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
Just when you thought that Australia’s housing correction couldn’t get worse, Cotality has revised its dwelling values index downward, meaning that values have fallen more sharply than expected. Let me explain. Cotality’s daily dwelling values index, which tracks home values across the five major capital city markets, has recorded a 3.8% quarterly decline at the
In a classic scheduling error, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released the August quarter consumer price inflation (CPI) report a day after the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) raised the official cash rate by 0.25%. Tuesday’s media release from the RBA accompanying its 0.25% rate hike noted that “inflation remains elevated and some of
Australia ranks near the top in the world for household wealth. According to the UBS Global Wealth Report 2026, Australia had the third-highest median household wealth in the world, after Luxembourg and Belgium. However, real estate makes up the majority of Australia’s household wealth, unlike most countries: Australian housing values have increased relentlessly over the
Remember the days when this mattered? China unveiled mortgage subsidies and changes to bank lending policies, stepping up efforts to support an economy losing momentum. The country will subsidize interest payments for homebuyers on some cheaper homes nationwide. First-home buyers will get subsidies worth an annualized rate of 1 percentage point of the mortgage principal
TME with the great mystery. Refusing to break Rates keep screaming, but stocks keep refusing to break. Semis have been hit hard, yet earnings and AI capex remain firmly intact. The broader equity market is showing similar resilience, with earnings doing much more of the heavy lifting than price alone suggests. Meanwhile, the rates shock
Treasurer “Spin” Jim Chalmers defended the federal government’s inflation record ahead of Tuesday’s 0.25% rate hike from the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA). Chalmers insisted at a press conference with Finance Minister Katy Gallagher on Monday that the war in the Middle East, not government spending, was driving inflation. “We have an inflation challenge in
DXY is stalling at resistance, but EUR will push it through all things equal. AUD was hammered again. It is starting to get stretched versus the Chinese mothership but can go lower still if it feels the urge. The twins are falling in tandem. Nibble on gold here? No growth problem in metals. Big miners
War headlines today. The US and Iran are talking through Qatar. Iran bombs two ships in Hormuz, including one Kuwaiti VLCC. Yanbu resumes half of its export capacity. Trump mulls lifting Russian sanctions. IEA mulls release of 40mb from strategic reserve. Note, nobody else is offering. The net result was a big day of oil
Contained within the 352 pages of the latest ‘Intergenerational Report’ (IGR) from the Albanese government is a series of forecasts on how Treasury and the Albanese government believe the next 40 years will play out. More than a few are overly optimistic, but few are as poorly grounded in reality as the cost projections for
Australia’s housing market is facing its biggest decline in more than 40 years, with values already down by 5.9% since April across the five major capitals. Tuesday’s 25 bp rate hike by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) took the official cash rate to a 15-year high of 4.60% and will add around $120 per
As widely expected, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) unanimously lifted the official cash rate (OCR) by 0.25% at today’s monetary policy meeting, taking the cash rate to 4.60%—a 15-year high. The RBA media release was hawkish and noted the following: “Inflation remains elevated and some of the upside risks flagged in August are materialising.
Victoria is commonly regarded as Australia’s most poorly managed state, with massive debt, soaring crime, endemic corruption and waste in infrastructure projects, potholed roads, degrading public services, and the mainland’s high unemployment rate. A new comparative analysis by economist and former fund manager Maurice O’Shannassy has also ranked Victoria the most mismanaged state in the
Energy tsar, Chris Bowen, is right. Climate Change and Energy Minister Chris Bowen has unleashed a mammoth attack against Australia’s ageing coal-fired power plants, warning their frequent unplanned outages are making electricity bills dearer as he prepares to lead pre-COP talks in the Pacific. Mr Bowen, who has travelled to Saudi Arabia and India in
South East Queensland (SEQ) is now leading Australia’s house price downturn. According to Cotality’s daily dwelling values index, home values in Brisbane (including the Gold Coast) have declined by 1.5% over the past month, the sharpest decline among the major capital city areas: Brisbane’s auction clearance rate is also the weakest among the three largest
Wall-to-wall panic over interest rates today as the RBA readies another hike. News. AFR. The Oz. The Age. SMH. Herald Sun. Buy bonds, anyone? Reasons to do so: The RBA tightening has front-run global central banks. Aussie growth is falling away faster, led by house prices shitting the bed. Jobs market too. AI counter-revolution exploding
Australia has run one of the strongest immigration programs over the past 20 years, growing the nation’s population by an extraordinary 37% between 2005 and 2025, easily outpacing other advanced nations: The Economist Magazine last week argued that many advanced economies are experiencing slower growth because productivity is weak while immigration is high. In wealthy,
DXY is paused at recent highs. EUR the opposite. North Asia is stalled. Adding more pressure to AUD. Gold was liquidated. Brent futures are a headline windsock. Dated is the version that matters. No growth shock in base metals yet. Big miners are less reassuring. EM stocks OK. But not for long, as junk falls
War headlines today: Iran and the US are talking. Iran and the US are not talking. Iran claims 19 ships were attacked in Hormuz. UKMTO says zero. Houthis bomb Yanbu and Jazan. Who knows? It’s all fog of war now. What we can say for certain is that Dated Brent is still indicating extreme physical
As falling housing prices continue to spread to more and more markets across the nation, the eyes of the public and of property analysts is often fixed on the various price indices measuring the decline. As things currently stand, prices are down 5.9% at a five-capital-city aggregate level, with the worst performer, Sydney, down 8.3%,
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will hand down its interest rate decision later today, with financial markets and economists widely tipping a 0.25% increase in the official cash rate (OCR). The likely OCR increase comes at a time when mortgage holders already spend a near-record share of their incomes servicing their loans. Financial markets
The Albanese government is trying to censor debate via its Digital Duty of Care Bill, which would make the eSafety Commissioner the central regulator with significantly expanded powers to police what we say online. The Bill contains broad definitions of “harm” and “misinformation” and gives the Minister for Communications and the eSafety Commissioner wide discretion.
TME with more. The earnings test beneath the rally The S&P 500 is near its highs, but only about a quarter of its stocks are above their 50-day averages. Earnings estimates show a similar divide. The index’s Q3 estimate rose 1.2% from 30 June to 31 August, while estimates fell in seven of eleven sectors.
New national polling shows Australians have lost confidence across the entire housing market — buyers, sellers, renters and investors alike — reflecting deep financial stress, falling prices, and expectations of further RBA rate rises. The SEC Newgate Mood of the Nation survey of 1659 voters between September 8–14 found: 56% say it’s a bad time
The ferrous complex is still under pressure. C5 shipping prices have come down to $15.63 on Friday, so my normalised CFR price is sitting at $89.51. The signals are still poor. MySteel steel indexes are still through the floor. Demand is crap. But production is phwoar. Steel inventory is still above last year but is
In 2002, the inaugural Intergenerational Report (IGR) was released, which forecast that net overseas migration (NOM) would be 90,000 annually and that the population would grow to 25.3 million by 2042. Instead, Australia’s population has hit 28.1 million, according to the ABS Population Clock, about 4.5 million (19%) higher than the 23.6 million originally assumed
