The first trading session of the week is all about the weekend reaction to what should be strong USD moves but instead King Dollar is rolling over against the undollars except gold with the Canadian Loonie pushing higher on speculation Governor Trudeau (sic) is about to resign. Chinese stocks remain under stress despite promises of
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has cut the official cash rate by 1.25% over the past three monetary policy meetings. Despite the cuts, CoreLogic reported that New Zealand dwelling values continued to fall in December. Home values nationally declined by 0.2% in December, marking the ninth drop in the past 10 months, according to
Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government in Canada is facing an election wipeout, winning as few as 21 seats in the 338-seat parliament at this year’s election. Separate polling by the Angus Reid Institute showed that only 16% of decided voters expressed an intention to vote Liberal in the next election. The figure “represents a low in
Following the Q3 national accounts release last month, Pradeep Philip, head of Deloitte Access Economics, noted that the private sector was being “clobbered” and the economy was “stuck in the mud and spinning its wheels”. Innes Willox, CEO of the Australian Industry Group (AIG), shared a similar opinion, pointing out that the private sector is
In December, Infrastructure Australia warned that Australia’s construction sector will suffer persistent ‘skills shortages and cost escalations’ in the years ahead. “Construction materials on average cost around 30% more than they did three years ago and with ongoing skills shortages we simply don’t have the people power we need to get the job done on time”,
If you want a prime example of why I have little regard for academics, consider the below housing non-solutions from the University of Queensland on “How can we solve the housing crisis?”. Dr Dorina Pojani, Associate Professor of urban planning School of Architecture, Design and Planning Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology, says that
New Zealand’s labour market is a mess. The nation’s unemployment rate ballooned to 4.8% in Q3 2024, up 0.9% year-on-year. Filled jobs fell by 0.7% in Q3, the second consecutive quarterly decline. Filled jobs also recorded their first annual decline in more than a decade. New Zealand average earnings growth also declined in Q3, taking
Strategic Property Group managing director Trent Fleskens suggested that prospective first home buyers in Perth will face worsening conditions in 2025 as population growth continues to run well ahead of supply. “Given there has been no change in our immigration numbers and no change in our ability to build houses any faster or cheaper, there’s
Independent economist Chris Richardson has warned that it could take a decade for Australian living standards to recover from 2021–22 levels, noting that the “free ride on the back of the rise of China” is over. “It’s a grind, there is no magic wand”, Richardson said. “We are now starting to turn in the right
Friday night saw the latest US ISM manufacturing PMI prints coming in stronger and combined with some Fedspeak saw the USD drop slightly against most undollar assets, except gold. The hard time for Chinese equity markets continued into the European session but Wall Street was able to bounceback which should translate into gains here in