‘Markets are chloroformed’: ASX shrugs off recession and rallies to three month high

Devastating bushfires and the global pandemic brought Australia’s 29 consecutive years of economic growth to a sudden halt – not that the stock market seemed to mind.

The ASX200 rallied 106 points, or 1.8%, to close at 5,941 points, a three month high.

Investors seem unfazed by contracting GDP and are focused instead on the global recovery.

Matthew Sherwood, Perpetual’s Head of Investment Strategy Multi-Asset, says the market appears to have adopted a mindset where risk no longer matters.

“The market seems to be of the mindset that valuations don’t matter, debt doesn’t matter, geopolitical tensions don’t matter, and what is likely to be a pretty week recovery simply doesn’t matter, and it doesn’t matter as long as the economy is reopening and the stimulus from the central bank and the government is in the pipeline,”

“If that’s all good, markets are chloroformed, risks don’t matter in the near term and we’ll deal with that some other time,”

“It’s a pretty dangerous backdrop and a way to be thinking about investments and financial markets in general,”

Click play to hear the full interview between Matthew Sherwood and Brooke Corte: