Anthony Macdonald

I'll bring in a question here from Brendan, James, because I think it's very relevant from a bunch of conversations that I had on the sidelines.

And he asks...

What is a defensive stock these days for when times look tough?

I remember being told to view defensive as when the going gets tough, the tough go smoking, drinking, gambling, eating fast food and end up in hospital.

But all the stocks in these sectors on the ASX, so we're talking Aristocrat, Collins Foods, Cochlear, CSL, Domino's, Endeavor, Star, Metcash, Woolworths, etc., seem to be shaky at best.

Do defensive stocks still exist or is it just a label companies will out if the economy gets worse?

What's yours?

I think investors are rethinking how defensive some of these companies' earnings actually are.

So if you look at that list, I mean, some of them are just on the wrong side of changes in society that seem like they're going to be hard to slow, like Domino's Pizza, for example.

I mean, how many $5 and $10 pizzas and people shopping for $5 and $10 pizza, that cheaper end of the pizza spectrum, how many of those are out there?

I'd argue there's a lot fewer than there used to be for exactly the same reasons we spoke about in the interest rates category.

James, it feels like there's more money out there.

Endeavor, people are drinking less.

It owns Dan Murphy's, BWS and a bunch of pubs.

Alcohol consumption is on the way down.

It's a global trend.

That's just a fact.

Star Entertainment, you've got governments that are clamping down on casino operators, making it really hard for them to make the money that they used to.

How defensive are those earnings now?

So I think, you know, for a variety of reasons, just the companies that had defensive qualities, maybe they're just not as defensive as we always thought.