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
As Australia continues to shed its industrial base, the US is rebuilding. Morgan Stanley with the note. US Reshoring Momentum Is Outpacing Early Expectations Our US Industrials analysts note that May US manufacturing construction starts sustained the strength seen in April, and activity is tracking at ~2x the pre-Covid run rate. The average project size
As the gas cartel unleashes another energy shock… There is nothing it will not destroy in due course. We can no longer make plastics, nor glass, nor many forms of steel. Soon it will be any and every metal processing as well. AFR. The chief executive of Nyrstar Australia says the metal processor urgently needs
DXY eased lower. AUD higher. Lead boots too. Will gold have another crack? Metals paused. EM meh. Junk rejection. Short end sold on the passage of Trump Big Beautifil Bill. Stocks sold in EOFY. Deutsche says the hiccup in US capital flows is very large indeed. The US trade numbers have been very volatile in
Wall Street took a step back after the US Senate passed the Billionaire Tax Bonus Bill while the Trump regime waved off concerns that not even a single nation has done a trade deal coming up to the July 9th deadline. Meanwhile Fed Chair Powell said they would have cut already if not for those
Some charts from Westpac make the point. After increasing by 0.6% in May, the Cotality house value index increased by 0.6% in June. The current price increase is 2.3% since January, after a minor 0.8% drop at the beginning of the year. At 2.7% annually, growth was somewhat stable. Similar increases were seen in all
The new financial year is seeing some calm return to Asian share markets with Japanese bourses pulling back amid tariff dramas with the Trump regime, while Yen is firming on solid manufacturing data from both China and Japan as we await the US ISM print later tonight. Oil markets continue to steady after their recent
As we know, VIC is the worst-run state in Australia. This is strange given that there is no native industry left to drain talent from the government. But it is what it is. Lowest income growth. Highest debt. And unemployment. Worst business conditions. And, you guessed it, absurd population growth. But don’t get cocky, because
The Market Ear on stocks. Melt-up mode Will this market morph from a traditional bull to a proper melt-up? Yardeni weighs in: “So far, the current bull market looks like a normal one, with the potential to match the returns of some of the best bull markets since the mid-1960s. We are still targeting 6500
Judging by the PMIs, the notion that China is growing at 5% is preposterous. Industry is still shrinking. New orders managed to flop into the positive locally, but are exports are dropping. Services are slightly better but barely moving. With new orders going backwards. Construction is doing a bit better, but is not convincing, either.
On Monday, former Realestate.com.au Director of Economic Research and now independent property analyst Cameron Kusher posted on X (Twitter) that in his view the family home should be included in the pension assets test and that rather than older demographics being provided with additional incentives to downsize, “it’s time for the sticks rather than carrots”.
In a recent article in ‘The Economist’ it was argued that the rise in unemployment and decreasing wage growth was the result of cuts to immigration in nations such as Canada, Britain and the United States. “Having won elections promising to cut migration, politicians across the rich world will now have to deal with the
This is the worst government of my lifetime, and that is saying something. AFR. The Albanese government will consider establishing an east coast gas reservation but has ruled out imposing domestic supply conditions on existing projects. Energy and Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen on Monday confirmed a government review of the east coast gas market
For a while there, wage theft disappeared or diminished. Thanks to the demand for labour with the immigration scam shut down during COVID, workers were too scarce to treat them badly. But with the return of the mass-immigration-led economic model, wage theft is back. Fair Work is investigating Merivale following fresh claims the hospitality giant
DXY is falling, while Chinese PMIs are improving, but iron ore is moribund. Steel demand and production are both falling at the expected 2-3% rate. Canberra has finally discovered the Pilbara killer, via the Office of the Chief Economist: And downgraded prices accordingly. The outlook for world steel production has softened due to increased trade
Spaztralia is not a country; it is a domain of stupidity. It is run by the Prime Spaz, a spaz so hollow, he can go full spaz. Spaztralia has no strategic plan to protect its freedom. On the contrary, the Prime Spaz is dedicated to a humiliating grovel to Beijing, the world’s most egregious autocracy,
DXY is breaking down. The unusually subdued AUD rally continues. Lead boots plodding along. Gold shaky, signalling DXY last leg down? Metals flamed out. The big bear rolls on. EM yawn. Junk leading the rally is bullish. Yields still easing. Stocks only go up. In my view, this is the last leg down for DXY,
Last night saw the end of the financial year and maybe the ending of the USD dominance in global finance as it had the worst yearly start since 1973, despite multiple undollar central banks cutting rates as safe havens like Swiss Franc, Yen and increasingly Euro and Yuan takeover from King Dollar. Speaking of made
With the end of the month, so too comes the release of the latest housing price data from Cotality (the artist formerly known as Corelogic) and PropTrack. Amidst recent rate cuts in February and May, and the expectation of significantly more to follow, both data providers noted that conditions were increasingly favourable for housing sentiment.
The start of the new trading week is coinciding with the end of the month and for some, the financial year, which is leading to a lot of window dressing across risk markets in Asia. However Wall Street is riding the wave higher after the Canadians gave in to the public demands of the Trump
Livewire with the note. CBA operates in a domestic banking market with limited credit growth in Australia, selling an identical product to that offered by four other competitors (now including Macquarie), all of which have the same cost of production (capital). This current rally has seen CBA move into the world’s top ten most valuable
Three weeks ago, the Chinese government and the Trump administration came to a very rough agreement on trade, tariffs, and the supply of vital materials each side respectively controlled. While the agreement was likely more of a temporary ceasefire in the trade rather than a more meaningful long-term armistice, it was meant to restore the
This is ridiculous. The White House has again called on Australia to increase its defence spending, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has again refused to budge. Karoline Leavitt, Donald Trump’s press secretary, said the recent move by NATO member states to raise defence spending to 3.5 per cent of their GDP should be a model for
The gas cartel’s corrupt mouthpiece, the Grattan Institute, is facing more backlash over its idiotic gas ban taken up by an even more stupid Allan government. Thousands of Victorian restaurants are threatening to close their doors for a day to protest the Allan government’s gas reforms, in strike action which would create chaos across the
Treasurer Jim “chicken” Chalmers loves to pose as a reformer of great reknown but is just another cookie-cut Canberra immigration sodomite. Jim Chalmers has issued a plea for a new era of “collaboration and compromise” from politicians, unions and business leaders, declaring a generational approach from all parties is needed to secure economic reforms that
As Australia’s mediocre media cheers another entirely predictable “shock” better than expected budget balance, a glance beyond our nose tells us that something much messier is squeezing down the pipe at speed. First, the good news. Westpac. While expenses are lower than profiled, higher than expected tax revenue drove much of the significant improvement in
