As most of Melbourne reopens today, spare a thought for Victoria’s cinema industry, which has curiously been left out of the State Government’s reopening plans: “To not allow us to reopen when we have the ability to do so safely, with COVID-Safe numbers and protocols in place, is just pernicious,” Palace Cinemas chief executive officer
Via The Fake Left: China’s widening trade actions against Australia have disrupted exports worth up to $19bn a year, according to new analysis, sparking calls for the Morrison government to seek a reset in the relationship to forestall further economic pain. Labor’s agriculture and resources spokesman, Joel Fitzgibbon, said: “How much more harm must our
Our wonderful leadership reverts to mean so fast: Scott Morrison is setting his sights on bringing international students and workers into Australia as more states ease coronavirus restrictions and manage outbreaks. Mr Morrison has reflected on publicly pushing to reopen the whole country by Christmas a few months ago. His next priority is attracting university
Around two years ago, former CEO of NBN Co blamed online gamers for creating congestion on the National Broadband Network (NBN) and threatened to throttle internet speeds: NBN Co is “evaluating” slowing down or limiting downloads for users during peak times in order to overcome these fixed wireless congestion problems. At a parliamentary hearing in
Via The Australian: The Reserve Bank of Australia has scope to ease monetary policy settings further if it wants, and any suggestion that its firepower has run out can be dismissed, Ian Harper, a member of the central bank’s policy-setting board, told the Wall Street Journal. “There is certainly capacity for the Reserve Bank to
The latest polling averages are better El Trumpo: Battleground states have closed the gap a little: Betting is unimpressed: 538 sees an even larger landslide: Probably rightly. There is always a late swing to the incumbent but the gap remains to large and the virus resurgence cannot help El Trumpo: He only has until next
Roy Morgan Research has put together a useful chart pack, compiled from its surveys, tracking the change in the Australian economy since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in March: Full report here.
From Roy Morgan Research: The latest Roy Morgan Leading Indicator: Holiday Travel Intention report shows that during the quarter April to June 2020, a period in which the full scale of the pandemic’s effect was becoming apparent, 5.79 million Australians said they intended to take a holiday in the next 12 months. This is well
As reported in brief earlier, Australia’s Consumer Price Index (CPI) came in at 1.6% in the September quarter – rebounding from the largest quarterly fall in the 72 year history of the CPI recorded in the June quarter: Over the year, CPI rose by just 0.7%: Looking at the major components, you can see that
Via the ABS comes the CPI: Jun Qtr 2020 to Sep Qtr 2020 Sep Qtr 2019 to Sep Qtr 2020 Weighted average of eight capital cities % change % change All groups CPI 1.6 0.7 Food and non-alcoholic beverages -0.4 3.4 Alcohol and tobacco 1.6 8.1 Clothing and footwear 0.4 -0.5 Housing 0.0 -0.2 Furnishings,
Australia recorded only 12 new COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours alongside 2 deaths: However, only 3 were local infections with the rest returned travelers in hotel quarantine: Melbourne’s 14-day average has plummeted to only 2.7: Whereas Victoria’s 14-day infection rate has fallen to zero: NSW recorded only 1 local infection with 7 in
The Treasury’s submission to a Senate inquiry into the JobMaker hiring credit scheme contends that its focus on people aged 16-35 is justified as this age group has a much higher unemployment rate than the broader population. However, the Council on the Ageing (cota) has hit back, using their submission to raise concern that employers
Research undertaken by Xero Small Business Insights and AlphaBeta, based on a sample of 100,000 companies, suggests that small business revenue increased by 5.2% year-on-year in September. It is the highest growth in revenue since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and could push a large number of JobKeeper recipients off the subsidy: The extraordinary
The Australian dollar is weak again this morning amid its bearish declining triangle is intact: Bonds are bid: Stocks have opened lower again: Big Iron has broken support with RIO and BHP in technical freefall: Big Oil is similar: Big Gold has a bid just because: Big Banks have joined the selling as the yield
From the normally superb Red Book which this time needs little bit of skepticism: ― The Westpac–Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index has continued to track a volatile path since July, hit hard by the ‘second wave’ COVID outbreak in August but staging a big rally in September-October. At 105, the Index is 19% above its
Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) deputy governor, Guy Debelle, told a Senate Estimates hearing yesterday that he believes Australia’s recession officially ended in the September quarter with the negative print in Victoria more than offset by growth elsewhere: “Our best guess is it looks like the September quarter for the country recorded positive growth rather
Sustainable Population Australia (SPA) has released an excellent new report, entitled “Silver tsunami or silver lining? Why we should not fear an ageing population”, written by Queensland academic Dr Jane O’Sullivan. The report expertly debunks the notion that an Ageing population poses a material risk to the Australian economy, alongside self-defeating arguments that Australia needs
Iron ore prices for October 27, 2020: Spot was firm and everything else soft. Empty apartment sales have rebounded: Whatever the hiccup it is passed. So, I still see weakness over the next few weeks in line with broader markets then a resumption of bullish prices through new year looking for an ultimate top and
The new energy issues paper released by the Minister for the Gas Cartel, Keith Pitt, has produced a debate as devoid of ideas and facts as the paper itself. As usual, it is all rentier and no Australia at the AFR: A new Morrison government discussion paper on gas reservation has flagged a sensible backflip
A flurry of potentially good economic releases did not stave the risk off mood overnight as the chance of any stimulus this side of the US election closed out as the Senate was put out to pasture by the Republicans. A solid September durable goods orders and equally fixed consumer confidence print had little impact
It’s banking Nirvana!
Everything is levitating in vain hope that the virus will just go away. DXY: The Australian dollar: Gold: Oil: Metals: Except for miners: EM stocks are floating: Junk too: But Treasuries have puked the steepening trade: Stocks are diving in Europe and have a terrifying double top chart in the US: Data from Westpac: Event
According to CBA’s internal data, Australian mortgage lending strengthened further in September, up 30% year-on-year: However, average loan sizes are shrinking; albeit are still higher year-over-year: The share of fixed rate lending remained at high levels, driven by fixed rates being lower than variable rates: Lending for renovations continued to grow, likely driven by people
Via Domain: A former NSW auditor-general has warned that the shredding of documents related to $250 million in council grants was likely to be unlawful and should end Gladys Berejiklian’s leadership. Tony Harris, who has also served as a senior Commonwealth public servant, said he was confident the Premier’s office breached the State Records Act
By STEPHEN S. ROACH at Project Syndicate: US President Donald Trump wears his recent experience with COVID-19 infection as some perverse badge of courage, rather than as a warning of what may lie ahead. And the adverse economic consequences of his administration’s approach to the pandemic could not contrast more sharply with the robust recovery
From Deloitte Access Economics’ Weekly Economic Briefing: Monday was a milestone day for Victoria, with the state recording its first day of zero COVID cases since early June. And with the passing of that milestone, the state announced the loosening of a raft of restrictions, allowing retail and hospitality to reopen from midnight tonight, and
Global Macro / Markets / Investing: Dow sinks almost 900 points amid surging COVID-19 cases – UPI You’re Not Welcome Here: How Social Distancing Can Destroy The Global Economy – NPR Bond Defaults Deliver 99% Losses in New Era of U.S. Bankruptcies – Bloomberg Modern Monetary Theory and the crisis of capitalism: Part one –
Stocks markets are falling across the region in response to the big stumble on Wall Street and in Europe overnight, with a retreat to safe havens like Yen and gold, the latter inching back above the $1900USD per ounce level but still looking weak here as its medium term uptrend remains under threat: The Shanghai
MB has long ridiculed CommSec’s State of the States report for providing inaccurate assessments of the economy. Today is no exception, with CommSec ranking Victoria number one for economic growth: Even though this growth performance has been driven by Victoria’s nation-beating population growth: Obviously, the experience on the ground in Victoria has been far less
During his Budget speech earlier this month, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg spruiked that the “new JobMaker hiring credit to encourage businesses to hire younger Australians” would “support around 450,000 jobs for young people”. However, Treasury official Jenny Wilkinson yesterday told a Senate estimates hearing that the scheme may actually result in just 45,000 additional jobs, as
