Equities

The U.S. economic week ahead report for the first week of September covers U.S. factories, trade and jobs, with market commentary.

The gold spot price (per ounce) soared from ~US$1,780 to ~US$1,974 over July as second wave fears of COVID-19 remained the prevailing market narrative.

We recap some of the profit reporting season highlights from the third week including Flight Centre (FLT), Johns Lyng Group (JLG) and Macquarie Telecom Group (MAQ).

We recap some of the profit reporting season highlights from the second week including Bendigo and Adelaide Bank (BEN), Domino's Pizza (DMP) and Integrated Research (IRI).

The consensus on the gold price had become almost universally positive. We had also noted over the last few weeks that silver had finally begun to outperform gold – one of the last elements that had been missing from the bull market landscape and signalling to us the further maturation of positive gold market sentiment.

During the month of July, a total of $886m in new contracts were announced by companies in our index. This was a strong result and was underpinned by $550m of contract wins from DOW across Roads, Electricity, Oil & Gas and Iron Ore.