Investors in Woodside Energy Group Ltd (ASX: WDS) shares have seen a significant return year to date.

The Woodside share price has risen 67.58% since the start of the year, closing Tuesday’s trade at $36.75.

So how much money would I have now if I had invested in this ASX energy share to kick off 2022?

What would this investment be worth?

Let’s imagine I had invested $10,000 in Woodside stock at $21.93 a share, its closing price on 31 December.

I would have received 455 Woodside shares with $21.85 left over.

At today’s closing price, my holding would be worth $16,721.25.

But wait, there’s more. Woodside also paid dividends this year. In fact, Woodside paid a dividend of US $1.09 (AU$1.60) per share in October. In addition, Woodside paid a dividend of US $1.05 (AU$1.46) in March.

My 455 Woodside shares would have, therefore, delivered me with a dividend payment of $1,392.80 during the year on top of my gains from the rising share price.

All up, including dividend payments, I would have made more than $8,100 before tax from my $10K investment in Woodside at the start of the year.

Looking at the bigger picture for Woodside, the company’s shares have experienced a few highs and lows but have not fallen below their 2021 closing price.

Woodside shares hit a yearly high of $39.16 on 7 November. On this day, my initial investment would have been worth $17,817.8 plus the $1,392.8 in dividend payment.

Overall, if I had invested $10,000 in Woodside at the start of this year, I would be very happy with my investment.

Woodside share price snapshot

Woodside shares have soared nearly 71% in the last year, but have fallen nearly 4% in the last month.

For perspective, the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) has gained 0.64% in the past year.

Woodside has a market capitalisation of about $69.8 billion based on the current share price.

The post If I bought $10,000 Woodside shares at the start of the year, how much would they be worth now? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• Leading brokers name 3 ASX shares to buy today
• Is the Woodside share price cheap following its recent dip?
• 5 things to watch on the ASX 200 on Monday
• What happened with the Woodside share price in November?

Motley Fool contributor Monica O’Shea has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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Some ASX dividend shares could pay strong enough dividend income that they could start building their investors a second income.

Certainly, there are more ways to benefit from owning shares than just capital growth. Dividends are also a great way to benefit from the profit growth that businesses are achieving in the form of attractive real cash returns.

Businesses that pay dividends or distributions quarterly can be a good source of regular income. Below are three examples I think could be good income contenders, spread across an investment of $5,000.

Charter Hall Long WALE REIT (ASX: CLW)

This is a real estate investment trust (REIT) that owns a diversified portfolio of properties across Australia including distribution centres, Bunnings Warehouse properties, service stations, telco exchanges, agri-logistics, offices for blue chip tenants, and so on.

What links all the properties is their tenants are signed on for long-term leases. This provides income security for the ASX dividend share. It has a weighted average lease expiry (WALE) of 12 years.

Around half of the leases are linked to CPI inflation, with the average forecast rent increase being 6.3%. The other half of the leases are fixed with an average increase of 3.1%.

After a 16% decline in the Charter Hall Long WALE REIT share price since the end of April, the guided distribution of 28 cents translates into a forecast distribution yield of 6.3%.

Rural Funds Group (ASX: RFF)

Rural Funds is a unique REIT in that its portfolio is farmland properties. They are spread across a number of sectors including almonds, macadamias, vineyards, cattle, and cropping (sugar and cotton).

The business aims to grow its distribution for investors by 4% per annum, which can compound nicely over the years.

I think farmland is a very useful asset because of how integral food is to humanity. Farms have been productive assets for centuries and I believe this will continue for many years to come.

Like Charter Hall Long WALE REIT, some of Rural Funds’ rental income is linked to inflation, while a large portion of the rest is a fixed 2.5% annual increase.

The business is also able to grow rental income by investing in productivity improvements at its farms. These can unlock more rental potential and improve the value of the farm. The company also makes the occasional acquisition.

The Rural Funds share price has dropped more than 20% since the beginning of 2022, so the guided distribution for FY23 amounts to a 5% yield from the ASX dividend share.

GQG Partners Inc (ASX: GQG)

I think that GQG is one of the most promising fund managers on the ASX. It offers a number of investment strategies including global shares, US shares, and dividend income. The fund manager is geographically expanding, which opens up more growth avenues.

A key investment focus for the GQG team is “forward-looking quality”. It aims to identify ongoing competitive advantages so that it can gain clarity on the durability of future earnings. It also looks to invest for at least five years.

During FY22, it was able to demonstrate that its investment strategies had outperformed their respective benchmarks over one, three, and five years.

Its funds under management (FUM) statistic continues to perform well, and the ASX dividend share is still experiencing solid FUM inflows. FUM at 31 October 2022 was US$83.8 billion, up from US$79.2 billion at the end of September.

The fund’s own investment team is among the largest investors in GQG shares, so they are very aligned with regular shareholders regarding its success.

GQG looks to pay out approximately 90% of the company’s quarterly distributable earnings as a dividend.

Commsec estimates suggest that GQG could pay an annual dividend of 11.6 cents per share in FY23. That translates into a forward dividend yield of 8.1% after a 20%-plus fall of the GQG share price since mid-January.

The post Here’s how I’d invest $5,000 in ASX dividend shares to earn a second income appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• Why I’m buying ASX shares in this once-in-a-lifetime market to try and retire early
• Experts name the ASX dividend shares for income investors to buy now
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• Experts name 2 ASX 200 dividend shares to buy
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Motley Fool contributor Tristan Harrison has positions in Rural Funds Group. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has positions in and has recommended Rural Funds Group. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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The S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) fell on Tuesday amid the Reserve Bank of Australia’s latest rate hike. The index closed the day 0.47% lower at 7,291.3 points.

The central bank put forward an eighth consecutive rate hike today in yet another bid to tackle inflation, which sat at 6.9% at last count. The benchmark interest rate is now 0.25% higher at 3.1%.

Weighing heaviest on the ASX today was the S&P/ASX 200 Information Technology Index (ASX: XIJ). It slumped 2%. That’s perhaps unsurprising given rate hikes are particularly hard on non-profitable companies – a brief many of the market’s favourite tech stocks fit.

The S&P/ASX 200 Energy Index (ASX: XEJ), meanwhile, lifted 0.1% despite falling oil prices.

The Brent crude oil price fell 3.4% to US$82.68 a barrel, while the US Nymex crude oil price dropped 3.8% to US$76.93 a barrel.

The S&P/ASX 200 Materials Index (ASX: XMJ) slipped 0.8% today, while the S&P/ASX 200 Consumer Staples Index (ASX: XSJ) and the S&P/ASX 200 Utilities Index (ASX: XUJ) lifted 0.2% and 0.5% respectively.

All in all, four of the ASX 200’s 11 sectors closed higher today. But which stock took out today’s top spot? Keep reading to find out.

Top 10 ASX 200 shares countdown

Coal favourite Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX: WHC) led the way today, gaining 2.7%. That’s despite no news having been released by the company.

Today’s biggest gains were made by these shares:

ASX-listed company	Share price	Price change
Whitehaven Coal Ltd (ASX: WHC)	$9.81	2.72%
Fletcher Building Limited (ASX: FBU)	$4.77	2.58%
Coronado Global Resources Inc (ASX: CRN)	$2	2.56%
Orica Ltd (ASX: ORI)	$14.92	2.33%
Nufarm Ltd (ASX: NUF)	$6.18	2.15%
New Hope Corporation Limited (ASX: NHC)	$5.77	2.12%
IPH Ltd (ASX: IPH)	$8.75	1.74%
Medibank Private Ltd (ASX: MPL)	$2.93	1.74%
A2 Milk Company Ltd (ASX: A2M)	$6.39	1.59%
Virgin Money UK CDA (ASX: VUK)	$3.23	1.57%

Our top 10 shares countdown is a recurring end-of-day summary to let you know which companies were making big moves on the day. Check in at Fool.com.au after the weekday market closes to see which stocks make the countdown.

The post Here are the top 10 ASX 200 shares today appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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• 7% dividend yield! One ASX 200 share to buy in December and hold for 10 years
• Here are the 3 most heavily traded ASX 200 shares on Tuesday
• Here’s why the Beach Energy share price is diving 6% on Tuesday
• Why Domino’s, New Hope, PolyNovo, and Telstra shares are pushing higher today
• What’s in store for the Woolworths share price in December?

Motley Fool contributor Brooke Cooper has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has recommended Iph. The Motley Fool Australia has recommended A2 Milk and Iph. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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The iron ore price is currently US$109.50 per tonne after a 2.8% gain overnight. There has also been a 23.7% boost over the past month, according to Trading Economics data.

This has lifted the fortunes of many ASX mining shares, particularly the iron ore pure-play Fortescue Metals Group Limited (ASX: FMG).

The Fortescue share price is up 25.4% in a month — almost exactly the same increase as the iron ore price.

Other ASX iron ore shares are also up substantially over this period. The Rio Tinto Limited (ASX: RIO) share price is up 21% and the BHP Group Ltd (ASX: BHP) share price is up 16%.

Creating this new share price buoyancy is China finally easing restrictions under its COVID-zero policy.

This has meant some manufacturers have been able to resume work, thereby raising demand for iron ore.

Australian exports have increased this year but this is partly to do with Brazilian exports declining.

Brazil is our chief competitor in the global supply of iron ore. But the 2019 Vale mine disaster continues to impact the country’s production. That has meant more market share for Australia.

What happened to the iron ore price in 2022?

The iron ore price has fallen from a 2022 peak of about US$160 per tonne in March this year.

A big reason for this fall was China’s COVID-zero policy, which shut down many industries for lengthy periods during 2022. Lockdowns can obviously kill an economy pretty quickly.

Things are getting back to normal now as protests over continuing lockdowns put pressure on the Chinese Government to relax the rules.

But don’t expect the iron ore price to go flying much further. In the short term, ING commodities strategist Ewa Manthey expects iron ore prices to soften.

In a recent article, Manthey says:

There is more downside ahead for iron ore as there are fears that China’s strict zero-Covid policy is here to stay in the near term, despite the recent easing of Covid restrictions …

We believe the short-term outlook remains bearish with sluggish demand from China suggesting that prices should trend lower.

How much will the commodity be worth in 2023?

ING expects the iron ore 62% Fe price to slide to $US85 per tonne in the first quarter of 2023.

It expects a slight improvement to about US$90 per tonne throughout the second and third quarters. This is based on expectations that China will further ease its COVID-19 restrictions.

The iron ore price could rise to above US$95 per tonne in the final quarter of 2023.

Why is ING predicting a lower iron ore price next year?

There are a few factors on both the demand and supply sides of the equation that are likely to reduce the iron ore price in 2023.

On the supply side, the three biggest miners in Australia have built new mines in recent years and are now ramping up production.

The largest is BHP’s 80mtpa South Flank mine, which began operations in 2021.

There’s also Rio’s 43mtpa Gudai Darri mine, which commenced operations in June this year, and Fortescue’s 30mtpa Eliwana mine, which came online in 2020.

According to Manthey:

These new projects, along with some expansion projects, could add to the downside pressure on prices.

[Australian] exports are forecast to increase by 3.1% in 2022-23 to reach 903mt and rise by 3.8% to 937mt in 2023-24, according to Australian trade data (Department of Industry, Science and Resources).

Looking ahead, we should continue to see the ramping up of supply from new projects in Australia, along with Vale continuing to target an annual production capacity of 400mtpa.

On the demand side, Manthey says China may continue to cap crude steel output. Plus, it’s looking to replace older steel capacity with electric arc furnace capacity as part of its decarbonisation plans.

She says:

Growth in electric arc furnace (EAF) capacity at the expense of basic oxygen furnace (BOF) capacity will be a concern for the medium to long-term outlook for Chinese iron ore demand.

It also suggests that we have already seen China’s iron ore imports peak in 2020.

The post What’s the outlook for the iron ore price in 2023? appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

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More reading

• Fortescue share price dips despite green hydrogen milestone ‘worth celebrating’
• Up 20% in a month, can the BHP share price continue it’s run in December?
• I’d aim for a million by buying just a few ASX shares
• Up 30% in a month, is it time to cash in some chips on Fortescue shares?
• Here are the top 10 ASX 200 shares today

Motley Fool contributor Bronwyn Allen has positions in BHP Group and Fortescue Metals Group. The Motley Fool Australia’s parent company Motley Fool Holdings Inc. has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool Australia has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. This article contains general investment advice only (under AFSL 400691). Authorised by Scott Phillips.

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