On Thursday, Australian time, the Trump Administration announced its “Liberation Day” retaliatory tariffs, which impose tariffs of between 10% and 48% on trading partners. This will see the US’ effective tariff rate rise to its highest level in more than a century. The announcement of the tariffs led to heavy falls on global stock markets.
International Reading: Tesla Board Asks Elon Musk to Step Down – Clean technica JD Vance Tells Paycheck-to-Paycheck Americans to Suck Up Tariffs Pain – Daily Beast Republicans are losing faith in Trump rescuing the economy – News Week Layoffs spiked by 205% last month to third-highest ever recorded, fueled by DOGE mass firings – CBS
Not quite a bath of blood here on Asian markets but there’s been a fair share of volatility as global supply chains are reworked and economists scratch their collective heads wondering where this will all end up. The USD remains under the pump against all the undollars except the Australian while bond markets surge as
Momentum in Australia’s housing market has waned following the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) 0.25% interest rate cut in February. Last weekend’s combined capital city final auction clearance declined to 59.4%, down from 63.2% the prior week and 64.8% over the same week the previous year. The result was also the first time the final
TS Lombard with the note. Trump delivered on campaign promises applying a 54% (34% “reciprocal” and 20% fentanyl) tariff rate to imports from China. The move could impact 1.5-2ppt of China GDP in 2025. How does China respond? Strong fiscal, moderate monetary, passive retaliation–for now. We downgrade our growth forecast by 20bps to 4.5% (always
Last week’s federal budget revealed that the cost of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) will reach $50.8 billion next financial year, exceeding the $51 billion allocated to the defence budget. The cost of the NDIS is also projected to reach $63 billion by mid-2029. The growth of the NDIS is the key driver behind
The ABC has lost the plot entirely. The relationship between Peter Dutton and resources billionaire Gina Rinehart has soured over the Coalition leader’s plan to force energy giants to sell gas into the domestic market at a likely loss. The ABC also understands that Ms Rinehart’s enthusiasm for Mr Dutton has waned in recent weeks
This week, the Housing Industry Association (HIA) released data on new house sales, which continued to disappoint. As illustrated below, the number of private new home sales fell by 0.6% in February and has shown little movement in two and a half years. Moreover, as shown by Justin Fabo from Antipodean Macro below, new house
The ferrous jaws closed somewhat with all commodities last night. Chinese steel demand is pretty meek, according to MySteel. Production is a bit better but won’t be as export markets dump with tariffs. There’s a lot of front-loading that’s been done. And now for a demand hole on the other side of it.
It kind of crashed last night. We are once again at the pesky $70 Brent support level. Surely, this time, it breaKS. The key is this. Bloomberg. In a video conference on Thursday, the coalition of crude producers led by Saudi Arabia and Russia was expected to simply remind errant members to respect their output