The ferrous complex is going over a cliff of some sort led by steel. Iron ore will inevitably follow. The question is why and how far? It is right about now we would expect the initial round of tariff wars to making its way upstream in a demand deficit bubble. As well, property continues to
Blah, blah. blah. The Australian. Australia is falling behind global rivals in attracting investment in gas exploration and production, a new report from global consultancy Wood Mackenzie has found, a trend that risks undermining the nation’s energy security and stalling the transition away from coal. The report, Australia’s Natural Gas Investment Competitiveness, commissioned by industry
The Q1 quarterly inflation release from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed that annual trimmed mean inflation declined to 2.9%, to be within the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) 2% to 3% inflation target. On a six-month annualised basis, trimmed mean inflation fell to around 2.5%. On Tuesday, the ABS released its monthly CPI
The federal government launched a new skills visa in December, with the aim of attracting migrants who can make a significant contribution to the economy and fill roles where no Australian workers are available. However, migration agents claim that processing times for the new visa are too long, hampering the ability of employers to recruit
You need US dollars to buy US assets. AUD rejected! Lead boots were made for walking. Three black crows for gold. Oil bust. Metals meh. Mining meh. EM meh. Junk sees sunny uplands ahead. Yields are helping now. Thank Saudi. Stocks to the moon! The AUD has turned into the world’s first Costanza coin. It
The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) announced this week an increase in electricity prices for households with standing offer plans. Electricity customers in NSW face the biggest increase in default market offer prices from 1 July, with power bills across the state to rise by between 6.1% and 9.1%. AER chair Clare Savage says that while
Wall Street returned with a bang after its long weekend break with a 2% plus surge across the board in response to the 180 degree spinning top EU Trump tariffs, which should give Asian equities a bounce on the open this morning. Meanwhile the broader selloff in USD was also backed off as Euro pulled
Last week, the federal government’s own advisory body, the National Housing Supply & Affordability Council (NHSAC) released its 2025 State of the Housing System report, which forecast that only 938,000 dwellings will be built nationwide by mid-2029, 262,000 dwellings short of Labor’s National Housing Accord target of 1.2 million new homes over five years. NHSAC
Leith and I have both explored the extraordinary price of coffee in Australia, with causes as varied as the price of beans in Brazilian drought to local labour costs and draining income. Coffee is now a luxury item. And the cafepocalypse in full swing. I admit, we’re not losing much here. I have long criticised
The Market Ear with more. So little exuberance Positioning and sentiment remain muted across the board. Hedge fund leverage is at cycle lows, CTAs and systematics are neutral, and there’s over $7 trillion parked in money markets. With so little exuberance, it’s hard to get truly bearish from here. Let’s examine the latest positioning and