The 2025 iron ore bust was a bust. Long live the iron ore bust of 2026! The jaws are still a problem. More of a problem than I was thinking. Goldman. While the market remained tighter than we expected in Q1-Q3 due to resilient Chinese hot metal production, and improving China growth expectations alongside the
This week’s September quarter national accounts release from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) was mixed. On the one hand, overall GDP growth was soft at 0.4% for the quarter and slightly negative in per capita terms. On the other hand, annual GDP growth accelerated to 2.1% through the year, in part owing to upward
Some academic claims we know what will be in Albo’s new gas reservation policy. While full details are yet to be announced, we know there will be three main elements: a mandatory reservation volume, a gas security incentive, and competitive domestic pricing. The mandatory reservation will require gas producers to reserve a portion of their
Wall Street had another slow session overnight with an unclear picture of the US labour market weighing on high expectations that the Fed will cut in next week’s FOMC meeting. Bond markets sold off while the USD was relatively steady after an initial drop on the jobless claims print with the Australian dollar holding just
The past five years have witnessed arguably the worst rental crisis in modern Australian history. According to Cotality, nationally advertised rents soared by 43.8% in the five years to Q3 2025. This meant that the typical tenant household seeking to rent the median advertised home would need to spend $10,600 more annually than they would
Risk markets here in Asia are pivoting more on BOJ rate hike speculation amid near certainty that the Fed’s upcoming December meeting next week will result in a cut, with tonight’s US initial jobless print in the balance given the very poor ADP private numbers recently. The Australian dollar is still building above the 66
Last week, I reported on The Australian Youth Barometer 2025, which painted a bleak picture of the financial challenges facing younger Australians. The report notes that 85% of young people report financial difficulties, while 18% face food insecurity. Housing affordability is a major concern, with only 30% believing they’ll be able to afford a comfortable
This seems to have passed the forex market by. Goldman. The PBOC’s Pledged Supplementary Lending (PSL) program resumed expansion in November by a net increase of RMB25.4bn, ending its contraction since March 2024. This implies that the central bank may have approved a full-year quota for 2025 (as it did in late 2023), although the
As late as the final months of October, the Sydney auction market was still riding high, with its 4-week moving average clearance rate still sitting significantly higher than the same time last year. But in the weeks since, it has fallen back to earth, now sitting just 1.6% higher than at the same point last
Wednesday’s Q3 national accounts release from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported fairly modest real per capita household consumption growth of only 0.1% for the quarter and 1.0% annually. The national accounts also reported a lift in the household savings rate to 6.4%: Viewed in isolation, this data would have soothed RBA concerns that