This week markets finally lost their patience with the turmoil that has engulfed the Trump White House, in the process seeming to discount the prospects for tax cuts and deregulation that had fuelled momentum in US markets after the election in November. Ironically, there is now some momentum behind the move to impeach the president, though that still remains an unlikely prospect at this time. More importantly, the confidence that tax cuts, deregulation and an infrastructure program will be delivered is greatly diminished. At this point the pull-back remains relatively modest given the size of the rally, but this obviously remains a very fluid environment.
With all eyes on Washington the Australian unemployment data had only a limited impact on our local share market. The April data showed a strong increase in new jobs and the headline unemployment rate fell to 5.7%. Also this week wages growth was steady, but remains at historically low levels. This is a key metric in which we are looking for improvement, but for now we need to be content with no further slowing.
PORTFOLIO TARGET EXPOSURES
The Individually Managed Account portfolio structure allows for variability between individual portfolios that are allocated to the same Investment Program. This ability to genuinely treat you as an individual and account for your preferences is the cornerstone of the portfolio service. When we make a decision as an investment committee we necessarily think in broad terms across all portfolios, and of course we take a long-term view in our forecasting. However, when we come to implement that decision the portfolio management team uses the discretion afforded under the IMA to account for factors such as minimum trade sizes, your tax position and guidance from your Adviser to optimise the trading activity and portfolio outcomes.
PORTFOLIO ACTIVITY
With weakness in the market this week we made purchases in the Financials ETF (OZF), ASX 50 ETF (SFY) and the Property ETF (MVA) focusing on newer accounts being brought to target.
Internationally we made purchases in the Asia Ex-Japan ETF, Japan Topix ETF, Europe Ex UK ETF and the emerging markets ETF.