I assume this pantomime serves the purpose of creating an atmosphere of fear among existing pollies: A former politician labelled a traitor by ASIO director-general Mike Burgess is “no longer a security concern”, the spy chief declared as he refused to identify the person and a raft of ex-MPs demanded their names be cleared. As
The latest US core inflation print came in slightly lower than expected and combined with some dovish Fed comments gave Wall Street a leg up which should push the equity complex higher here in Asia to finish the trading week on a good note. The USD rose eventually amid some volatility around the print while
Rebar and SGX futures cannot catch a bid: Early next week is the “Two Sessions” in Beijing with markets expecting a 5%ish growth target. It will need to pack more punches than just that number to lift iron ore. Assuming a 2024 CPI and GDP deflator of a marginally improved -1%, 4% real growth with
CoreLogic reported that Australian rental growth re-accelerated in February, with the monthly rate of change rising to 0.9%, the highest reading since March last year. This re-acceleration also saw the rolling quarterly change in rents rise to 2.4%, the highest since May last year. As shown above, Perth leads rental growth across both houses and
Asian share markets are being impacted by domestic events with the BOJ broadcasting some dovish moves while local retail sales actually pushed the Australian dollar higher alongside local stocks, despite a lack of a positive lead from Wall Street overnight. Oil prices are trying to claw back recent losses but Brent crude is stalled just
Here’s the chart: BTC does not appear to have much of a relationship with gold, though it could be argued it is still in the market share phase of development so the relationship would not be symmetric. Recent ETFs will give that process, if it is such a thing, a boost. For those wanting me
While overall CPI inflation continues to moderate faster than the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) expectations, Jarden chief economist Carlos Cacho warned that ongoing strong housing inflation, especially rents, poses a barrier to returning inflation to the target band of 2-3%. Cacho said that he expects rents to grow at an annual pace of 7%
Last year, we read multiple headlines claiming that investors were selling their properties, which was supposedly exacerbating the rental crisis by reducing stock. For example, PropTrack Director of Economic Research Cameron Kusher, warned in November that “investors continue to exit the market, which is keeping the overall stock of rental properties low”. Ray White’s September
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has released retail sales data for January, which rose by 1.1% over the month to be also 1.1% higher year-on-year: The result disappointed economists’ expectations of a 1.5% monthly rebound. It also suggests that retail sales volumes fell heavily over the year when adjusted for CPI inflation (circa 4%)
Via the ABS comes Private Capex Expectations. Estimate 1 for 2024-25 is $145.6b This is 12.6% higher than Estimate 1 for 2023-24 These numbers are pretty good, given the slowing economy. But you must remember that average realisation ratios tend to slow the growth with each new update. Much of this survey would have been