Compare the Market’s annual Household Budget Barometer report shows that many Australians are continuing to feel the strain of rising living costs. Only 7% of the 3,000-plus respondents feel that the Australian economy has improved over the last year, while just 22% feel optimistic about the economic future. Shadow Treasurer Ted O’Brien says the figures
Under progressive leadership regimes, the Australian central bank has become ever more corrupt and unable to speak truth to power, especially when it comes to the single most important macroeconomic input into the economy: immigration. Just this week, we had another analysis from RBA boffin Sarah Hunter, which refused to acknowledge the obvious: the immigration-led
This week, two polls were released showing that Australians overwhelmingly want significantly lower immigration. First, Resolve Political Monitor released polling of 1,800 Aussies from across the political spectrum on October 7 and 12. The group was told Australia’s current migration policies allow 316,000 people into the country and 185,000 to permanently settle in the country
The ferrous complex is falling apart; it just doesn’t know it yet. Steel prices are collapsing. The spread to iron ore is eviscerating mill profits as inventories pile up. This is both rebar and, more importantly, HRC. It’s so bad that the need for a New Year steel restock is nearly gone. Mills are going
Wall Street was slammed lower mainly led by financials but also small stocks as trade war tensions are keeping most risk markets contained. The USD continues to decline with Yen and Euro both pushing to new weekly highs while the Australian dollar failed to get back above the 65 cent level due to yesterday’s release
The Market Ear wraps us up. Welcome to extreme fear The problem is we have not seen CNN’s greed/fear index hit extreme fear territory and SPX this close to ATHs (chart 2). Source: CNN Source: Macromicro Imagine regional… …goes a bit more “global”? SPX vs. KRE gap getting rather wide. Source: LSEG Workspace Huge gap
DXY no bueno. AUD even less bueno. Gold bueno. Oil no bueno. AI metals are confused. Big miners breakout or false? EM bounceback. Junk not so much! Yields freefall. Stocks need a deeper pullback. Newsflow is whacko, courtesy of ZH. Washington shutdown. Geopolitical risk Weak Macro Hawkish FedSpeak Waller sounded less dovish than normal: “You
Australians have endured the biggest decline in real wages in history. As of the June quarter of 2025, Australian real wages were still tracking 6.0% below their June 2020 level, at roughly the same level as December 2011. The Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) Assistant governor and chief economist Sarah Hunter warned that Australia’s sagging
AUD/USD EUR/USD USD/JPY GBP/USD Gold WTI Brent Australia 200 US S&P 500 UK 100 Japan 225 Vids
The post Macro Afternoon: 16 October 2025 appeared first on MacroBusiness.
Asian share markets are still trying to get a wriggle on as the trading week starts to wind down following some potential progress on the rare earth US-China trade war while the latest unemployment print locally is resetting the chances of more RBA rate cuts although the Australian dollar remains resilient against a very weak