The worst PM of our lifetimes is cashing in: Anthony Albanese should be congratulated. As the son of a single mother, Albanese grew up in struggle street, reached the highest office in the land, and did well along the way in terms of accumulating asset wealth. Nothing was handed to him and, in isolation, it’s
This month, we have received four critical pieces of data showing that Australian dwelling construction is sick, pointing to worsening shortages. First, only 166,200 dwellings were approved for construction in the year to August, 78,800 (31%) below Labor’s housing target, which requires 240,000 homes to be constructed for five consecutive years. Second, only 158,750 dwellings
Westpac with the note. The Leading Index growth rate has been slightly negative for the best part of a year now. That in itself is fairly rare – this is one of the longest periods of ‘middling’ reads in the history of the measure with the more typical pattern one of more pronounced swings between
Labor’s first federal budget, released in October 2022, projected net overseas migration (NOM) of 470,000 over the first two years (FY 23 and 24). Instead, Labor delivered around one million NOM over two years, more than doubling its prediction. On Tuesday, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) announced monthly net long-term arrivals data, which shows
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has been growing in cost by 20% and now costs nearly $50 billion a year. Recent projections from the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO) suggested that the cost of the NDIS could blow-out to around $100 billion per year within a decade, exceeding the the aged pension. One of the
It’s not looking so good for property sales now: There’s a little progress on destocking: Completions are still sagging: Demand has lifted a little. Supply is still stuffed: Long way down to fair value (more like 80% than 16% but let that go). Searches not even back to May levels: Not exactly “v-shaped” so far.
How to kill the iron ore price 101. First, ramp up Pilbara output: Construction of our Western Range mine is now 80% complete. During the quarter, we finalised commissioning of the autonomous haul trucks and completed the Paraburdoo upgrade works. We continue to focus on construction of the greenfield crushing and screening plant and Paraburdoo
SHFE and SGX have stalled: Mad Dalian too: Platts has more on market dynamics: Changes in the Chinese national standards for rebars have seen poor overall margins in Q3, leading to subdued demand over concerns of production cuts among domestic mills. Platts-assessed benchmark 62% Fe Iron Ore Index increased to $108.30/dry mt CFR North China
Optimism dissipated quickly on risk markets overnight with Wall Street pulling back sharply after a series of record highs, on the back of some chipmaker results with tech stocks dragging the whole edifice down. The USD was stronger again, pushing Euro and other currencies further into submission while oil prices continued their downward trend. The
DXY was flat: AUD has resumed its fall: CNY has rolled: Oil splat: Base metals sag: Big miners are breaking down: EM bust: Junk is starting to warn: Yields rolled: Stocks flamed out: Donald Trump gave a long and interesting interview to Bloomberg in which he celebrated a new strong dollar policy: Trump was very