1. Are we ever gonna see the office back again…
Covid is becoming a distant memory now, but it seems so too are days spent in the office for a lot of workers. CBD office vacancy rates have risen to their highest level since 1996, according to the Property Council of Australia’s biannual CBD office markets update.
Source: Property Council of Australia
2. Paying up or down…
We’ve all heard about the rising costs of insurance. But it depends on what you are trying to protect against.
Chubb, held in our S3 Global Opportunities Fund, is a good proxy for the general market as one of the biggest US insurers. Their premiums are up nearly 13% in the 2nd quarter alone.
But if you are looking to buy some downside protection in the S&P it has never been cheaper. Since Bank of America started collecting the data in 2008, it has never cost less to protect against an S&P drawdown in the next 12 months. Specifically, the 1-year SPX 95-75% put spread offers around 8x max payout.
Source: Chubb, Firetrail
Companies mentioned are illustrative only and not a recommendation to buy or sell any particular security.
Source: BofA, Evans
3. Tips for the weekend…
Global oil consumption has hit record highs. We are consuming 102.5 million barrels per day. Above the previous high of 102.3 million barrels per day in August 2019. Or in other terms, we use enough crude oil to fill about 6,500 Olympic-size swimming pools every day. More than a third of those swimming pools would be needed to quench the thirst of two countries; the US and China. So our first tip is fill up your car this weekend! Petrol and Diesel pump prices have a way to go to catch up with where the oil price is.
Source: Bloomberg, International Energy Agency, JODI, ElA
Source: Edison Research