Weekly Wrap

One way to slow or halt stock market uncertainty is to call a holiday. Usually, that ends up being bad news because when trading resumes, the slide continues and even deepens. Regardless of what happens, for China’s shattered stock markets, the week-long break for the Lunar New Year couldn’t come too soon on Thursday.

January wasn’t the happiest of months for Tesla or Elon Musk.

The December quarter retail sales data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, released on Tuesday, sheds light on why investors warmly received the results and updates from Myer and Nick Scali, the Sydney-based furniture chain.

Toyota Motor Co has joined its fossil fuel peers – Shell, Exxon Mobil, and Chevron – in demonstrating the lucrative opportunities still available in the oil industry.

The Reserve Bank left its cash rate unchanged at 4.35% after its first meeting of the year on Tuesday. Nevertheless, it hinted at the possibility of rate hikes to control inflation, although it also suggested that further rate increases might not be necessary, depending on inflation and economic indicators.

In 2023, gold had a remarkable year with its price soaring above $2,000 per ounce and remaining at that level throughout the closing weeks of the year and into the first months of 2024.

China secured its position as the world's largest automobile exporter in 2023, surpassing Japan for the first time, driven by robust overseas sales of electric vehicles.

Welcome to the newish black hole in China. Usually, it's occupied by someone arrested for corruption or some other breach of security laws, which are all pervasive. This one, however, is called China Evergrande, and it's going to last a long, long time if the forecasts of analysts at the ratings group, S&P Global, are any guide.

The US Federal Reserve has opted to leave interest rates at a 23-year high, disregarding market expectations for a potential pathway to rate cuts.

In 2023, Toyota Group achieved a historic sales record, boosted by its subsidiaries Hino Motors and Daihatsu Motor, as well as a surge in sales from its luxury Lexus business, reaching a total of 11.2 million vehicles sold. This marked a significant increase from the 10.7 million vehicles sold in 2022.

Now, this will puzzle the Reserve Bank and all those 'rate rise looms' urgents still breathing in the markets and among the commentariat – as expected, retail sales in December fell after the Black Friday sales event boost in November. However, November was, in turn, weaker than first reported a month ago by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Netflix stunned; Tesla shocked. Now it's Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft's turn to perform for investors as the US earnings season reaches its climax in the next five days.

Is it another sign of a weakening job market with a 65,000 drop in new jobs last month, or will these losses be offset as they were three times last year?

What was more significant in China's steel production data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Wednesday: the annual increase in crude steel production after three years or the steep decline in monthly production in December to a six-year low?

In 2024, the market hasn't opened as enthusiastically as it finished 2023. Initially bullish and eager for the Federal Reserve's pivot towards potential interest rate cuts, the outlook has since become more restrained due to mixed data and pushback from Fed members.

The negative forces impacting the EV sector intensified last week, with Tesla unveiling another round of start-of-the-year price cuts in the fiercely competitive Chinese market.

This week, we'll witness key events, including US consumer spending and China's release of its 2023 GDP data. In Australia, market attention will focus on job data, while Princess Mary's ascent to Queen of Denmark holds more significance for Australians than the Davos talkfest.

A lot of publicity this month surrounds China's BYD topping Tesla in the global new energy vehicle stakes in the final quarter of 2023. However, what was not widely discussed is the intriguing success story of Elon Musk's company in the world's toughest car market.

In a major development for the cryptocurrency market, Bitcoin surged past $47,000, and Ethereum jumped over 10% in value after receiving regulatory approval from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs). This decision is expected to unlock billions of dollars in inflows into the world's largest digital currency.

Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting is scheduled for May 4 in Omaha, Nebraska, and it promises to be a historic event due to the absence of Charlie Munger, the company's long-time vice chair and friend of Warren Buffett. This year, Buffett will take the stage alone.

Inflation eased in December, ending 2023 at 4.3%, according to the monthly indicator from the Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday.

Despite two major earthquakes, typhoons, floods, and storms in New Zealand, the United States, and Europe, 2023 turned out to be a relatively 'good' year for the world's insurers, with losses and costs not too far from 2022.

Saudi Arabia and Russia's worst nightmares have just worsened: the US is now projected to become an even bigger producer and exporter of oil and gas over the next two years.

Sometimes, you wonder if bodies like the World Bank are in touch with reality. There it was on Tuesday, in its first report on prospects for global growth this year and next, moaning about weak levels of growth and lost opportunities over the past five years.