Treasurer Jim Chalmers has refused to rule out extending the federal government’s energy rebate for a third time.

Westpac summarises the drivel.

Westpac with the note.

DXY down.

I explained last week why Australia’s energy costs will inevitably soar as the nation replaces traditional baseload generation with renewables in pursuit of Labor’s 82% renewable energy target.

Although the macro newsflow was relatively light on overnight it was all about the bond and currency markets as the latest Canadian inflation numbers following yesterday’s cut by the RBA led to further introspection on the trajectory of the ECB, which has led to the USD being pushed back across the board.

The media release accompanying the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA) 0.25% cut to the official cash rate (OCR) on Tuesday was a fairly vanilla affair that took a neutral stance.

Last year, former federal Treasury official Stephen Anthony warned that Victoria may need a federal “bailout” due to increasing state debt, which reached $27,729 per person in 2023-24.

Australian Industry Group’s analysis of data from the Productivity Commission underlines the downturn in the nation’s housing sector.

Risk markets in Asia are somewhat mixed in reaction to the flat sessions on Wall Street overnight with the Friday night cut by ratings agency Moody on US debt still reveberating, particularly within bond markets.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has not ruled out extending the federal government’s $6.8 billion energy rebates again.

Steel sagged while iron ore firmed.

Australia faces an extended period of Labor Party rule following the collapse of the federal Coalition.

DXY sagged as stocks came off.

First it was China, now it is Japan.

When a market is rising with so few participants, BTFD gets very strong. The Market Ear.  Breaking Good US mega-cap tech has broken its 5-month downtrend. Let’s have a look at all things going for the super-sector (and some things that are not).

The Q4 national accounts, released in March, revealed that Australians finally emerged from their two-year recession after recording positive per capita GDP growth of 0.1%.

There is no end in sight for the Chinese property bust as prices keep falling.

Australia’s labour market has shown remarkable resilience. Last week’s April labour force release from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) reported strong (89,000) employment growth, well above the consensus forecast of 22,500.

Uncertainty seems to be returning to risk markets if you look beyond the headline stock indices with the Moody rating cut still reverberating amid geopolitical concerns over Russia, Gaza and the impending hurt from the Trump tariffs.

The SMH’s Jenna Price lamented that “Australia is in desperate need of tens of thousands of tradies over the next five years” and that “job snobbery” is worsening labour shortages: Forty years ago, experts told us the shortage of tradespeople would only be temporary.

Risk markets in Asia are reacting with some trepidation after the Friday night cut by ratings agency Moody on US debt, with all stocks in the red with US Treasury futures also falling.

Gareth Aird, head of Australian economics at CBA, notes that markets have priced a 95% probability of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) cutting the official cash rate by 0.25% at Tuesday’s monetary policy meeting.