Source – JANA, FactSet The Australian equities market (S&P/ASX 300 Index) rose 0.3% in January, with mixed performance across sectors. Real Estate (-4.1%) and Industrials (-3.1%) were the key detractors. The top performing sector was Consumer Discretionary (+4.8%), which was driven by strong retail sales from Covid-19 beneficiaries. Financials (+2.3%) also outperformed, driven largely by the big four banks which benefitted from positive global macro news and new loan growth. Large Caps (0.7%) outperformed both Mid Caps (-1.1%), Small Caps (-0.3%) and the broader index (0.3%). Australian REITs (-4.1%) underperformed both the broader equity market and Global REITs (-0.5%). US equity markets declined over January with the Federal Reserve warning that the pace of the US economic recovery had weakened. Despite this news, the US equity sell off towards the end of the month is best explained by abnormal retail investor activity. As small and heavily shorted stocks rallied, some hedge funds were forced to close out their short positions and sell some of their long positions in order to raise capital, resulting in a modest, technically-driven market sell off.