1 January 2024
Where are we in the Cycle?
Of the five PortfolioDirect cyclical guideposts, two are flashing
‘amber’ and three have turned ‘red’. Sluggish pre-pandemic productivity
growth, now exacerbated by war in Europe, intensifying trade restrictions
and reversal of the post-2020 central bank liquidity surge, has re-emerged
as a constraint on raw material demand expansion. A rising US dollar, one
previously overt negative factor, has stalled after a modest reversal of
prior gains. Supply side constraints in metal markets have become less
severe. The cyclical positioning has been characterised as a ‘downswing’
phase.
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Market Directions
Withdrawal of unprecedentedly supportive monetary and fiscal conditions
and erosion of the value of income and savings by surging inflation have
stemmed speculative capital flows connected to retail investors.
Professional money, by continuing to discount a recession, has provided some
market relief but surging costs of capital are placing a cap on equity
values. While heavily hyped energy storage innovations are stoking sector
interest, they are yet to affect metal demand meaningfully. Metal price risk
premiums have risen without correspondingly beneficial impacts on related
equity valuations. New tax incentives are diverting capital for mine
development and downstream processing capacity to sponsoring nations.
Persistence of a 1990s-style investment performance - when modest sector
equity price gains occurred in the midst of sometimes highly disruptive
macro conditions - remains the underlying theme.
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Portfolio Performance and Positioning
All development categories posted gains in the past week. The number of
advancing stocks exceeded the number declining in each category. Phase I
companies suffered relatively heavy losses in December while Phase III
stocks made a similarly sized gain. Phase I returns remain the most
threatened by ebbing speculative capital flows attributable to macro
conditions. The same companies would likely display the greatest leverage
to expectations of an eventual monetary policy easing and may also deliver
value-enhancing discovery opportunities uncorrelated with market
conditions. Although further along the development path and closer to
profitability, Phase II companies carry risks arising from relatively high
indebtedness and heavy reliance on execution success in sometimes unfamiliar
markets. Performance within the Phase III category is more likely to be
driven by capital allocations responding to longer term views of changing
macro conditions and cross sector valuations, both primary concerns of
institutional fund managers. More...
Stock Reviews and Rating Analysis
PortfolioDirect rating reports analyse the quality and risk
attributes of proposed mineral developments. Rating criteria apply to mining and oil and gas stocks at any stage of
development. PortfolioDirect uses a five point rating
scale to measure the risk adjusted quality of proposed mineral developments
or companies.
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The 'Steak or Sizzle' blog provides summary judgements on
the top performing ASX-listed resources stocks.
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