding in 2020. The banks are now benefiting from an improvement in sentiment – something almost unimaginable only last month or even last week. As stated by Burton Malkiel in his book Managing Risk in an Uncertain Era “Investors …
The adjectives used to describe the last month have been exhausted by the daily papers, so we’ll do our best to avoid these. Observations from the last month – some of which are contradictory: Spending on alcohol and tobacco has increased Spending on online gambling has increased General spending has decreased Newspaper subscriptions have doubled …
Our thoughts are with all our readers at this time. Leyland Private Asset Management is committed to doing all we can to help. Our portfolio managers are available on the phone or email to chat with you about individual companies, outlook on the market or anything else you may wish to discuss. As far as …
During February Berkshire Hathaway released its annual report, including the eagerly awaited annual letter from Warren Buffett. We produce an excerpt below which we believe will be of interest for our considered long-term investors: The Power of Retained Earnings In 1924, Edgar Lawrence Smith, an obscure economist and financial advisor, wrote Common Stocks as Long …
The last calendar year was one which confounded many of the sceptics who predicted market Armageddon during the meltdown in late 2018. Whilst not making light of the human, social and environmental costs of certain issues; many of these have very little bearing on long-term investment performance. Most recently, the ‘lightening rod’ is the coronavirus. …
Amongst the plethora of news, two factors appear to be impacting the market more than others: Trade war – impacting confidence The market has a strange habit of finding one lightning rod through which short-term movements are predicated; this time the short-term focus point is the current trade war/standoff between the USA & China. As …
