Friday night saw a huge reversal in precious metals fortunes perhaps triggered by the Trump regime’s nomination of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed Governor or the technical overbought status of both gold and silver. Silver dropped over 30%, gold fell more than 10%, taking both back to where they were just two weeks ago.
In the debate over the types of houses being built in Australia, a frequently repeated narrative is that the shift toward more apartments is positive because migrants favour that type of living arrangement. While we lack data on this question for Australia, figures from Canada shed some light on migrants’ housing choices and priorities. While
Cotality’s latest housing affordability report noted that Australian rental affordability in the September quarter of 2025 was the worst on record, with the median renting household required to spend 33.4% of their incomes to rent the median advertised home: Cotality’s housing results for January, released on Monday, revealed that rental affordability continues to worsen, with
The latest interest rate futures pricing has Australia’s official cash rate sitting at 4.17% by the end of 2026. Thus, financial markets are tipping at least two and possibly three 25 bp interest rate hikes by the end of this year. If these forecasts came to fruition, variable mortgage rates would climb to around 6%
The ferrous jaws must close! The CNY steel inventory restock has begun from a higher level than last year, according to CISA data. The iron ore port mountain is Himalayan and growing at roughly 2mt per week. From CISA. And MySteel. The Chinese Steel PMI was dead flat at 50 across the board. The export
What goes up… DXY has recaptured support, and how. Houston, we have a problem. CNY still supportive. JPY not so much. As I have warned many times, gold is volatile. AI metals meltdown. Massive mining reversal. EM too. Junk is alseep in a chair. Curve steepened. Stocks fell. What gives? Kevin Warsh will succeed
Since coming to power, Labor has increased the Australian Public Service (APS) headcount by 24%, to more than 213,000 staff. The government argues the increase is necessary to reduce reliance on consultants and contractors. The federal government had forecast in its March 2025 budget that the public service wages bill would remain steady at about
International Reading: ‘The American People Deserve It’: Democrats Reveal Their 3 Demands to Avoid a Shutdown. – Time Scott Bessent said Americans should skip toys for kids’ birthdays and instead invest in Trump’s accounts – Independent Melania Trump to earn at least $28M from Amazon for documentary deal: report – NY Post Partial federal shutdown
Nobody wants US dollars. But they want Bitcoin even less. This is a pretty stark break from the narrative we’ve been sold about BTC being “digital gold” or some kind of alternative “reserve currency” that can’t be debased. Indeed, markets are consumed by a global fiat debasement trade at the moment, yet BTC keeps falling.
Wednesday’s CPI inflation release for December was a shocker that, alongside the decline in the nation’s unemployment rate to 4.1%, suggests that the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) will hike the official cash rate at next month’s monetary policy meeting. The policy-relevant trimmed mean inflation rose by a stronger-than-expected 0.9% over the December quarter to