Policymakers want to force Australians to live in high-rise apartment towers, assuming it will improve affordability. Their assumption is incorrect, as data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) shows that building a shoebox apartment is more expensive than building a detached house. Michael Matusik’s chart highlights the problem. “Whilst all building costs have risen
The Aussie terms of trade shellacking is taking a breather, but the trend is intact and will get much worse. The last Commodity Price Index from the RBA was enjoying a dead cat bounce. But the two coals have continued their collapse. Metallic coal is grinding lower. My target price in 25/26 is $100. It
DXY took a breather. AUD is poised for more. Plenty of room in the Chinese jaws. Oil and gold firm. Copper bubblet bursts. Yawn. Miners stuffed. EM deepsucking. Junk breaking out? Yields down. Stocks up. I can’t remember an RBA pile-on of such intensity. Both hawks and bulls are so politicised that the central bank
It’s always the same at this stage of the cycle, only this time it is secular, not cyclical. BHP’s dividend payout has hit its lowest point since 2017 after the mining giant missed market expectations on underlying earnings as well as profit. BHP reported first-half revenue of $US25.2bn, down 8 per cent on the prior
Amid a lot of macro chaos, stock markets continue to make new highs with the German DAX pushing European bourses higher while a closed Wall Street almost made a record close on Friday night despite a poor retail sales print and crashing export volumes to Canada. The USD continues to give up ground against most
The pump-priming of Australia’s housing market is in full swing. Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers has already announced that he has instructed Australia’s financial regulators to relax home lending regulations for millions of Australians with home loans. Under the changes, a borrower’s student debt will be excluded from mortgage serviceability calculations if the bank feels the
An uneasy start to the trading week as most Asian share markets pull back after a mixed return on Wall Street from Friday night due to the weaker than expected retail sales print. This is likely to continue as its a long weekend for US markets. The USD is still under the pump with most
In August 2024, the Actuaries Institute reported that rising home insurance premiums were causing financial stress for 1.6 million Australian households. This represented a 360,000-household increase, or 30% more than the previous year. According to Sharanjit Paddam, the principal author of the Actuaries Institute research, insurance premiums were rising faster than incomes, with the median
So much for the Cat5 monster. Cyclone Nothingburger passed the Pilbara by without leaving any damage. RIO has already re-committed to existing output guidance which means that a weak Q1 will be followed by booming Q2 and Q3. Prices fell over the weekend and have some catching down to steel to do. Vale also indicated
The writing was on the wall for Albo in his first week. While Australian energy markets were melting down on Ukraine War profiteering by the gas cartel, Albo was busy talking up how he would aim for a two-term government. Any PM who is so focused on re-election as his top priority has no interest