Macro Afternoon

By in Australian Dollar, Australian Shares

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See the latest Australian dollar analysis here:

Macro Afternoon

Kayaking in the Cook Islands, 2019: Photo by H. Becker

Stock markets are stumbling along across Asia after no lead from Wall Street overnight due to the US thanksgiving holiday. Bitcoin is trying to maintain itself above $17000 after getting tripped up falling over 10% yesterday, while a weaker USD is not helping gold much, still at a monthly low as it barely hovers above the $1800USD per ounce level:

The Shanghai Composite is floating along not doing much again today, currently at 3365 points while in Hong Kong the Hang Seng Index its treading water with a minor fall of 0.2% to 26776 points. Japanese stock markets continue to lift although its a modest session for the Nikkei 225, up only 0.2% to 26591 points while the USDJPY pair has broken down on the back of the weak USD, heading below the 104 handle and possibly back to where it started the week:

The ASX200 is again retracing, currently down 0.5% to be a smidgen above the 6600 point level while the Australian dollar is taking advantage of the weaker greenback, up to a new high for the week to the 73.70 level:

Eurostoxx and S&P futures are quite flat with the four hourly chart of the S&P500 still floating along at support at the key psychological 3600 point level:

The economic calendar finishes the week with a whimper – nothing much to report.

Have a good weekend and stay safe – see y’all next week as I take over for Leith who needs a well deserved break. Hopefully he can get out of that heaven on earth you call “mel-bin”…..hehheh

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Comments

  2. Hugh PavletichMEMBER

    NEW ZEALAND INITIATIVE THINK TANK INSIGHTS THIS WEEK: MASSIVE COVERAGE OF THE HOUSING ISSUE …

    … And too … the New Zealand Herald today is saturated with the housing issue …

    … In particular … listen and read … Executive Director Dr Oliver Hartwich’s NZ Herald Open Letter to Broadcaster Mike Hosking …

    Insights 45 – 27 November 2020 … New Zealand Initiative

    https://nzinitiative.outreach.co.nz/?Ns=&Na=view-msg-public&SMESG-oid=25507&Scontact=2149250d

    https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/audio/oliver-hartwich-new-zealand-initiative-executive-director-on-his-open-letter-to-mike-hosking-over-housing/

    https://www.nzinitiative.org.nz/reports-and-media/opinion/an-open-letter-to-mike-hosking-on-housing/

  3. skippy

    Ref: Virgin Premier despoils NSW – By David Llewellyn-Smith

    David old sod …. per the first two rules of Neoliberalism – #1 Because Markets … #2 Die … Variant 1. the rules of neoliberalism do not apply or are applicable to those that write them – !!!!!!! – gasp man …

  4. Mining BoganMEMBER

    Did anyone else rush home forgetting the cricket isn’t on free to air and also boycott Rupert goods?

    Thank Dog for the wireless.

  5. zeroboundMEMBER

    Chinese have applied a 200% import tariff on Aussie wine..

    let’s do the same on Aussie coal & iron ore exports !

    • Agent 47MEMBER

      Point cook is a migrant slum with no infrastructure and one road in and out. Bundoora full of laundered Chinese money and international students.

      Liveable indeed.

      • GavinMEMBER

        Yes I know, I would not live in Point Cook, I’d keep going to Geetroit. Bundoora and Mill Park I guess are not too bad, but it’s getting a bit sparse out that way and certainly wouldn’t feel like a community… I remember when all Mill Park had was farm paddocks with a McDonald’s in the middle. Then 2 pubs on their own going through Mernda on the way to Whittlesea.

    • ColinMEMBER

      You’re making me cry Gav. I’ve owned an LJ & an LH torry – good for their day.
      I test drove a well looked after Capri (stayed with the LJ). Test drove a skyline GTSr – electronica put me off & not that much poke, but a nice car still. And an original AE86 – Well balanced, good handling, but underpowered in standard trim. I wouldn’t have garaged any of them though,…… Always wanted a 240z too…. Doh!

    • GavinMEMBER

      Gunna or Gav? I think it’s absurd.. $1.2M in Beverely Hills Sydney. Can probably get more value for money in Beverely Hills LA. 😀

    • Jumping jack flash

      Everything is affordable if the bank decides to give you the right amount of debt to buy it with. The price doesnt matter as much as the debt does, and hasn’t for many years. In fact it is extremely beneficial to the economy if the prices rise fairly quickly because that will enable more debt to be created and cause the economic growth.

      Its a very fine balance point though between net inflation or deflation when playing with nonproductive debt, and one that our esteemed economic masters haven’t managed to get right for over 10 years. Have they cracked the code this time?

  10. Ronin8317MEMBER

    The Black Friday sales is crazy at Westfield Parramatta today. My wife can’t even get inside the car park and gave up after queuing for half an hour.

      • SpunkyMEMBER

        Money was a never-ending object for you from the start,
        picture of the only loving sister that you just
        fcked up,
        typical chemical
        what you got?
        bitten by black friday
        electrical predictable
        what you got?
        bitten by black friday
        yeah!
        could you be the only practice liar that i ever knew,
        and all the school girls disposing the lies and what’s the last one you use.
        typical criminal
        what you got?
        bitten by black friday
        electical subliminal
        what you got?
        bitten by black friday

    • ErmingtonPlumbingMEMBER

      I’ve promised my daughter id take her to DFO but am told it’s an absolute shyte fight on weekends.
      So I’ve told her she can take a day of school and we’ll go then.
      We haven’t told her mum yet.
      Gulp.

  11. Mining BoganMEMBER

    Where’s Poppy? Is your pool like this…

    I went to the pool this arvo, first time I haven’t had to book in because lifted restrictions. Four of us their doing laps. When we had to book a spot the maximum of 20 was there every hour. You had to book days ahead. Now that you don’t nobody cares about swimming.

    How far does FOMO extend in this once great country?

    • Popcod

      Sorry for the delayed response, had a crap week last week and have been meaning to respond all of this but time flies!

      Our outdoor pool has been really quiet from about 11am to after school time for a few weeks now. Basically when we opened it was still stage 4 so we were the only thing you could do. Then the shops opened and numbers dropped, then the 25km restriction went and numbers dropped. Then the indoor facilities reopened and numbers dropped further (it is funny but basically it is only Aussies or older European migrants who use the outdoor pool, the more recent vintage of migrants who used the pool pre-Covid are nowhere to be seen). One of our LGs who knows people in the community and hasn’t seen the regulars back at the indoor facility has asked people why they weren’t using the facilities anymore and responses were they’ve figured out how to exercise for free and/or they’ve lost work and are now doing casual work and the booking was too difficult to manage in the mad scramble for hours.

      However today was quite busy, and this week our numbers at the outdoor pool are up so hopefully now we don’t have to book (and we are back to our usual capacity restriction which is 300 for our old facility) more people will come back. The number of people who say they absolutely love swimming at the outdoor pool is huge, they always follow with the indoor pool is ok but outdoor is just so much better. Enjoy your swimming!

  12. GavinMEMBER

    FYI: I am in contact with a financial advisor who is helping me move my money from Ireland (Pension) back to Aussie Super Fund.. I won’t quote who he is, but he’s Perth based.

    This is what he said
    “Hi Gavin

    1. crazy times indeed. Mortgage business also went off like a fire cracker so over whelmed with work”

    He had taken some time to come back to me with details on proceeding with the transfer. (a couple of months) I contacted him mid lockdown in Melbourne. So I think June?

    • drt15MEMBER

      Interesting. I’ve contracted a Vic modular home company to put a house on my land (inaccessible and no builders available). The company were nicely busy during the lock down but say they’re now inundated and can’t keep up.with demand…..

    • haroldusMEMBER

      Mate it’s the Hungry Mile against the subcontinent.

      Unless you are some sort of savant, but even then how do you get the job?

    • haroldusMEMBER

      That’s why “Learn to Code” is such an offensive meme.

      And why people take such delight in calling for woke professions laid off by low-wage competition to “Learn to Code”

      • [email protected]

        I’m half in on the joke and half regretting my life choices lol.

        I just don’t underatand how I can be at another new job again where I’m doing everything and on the verge of being promoted against my will again purely because I’m the only non-tard (cue howls of laughter from some select posters). Learning to code is that grass is greener mirage for me.

        • haroldusMEMBER

          The thing is I’m just a SQL grunt (which causes a lot of hilarity amongst the more autistic members of the MB community).

          To do my job, or any programming job, isn’t just:
          1) Get laid off from mine
          2) Learn to code
          3) Profit!

          It is intensely competitive to get entry level jobs. At the higher level you get guys like Mig, who are really smart and known, so they get chased down by employers.

          So you can’t just “Learn to Code”, and get what you got driving the mining truck.

          And, who are you competing against to get the entry level coding jobs…….

          • [email protected]

            The grass is never greener harry, I knew what you meant/saying before I posted lol. Just havin one of them days and wanted a whinge and now you’ve got me all chided and feeling lucky to have a job at all, let alone one that’s promoting me 😄

          • LSWCHPMEMBER

            I spent 30 years writing high performance embedded signal processing software in C and assembler. Learning to code worked out for me. But I hear the ANU has set down its Software Engineering Degree because they don’t have enough students without the Chinese. Sad. Fck me, I’ve lectured those dumfck cunce for a decade, and most of them think that breathing through their mouths makes them look smart.

            I’ve had 8 Tullamore Dews. Time for bed before I get cross.

          • Arthur Schopenhauer

            Rule 1: Never call yourself a programmer, coder, developer or software ‘engineer’.
            Rule 2: See rule 1.

          • Jumping jack flash

            20 years coding SQL/C# with a bit of linux and C++. Around 2012 i decide that programming is dead end so i switch to engineering. Machine vision and control systems.

            I complete my degree next year. It hasnt paid off yet. While the work is *much* more fun, programming wages are going up again. I may need to swap back yet depending on how it all goes after i take on my debt mountain.

          • The Traveling Wilbur

            :Rule#1
            REM Never call yourself a programmer, coder, developer or ‘software engineer’.
            :Rule#2
            GOTO Rule#1

            Fixed. Various.

    • GavinMEMBER

      Learn to JavaScript. it’s funny I’m do some development work these days. I never thought I’d end up in Data Science or doing Data Engineering.

      But big data is becoming a huge thing now. But it takes years to learn to be good at any of it. Some people are just better at it than others. Not everyone can sit on their butt all day in front of a computer. Lord knows I struggle at times.

      I prefer some physical work. That’s why I think I may enjoy building and tuning engines. But electric will take over soon enough i think.

      Funny in my last job I didn’t want to be promoted either. Because that means higher expectations and more stress. I suspect I’ll get promoted again in my new job if I keep working the way I have been, but I struggle to go half throttle. It’s either all or nothing and in my last role I was so burnt out that I couldn’t give anymore.

      • [email protected]

        I’m pretty much the same, love the physical work and can’t do half speed.

        My whole goal is to get back to Uni part time and finish my degree (8 subjects to go) but keep landing jobs that start out purely physical (exactly what I want) and then end up being all the same amount of physical with a bunch of thinking added on top and responsibility and never enough money to make the extra effort worthwhile. What annoys me the most is the added thinking involves warehousing computer and software that is clunky as and I never have enough training on it because once you learn the bare minimum to do the job they don’t teach you anymore.

        I need to know how the whole system works or my brain hurts but I don’t have enough time and willing teachers to satisfy this need.

      • The BurbWatcherMEMBER

        Argh, burnout sucks, I know the feeling…

        Balancing work, work ambitions, and intensive family care, I feel I’m two or so stressful events from burning out again…

        I hear you, it’s not fun.

    • The BurbWatcherMEMBER

      To the coders: can you hook up with other engineering types and look for opportunities?

      eg. process control, signal processing, development and implementation of industry-relevant artificial intelligence (AI), advanced manufacturing, etc?

      For example, I want to implement an AI-based system for the dynamic chemical processing of waste sludge streams, and I’m 99% confident it will work (I’ve got most of it worked out except for the actual AI architecture and code!), but I need someone to do it for me…

      Just throwing ideas out there 🙂

  14. Ronin8317MEMBER

    This is a very good story about how much pressure the Republicans who wants to ‘do the right thing’ is facing.

    https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/11/24/michigan-election-trump-voter-fraud-democracy-440475

    “The president was not accepting defeat. That meant no Republican with career ambitions could accept it, either.”.

    Democracy in the USA is still holding up, but another ‘Trump-like’ figure and the USA will become a dictatorship.

    • AsuraMEMBER

      Might be my ECU bias but from what I’ve heard Curtin has always been about terrible student interaction, give out the work and good luck. Good if you don’t need help and don’t care for socialising I guess.

  16. AsuraMEMBER

    Anyone know of Australian made earbuds? Only found nuheara and while I would love to support my own state, $400 is quite a lot for my non ongoing salary.

      • V

        The website doesn’t say made in Australia, so just another outfit creating an overpriced ‘brand’ while they manufacture in the 3rd world. That business model gets replayed over and over.

    • patrick

      The Asianisation of Australia goes on and on.
      ‘For Mr Jiang, coming back to Australia means carrying the hopes of the whole family. His family believes overseas education is a valuable pathway that no families in China want to miss out on’