The market in some sectors like Energy, Financials and Industrials is showing signs of recovery. Other sectors like Technology and Healthcare, that were stronger in April and May, are now softer. These are short term trends and don’t change our strategy in any way. Still looking for quality companies and also taking on some risk as you can see below in our 2 purchase entries [For members only].
In addition to in-depth company research and macro-economic trends, we also keep an eye out for CEO and Director comments. Here’s a snapshot of some relevant comments made recently both locally and overseas that reflect on the sentiment and market conditions.
Commercial Property
I think it’ll [COVID-19] definitely cut down on building and construction for offices
Stephen Schwarzman, CEO, The Blackstone Group
Domestic Property
We believe that the construction and housing sectors will emerge as one of the stronger and more resilient sectors within the economy. Housing has always been under-supplied, or at best, at equal demand
The unit market is going to be knocked around. Rental vacancies will climb because all of these [international] workers and students who come and live in apartments for a few years just aren’t coming anymore
Lindsay Partridge, CEO, Brickworks Ltd
Aviation
I am not optimistic that some of the [airlines] that are here today, and have already been significantly bailed out, will get through the next few months. A lot of the current fleet today is geared with debt through all sorts of financial structures. The notion that you will simply ground them and say that is OK, it is not
Tim Clark, CEO, Emirates Airlines
While there are glimmers of good news in our July schedule — we expect to be down about 75% versus 90% right now — travel demand is still a very long way from where it was at the end of last year and the financial impact on our business remains severe
Scott Kirby, CEO, United Airlines Inc
Retail & Shopping
Tenants have generally seen higher conversion rates and basket sizes than expected, with visitors returning for specific shopping objectives, resulting in better than anticipated sales impact relative to footfall
Market Announcement, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield
There has been an absolute step-change in online consumer behaviour during COVID. Some are asking: is it temporary or permanent? My view is absolutely it is permanent. We are seeing all e-commerce companies in Australia and worldwide reporting a surge in online shopping
Mark Kehoe, Managing Director, Gumtree Australia
Technology
Every single CEO and every single CIO [chief investment officer] I talk to has the same message, which is whatever digital transformation they have left has just accelerated thanks to COVID-19
Bret Taylor, COO, Salesforce.com Inc
Video is going to change everything about the communication, the way for us to work, live and play has completely changed
Eric Yuan, CEO, Zoom Video Communications
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a breeding ground for cybercrime. The past couple of months have represented one of the most active threat environments we have ever seen
George Kurtz, CEO, Crowdstrike Holdings Inc [global cyber-security software company]
Healthcare
We are really encouraged by the things [demand pickup] that we have seen in the month of May
Karen Parkhill, CFO, Medtronic PLC [world’s largest medical device company]
I would say this time, one of the things we see clearly is that countries around the world are really thinking about their [future] pandemic preparedness and how they might do things differently
Nicholas Gangestad, CFO, 3M Company
