Steel sagged while iron ore firmed. April output for steel fell back to earth. But it is still largely EAF that is pancaked, protecting iron ore. The property bust absorbs more long steel which was EAF focused. China is never going decarbonise steel at this rate.
Australia faces an extended period of Labor Party rule following the collapse of the federal Coalition. National’s leader David Littleproud today announced that the party has separated from the Liberal Party for the upcoming federal election. Littleproud said that he and incoming Liberal leader Sussan Ley tried unsuccessfully to reach an agreement: “This morning after
DXY sagged as stocks came off. AUD up. The trend is intact. Lead boots give you wings. Is gold setting up for another run? Metals growth no bueno. Miners meh. EM meh. Junk OK. Yield relief. Stocks BTFD. When the risk bid comes, AUD is the world’s most loved currency. This is the complete opposite
First it was China, now it is Japan. IEEFA. As both Eastern and Western Australia face gas shortfalls, Japan is onselling vast volumes of Australian LNG at a handsome profit. In-depth analysis of LNG shipment and contract data shows Japanese companies are lucratively onselling about half as much as they import from Australia. Last year
When a market is rising with so few participants, BTFD gets very strong. The Market Ear. Breaking Good US mega-cap tech has broken its 5-month downtrend. Let’s have a look at all things going for the super-sector (and some things that are not). Source: Bloomberg Convincingly The ratio of NDX over RTY convincingly took out
The Q4 national accounts, released in March, revealed that Australians finally emerged from their two-year recession after recording positive per capita GDP growth of 0.1%. The latest OECD Economic Outlook interim report predicts only 1.9% aggregate GDP growth in 2025 and 1.8% growth in 2026, suggesting that Australia will remain in the slow lane. As
There is no end in sight for the Chinese property bust as prices keep falling. Starts keep on falling. It’s the bad, the worse , and the ugly. Indeed, there is so far to fall given the inventory of unsold, incomplete, and holes in the ground that the downside remains epic. -17% completions are not
Australia’s labour market has shown remarkable resilience. Last week’s April labour force release from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported strong (89,000) employment growth, well above the consensus forecast of 22,500. Trend job growth also increased slightly, with 26,300 jobs created over the month. The unemployment rate was steady at 4.1% due to a
Uncertainty seems to be returning to risk markets if you look beyond the headline stock indices with the Moody rating cut still reverberating amid geopolitical concerns over Russia, Gaza and the impending hurt from the Trump tariffs. US sovereign debt concerns were on the mind of more than one overnight Fed speaker and while the
The SMH’s Jenna Price lamented that “Australia is in desperate need of tens of thousands of tradies over the next five years” and that “job snobbery” is worsening labour shortages: Forty years ago, experts told us the shortage of tradespeople would only be temporary. In April 1999, when thousands of roofs in Sydney were destroyed