Happy New Calendar Year!
Which for those of us in the Southern Hemisphere marks the half way mark in the Financial Year for the vast majority of our businesses (and ourselves personally).
We enter 2023 under the veil of a possible global recession in many developed nations and of course, lingering inflation concerns. With the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) not meeting to discuss interest rates until February, there will still be plenty to contribute to volatility before now and then.
As mentioned, January means we have passed half way for many companies, therefore we are due to receive their half yearly accounts (some delivering their full year accounts) in the coming 8 weeks. We will also see companies start to drip feed top-line sales and performance figures to the market in January. The market will be zooming in on margin pressure this time around, so there could be some volatility in pockets of the market based on cost pressures.
Also for all of you with a more cavalier approach to your share holdings, which include some of the lower ranked stocks on our exchange (Eg Junior Miners and Biotechs), they will be releasing their quarterly activities and cash flow reports. For these companies where costs have been rising, nervous investors will be watching cash burn to see how likely they are to be raising capital again. Their collective performance in the last three months suggest it will be sooner rather than later. We have already seen a number of cash hungry companies slammed by holders on account of cost blowouts. Some of which have put a halt to business activities as costs sky rocket.
So while many of you will find the lure of sun, sand, board shorts and thongs too strong to ignore, rest assured that there will be a lot going on through January. So make sure your beach spot has internet reception. Hopefully the only crashing you get to see this month are the waves against the coastline.
Week ended 30 December 2022
It was a relatively quiet trading week to finish off the calendar year due to the Christmas holiday.
In Australia and New Zealand we also had the Boxing Day holiday - which for all you young kids out there was our original version…
