I joined the Equities discussion panel at Live Wire Live on Tuesday this week at the AG NSW. Guest convener, Matthew Kidman, probed the Good, the Bad and the Ugly as the setting for a market thematic discussion. The late Sergio Leone would have enjoyed the theatre and the discussion. For me:

– the Good: the great cost management performance that ASX Small-Mid Cap companies have been delivering in recent reporting seasons, including results posted in August. The art of successful cost-out strategies has forever been the domain of US corporates but today a growing brigade of ASX companies have been trailblazing here, none more so than JBH, RWC, IRE and BRG.

-the Bad: Energy markets-in all its forms. CYTD, the complex (including thermal coal, Henry Hub/TTF gas, crude oil and uranium markets) is off 20-30% as fears of a collapse in aggregate demand grow and traders curtail bets in the space. The seeds for a rebound from heavily over-sold levels might have been sown. 

– the Ugly: the parlous state of the Chinese property market, the lack action (re stimulus) from the central government and the PBOC and the continuing contagion afflicting commodity markets as a consequence.