Abul Rizvi is a strange guy. He has spent years attacking me and howling “racism” at anybody calling for lower, more sustainable levels of immigration. Yet when pushed, Rizvi often holds similar views. The latest case in point is Rizvi’s hand-wringing over the Albanese government’s failure to control immigration, which he claims empowers extremists. In
What price Australian smelters? Major global companies like Trafigura, Glencore and Rio Tinto are all negotiating what additional financial assistance federal and state governments are willing to provide to keep aged, uncompetitive smelters operating in Australia. …China has created a worldwide glut of refining and smelting capacity. That has driven down prices and viability for smelters in
Overnight solid earnings on tech stocks sent Wall Street higher even though NVIDIA is off somewhat with additional US economic data (or lack thereof due to the Trump regime hiding the bad news) reinforcing the notion that the December rate cut from the Fed is firming, giving a general boost to risk markets. The USD
Brisbane’s post-pandemic housing boom has trashed affordability for first home buyers and tenants alike. Turning to prices first, Proptrack reports that Brisbane dwelling values have soared by 104% since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020: The impact on affordability was illustrated in all of its hideous glory in Cotality’s latest housing affordability
Australia’s unemployment rate is currently tracking at a historically low 4.3% and the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) latest Statement of Monetary Policy forecasts that it will remain at around its current level until the end of 2027. The primary reason why Australia’s unemployment rate is so low is because government spending has driven a
Asian equity markets are mixed in today’s session as Japanese markets return with all eyes on talks between China, Japan and USA in recent days but the newsflow and outcome has been vague at best. With the shortened trading week due to US Thanksgiving risk markets are effectively in a holding pattern. Currency land was
I wrote on Monday that Australia’s house price boom appears to be losing momentum, as evidenced by the slowing growth of Cotality’s daily dwelling values index. Growth in Cotality’s 5-city aggregate index has slowed significantly over the past 10 days, driven by sharp decelerations across Sydney and Melbourne. The loss of momentum is also reflected
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has already slashed the official cash rate (OCR) by 3.0% this cycle, taking it to 2.5% from its recent peak of 5.5%. This reduction in the OCR has slashed mortgage rates, which, as illustrated below by Justin Fabo from Antipodian Macro, are now tracking at around pre-pandemic levels. However,
Like all things El Trumpo, nothing lasts very long. The Market Ear on the stock rebound. The crowd Once again they managed loading up on puts at local market lows. The crowd is the crowd for a reason….Chart shows put/call ratio vs SPY. Source: Tradingview Selling lows? Was Thursday tech capitulation? Shorting lows is painful,
Recent job advertisements and vacancy data, presented below by Shane Oliver from AMP, suggest that Australia’s labour market is gradually softening. Last week’s Q3 wage data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) also struck a soft tone, with private sector wage growth falling sharply, partly offset by strength in public sector wages: SEEK has