February Monthly Market Update - GPS Wealth

Destination Wealth and GPS Wealth present the February 2026 GPS Wealth Monthly Market Update. These updates from our licensee group assist us with strategies and give context to investment decisions.

Although share markets were stronger in February, conflict in the middle east since the end of the month resulted in sharp downward moves in early March. Financial markets remain extremely headline-driven, with the safety of shipping through the crucial Strait of Hormuz the primary barometer for risk sentiment. Brent crude oil prices are back above USD 100 a barrel as Iran's new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, warned that “the lever of the Strait of Hormuz must certainly continue to be used.”

It is now more important to focus on how higher oil and gas prices will feed inflation expectations in the near future and more for the record that I write about financial market performance for the month of February. The Australian share market as represented by the S&P/ASX 300 Accumulation Index returned 3.9% in February. Global shares as represented by the MSCI World Index increased a more modest 0.8%. The Australian 10-year bond yield fell from 4.80% to 4.64%, however once again this changed suddenly in early March as the conflict in the middle east erupted. At the time of writing, the interest rate moved sharply higher to 5% in turn sending property trust and infrastructure company share prices lower due to the sensitivity to interest rates. Bonds yields in the US and the rest of the world have also moved sharply higher. In the US, bond yields were heading  lower in February as interest rate markets were forecasting an easing of monetary policy in the US with lower inflation likely because of a somewhat weak labour market.

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