The USD finally moved lower after a week of strength on the back of war jitters across the Middle East, but Wall Street still fell back as Fedspeak overnight again highlighted inflationary fears. Asian stock markets are likely to start in the red again today because of the risk off mood with the Australian dollar
Justin Fabo from Antipodean Macro published the below chart showing that labour shortages are rapidly easing across Australia: Low-skilled positions, in particular, have become much easier to find, with the share of employers reporting recruitment difficulties falling to pre-pandemic levels. The data makes sense in light of the record surge in international students, with the
DXY eased off: AUD backed away from the cliff: North Asia helped: Oil tanked: Metals are still warm: Miners popped with the iron ore loon: EM is stuck again: Junk pulled out of the dive: As yields fell: But stocks corrected anyway: Bloomie wraps it up: Treasuries rebounded a day after Jerome Powell threw cold water
In early April, CISA steel output data fell away as the Q2 peak season was supposed to ramp it up. There is no trend to suggest increases, either: Nor did steel stockpiles move much, down a meager 0.9%. This is flat year on year, despite output being 9% lower. This continues the rate of descent
Economists have raised concern that stronger-than-expected US inflation figures could mean local prices continue to rise, delaying the path to interest rate cuts. HSBC’s chief economist for Australia, Paul Bloxham, also warned that Australia was lagging behind the US on productivity, which would keep inflation elevated and delay rate cuts until early 2025. “There’s another
Asian stock markets are still in flux after the rocky start to the trading week following the escalation in conflict across the Middle East, with somewhat hawkish Fedspeak overnight not helping risk sentiment either. The USD remains strong against most of the undollars while bond markets continue their selloff. The Australian dollar is failing to
By Stephen Wu, Economist at CBA: We expect headline CPI increased by 0.7%/qtr and 3.4%/yr in Q1 24. Our forecast sees the trimmed mean CPI rise by 0.8%/qtr and the annual rate step down to 3.7%. An outcome in line with our forecasts would imply a slight undershoot relative to the RBA’s expectations. The upcoming
Good on the Greens for trying but this argument is weak: Outgoing Woolworths boss Brad Banducci was threatened with six months in jail for contempt of the Senate after he refused to directly answer questions about a profit metric, in a fiery Senate hearing that went off the rails on Tuesday. Mr Banducci declined to
The December Mid-Year Fiscal and Economic Outlook (MYEFO) projected that Australia’s net overseas migration would fall to 375,000 this financial year. Labor’s projection was categorically blown out of the water by Tuesday’s net permanent and long-term arrivals figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), which recorded the strongest monthly (105,500), quarterly (172,400), and annual
The December quarter national accounts from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) recorded that GDP per capita fell by 1.0% in 2023: Real per capita household final consumption also fell by 2.5% in 2023, which drove the 0.3% annual decline in per capita final demand: Meanwhile, real per capita household disposable income in Australia plummeted