Suresh Rajan

THE performance of the Australian dollar against the US dollar since the start of this year has been ordinary at best. How much has it declined?

THE chairman of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, David Knott, has just announced a major investigation into the financial status of Australia’s unlisted solicitors mortgage investment schemes.

ONE of the most asked questions in recent days has been whether the glowing performances of the BT Funds Management team over the last few years has come to a grinding halt.

DAVID Shirlow says he is confused. What hope is there for those of us who are not the technical services associate director for Macquarie Funds Management?And what is confusing him?

The most important thing is to protect your capital:How often have we heard this phrase?

DREYFUS Securities in Bangkok sounds like a very plausible name for a securities dealer, doesn’t it?So thought the winner of the February Gull of the Month award on the Australian Sec-urities and Investments Com-mission.

THE Australian Bureau of Statistics survey of household spending patterns in Australia makes for interesting reading for manufacturers and importers.

AUSTRALIA can expect weaker growth this year, according to the Reserve Bank of Australia assistant governor, economics, Glenn Stevens.

THE fall in demand for properties in WA and the traditional summer surge of home listings has prompted Gavin Hegney, of Hegney Property Valuations, to suggest to home sellers not to list their homes for sale until next autumn.

THE December meeting of the US Federal Reserve was significant from a number of points of view.It was the first time in a little while that we saw the Fed actually move to a bias towards easing rates rather than raising them.

THERE will always be a debate between stockbrokers and property analysts as to which asset class will provide the best returns over a period of time.There is little doubt that Australian investors have favoured property over many years.

THE inflation figures released on Wednesday surprised a number of analysts with how low they were.

THE last few days have seen a stumble in the bond markets.The question analysts are contemplating is whether the rally on major bond markets is now officially over or whether this is simply a pause.

WA’s domestic economy is slowing quite dramatically.In the June quarter of 2000 the State economy grew by 0.4 per cent. In the September quarter, the economy contracted by 3.3 per cent.

FOR those of you who thought that the “tech-wreck” was over, it is still not safe to dip your toe in the water!Yahoo, once the darling of the “new media”, has just delivered the Internet sector a severe body blow.

THE BT Funds Management group have reviewed the year of 2000 and come to a view that it was a year of market contradictions.

There is little doubt that the real estate market in WA has slowed down to a crawl.Sales have evaporated and there is little activity occurring at the moment.

THE period leading up to December was a very unsure time for retailers in the Perth metropolitan area.

It is customary at this time of the year to examine the consensus views of where the markets are headed as well as the economic forecasts for the next 12 months.

THE Australian Stock Exchange will become more transparent to foreign investors when the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) is applied to itThe GISC consists of 10 economic sectors aggregated from 23 industry groups, 59 industries and 123 s

DID you know that:* 70% of Coca-Cola’s revenue is generated outside the USA?

BNP Paribas Equities has developed a new leading economic index for Australia.

THE BT Funds Management Time Fund was launched just prior to the “Tech Wreck” of April.

EVERY kilometre you go north of Mt Barker, the rainfall tumbles by 15.6mm from the town’s annual precipitation of 700mm.

THE Commonwealth and National Australia banks’ decision to cut home loan rates is something of a surprise given the market conditions.

THE slow-down in the US economy that had been expected for quite some time appears to be finally here.

DAVID Hale in his capacity as chief global economist for the Zurich Scudder group based out of Chicago has a keen sense of belonging to the Australian sharemarket.

AUSTRALIA’S average age has increased by 5.8 years in the last 20 years to 34.9 years.

THE trade balance for October stayed in surplus, much to everyone’s surprise.

THE Journal of Financial Planning in the United States recently published some statistics that made for interesting reading. It would be also a worthwhile exercise to examine these statistics for us here in Australia if they were available.

THERE seems to be a decided sense of agreement by economists about the direction of interest rates in Australia.

WE spend a lot of our time explaining what the term risk means.Generally advisers use the term standard deviation as the traditional measure of risk.