I reported earlier in the week on the massive rise in bridging visas, which has been driven by former international students. As illustrated above, the number of bridging visas on issue ballooned by 201,300 between Q3 2019 and Q3 2025. The Attorney-General’s department recently reported an “unprecedented surge” in appeals over student visa refusals, which
The ferrous jaws remain far too wide. Scuttlebutt is negatory. Australia’s Fortescue posted a 2% rise in second-quarter iron ore shipments, supported by the resilient performance of its Iron Bridge project alongside an uptick in output from its hematite operations. It maintained its forecast for fiscal 2025/26 shipments, with quarterly iron ore shipments remaining at
Via Judo Bank. Flash Australia Composite PMI Output Index: 55.5 (Dec: 51.0) Flash Australia Services PMI Business Activity Index: 56.0 (Dec: 51.1) Flash Australia Manufacturing PMI: 52.4 (Dec: 51.6) To cope with rising workloads, Australian firms hired additional staff at the start of the new year. That said, the overall rate of employment growth softened
Wall Street continued the TACO trade overnight led by tech stocks while a series of high inflation data in the US failed to get the USD moving higher with all undollars continuing the structural “off-America” risk trade with the Australian dollar making another new high. Gold surged again alongside silver while oil prices fellback and
DXY slumped post-Greenland deal. The Davos speech of the American madman was an obnoxious mess about “Iceland”. Hard to see how DXY can flourish as POTUS loses his mind. AUD had a multi-sigma day to remember after the strong jobs numbers. Without CNY help. But with gold’s help. No Greenland dump for gold. This is
Like Australia, Canada experienced a record surge of immigration once borders opened following the Covid-19 pandemic, with the nation adding around 1.2 million people in 2023 alone. This record spike in immigration caused a slew of problems for Canada, including severe housing shortages, skyrocketing rents, productivity and infrastructure stress, services inflation, and rising youth unemployment.
Asian share markets are generally higher across the region with only Chinese shares taking a breather as markets react to YATT (Yet Another Taco Trade) from Trump as all is forgiven over Greenland at Davos. Of course the “America-off” strategy is still in play as a broader trend with more news of Treasuries being sold
The great CBA bubble is deflating. The valuation metrics got completely out of hand. The forward P/E has tanked to about 24x, still well above the historical average of about 15x, so there is room for more falls. Why is it so? One reason is that global banks have been re-rated amid the monetary easing
Crikey has been publishing Wanning Sun for years now. Her bio is interesting. Wanning Sun is a professor of media and cultural studies at the University of Technology, Sydney. She also serves as the deputy director of the UTS Australia-China Relations Institute. She is a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and a
Yes, you read it right. The last quarter of wholesale electricity has been the cheapest since the Albanese government came to power, averaging around 50Mw/h. This excellent outcome can be attributed to several factors. Power usage is well down quarter on quarter, year on year, thanks to a very mild summer. This, in turn, has