Data from the Actuaries Institute shows that 1.6 million Australian households are now under financial stress due to the rising cost of home insurance premiums. This represents an increase of 360,000 households, 30% higher than a year ago. Sharanjit Paddam, the lead author of the Actuaries Institute’s report, says insurance premiums are rising faster than
Morgan Stanley thinks it through. No V-shape, but a modest recovery may be good enough. US steel prices appear to have bottomed, with recent price hikes by Nucor and Cliffs lifting spot US HRC toUS$695-700/st (+7% from the recent lows); we see room for a modest US$20-25/t uplift into YE as US imports continue to
Meet Karen Fermin. She is an occupational therapist, which is a highly sought-after profession. She spent years at the university, gaining her degree, yet all she can afford is a micro-apartment for herself and her daughter that is barely large enough to swing a cat. The ABC’s article on Ms Fermin’s situation should be centred
This is completely bizarre. So bizarre that it reeks of Rum Corps manipulation: Australia’s east coast energy market is facing a perfect storm of higher global LNG prices, volatile and intermittent renewables penetration, coal plant outages and extreme weather, increasing fears of gas shortages, spiking power bills and blackouts. Major Australian energy players Senex Energy
Thirteen years ago, GlobalHigherEd reported that Australia was being inundated with sham private vocational ‘ghost colleges’ catering to fake South Asian students seeking to work and live in Australia: In 2002 there was just over 11,000 Indian students in Australia, and by 2005 this number had grown to over 27,000… However, by last year enrolments
The Market Ear on the AI moment. The most important tech earnings in years The NVDA print is hyped as “the most important tech earnings in years”…(Dan Ives) Investors are jittery. Few of the big tech companies have been able to demonstrate enormous demand from paying customers for AI-powered services, which raises the question of
There is no end in sight: Developers still can’t get capital: Infrastructure funding has improved a little: It’s more of the same: China’s housing regulator pledged to swiftly implement a program to purchase unsold apartments and turn them into affordable housing, its latest effort to cushion a record property slump. The government will also push
Friday’s ferrous markets were weak as SHFE and SGX resumed falls: Overnight, the Fed popped and dropped Dalian futures: Coking coal: The latest MySteel readings are very mixed. Flat products have rebounded while long sink: Output is cratered given zero profitability: At 28% below 2019 levels, apparent iron ore demand is lower by nearly 500mt
A very supportive speech by Fed Chair Powell, where he outlined that the Fed will do what it can to help US unemployment and that meant swift rate cuts if necessary has seen the little reversal in USD go back the dominant way that risk markets had been thinking all along. Wall Street rallied alongside
Earlier this month, CoreLogic released data showing that large numbers of suburbs nationwide have joined the million-dollar club: 46% of suburbs in Brisbane boasted a median house price of at least $1 million at the end of July, compared with just 30% a year ago. 36% of suburbs in Adelaide have joined the ‘million-dollar club’,