Asian stock markets are starting the new trading week in a bad position, reacting to the growing COVID protests in China. The USD is regaining some strength against the currency majors with some significant gap downs over the lack of weekend trade, with Euro breaking below the 1.04 level while the Australian dollar was down
According to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand’s (REINZ) House Price Index, New Zealand house prices have declined nearly 13% from their November 2021 peak. Corelogic property economist, Kelvin Davidson, believes the Reserve Bank’s uber aggressive monetary tightening, which has lifted the official cash rate (OCR) to 4.25%, means that house prices and sales
An annual survey from the Governance Institute of Australia has seen Australia slide further down the The Ethics Index, from 52 in 2020 to 45 last year, and now 42 this year: Australia’s ethical score has taken a tumble, falling for the second year in a row, Governance Institute of Australia’s Ethics Index 2022 has
CoreLogic has released data showing explosive growth in unit rents amid strong arrivals of international students and migrants. As shown in the next chart, unit rents are tracking at more than 12% across Melbourne (13.7%), Sydney (13.4%), Brisbane (13.1%) and Adelaide (12.4%): This has come off a continued decline in the nation’s rental vacancy rate,
Deutsche with a handy backgrounder. The US takes a new step in the US-China chip rivalry Last week, the seventeenth meeting of the G20 summit was held in Bali, Indonesia. Although the mood between the US and China at the meeting was relatively amicable, it was only recently that the US toughened its stance on
The deal with independent senator David Pocock to pass Labor’s Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill will lead to an annual independent review of JobSeeker, with recommendations to be made before every budget: [Labor] agreed to set up a “statutory advisory committee” to review ways to boost “economic inclusion”. It will look at “the adequacy of
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released retail sales figures for October, with turnover down 0.2% over the month – the first monthly decline of 2022: Commenting on the result, ABS head of retail statistics, Ben Dorber, noted that “the October fall in retail turnover ends a run of nine straight monthly rises and
The latest from BofA’s excellent Michael Hartnett. Year Ahead 2023: we stay bearish risk assets in H1, set to turn bullish H2 as narrative shifts from inflation and rate ‘shocks’ of ’22 to recession and credit ‘shocks’ in H1’23; long bonds H1…hard landing, long stocks and bonds H2…peak Fed; maintain SPX nibble at 3.6k, bite
The latest from BofA’s excellent Michael Hartnett. Year Ahead 2023: we stay bearish risk assets in H1, set to turn bullish H2 as narrative shifts from inflation and rate ‘shocks’ of ’22 to recession and credit ‘shocks’ in H1’23; long bonds H1…hard landing, long stocks and bonds H2…peak Fed; maintain SPX nibble at 3.6k, bite
Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), Phil Lowe, has finally apologised for the Bank’s bungled guidance on interest rates, which told Australians that the official cash rate (OCR) would not be lifted “until 2024 at the earliest”. Appearing before the Senate Economics Legislation Committee in Canberra, Lowe was asked by Greens Treasury spokesman