Investing

Sustained growth in wages and income must be underpinned by sustained improvement in worker productivity, in order for domestic businesses to maintain global competitiveness. Countries with greater relative export competitiveness tend to also have stronger currencies — and a higher standard of living — over the longer term. And the underlying driver for productivity gains is an educated and skilled workforce.

The biggest news that reverberated around the world last week was with out a doubt the US presidential election, in which former president Donald Trump won. And won convincingly — with a strong mandate to govern, as Republicans are now also in control of the Senate and likely the House of Representatives (control had yet to be determined at the point of writing but it was tilting towards Republican). The US has shifted hard right.

Outlook 2025: Elevated inflation, interest rates and valuations + moderate gains in growth, productivity and capital returns. Where and what to invest in?

As we head towards the end of the year, it is, in line with tradition, time to reassess the global economic situation and lay out our expectations for the parameters that would guide investing decisions for 2025.

Americans will head to the ballots today to vote for the 47th President of the United States, and most polls are predicting a close race between Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.

How and why did Malaysia Airlines (MAS), the flagship carrier and pride of the nation, end up being the disaster that it currently is, after multiple bailouts that cost taxpayers tens of billions of ringgit? Khazanah Malaysia is reported to have sunk RM28 billion into MAS between 2000 and 2020 and had, at end-2020, committed to put in RM3.6 billion till 2025.

The table scores globally listed luxury brands using financial metrics The Edge Singapore considers important for quantitative analysis. These eight companies are bellwether names in the luxury industry and are assessed using the following quantitative aspects:

Foreign capital, as an external source of funds for investments, plays a vital role in driving economic development, especially for emerging countries where there are likely limited savings relative to the amounts required to rapidly grow their economies. This much is obvious.

The Malaysian property sector recovery remains intact based on the most recent available statistics. Residential property sales (by value) are rising nationwide, on the back of increases in both volume demand and prices, and — this might come as a shock to many — underpinned by improving home affordability, contrary to popular misconception that is often perpetuated by the media and even government authorities. At the same time, unsold units are decreasing, boosting homebuyer confidence in the sustainability of this recovery and overall sentiment for the sector.

In investing, the “house” does not always win because some betting companies may be unprofitable or suffer from quantitative and qualitative pitfalls. For the odds to be favourable, investors should stake their bets on companies with favourable financials. To assess whether a company has favourable financials, investors should attempt to understand the business first by conducting qualitative analysis, followed by quantitative analysis, or vice-versa.

Time flies. Tong’s Absolute Returns Portfolio has just turned six months old, in what certainly seems like the blink of an eye. Still, plenty has happened in the global markets during this relatively short time, including bursts of high global market volatility — for instance, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index dropping sharply between mid-July and early August before quickly rallying to fresh record-highs — and, of course, the much-anticipated US Federal Reserve’s kicking off of the interest rate cut cycle with a big 50-basis-point reduction.