Last week’s dwelling construction data was an absolute disaster. In the June quarter of 2025, only 40,524 homes completed construction, which was the weakest quarter of dwelling completions for 11 years (i.e., since the March quarter of 2014).

Asian share markets have continued their strong rebound on the Trump TACO trade helped along by calm returning to Japanese politics with a new PM while local markets saw a lift in rare earth miners on the back of the Albo “deal”.

Credit Agricole has a wrap on the broader themes. China’s 4th Plenum will take place on 20-23 October to discuss the 15th Five-YearPlan (FYP), outlining China’s medium-term strategic plans for economic and social development in 2026-30.

By Ross Elliott, cross-posted from The Pulse: A million people generate a lot of demand for things.

Last week’s dwelling completions data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed that in 2024-25, the Albanese government fell 65,970 (27%) behind the National Housing Accord’s target, which requires 240,000 homes to be built annually for five consecutive years.

There is no substitute for stupidity in Australia.

The Chinese property crash is somewhere near the halfway point. Here is the raw data for Ssptember, Floor space sold: -10.5% yoy in September, vs. -10.3% yoy in August (value of sales:-11.8% yoy in September, vs. -13.8% yoy in August).

Since the pandemic kicked off in early 2020, around 60% of the nation’s job growth has been driven by the non-market (largely government-funded) sector, which comprises healthcare, social assistance, education, and public administration and safety.

In September 2023, just as Australia’s net overseas migration was hitting its highest level in history (i.e., 556,000), NSW Premier Chris Minns told ABC’s 7.30 Report that he supported record immigration levels, claiming that more migrants were needed to build houses and apartments in the state.

Recently, the level of migration has been a major source of controversy.

Goldman kicks us off. China’s Q3 GDP report came in marginally above market consensus (though in line with our forecast) amid mixed September activity data — industrial production (IP )meaningfully beat market expectations, retail sales was in line, while fixed assetinvestment (FAI) missed notably, reflecting that the economy remains bifurcated.

The Market Ear melts up.

A further rally on Wall Street overnight due to more solid earnings which overshadowed the subprime drama in regional banks, helped along by a positive reaction here in Asia in yesterday’s session to strong Chinese GDP numbers.

DXY is up.

Australia’s auction market performed solidly again over the weekend, despite a high number of listings.

Asian share markets have rebounded strongly on the TACO trade as the Trump regime looks like folding yet again over its tariff threats on China while the USD tries to take back a lot of lost ground against the majors but is only barely making headway.

New Zealand experienced one of the developed world’s largest rises in home values over the first 25 years of this century.

There are two main reasons why the federal government supports running a high immigration program.

So says Societe General.

I agree.

Are the US and China getting back together?

While the level of migration remains a hotly contested issue, from the nation’s halls of power to backyard BBQ debates, for the longest time, migration conceptually was considered a positive by a majority of the public.

I love QLD.

Former senior immigration department bureaucrat Abul Rizvi posted an article in Independent Australia where he explained how the Albanese government secretly increased the permanent migrant intake well above the official published level. Rizvi showed how Labor “has significantly increased the size of permanent migration compared to the situation pre-pandemic (see Table 3)”.