It’s the bust that keeps on giving. Sales volumes were flat year on year. But that’s the end of the good news. Starts are still in free fall, down nearly 80% from peak. And there is still more empty, idle, half-built and unsold stock than you can poke an entire country at, about one-third from
Slowly but surely, iron ore is breaking down. Yesterday’s May output data was the weakest in six years. Yet, it is not yet doomsday, except, perhaps, for the climate. China has abandoned any pretence of a green steel transition. The output falls are equally large in BOF and EAF, but the Five Year Plan was
In last month’s budget speech, Victorian Treasurer Jaclyn Symes labelled the state government’s controversial Suburban Rail Loop (SRL) project as “Australia’s largest housing project”. “The Suburban Rail Loop is Australia’s largest housing project”, Symes proclaimed. “With Melbourne expected to reach the size of London by the 2050s, it will deliver 70,000 more homes on the
Sell Abu Dhabi half of Santos. Or some fraction of that makes sense to the national interest. We must all remember the history of this evil firm. As explained by The Australian in 2017 (below), Santos built two LNG export trains out of Gladstone, Queensland, without enough gas to meet export contracts. As a result,
DXY is flopping around like a dead fish. AUD is back near the top of its rising channel. Lead boots are floating higher. Two shorts? Metals grinding higher. Miners yuk. EM meh. Junk OK. The steepener steepens. Stocks love a good bombing. All together now to the Beach Boys “Bomb, bomb, bomb…bomb, bomb Iran. Bomb,
As the G7 meeting in Canada gets underway, the headlines are still dominated by the Israeli-Iranian war with the potential for a ceasefire pushing European and US stocks higher overnight. The USD was able to gain some lost ground but remained quite mixed against the currency majors with news of a potential trade deal
Australia’s superannuation concessions need to be adjusted to make them more equitable and sustainable. According to the Australian Treasury, superannuation concessions cost the federal budget around $60 billion in foregone revenue in 2024-25 and are expected to grow rapidly. Concessions on contributions cost the federal budget $30,950 billion in FY25, rising to $36,750 billion in
It was disappointing to see the Queensland’s Liberal-National government oppose exporting more gas to Victoria, claiming that it doesn’t have the gas supply capacity to keep “bailing out Victoria’s bad decisions”. Queensland Natural Resources Minister Dale told The AFR that his state would refuse to divert further supplies south and blamed the critical energy constraints
The Israel-Iran war continues to dominate risk markets as the new trading week gets underway here in Asia with share markets quite mixed while there has been a slight bit of strength in USD over the weekend gap, but still far from a proper safe haven bid. With all eyes on the Middle East conflict,
Following one of the largest increases in the industrialised world during the Covid-19 pandemic, New Zealand’s housing prices fell sharply. According to the REINZ home price index, presented below by Justin Fabo from Antipodean Macro, New Zealand’s real inflation-adjusted home prices have reverted to pre-pandemic levels. Separate data provided this month by Cotality reported that