A weaker than expected US inflation print overshadowed the not-a-deal US-China trade talk announcement from the Trump regime that looks almost exactly like a return to the early April settings. Wall Street couldn’t swing either of these events as positive with European shares also continuing their pullback as the USD fell back against most of
Over recent years, Queensland has experienced a large inflow of residents from other states. Between Q1 2020 and Q3 2024, 168,500 residents from other states relocated to Queensland. Many of these residents came from Victoria, which lost 55,400 net residents over the same period. The surge in net interstate migration into Queensland and the loss
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) released data on Australia’s housing stock, which was valued at a record $11,366 billion as of Q1 2025, equating to $1,002,500 per dwelling. The following chart plots the value of Australia’s dwelling stock against the nation’s GDP and shows that the total stock was worth 4.14 times the size
Asian share markets are having a much more relaxed session across the region as speculation of a possibly positive outcome from the US-China trade talks builds although this might be goosed tonight as European and US share futures are slowly taking a dive. Currency markets are holding their own against recent USD strength as most
Justin Fabo from Antipodean Macro posted the following chart, which shows the collapse in mortgage rates in New Zealand. “The weighted-average interest rate on outstanding mortgages in New Zealand declined another 9bps to 5.91% in April, taking the cumulative fall to nearly 50bps since the peak”, noted Fabo. “More is coming”. Falling mortgage rates have
The official Q1 CPI inflation data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed that the policy-important trimmed mean inflation rate fell to 2.9% year over year, staying within the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) inflation target range of 2% to 3%. RBA Governor Michele Bullock’s media appearance following last month’s 0.25% rate cut suggested
The Market Ear still sees fuel to go higher. King SMH SMH continues the squeeze higher, approaching year highs quickly. The bounce on the 21 day and the lower part of the perfect channel was a schoolbook example. Make sure to roll the call spreads into higher strikes for max optionality. Source: LSEG Workspace Not many longs
It’s not clear that the seasonal June slowdown is done for iron ore. The market remains weak. MySteel pins one issue. China’s total imports of iron ore during January-May reached 486.4 million tonnes, falling by 5.2% compared with the same period last year, according to the latest statistics released by the country’s General Administration of
Australian home values hit their highest level on record in May. The Westpac Consumer Sentiment index, released on Tuesday, showed that Australians have turned bullish on house prices, expecting significant appreciation in the period ahead. As illustrated below by Alex Joiner from IFM Investors, house price expectations have surged to a cyclical high. “With strong
One year ago, AMP chief economist Shane Oliver estimated that Australia’s cumulative housing shortage was in excess of 200,000 dwellings. The chart from Oliver showed that Australia’s housing undersupply began in the mid-2000s when the federal government more than doubled net overseas migration. However, the shortage was almost eradicated when immigration turned negative during the