1. On a high!
The Australian stock market is at nine month highs and November so far has turned out to be the best month ever for the ASX 200 Index. During yesterday’s trade, our market was only 6.7% off the all-time high reached before the Coronavirus came to town, which means we’re close to wiping out the dramatic stock market losses back in February and March. Government stimulus, low interest rates, Wall Street giving the Biden victory a tick, success fighting COVID and great vaccine news explains this market rebound. This will deliver very good news for our super funds.
2. Honey, I shrunk the contraction
The Australian economy in April was expected to contract by 10% but by June it was down to 4.5%. Our economy could even end up shrinking by less than that, given our latest run of economic data.
3. Hey, big borrower
The Brits are set to borrow 394 billion pounds this year or 19% of GDP, which is the highest level in peacetime history and it gets down to failing the Coronavirus fighting test. The British economy is forecast to contract by 11.3% this year, according to the Office for Budget Responsibility. As of Wednesday morning, the U.K. has recorded more than 1.5 million cases of Covid-19 and 55,935 deaths and is currently in lockdown until December 2.
4. I’ll use my super for my first home deposit
Young Australians might one day be able to borrow the deposit for their first home at 0% from their own super funds. That idea that has come out of the Government’s Retirement Income Review that could be at the heart of a super political war that might end up being the battlefield for the next federal election. Stand by as the Industry Super sector and Labor fight this idea, while the Morrison Government could soon test the waters with the voting public.
5. Dow and S&P ease back from record highs
The Dow Jones closed back below 30,000 on Wednesday after falling 173.77 points or 0.58% to 29,872.47. The S&P 500 moved 5.76 points or 0.16% lower to 3,629.65, while the Nasdaq gained 57.62 points or 0.48% to end the trading day at 12,094.40.