Hi all, A quick note to offer guidance on the new website. As well as the layout changes that make it easier to access content for new readers, it comes with a dramatically improved sign-up and resubscription process, greatly enhanced speed, and a much better mobile experience (since 95% of traffic is now phone!). The
Melbourne dwelling values have experienced zero growth over the past five years and have declined significantly this calendar year. This lack of growth relative to the rest of Australia has meant that Melbourne’s median house price is now tracking at historical cyclical lows compared with the other capital cities. This price discrepancy has made Melbourne
DXY is down and out after the dud BLS jobs report. AUD is up, conversely. The good and evil twins reversed. Gold is calling an end to the war. Oil not yet. Base metals yaawned. In my view, big miners cannot survive an iron ore rout. Copper be damned. EM stocks will enjoy a falling
The 2026 Statistical Review of World Energy, considered the gold standard in keeping track of what powers the world, was released last month and revealed that: Oil consumption hit a record high. Natural gas consumption hit a record high. Coal consumption hit a record high. Fossil fuels accounted for 86% of world energy supplied, with
The panic is gone, says TME. Weekend WTF charts Risk has been sucked out, panic has been totally âeradicated” and AI has barely re-grossed post the Leo Low. The unstoppable Republican-trade is rolling over. And Wall Street strategist signals still scream sell. Welcome to this somewhat schizophrenic weekend chart dump on positioning and sentiment. Risk
Ross Elliott from The Pulse argues that cities are undergoing a longâterm structural shift away from CBDâcentric office economies towards polycentric, suburbanâfocused urban systems. The shift has been driven by three primary forces. First, growth in finance, property, and business services â the sectors that fuelled CBD expansion in the 1990sâ2000s â has been slowing
It’s still hovering at maximum profitability. Steel has bounced a little, but it’s not sustainable. Inventories are plentiful. Demand is awful. Production is catastrophic. CISA late July shipments are still down 6% YOY at 1.86my per day. Exports of steel are down 4.4% YTD, which means a 5% fall in annualised output for the
The AFR recently produced the following chart showing the massive backlog of parent visas awaiting permanent residency: In the 2024-25 financial year, there were 157,000 parent visas in the backlog, up 52,000 from 2018-19. The Guardian published a sob story that thousands of people applying for Australiaâs parent visas are dying before their applications are
US nonfarm payrolls fell by 23,000 in July, far less than expected. The bulk of the drop came from declines in leisure and hospitality (-40k) and local government education (-50k). The latter likely reflects a negative contribution from seasonal trends around the school summer break, which seasonal adjustment did not fully capture. The three-month average
Here it is, in all its glory. The pact was signed in Mecca, not Riyadh, sending a clear message that it is partly about Islam. Itâs not much fun for sheilas, Israel, Iran, or the Kurds. One wonders what the alliance means for Israel’s Muslims, given Hamas is Sunni. Basically, Saudi Arabia is already at
In the years since the pandemic first arrived on Australia’s shores, there has been an often forgotten factor boosting the fortunes of the housing market: far less stock on the market for sale. According to figures from SQM Research, total housing stock on the market at a national level remains well below normal levels for
After 3.5 years of extreme immigration, which saw 1,100 net migrants arrive each day under Labor, the rise of One Nation has finally caused the Albanese government to pivot. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has already implemented minor measures to reduce net overseas migration (NOM), including: A 24% increase in visa application fees (effective July
The 60 day ceasefire enabling negotiation of a final deal on the Straits of Hormuz ends tomorrow week. And it doesnât appear we are in any way close to having a final deal. Watching on is almost the entire rest of the planet. There wouldnât be many nations without some sort of effect depending on
Cotality’s daily dwelling values index continues to fall across all major Australian capital cities. Over the past month, values have fallen by 1% at the 5-city aggregate level, with Sydney (-1.5%) and Melbourne (-1.2%) leading the decline and smaller falls recorded across the other major capitals. Sydney’s and Melbourne’s declines from peaks are now well
Every time another tech giant announces billions of dollars in spending on AI infrastructure, the same question comes to mind: are we witnessing the next great technological revolution, or simply watching another investment bubble inflate? It’s an understandable concern.History has shown that transformative technologies often attract more capital than they can ultimately justify. But after
The ethical investing boom has hit a structural wall. For years, super funds and fund managers have funnelled billions into “Sustainable,” “ESG,” or “Ethical” Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs). To the average Australian investor, these labels imply a clean conscience. But peel back the sleek marketing brochures, and you will find a different reality. Standard ethical funds frequently hold companies involved in
By Stephen Saunders Since 2006, Big Australia has sailed on through seven prime ministers. But Alboâs taken the numbers to a totally different level â likewise the denigration of his own people. Â After the December 2025 Bondi slaughter, Albo immediately ring-fenced mass migration. Overnight, he framed the âdebateâ as guns and antisemitism. Nobody blinked.
This week’s must-watch videos: UK energy expert Kathryn Porter delivers a warning for Australia: Great explanation of the coming Super El Niño: International Reading: Trump warned ‘once itâs gone, itâs gone’ as US has 43-day crude oil buffer – The Mirror Trump Brags Heâs Taking âBillions of Barrels of Oil From Venezuelaâ Because âTo the
New data compiled by The Guardian Australia from Housing Australia shows that 50,633 guarantees were issued in the first nine months after the Albanese government expanded the 5% deposit scheme on 1 October 2025. With the Australian housing market now experiencing a synchronised price correction, a significant share of these buyers would have homes that
The daily SOI has not deteriorated any further However, credible sources are issuing a steady stream of intensifying warnings. Meteorologist Ryan Maue is no shrinking violet. Government service: In 2020â2021, he served as Chief Scientist at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and later as Principal Assistant Director for Science at the White
Alex Joiner, chief economist at IFM Investors, posted the following chart on X (Twitter) illustrating the massive difference in goods (merchandise) exports between NSW and Victoria. As you can see, NSW goods exports have boomed over the past five years, driven by coal, which is the single largest export: According to the Parliament of NSW,
LVO is back at the coalface with a blunt pick today. The reality is that the expansion of data centres, which require a 24/7 power supply, is incompatible with the closure of baseload coal generators and the transition to an intermittent, weather-dependent system. This is an assertion and straw man argument, not logic. Of course,
AI data centres require continuous, stable 24/7 power, and the entire facility is engineered around that assumption. Even a brief outage of a few seconds can crash running training jobs, corrupt model checkpoints, or take thousands of GPUs offline. GPUs and accelerators draw extremely high, constant loads (often 30â60âŻMW for a large site), making stable
The ferrous complex remains under pressure amid mounting cross-currents. Topping the list is the decline and fall of Radiant World as it sinks into ignominy with its counterparties. Deutsche Bank AG and KBC Group NV have frozen some of the companyâs Singapore bank accounts, while some other banks have suspended credit lines… Two of the
Former senior Australian Treasury official David Pearl gave a fantastic interview on the John Anderson podcast where, among other things, he highlighted how economic policy in Australia has lost focus on growing the economy via productivity improvements and has become increasingly reliant on government spending and interference to drive growth. Below are some key highlights:
TME kicks us off. Market recovered. Leadership didn’t The Nasdaq has rebounded sharply from last week’s panic, but many of the market’s most sensitive AI trades are still struggling to confirm the move. Credit, high-beta technology and several former AI leaders continue to lag, suggesting the latest rebound remains narrower than headline indices imply. NASDAQ
