There is no recovery in Chinese steel, but there is one in iron ore! The late-year seasonal increase in steel production was very muted. These price movements coincided with capacity utilization increases among Chinese steel producers, with blast furnace operations rising 0.32% and electric arc furnaces climbing 1.93% during the final week of 2025. These private movements are not
Green across the Atlantic share markets overnight with lower than expected inflation numbers in Europe helping buoy stocks while rumbles of more “acquistions” by the Trumpian Empire – Greenland next – kept Wall Street lifting higher. The USD strengthened against most of the majors, particularly Canada as their oil stocks took a small hit on
Cotality’s rental review for the December quarter has been released, and it shows that Australia’s rental crisis continues. Vacancy rates were 1.7% in the December quarter, down from 2.1% a year earlier and significantly below the pre-COVID average. National advertised rents also rose by 1.3% in the December quarter, boosting annual growth to 5.2%. With
Asian share markets are generally performing very well as risk moves to buy up everything not marked with a USD sign, while local shares continue to underperform. Volatility in commodity markets is abating following the Trump regime’s “special military operation” into Venezuela with the USD seeing a strong reversal against the majors, particularly Euro as
Find below the full text of the Albanese government’s energy treason cooked up with the East Coast gas cartel precisely as predicted at MB. It is so nice to see the Indigenous and Aussie Jews acknowledged as their land is leached of its resource endowment on behalf of China while being backfilled with carcinogenic poisons,
Honestly, what has gone wrong with the human mind? Every single debate I track these days is binary, usually supporting some political idiot or another. The latest outbreak of conflict is a result of the actions the US has taken against Venezuela. On one side of the debate, Trump cheerleaders are arguing that Maduro was
Below is another excellent post from MB reader Erin Rolandsen, CEO of Angelassist and author of beyondtheragemachine.substack.com: High levels of short-term immigration have made official population measures unfit for purpose. Australia’s population statistics were designed for a low-churn world, where most migrants arrived permanently and most residents stayed put. That is no longer the economy
DXY is getting Trumped as we enter 2026. AUD is still trending higher. But it is paced by a slow-moving CNY. Gold appears tired. Oil has died. Base metals are all AI all of the time. Big miners whoa. EM stocks are throwing NY party. Junk ain’t. Duration is a threat. With US stocks in
With the release of the latest ABS Wage Price Index for the September quarter, it was revealed that headline wages were growing right on analyst and RBA expectations, with wages up 0.8% quarter on quarter and 3.4% year on year. But underneath the relatively pedestrian headlines lies a divergence in outcomes and significant falls in
As usual, Australia is having a stupid debate. This time, it is about manufacturing. Australia is ranked below Botswana and Russia on Harvard’s index of economic complexity because of a diminished manufacturing industry and an overreliance on iron ore and coal exports. However, economists said the statistics could not be used to justify Labor’s industry