Insights

Equity investors rejoiced in June as the Fed signaled it may cut interest rates, but interest rates do not drive long run equity performance - profits do. We take a look at why investors should spend less time thinking about or predicting what the Fed will do, and more time thinking about the purse strings controlled by Congress.

The RBA recently cut its official interest rate by 25 basis points to a record low of 1.25%.

Populism is spreading rapidly and globally, and becoming more aggressive in its implementation and execution. It traverses national borders and can infiltrate all political affiliations. It represents a huge challenge for modern liberal democracies, as the risk of populism is severe political and economic disruption and stagnation.

In this edition of Investment Perspectives, Chris Bedingfield highlights additional insights from MMT as it relates to the private sector and the external accounts (external trade and the current account).

In this article, 4D Infrastructure’s Peter Aquilina and Greg Goodsell review the US midstream sector and identify a number of changes underway which they believe will see the creation of real shareholder value over the medium term.

If you’re paying attention to US politics, you may be aware of an emerging new[i] economic theory supported by many US Democrats, including Congress ‘freshman’ Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. This economic framework is generally known as Modern Monetary Theory, or MMT.

Sarah Shaw, Chief Investment Officer and Global Portfolio Manager from 4D Infrastructure, examines the unique attributes that make infrastructure an asset class for all stages of the investment cycle, outlines 4D’s economic outlook for 2019, and explains why the actions of the US Federal Reserve will be key to how the year evolves.

Gyrations in equity markets over the past three months have been significant. After a -4.2% decline in December and -11% fall for the final quarter of 2018, global equities have recovered strongly, up 9.5% so far this year.

This is the sixth in our series of Trip Insights, where we share those experiences. It follows a trip during 2018 when Peter Aquilina, 4D Global Senior Investment Analyst, completed an extensive company engagement and calling program in the United States meeting with management teams from Oil & Gas Infrastructure, Regulated Utilities and Renewables.