March Investment and Lending Updates

With interest rates still on everyone’s minds, and the government looking to reinstate full interest deductibility on residential investment properties over the next year or so, we thought it timely to have a another chat with our Lending Specialist, Adrian Dale.

In this update, Adrian offers his insights on the headwinds and tailwinds for mortgage rates and house prices.

We invite you to watch the webinar below for further insights.

As a new financial year approaches, we start to look to the end of the KiwiSaver year (which runs 1st July to 30th June).

Trilogy’s Investment Specialist Chiti is a big advocate of KiwiSaver for investors and feels it is a no-brainer investment option for all Kiwis. What other investment gives you a guaranteed 50% return on your first $1,042 contributed in a year?

Trilogy deals with seven KiwiSaver providers (Booster, Milford, Generate, ANZ, AMP, Fisher Funds and Nikko AM). The latest addition to our list is Generate.

At Trilogy, we have the knowledge, skills, capabilities and tools to provide good quality financial advice to grow your savings to meet your goals.

Given this news, Chiti sat down with our paraplanner, Cam, to discuss the benefits of KiwiSaver, why Kiwis should be enrolled and how to maximise KiwiSavers benefits, including how your own contributions can impact your future balance.

This webinar is available, for your information, below:

Trilogy Webinar with Bevan Graham – Salt Funds Management

Bevan Graham, Economist for Salt Funds Management, has been a regular contributor to Trilogy’s webinars over the past few years and we are always grateful for his opinions and insights on what’s happening in the world.

Bevan sat down with Chiti to discuss his views on the outlook for interest rates in the US and NZ, the potential impact of this years’ geopolitical outcomes and what other risks the market could react to in the short-medium term.

Trilogy would like to thank Bevan for his time and invite our clients to view this webinar on our website for your information and entertainment.

Investment Update - January 2024

Market Update

2024 has been off to a great start for investors with the S&P500 and Dow Jones reaching new all-time highs and exciting investors at the notion that the next bull market has likely arrived.

The US economy is growing at a rapid clip, expanding 3.3% in the fourth quarter. It was much higher than the expectation of 2% from economists. The US economy was expected by many to go into recession last year, but this didn’t happen - in fact, the economy got 2.5% bigger.

The data underscores the continued resiliency of the US economy, despite interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve. US inflation also declined with the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index at 2.7% on an annualised basis, down from 5.9% a year prior.

Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, increased by 3.2%, down from 5.1%. Inflation from the service sector, which has been running hot, is back at 2.6%, the lowest since 2020.

 The NZX50 has also seen significant gains over the last couple of months but is significantly lagging the US on its return to peak levels.

However, this is a positive sign that rate hikes over the past few years have done their part to help get inflation under control, with slow growth an inevitability. Earlier this week NZ’s annual inflation reading came in at 4.7%. This marks a significant fall from its prior 5.6% result in September last year and a long way along the road back to the 1-3% RBNZ target range, from it’s 7.3% peak in June 2022.

These positive inflation results support economic forecasts that 2024 will be a year of interest cuts and monetary easing. However, the Reserve Bank will be wary of acting too quickly and creating an inflationary rebound.

But with banks starting to lower their interest rates, following the decline in swap rates seen in Q4 of 2023, there are plenty of signals that there is positivity ahead in 2024… at long last.

Staff Update

With the start of a new year, Trilogy is pleased to announce the return of a familiar face. Elodie has now returned from maternity leave and will be working Monday to Wednesday going forward as she balances a return to work with caring for her little boy, Mataeya.

Trilogy is thrilled to have Elodie back on board, as we are sure our clients who are familiar with Elodie will be, as well. Welcome back Elodie!