Steel prices are in an outright rout. This is the opposite of what the Beijing parade should produce. Yet everybody wants town iron ore with Simndou two months hence? This is fruitcake time. Chinese steel margins are collapsing as inventories pile up. There is only one outcome here. Production must fall, and all ferrous inventories
UN climate director Simon Stiell flew to Australia to blame us for the world’s climate troubles. Stiell warned that Australia will cause the world to “overheat” and that fruit will be a “once-a-year treat” if the Albanese government does not increase its clean-energy aspirations. He also warned that unambitious interim aims would undermine Australia’s “high
The left-leaning media have come out in force against the notion that Australia’s immigration intake remains too high. The SMH/Age posted a weak sauce ‘fact check’ on claims that Australia has experienced “unprecedented immigration” and “Big Australia by stealth”. The authors Natassia Chrysanthos and Shane Wright claim that the recent migration surge is merely ‘catch-up’
While Australians are distracted by everything from Donald Trump fascism to a handful of Melbourne neo-Nazis, local democracy is in far greater peril as it lurches the other way. As “Beijing Bob” Carr and “Manchurian Dan” Andrews head to Beijing to warmonger with their Beijing masters, John Bolton took time out of his days of
Overnight saw risk taking a dive as Wall Street returned and was volatile over a secret Google ruling that ended upsetting other tech stocks while the latest US manufacturing PMI print came in slightly better than expected, giving USD another drive higher. Like other undollars, the Australian dollar gave up its recent gains to head
The Albanese government has ignored the weekend’s protests and maintained Australia’s permanent migrant intake at the historically high level of 185,000. “It follows consultation with the states and territories, which recommended maintaining the size and composition of the Program, with a focus on skilled migration”, Immigration and Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said via media
DXY is up again. AUD is down again. CNY has popped. Gold is screaming at Trump to back off the Fed. Metals too. Mining bear still intact. EM no bueno. Junk hard reversal. The long bond is still selling. Stocks no likee. The ISM had a distinctly stagflationary feel. The Manufacturing PMI® registered 48.7 percent
One of the focuses of last month’s Productivity Roundtable in Canberra was on ways to streamline regulations to increase the rate of housing construction to meet the Albanese government’s 1.2 million housing target. Danielle Wood, chair of the Productivity Commission (PC), told Roundtable attendees that there is a backlog of 30,000 projects awaiting approval, which
Asian share markets are seeing mixed results as traders await the return of US markets from their long weekend with the latest news about a US/Japan trade deal sending Yen lower without any real action. The chance of more rate cuts from both the BOJ and ECB firmed with the ratings agencies today but that
The latest dwelling value results from PropTrack show that Melbourne continues to lag the other major capital cities for price growth. Melbourne dwelling values rose by just 2.1% in the year to August, easily the softest growth among the state capitals. As illustrated in the following chart, Melbourne dwelling value growth has lagged the other