Macro Afternoon: 16 October 2025
AUD/USD EUR/USD USD/JPY GBP/USD Gold WTI Brent Australia 200 US S&P 500 UK 100 Japan 225 Vids
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Macro Afternoon
Asian share markets are still trying to get a wriggle on as the trading week starts to wind down following some potential progress on the rare earth US-China trade war while the latest unemployment print locally is resetting the chances of more RBA rate cuts although the Australian dollar remains resilient against a very weak
Announcing MB Fund gold tilts
The gold boom has many investors asking for more precise ways to get exposure. Today we’re adding a Mid-Cap Gold tilt to our Direct Indexes—so you can target the part of the gold market that sits between physical bullion and the mega miners. What is the Mid-Cap Gold tilt? It’s a rules-based basket of ~a dozen listed gold
New Zealand’s magnificent house price crash restores affordability
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has slashed the official cash rate by 3.0% to 2.5%, which has driven mortgage rates sharply lower. Even so, New Zealand home values have failed to respond, printing another month of zero growth in September, according to the Real Estate Institute of New Zealand (REINZ) House Price Index (HPI).
Coalition mulls handing Albo power forever
It may be that we don’t need China to bully us into an Albo tyranny. The Coalition is doing it all by itself. After an acrimonious partyroom meeting in Canberra last week, a disenchanted Liberal MP mused that if seven of his colleagues defected to the Nationals the balance of power within the Coalition would
Gold reaches ludicrous speed
The Market Ear with more. Soon Momentum in gold is beyond impressive. As we have been pointing out for weeks now, the current break out has a lot of similarities to the break out we saw earlier this year. That move saw gold gain some 28% before we paused. Apply the same “logic” to the
Gas cartel stabs Santos in the back
It is an easy and appropriate target. Origin Energy chief executive Frank Calabria has declared Australia’s energy market is “no longer working” to deliver affordable, reliable power capable of facilitating the transition to renewables, and sought urgent reforms, including limiting Santos-backed GLNG’s ability to buy gas from the domestic market. Mr Calabria said governments must
Aussies fear AI and rise of the machines
The explosion of artificial intelligence has triggered one of the largest capital expenditure booms in history. Trillions of dollars are being poured into building and upgrading data centres, which now sit at the heart of the global economy. The explosive growth of data centres has added significantly to global electricity demand. Global electricity demand could
Unemployment surge opens door for rate cuts
A surge in Australia’s unemployment rate is the one factor that could force the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) to cut rates sooner and deeper. The latest Statement of Monetary Policy from the RBA forecast that Australia’s unemployment rate would peak at only 4.3% and remain at this level until late 2027. However, Thursday’s labour
Chinese deflation is for ever now
Chinese inflation remains bogged. The CPI fell MoM and is going nowhere YoY. PPI is similar. As anti-involution weighs on domestic demand, I expect prices to keep falling. The real problem is unresolved. The black hole of real estate. Golden Week needs to be renamed something less auspicious. New property sales are down again for