Asian share markets are not doing well despite a strong lead from Wall Street overnight with commodity volatility one of the culprits as oil prices move lower as silver explodes higher. Currency markets are seeing a little bit of stability with USD losing some ground against Yen but outperforming Euro and Loonie. The November inflation
An American madman is loose. At a press conference on his plane as he returned to Washington for a new political year he entertained the idea of targeting another four nations. He started with Colombia, which he said had a leader who “likes making cocaine” but is “not going to be doing it very long”.
Everybody wants a royal commission into anti-Semitism, apparently. With the government’s reasons for opposing a royal commission being widely panned and the inquiry being backed by leading figures in the business, sporting, legal and security sectors, the issue was scheduled to be debated earlier this week at a meeting of the national security committee of
With the release of the latest ABS Building Approvals data, it was revealed that non-detached house approvals had risen to their highest level since June 2018, up by 34.1% month on month and 55.3% year on year to 8,463 for the month of November. Meanwhile, approvals for detached houses were up by 1.3% for the
When in late November the ABS delivered it’s first complete monthly inflation print, it immediately triggered a dramatic repricing in interest rates and economists predictions for future inflation. When the AFR polled 38 economists for their views on where interest rates were heading prior to today’s monthly inflation print, 17 out of 38 predicted that
Is a widening commodities bid suggesting reflation? Or a bubble? OR something else? The Market Ear. No inflation… ….unless you need commodities. Are we in the early stages of reflation? As Goldman’s Privorotsky writes: “…either points to a broad dollar devaluation or a rapid re-acceleration in the global economy.” Chart 1 shows BCOM vs US
The Albanese government’s $10 billion Housing Australia Future Fund (HAFF) was launched in late 2023 and aims to deliver 40,000 social and affordable homes by 2028. The HAFF operates as a perpetual fund managed by the Future Fund Management Agency. It provides an ongoing funding stream of at least $500 million per year, indexed to
Chinese policymakers are talking a big game but doing nothing of substance. Goldman. Central level policies: Recent article from senior policymaker via Qiushi magazine highlighted focus on stabilizing market expectations within the property sector, emphasizing 1)given the significant financial asset nature of housing, effectively managing market expectations is crucial for overall stability; 2)the property industry
Over the long history of the industrialised world the endowment of natural resources has regularly been something of a double-edged sword. While it has bestowed immense riches on nations across the globe, it has also delivered hollowed-out economies and governments foolishly building their nations based on commodity booms lasting forever. In South America during the
There is no recovery in Chinese steel, but there is one in iron ore! The late-year seasonal increase in steel production was very muted. These price movements coincided with capacity utilization increases among Chinese steel producers, with blast furnace operations rising 0.32% and electric arc furnaces climbing 1.93% during the final week of 2025. These private movements are not