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There were so many ways to take the news, momentous as it was. Just imagine being that journo with a cameraman in tow, defying shrapnel bullets and stray rounds with a desperate dash down a shattered street into the remains of a building with a microphone ready to thrust towards the mouths of the occupants
International Reads: It turns out a lot of return-to-office mandates were meant to make workers quit – QZ Elon Musk warns ‘America is going bankrupt’ as interest payments on US debt ate up 76% of June’s income tax revenue – Yahoo These are America’s 10 worst states for quality of life in 2024 – CNBC
A minor taste of stability returned to risk markets here in Asia, although most share markets are still taking it tough after the mid week slump on Wall Street. Chinese shares remain depressed while local issues rallied hard into the weekend. The USD lost some ground against the majors after holding the high ground all
Independent economist Tony Alexander has published a detailed report on New Zealand’s economy and labour market, which is based in part on his latest business survey. Barely any jobs are being created at the same time as New Zealand’s population is growing strongly via immigration. And gauges of labour market plans and concerns show a
Data from property group Domain shows that the median house price in Brisbane has risen by 4% in the last three months to a record high of $976,464. Domain expects Brisbane’s median house price to reach $1 million within three months. The firm had forecast in April that the $1 million median price milestone would
Last month, Michael Fotheringham, a major immigration propagandist and managing director of the Australian Housing and Research Institute, touted group housing as a solution to Australia’s housing crisis. “We are consuming more houses for the number of people we have… The number of people per household is decreasing. Australia is increasingly becoming a nation of
I have criticised Bloomberg commodities analysis before. But today’s effort goes from bad to disastrous. Stock-market routs like Wednesday’s highlight the importance of portfolio diversification. While not suitable for all investors, commodities are looking increasingly cheap and uncorrelated to the equity market. Unlike stocks — which experience their worst drawdowns in a recession — commodities rally
Brainrot is the addiction to trivia from too much screen time. Meet your brainrotted PM: Jess Fox and Eddie Ockenden are veteran Olympians and incredible athletes, and they’ll do Australia proud as @AUSOlympicTeam flag bearers. Well done @jessfoxcanoe and @eddieockenden 🇦🇺 pic.twitter.com/of04ctEV9V — Anthony Albanese (@AlboMP) July 24, 2024 So, while Aussies are being raped
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported that Melbourne’s population increased by 1.7 million people (49%) between 2001 and 2023, primarily due to net overseas migration. The Victorian government predicts that Melbourne’s population will reach 9.0 million by 2056. If this objection came true, Melbourne’s population would have increased by 5.5 million in just 55
Earlier this year, the Australian Population Research Institute (Tapri) released a comprehensive poll demonstrating that Australian voters strongly oppose excessive immigration and a Big Australia. Tapri’s December 2023 national survey of 3000 voters (released in April 2024) reveals a sizable and expanding voting base concerned about immigration levels. 74% of respondents desired lower net overseas
The US is powering along despite a similar wind drought to the recent Australian experience. Why? Gas. U.S. natural gas-fired power generation jumped this week amid the lowest wind power output in 33 months seen on Monday while demand for cooling is rising in the summer. The US coal-to-gas switching strategy, which has converted rather
Melbourne is becoming an economic wasteland. According to data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), Victoria experienced a net reduction of 7,606 businesses during the financial year 2022-23. The rising cost of doing business in Victoria drove numerous companies to migrate interstate or internationally, with increased state taxes being one of the primary factors
Goldman wraps yesterday’s rate cut. The PBOC cut the 1-year MLF rate by 20bp with RMB 200bn liquidity injections this morning (July 25th). In our view, this move is a dovish surprise due to the unusual timing of the MLF loan extension (typically on the 15th of each month) and a larger-than-expected rate cut (vs.
All it took was breaking below $100, a Chinese rate cut and whoosh: Mad Dalian to the rescue: Coking coal not so much: Alas, Shanghai rebar futures kept falling, which is all that matters. Global pig iron output is not well, via World Steel: Global pig iron production by the blast furnace method amounted to
Wall Street was again the big downer overnight although a lot of volatility at the close shows the struggle between tech and industrial stocks as earnings profiles are quite different this season. European shares continue to take a hit as well while Euro moderated somewhat against USD as currency markets reduce somewhat in volatility despite
More volatility. The Market Ear investigates. NASDAQ – must hold coming up NASDAQ has traded inside a big trend channel since October lows. We have seen tech move from the upper part to the lower part of the channel in basically two trading weeks. We crushed the 50 day yesterday, and are taking out the
DXY is holding firm: AUD is being obliterated: North Asia couldn’t save it: Oil up, gold down: Copper is like a daily comedy show: Big miners dead cat bounced: EM false break? Don’t get too bearish. Junk is serene: Yields fell: Stocks down the lift: Credit Agricole wraps us up: According to our models, global
The Department of Home Affairs has released temporary visa data for the June quarter of 2024, which showed that there were 2,353,000 temporary visa holders in Australia, excluding visitors, at the end of 2023–04: This represented an all-time record for June and an increase of 220,000 on 2022–23 levels. As illustrated below by Justin Fabo
Earlier this year, CBA released data showing how Australians over 60 drove consumption spending across the Australian economy. As illustrated in the following chart, Australians aged 60 and over increased their spending by more than CPI inflation in the year to March 2024, whereas Australians aged under 60 cut their spending in real terms: Younger
Asian share markets all not quite in bath of blood territory but risk is spooked out there as traders weigh up a slowing down China amid a politically charged US and Europe not inspiring confidence either. There could be some upside tonight with better expected earnings for tech stocks for Wall Street, but that remains
Albert Edwards of Societe General with the note. The June US CPI data surprised investors not just because of the benign data but also because of the unusually extreme reaction it triggered within the equity market. To wit, smaller stocks surged higher but US Tech and the mega-cap ‘Magnificent 7’ took a blow. With the
IEEFA with the note. Iron ore’s demand profile set to change in response to steel decarbonisation The current pipeline of announced low-carbon steel projects sees nearly 100Mt of new DRI capacity coming online by 2030 (Figure 1). China already has two commercial-scale DRI-based steel plants up and running. DRI plants can run on green hydrogen rather than gas to
CoreLogic released its final auction results for last weekend, the most notable aspect of which was the collapse in Melbourne’s clearance rate to only Melbourne’s final auction clearance rate slumped to 57.2%, the second lowest so far this year, behind the week ending 9th June (55.6%). This is just the second time all year that
There was a big drop in tech stocks last night coupled with a number of reports circulating the blogosphere about how AI is a bust. The combination is worth reviewing – is this an opportunity to reload on technology stocks, or is it a pin in the bubble? In this week’s podcast Nucleus Wealth’s Chief
Goldman with the note. The US presidential election is less than four months away. The election outcomes will be consequential to asset markets globally, US-China relations, and China equity returns. We analyze the potential impacts on equities and identify possible winners and laggards in the case of a Trump victory (and market pricing of such
