All one really needs to be seen to be smart is Australia’s is to be loudest. That is the repuation at RBA press conferences of Warren Hogan, bullhawk and bullhorn. He has been Australia’s loudest and most persistent bullhawk. Until now. …at the heart of our productivity problem is a collapse in the efficiency of
The Albanese government has engaged in a full-court press of housing disinformation. Last week, Labor’s new Productivity Minister Andrew Leigh wrote the following spin in The AFR: “The federal government is doing our part. Through the National Housing Accord, we’re working with the states and territories to build 1.2 million homes over five years. We’ve
The past few months have seen Australia’s auction market roar back to life. Last week, the national final auction clearance rate recorded its highest level since July 2024, with just over 66% of homes taken to auction selling. The following chart clearly illustrates the bounce in clearance rates, with higher auction clearances typically leading to
DXY held on Friday night. AUD could not break higher. Lead boots still plodding upwards. Gold sagged. Oil bounce looks technical to me. Metals no bueno. Big bear rolls on. EM maybe. Junk meh. Yields up. Stocks upper. The US jobs report was a Goldilocks scenario, so it did not change the trends. Total nonfarm
International Reading: ‘There’s no fraud’: Steve Bannon says Elon Musk’s DOGE cuts are a huge failure – Raw Story Trump calls for scrapping debt limit – The Hill Economists Raise Questions About Quality of U.S. Inflation Data – WSJ President Stagflation: US economic activity declines as tariffs pressure prices, Fed says – Yahoo House GOP
Following one of the largest booms in the developed world during the pandemic, New Zealand’s house prices experienced a significant decline. As illustrated above by Justin Fabo from Antipodean Macro, New Zealand’s real inflation-adjusted house price has returned to its pre-pandemic level, according to the REINZ house price index. Separate data released this week by
Westpac states the obvious. Soft GDP data for Q1 has again raised questions of whether the RBA is behind the curve and has left policy too tight for too long. As we have been highlighting for some time, underlying growth in Australia remains weak and sensitive to pauses in the expansion in the care economy.
The Market Ear on the nature of the rally. Range mania continues SPX remains stuck inside the 5800/6000 range (futures). Source: LSEG Workspace NASDAQ technicals Rising wedge like formation and the huge resistance area slightly higher. Source: LSEG Workspace Surprise, surprise The gap between SPX and Citi US economic surprises should make you a bit
This week’s Q1 national accounts release from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed that real per capita household consumption has been negative for seven consecutive quarters on an annual basis, down 2.4% from its peak. The decline in household consumption came despite a rebound in real per capita household incomes, which jumped by 1.8%
The Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) 25 bp rate cut last month had an immediate effect on the housing market. The final auction clearance rate across the combined capital cities soared to its highest level since early July 2024, despite the second-highest auction volumes (2,918) of the year. According to Cotality, 66.2% of auctions resulted