Friday’s NFP is a massive release for markets. BofA offers its preview. August payrolls:re-acceleration? We expect Aug payrolls to rise by 90k (consensus:75k, Jul: 73k). Although initial claims increased during the survey week, the four-week average remained at modest levels and not far from the July average (Exhibit 2). Also, continuing claims declined during the
Last week, my local WhatsApp group exploded with footage of an attempted daylight carjacking a few hundred metres from my home in Ashburton. The footage made national news. It was the third type of event close to my home in the past month, the others being one successful and one attempted home invasion and car theft.
Australia is starting to resemble 1984’s Ministry of Truth. First, the Albanese government performed a policy-180 and announced that Australians under the age of 16 would be banned from viewing YouTube. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also wants to expand Australia’s draconian media restrictions globally. Albanese indicated that he will advocate Australia’s world-first social media age
We should not be surprised. It was obvious in 2021/22 that Labor had no compass for Australian strategic policy in the national interest. Not to mention the longer-term campaign by greybeards of the party to sell us to Beijing. Back then, when China unleashed its trade coercion attack, Labor could not wait to blame Australia
Join us in this week’s podcast as Nucleus Wealth’s Chief Investment Officer, Damien Klassen, looks at deepening problems in long bond yields and what they mean for valuations in the stock market Can’t make it to the live series? Catch up on the content via Podcasts or our recorded Videos. Damien Klassen is Chief Investment Officer at the Macrobusiness
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) population data is a lottery. The population figures in the Q3 and Q4 2024 national accounts releases (here and here) diverged significantly from the official quarterly population data issued a few weeks later. Therefore, population numbers implied in the quarterly national accounts (and other releases) can and do get
The fix is in for Australian gas. The deeply corrupt Albanese government is undertaking a review of gas policies with both hands tied behind its back, having already ruled out the only policy that makes sense: retrospective reservation for QLD gas exporters. What we are seeing instead, again, is performative democracy in which everyone pretends
Yesterday’s GDP figure has markets very upset. There is nothing like a strong economy to kill overvalued securities prices these days. They needn’t fear. The Aussie consumer is not “back”. Yesterday’s GDP was boosted by one-offs, and the gas cartel will take care of the rest of the year. Household consumption grew 0.9% in the
Australia’s home building sector appears to be one giant contradiction. On one hand, Australia possesses the strongest level of new dwelling completions per capita in the Anglosphere and one of the highest levels in the entire developed world. In fact, Australia has been in an absolute ascendancy over its Anglosphere rivals for the last 40
The ferrous complex continues its great levitation. At least, iron ore does. Steel is stuffed. Ask yourself, why are steel prices tumbling when production is shut in for Beijing’s warmongering parade? Too much steel, with more coming when the parade ends, as the last of the margin expansion of the past few months is devoured.