Digital Finance Analytics (DFA) Blog

This is our latest weekly market update, where we check in the markets across the USA, Europe Asia and Australia and also cover commodities and crypto. This past week once again was full of swings, up earlier, then down, and then an upswing on Friday, though still to end lower once again across the week. … Continue reading "Remember Folks, Buy Low, Sell High – Especially Now!"

Another outing with Journalist Tarric Brooker, as we pick over the latest data, with a focus on what is happening in the real economy. We also discuss the real race many are running in terms of no real income growth, and the political and economic implications of this ahead. You can find Tarric’s charts at … Continue reading "Welcome To The Alternative Olympics: With Tarric Brooker"

Markets Are Clearly Confused. The S&P 500 closed sharply lower on Wednesday, suffering its biggest one day lost since 2022 as tech stocks nosedived following underwhelming second-quarter earnings from heavyweights Alphabet and Tesla. After the recent political machinations in America, with Trump in the ascendency, followed by the switch from Biden to Harris, the Trump … Continue reading "Buckle Up; The Markets Just Got Interesting!"

A new report from the Finance Industry Peak Body, UK Finance, which represents more than 300 firms in the UK, reveals that cash remained the second most popular payment method, after debit cards – with an estimated three million people still relying on it. Their research suggests 1.5 million mainly used cash in 2023, up … Continue reading "Cash Transaction Usage On The Rise (Despite The Banks’ Best Worse Efforts)!"

This is an edited version of a live discussion with Dr Cameron Murray, Independent Economist over at Fresh Economic Thinking. Fresh Economic Thinking is Australia’s newest think-tank, with independent and insightful takes on major economic debates. Cameron thinks economics could be much better than it is so he often writes very fine technical critiques of … Continue reading "DFA Live Q&A Replay: Is Super Really Super, And Other Economic Questions: With Cameron Murray"

In our latest show we pull apart some of the recent property spruiking, look at the latest numbers and deep dive into the gap between the “speak” from policy makers and the “reality” of what they do. As a result we underscore the need to go local, and not be misled by high-level waffle! http://www.martinnorth.com/ … Continue reading "Its Edwin’s Monday Evening Property Rant!"

Well, last week we got a glimpse of the vulnerability of global IT systems, including payment systems, the latest and perhaps most significant of a chapter of accidents, ranging from banks systems going down, through to disruption from floods and fire, when only physical payments in cash were accepted. US cyber-security firm CrowdStrike said it … Continue reading "Cash: Wake Up, Its The Antidote To Digital Dystopia!"

In our latest weekly market update, we start in the US, move to Europe and Asia and end in Australia as well as covering commodities and crypto, as a way of digesting all that has happened this past few days. This past week, was again packed full of contradictory signals, with World stock indexes falling … Continue reading "Just The Start As Markets Are Rocked By Rotations, BSOD, Politics, And More…"

The latest RBA bulletin, just released, contained a couple of significant articles relating to mortgage arrears and serviceability. The first, “Recent Drivers of Housing Loan Arrears” shows that Housing loan arrears rates have increased from low levels since late 2022, with banks expecting them to rise a bit further from here. High LVR and DTI … Continue reading "How Do We Know That Mortgage Arrears Are Now Rising In Australia?"

The ABS released the latest employment data today, and in response, investors have bumped up their bets on an August interest rate rise after the jobs market recorded another month of strong employment gains in June. As always there is a degree of numberwanging here, and the numbers are being flattered by the still strong … Continue reading "The Narrow Path Says Rate Hikes Are Coming In Australia!"