“The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as in escaping from old ones.”
– John Maynard Keynes
Market commentary
April 2nd Liberation Day tariff announcements dominated markets in April. The MSCI World fell 12% over the next 5 trading days, and subsequently bounced from one announcement to the next, ending the month not far from where it ended March.
Closer to home, the Australian market fell far less, dropping 7.5% from April 2nd highs. Once the Bill Ackman inspired 90 day tariff pause was announced on April 9th, the Australian market rebounded to a 3.6% gain in April. This points to the make-up of the Australian market, with many of the largest listed companies relatively immune to tariff-driven volatility. CBA for example rose 10%, incidentally making it the world’s most expensive bank, trading at 27 times earnings, almost double that of global banking giant JPMorgan.