Asian stock markets are doing slightly better today given the mixed result overnight although S&P futures are looking more robust given more Trump talk about caving in on tariffs, although who knows what will actually happen as another distraction is likely soon given the recent intelligence foul up by half his Cabinet. The USD is
The fish rots from the head, they say, and Michael Stutchbury’s destruction of the AFR is great case in point. Today, he confesses. How about this? Australian supermarket shoppers have been hit by significantly lower grocery price rises than if they were living in the UK, the US, Canada or New Zealand. Yes, lower price
The Market Ear argues for the reverse pivot today. Europe vs US is done 1. Valuation gap closed… SAP on 40x, GOOG on 18.5x, MSFT on 29x. Mag7 valuation now looking ‘cheap’ vs historic 2. Europe benefited from exodus from US tech , US tech as a sell is significantly less obvious here 3. Market
Wednesday’s monthly CPI indicator from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) printed significantly below expectations. The headline CPI was only 2.4%, below market expectations of 2.5% and below the midpoint of the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) 2-3% target band. The underlying measure, trimmed mean inflation, also fell to 2.7% and is now well within
Last week, the Albanese government pledged over $800 million in production subsidies to a green hydrogen development in remote Western Australia. This is part of an $8.7 billion federal government war chest to create incentives for green hydrogen. Labor’s Future Made in Australia (FMIA) plan, announced in 2024, provided a budget allocation of $6.7 billion
Earlier last month, I learned that a friend’s home one kilometre away had been the target of an attempted home invasion. The burglars hopped over a neighbour’s side fence and tried to force their way into the house via the back door. Fortunately, my friend awoke, made a ruckus, and the burglars fled. The following
Via the ABS. CPI analytical series Seasonally adjusted 2.4 CPI excluding volatile items* and holiday travel 2.7 Annual trimmed mean 2.7 Most are components coming off except regulated prices like education, alcohol and tobacco, and health, which will fall in due course given they are indexed to the headline benchmark, which has crashed. It’s over.
Decent output levels are keeping iron ore supported for now. There’s nothing good happening property. Compared to December, China’s on-budget fiscal revenue and off-budget land sales revenue both weakened meaningfully in January-February, more significant than the deceleration in government spending growth. Our proprietary “augmented fiscal deficit” (AFD) metric widened slightly in February vs. December on
CBA’s excellent economics team has provided a comprehensive analysis of the federal budget. Below are key extracts broken down by theme. Overview: In the near term, the key economic and fiscal aggregates in the 2025-26 Budget are largely unchanged from the last official update in December, and broadly in line with our own forecasts. The
DXY faded a little AUD lifted a little. Lead boots are at a standstill. Gold pausing. Trump lunacy has overtaken oil as he smashes Venezuela and Iran while promising cheaper petrol. Copper is insane. This is bad for everybody except Goldman Sachs. Big miners sag on. EM yawn. Junk yawn. Yields eased. Stocks firmed. I