A lot of macro events and geopolitics hit risk markets today but was mostly absorbed outside of currencies as the USD hit a six week low on a combination of the burgeoning world wide trade war started by the Trump regime and the growing slowdown in the domestic US economy. The latest Chinese manufacturing figures
The NSW and Victorian governments are urging the Albanese government to use its large election mandate to revamp the GST system. The then Turnbull government agreed in 2016 to what has been dubbed a ‘sweetheart deal’ with Western Australia, which is slated to cost taxpayers $60 billion over 11 years. This deal set a floor
We have a terrible living standards problem owing to our immigration-led, labour market expansion economic model, which devours productivity. On the other hand, we have a technological breakthrough that is all about productivity (in theory, anyway). There are two versions of AI developing – those with global tech businesses who already have a foot in
Melbourne’s auction market has rebounded strongly, recording an average final auction clearance rate of 67% in May, the strongest result since mid-2023. As illustrated in the following chart, the bounce in Melbourne’s auction clearance rate has been accompanied by a corresponding rise in dwelling values, which increased by 0.8% in May, according to PropTrack. The
Via ANZ. ANZ-Indeed Australian Job Ads fell 1.2% m/m in May, following a downwardly revised 0.3%m/m decline in April. In trend terms, the series was down 0.6% m/m. ANZ-Indeed Australian Job Ads is now at its lowest level since March 2021, but has remained in a tight range of 114 to 117 (rounded to the
This is a good decision. The Fair Work Commission has awarded an increase of 3.5% to up 2.6 million workers on minimum award rates to allow for low-paid workers to catch up on real wage cuts suffered during the pandemic. The increase will lift the national minimum wage from $24.10 an hour, or $915.90 a
NSW Premier Chris Minns aims to alleviate Sydney’s housing crisis by expediting the supply of shoebox apartments. Minns last week accused previous governments of being “timid” due to “the NIMBY [Not In My Backyard] backlash” but argued that the conversation had changed to “opening the gates to more urban consolidation and development”. “I think Sydneysiders
I have been bullish on gold for a year or more. The Market Ear sets us up. Decision time in gold Gold is back flirting with the short term negative trend line. The bounces on the 50 day and the long term trend were once again schoolbook examples of buying dips in strong trends. A
Cotality (formerly CoreLogic) has reported a tightening in rental vacancy rates over recent months. This tightening is illustrated below by Justin Fabo from Antipodean Macro. Vacancy rates have tightened across the board and are tracking below 2% across all capital city markets. Despite the lower vacancy rates, Cotality reported a moderation of annual asking rents
It’s bloody painful, but slowly iron ore is being ground down. The PMIs were no help at all. The NBS manufacturing PMI increased from 49.0 in April to 49.5 in May. The new export order sub-index, which dropped from 51.8 in March to 49.2 in April, climbed to 49.8 in May. But, the NBS construction