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Speaker 1: Today on Fear and Greed, Bad news for anyone heading overseas,

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Speaker 1: with the Ossie dollar hitting an eight month low, Macquarie

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Speaker 1: boss Jamara Wickromaniaca tops the list of highest paid Australian

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Speaker 1: company CEOs, making close to thirty million dollars, and the

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Speaker 1: world's most visited church, Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, reopens.

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Speaker 1: Plus Prime Minister Anthony Alberizi declares the attack on a

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Speaker 1: Melbourne synagogue terrorism and how investors are trying to take

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Speaker 1: advantage of the anti woke movement. Welcome to Fear and Greed.

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Speaker 1: Daily business news for people who make their own decisions.

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Speaker 1: It is Monday, the ninth of December twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 1: I'm Michael Thompson and good morning, Sean Aylmer.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Michael.

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Speaker 1: So much to cover in that intro. I nearly forgot

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Speaker 1: the name of the podcast.

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Speaker 2: Wow, that's the longest intro ever.

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Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. I got through it and then got

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Speaker 1: to fear and greed and I stumbled there we go.

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Speaker 1: The main story this morning, Shawn. The Ossie dollar has

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Speaker 1: tumbled to under sixty four US cent, which is an

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Speaker 1: eight month low, as economists say the Reserve Bank this

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Speaker 1: week could indicate that it is thinking about cutting rates.

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Speaker 2: Not a great time to travel overseas, Michael, especially if

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Speaker 2: you're heading to the US. The Aussie dollar fell under

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Speaker 2: sixty four US since over the weekend. Hasn't been down

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Speaker 2: there since May this year, and really it hasn't been

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Speaker 2: at this level for a long long time on a

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Speaker 2: sustained basis. It's under pressure against other currencies as well.

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Speaker 2: It's buying sixty euros fifty pence. It's trading around these

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Speaker 2: eight month lows across many of the currencies. A few

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Speaker 2: reasons why the dollar is as weak as it is

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Speaker 2: at the moment. Demand for Oussie dollars just isn't very strong.

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Speaker 2: Much of the demand comes from countries or companies buying commodities,

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Speaker 2: but with iron ore prices relatively low, Chinese demand down,

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Speaker 2: then the demand for the Aussie dollar just isn't there.

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Speaker 2: The week economic growth figures for the September quarter it

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Speaker 2: released last week also has put pressure on the currency

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Speaker 2: as well. These figures suggest the Reserve Bank might need

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Speaker 2: to cut rates before the middle of next year. That

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Speaker 2: pushes the Aussie down. A bunch of experts now I

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Speaker 2: reckon it could go further, particularly if Donald Trump imposes

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Speaker 2: tariff's on imports. Come Off Bank, for example, thinks the

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Speaker 2: Aussie dollar will head towards sixty US sins next year

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Speaker 2: by about September next year. Bad news if you're going overseas, however,

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Speaker 2: actually very good news for local exporters and the economy

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Speaker 2: more generally, because it makes Australian goods cheaper overseas.

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Speaker 1: As Sean. You mentioned the Reserve Bank. The Board of

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Speaker 1: the RBA meets today and tomorrow, but no good news

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Speaker 1: on rates really expected.

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Speaker 2: Not yet. The benchmark will stay at four point three

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Speaker 2: five percent, twelve year high, but the Reserve Bank and

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Speaker 2: the Board might just soften their language around it. Certainly

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Speaker 2: in bond investors think that is going to happen. They

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Speaker 2: now expect a rate cut by April next year. The

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Speaker 2: Reserve Bank is faced with the dilemma of a slowing economy.

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Speaker 2: It grew by just zero eight percent to the end

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Speaker 2: of September. That's the worst since the nineteen nineties recession

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Speaker 2: outside the pandemic. But inflation remains too high, with underlying

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Speaker 2: price rises at three and a half percent. Very tricky

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Speaker 2: line path the Reserve Beank needs to follow. What's the appropriate.

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Speaker 1: Something that they're trying to balance on. Yeah, it feels

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Speaker 1: like there is a perfect phrase right there, and it's

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Speaker 1: escaping both of us right now.

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Speaker 2: Isn't that? I mean, treading a fine line, balancing the scales,

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Speaker 2: one of those things.

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Speaker 1: But look, when you look at the fact that there is,

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Speaker 1: as you say, sticky inflation, there is a slowing economy,

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Speaker 1: which all sounds like bad news, but it doesn't seem

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Speaker 1: to be affecting equity markets that much.

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Speaker 2: No, that's actually pretty true that Trump enthusiasm remains. Lower

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Speaker 2: rates eventually will help earnings. Of course, the equity market

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Speaker 2: trades on what they people think earnings will be in

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Speaker 2: six to twelve months time, so people are pretty confident.

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Speaker 2: The S and pa is six two hundred closed down

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Speaker 2: on Friday to eighty four hundred and twenty one points

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Speaker 2: meets a benchmark was down a bit last week, but

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Speaker 2: it's up eleven percent for the year. That is a

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Speaker 2: pretty good effort. Futures training suggests the market could open

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Speaker 2: higher today. That's after Wall Street set yet another record

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Speaker 2: high have the weekend, fifty seventh for the year. Tech

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Speaker 2: stocks led the way there. The big economic news was

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Speaker 2: that the US economy added two hundred and twenty seven

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Speaker 2: thousand jobs last month. Now, if you look at the trend,

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Speaker 2: it basically shows US labor markets slowing. That adds to

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Speaker 2: the argument that the US Federal Reserve will cut rates further.

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Speaker 2: And Bitcoin's worth a mention pushed back above one hundred

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Speaker 2: thousand US dolls a unit over the weekend.

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Speaker 1: Got a great interview coming up after the show for

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Speaker 1: investors today, Sean It it's with Matt Waycher, who is

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Speaker 1: the Chief Investment Officer Asia Pacific at morning Star.

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Speaker 2: It is a great chat. We talked to him about

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Speaker 2: opportunities in different countries. Now Matt isn't saying don't invest

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Speaker 2: in Australia, but he's just saying there are opportunities outside

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Speaker 2: Australia that are worth having a look. At China, we

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Speaker 2: talk about career, Europe, Latina, America, at places that we

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Speaker 2: don't really cover that much on fear and greed. So

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Speaker 2: it's fantastic talking about what he likes about some of

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Speaker 2: those countries and in some cases the companies within those countries.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a really good conversation. As I said, a

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Speaker 1: must listen for investors. We still have a fair bit

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Speaker 1: to cover before we get there Sewan, we are talking

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Speaker 1: spring selling season for property, some good news for Wooli shoppers.

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Speaker 1: Starbucks under fire for being too woke. There is so

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Speaker 1: much to get through. We'll be back in a moment

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Speaker 1: with the rest of the day's business news. Sean Prime

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Speaker 1: Minister Anthony Abernezi yesterday said the arson attack at a

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Speaker 1: Melbourne synagogue late last week was an act of terrorism,

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Speaker 1: but it is up to police to make the formal designation.

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Speaker 2: If they do designated terrorism, they can access additional federal

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Speaker 2: government resources. Yesterday, the Prime Minister committed thirty two point

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Speaker 2: five million dollars to Jewish community safety funding just to

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Speaker 2: remind me of what happened at four am Friday morning,

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Speaker 2: and accelerant was used to set the Adas Israel synagogue

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Speaker 2: ablaze in Melbourne. Yesterday, the Victorian Primative Center Alan didn't

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Speaker 2: actually call it terrorism, preferring to not risk the police investigation.

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Speaker 2: Opposition leader Peter Dutton labeled a national disgrace and an

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Speaker 2: act of terrorism. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netan Yahoo directly

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Speaker 2: blamed the extreme anti Israeli position of the Albanese government

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Speaker 2: for the Melbourne attack, and he said in a post

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Speaker 2: on social media that the Victorian government and police need

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Speaker 2: to lift their game.

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Speaker 1: Sean. The just completed spring selling season was less successful

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Speaker 1: than a year ago, with overall sales volumes down and

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Speaker 1: there's also been a rise in the time taken to

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Speaker 1: sell a home.

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Speaker 2: Across the country. There was a big disparity. Sydney volumes

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Speaker 2: were down fifteen percent compared to the five year average,

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Speaker 2: Adelaide was up sixteen percent. Across the country volumes were

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Speaker 2: down four percent. The overall clearance rate was lower this

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Speaker 2: spring selling season, so the final weighted clearance, which is

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Speaker 2: different to the priminary clear and straight that we talk

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Speaker 2: about most weeks. So the final weighted clear and straight

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Speaker 2: for the last four weeks was fifty seven point three percent.

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Speaker 2: Last year was sixty two point seven percent. That's a

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Speaker 2: big drop. According to core Logic bottom line, the winners

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Speaker 2: were the buyers, not the sellers. Other notables during the

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Speaker 2: spring selling season, the more affordable end of the market

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Speaker 2: saw the highest price growth, while the upper price bracket

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Speaker 2: and we're talking places in Sydney and Melbourne here went backwards.

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Speaker 2: That was more or less confirmed. I think over the

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Speaker 2: weekend we had auction results now we're talking about the priminary,

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Speaker 2: clear and straight down one percentage point lowest of the year,

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Speaker 2: Melbourne actually doing AKA sixty seven percent, Sydney easily the

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Speaker 2: worst of the year at fifty eight percent.

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Speaker 1: I mentioned before Sean that there's a been of good

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Speaker 1: news for Woolies and for Wooly shoppers. The dispute that

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Speaker 1: source shelves left unstocked is over after the retailer struck

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Speaker 1: a deal with the United Workers Union. Fifteen hundred workers

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Speaker 1: voted to return to work. The United Workers' Union said

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Speaker 1: Woolies had agreed to above inflation pay rises and concessions

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Speaker 1: about the operation of its employee performance management framework that

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Speaker 1: seemed to be the main sticking point. The three distribution

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Speaker 1: centers in Victoria one in New South Wales should all

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Speaker 1: reopen within the next day or so, so shelves should

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Speaker 1: be stocked again at Woolies and also hurt Endeavor Group

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Speaker 1: which includes Dan Murphy's and BWS, especially at Christmas shocking time.

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Speaker 2: Isn't it a dreadful time?

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Speaker 1: I mentioned this one at the top of the show.

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Speaker 1: These figures are staggering, Sean. Macquarie Group Chief executive Shamara

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Speaker 1: Wick Romaniaca has once again topped Australia's highest paid CEOs

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Speaker 1: with a reported twenty nine point four million dollar pay

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Speaker 1: packet this year, taking her total pay to almost three

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Speaker 1: hundred million dollars during the was it six or so

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Speaker 1: years that she's been leading the investment Bank?

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Speaker 2: Yeah? Incredible, isn't it.

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Speaker 1: Wow, it's not bad.

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Speaker 2: She's just one of four women on the list of

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Speaker 2: the fifty highest paid CEOs compiled by the Australian Financial Review,

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Speaker 2: along her Woodside Energy CEO Mego O'Neil, she ranked twentieth

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Speaker 2: at seven point four or five million dollars zero CEO

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Speaker 2: Sekunda Singh Cassidy she was thirty fourth at six point

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Speaker 2: seven three million dollars, Antostra CEO Vicky Brady forty fifth

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Speaker 2: five point six four million dollars after Wick Ramenayaka. The

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Speaker 2: next three highest paid CEOs are at ASX listed but

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Speaker 2: North American based companies, so they're remunerated in US or

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Speaker 2: Canadian dollars, so certainly their remuneration looks very strong when

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Speaker 2: it is transferred into Ossie dollars. They're the bosses of

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Speaker 2: James Hardy, ResMed and Newmont. At number five is Goodman

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Speaker 2: Group's Greg Goodman. He earned nearly fifteen million dollars. He's

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Speaker 2: forever at the top of those rankings. The departing chief

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Speaker 2: executor of jewelry chain Leavisa guy called Victor Herrero ranked

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Speaker 2: sixth almost fourteen million dollars reported pay, but he actually

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Speaker 2: received forty one million dollars in realized or take home

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Speaker 2: pay after the market value of his shares and options

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Speaker 2: have vested a little bit in that. Basically, a lot

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Speaker 2: of these CEOs they earn whatever they get every fortnight,

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Speaker 2: and then they are earn incentives. Sometimes they are paid

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Speaker 2: at the end of the year. Other times they might

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Speaker 2: take two or three or four or five years to pay.

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Speaker 2: And in the Levisa guy's case, that's what happened.

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Speaker 1: Levisa is such an interesting story, isn't it, because that

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Speaker 1: is such a staggering amount of money, considering that the

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Speaker 1: price point for the jewelry that is sold at Levisa

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Speaker 1: is very, very very low, Like we're talking kind of

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Speaker 1: five dollars or less than ten dollars for so much

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Speaker 1: of it. It's like costume jewelry.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and the company itself isn't actually worth a huge

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Speaker 2: amount of money compared to a Macquarie bank or a

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Speaker 2: Woodside or tell Straw with some of those sorts of companies.

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Speaker 2: So it is a huge paypacket for that fella.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Indeed. Now, Google's dominance in general search service as

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Speaker 1: in Australia continues despite regulatory and technological changes to search

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Speaker 1: services and legal pressure by other governments.

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Speaker 2: The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's latest Digital Platform Services

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Speaker 2: Inquiry report puts Google search market share at nearly ninety

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Speaker 2: four percent. Its nearest rival being has just five percent

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Speaker 2: of the Australian market. What I would say, Michael, I'm

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Speaker 2: surprised it's only ninety four percent. I only ever use Google.

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Speaker 2: I don't even think about being No.

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Speaker 1: If I ever get taken to being by default, I

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Speaker 1: just quickly navigate away from that Google on over to Google.

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Speaker 2: The Competition watchdog says that Google continues to be the

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Speaker 2: default search engine on the majority of browser's due to

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Speaker 2: its commercial pre installation and default arrangements with third parties,

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Speaker 2: and its ownership of the Chrome browser. It also notes

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Speaker 2: that while the integration of generative AI into search is

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Speaker 2: still evolving, Google's competitors are yet to gain meaningful market

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Speaker 2: share from that company. The US Department of Justice last

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Speaker 2: month called for a ban on deals for Google to

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Speaker 2: be the default search engine on smartphones. It also wants

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Speaker 2: a sale of Google's Chrome business, and the EU mandatory

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Speaker 2: choice screens have been introduced, as well as measures aiming

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Speaker 2: to address self preferencing. We're nowhere near that yet here

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Speaker 2: in Australia, but clearly the HABLEC is thinking about these

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Speaker 2: sorts of things.

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Speaker 1: Sean West Farmers has reshuffled management, put in Kmart's chief

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Speaker 1: financial officer in charge of the discount chain and elevating

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Speaker 1: the current CEO, Ian Bailey to run the fast growing

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Speaker 1: Aco global empire.

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Speaker 2: Alexandra Spasska, at forty one years of age, will become

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Speaker 2: Wes Farmer's youngest divisional boss and run Camart. Mister Bailey

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Speaker 2: will take over the fast growing Enco business. Anco what

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Speaker 2: an amazing success story. Established as Kmart's own brand in

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Speaker 2: twenty nineteen, less than five years ago, now sells more

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Speaker 2: than one billion items from linen to fashion and toys.

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Speaker 2: Last year, it's signed with Canadian department store Hudson's Bay

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Speaker 2: and also did a deal with Mattel's Fisher Price brand

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Speaker 2: to roll out wooden toys across the thousand Walmut stores

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Speaker 2: in the US. Enco now contributes about eighty five percent

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Speaker 2: of sales at kmart. Phenomenal.

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Speaker 1: Remember some of the stats. We've talked about Anko a

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Speaker 1: bit because it is just it is staggering the fact

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Speaker 1: that I think it was twenty percent of all clothes

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Speaker 1: sold in Australia now carry the Anco label. And that

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Speaker 1: because the Anko toys as well so cheap, and a

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Speaker 1: lot of them are made with wood as well, so

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Speaker 1: they're really kind of targeting a very good market there.

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Speaker 1: That Anko is now the biggest selling toy brand in

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Speaker 1: the country.

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Speaker 2: Phenomenal. It's the major reason why the discount retailer is

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Speaker 2: now contributing more to the West Farmer's business overall. No,

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Speaker 2: West Farmers includes a bunch of businesses, Bunnings, office works,

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Speaker 2: they've got industrial assets. But Enco has been the real

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Speaker 2: success story over the past couple of years.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, amazing. Rare Earth Group i Luka's share price fell

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Speaker 1: nine percent on Friday, so and after a blowout in

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Speaker 1: the cost of its new refinery in Western Australia.

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Speaker 2: I Luka and the federal government have agreed to share

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Speaker 2: the cost of the blowouts, with the original cost of

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Speaker 2: the one point two billion dollars be learning to one

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Speaker 2: point eight billion dollars. The oubn Easy government has pledged

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Speaker 2: a further four hundred million dollars towards the facility. It'll

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Speaker 2: be the first rare earth refinery in the country. It's

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Speaker 2: part of the government's plan to break China's dominance of

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Speaker 2: processing of critical minerals. I LUCA will stump up another

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Speaker 2: two hundred million dollars plus to cover its share of

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Speaker 2: the rising costs You fall in a lucas share price

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Speaker 2: pushed it to a four year low on Friday. Rareers

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Speaker 2: are used to make things like industrial magnets used in cars,

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Speaker 2: wind turbines, fighter jet stuff like that.

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Speaker 1: Turning to international news, the Syrian government appears to have

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Speaker 1: fallen in a stunning end to the fifty year rule

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Speaker 1: of the Asad family after a lightning rebel offensive.

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Speaker 2: The head of a Syrian opposition war monitor said present

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Speaker 2: Bashah Asad had left the country for an undisclosed location,

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Speaker 2: fleeing ahead of insurgents who said they had entered Damascus

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Speaker 2: after a quick advance across the country. Syrian Prime Minister

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Speaker 2: Mohammad Ghazi Jalali said the government was ready to extend

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Speaker 2: its hand to the opposition and hand over its functions

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Speaker 2: to a transitional government. According to Associated Press, State Television

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Speaker 2: in Iran, mister Assad's main backer in the years of

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Speaker 2: war in Syria, reported that the president had left the capital.

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Speaker 1: A new fund I mentioned this one before, aiming to

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Speaker 1: punish woke companies, will make Starbucks its first target as

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Speaker 1: politically motivated investors moved to capitalize on Donald Trump's election.

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Speaker 1: You kind of knew this was going to happen, didn't you.

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Speaker 2: Oh, it's amazing story. So the actively managed fund, which

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Speaker 2: Zoria Partners expects the launch early next year, will exclude

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Speaker 2: keep out s and p five hundred companies that incorporate diversity,

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Speaker 2: equity and inclusion considerations into their hiring processes. The fund

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Speaker 2: unveiled its Starbucks plan late last week at Donald Trump's

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Speaker 2: Mara Lago resort in Florida. According to The Financial Times,

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Speaker 2: Zoria's founder James Fishback said, and I quote, Americans, whether

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Speaker 2: they voted for President Trump or not, do not want

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Speaker 2: to invest in companies running woke science experiments. End quote.

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Speaker 2: Starbucks appeas rattled. It denied it had targets or quotas

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Speaker 2: at any stage of the hiring process. The chain said

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Speaker 2: that policies cited by Azoria, which include reaching racial and

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Speaker 2: ethnic diversity of at least fifty percent among corporate employees,

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Speaker 2: were aspirations, not quotas, and that they recently expired and

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Speaker 2: were not reinstated. The new fund is the latest attempt

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Speaker 2: by Trump supporting investors to push back against environmental, social,

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Speaker 2: and governance initiatives by big US companies, and of course,

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Speaker 2: to profit from the coming change in government in Washington.

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Speaker 1: Finally, Seawan, the world's most visited church, the iconic Notre

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Speaker 1: Dame Cathedral in Paris, has reopened to the public overnight,

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Speaker 1: having been restored to almost exactly its form before a

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Speaker 1: devastating twenty nineteen fire. And the speed at which this

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Speaker 1: is done, considering I went back and watched, I was

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Speaker 1: watching some videos of that fire, Sean, when we were

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Speaker 1: talking about this story. It is huge, and in that

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Speaker 1: initial kind of twenty four hours, the coverage was all

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Speaker 1: about President Emmanuel Macron has committed to rebuilding the cathedral

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Speaker 1: within five years, and here we are five years later.

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Speaker 2: Done, He's done it. It's been one of history's more

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Speaker 2: remarkable restorations of a Gothic masterpiece, even if the new

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Speaker 2: parts of the cathedral means it just lost a touch

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Speaker 2: of its old feeling. I suppose. In twenty nineteen, Notre

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Speaker 2: Dame spire crashed down in flames. The rebuild is faithful

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Speaker 2: to the pre fire Notre Dame, according to media reports,

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Speaker 2: and it follows a huge united effort by the French.

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Speaker 2: Within hours of the fire, luxury goods building the Francois

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Speaker 2: Pinot and his family promised one hundred million euros for

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Speaker 2: the reconstruction. They were quickly followed by LVMH founder and

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Speaker 2: industry rival Bernard Arnault, who offered two hundred million euros,

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Speaker 2: and then the Bett and court Myers, the as behind

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Speaker 2: the cosmetics giant Loreal matched it. There was five hundred

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Speaker 2: million euros just like that. In title, cash gifted to

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Speaker 2: rebuild Notre Dame reached eight hundred and forty six million euros.

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Speaker 2: In fact it was it was actually more than the

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Speaker 2: seven hundred million needed. So the extra funds we used

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Speaker 2: for work on the undamaged exterior cathedral's immediate surroundings. But

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Speaker 2: an incredible effort by the French to get this done.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, quite remarkable, all right, Sean. Up next is Fear

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Speaker 1: and Greed The week Ahead, featuring our resident economist Stephen Cocoulis.

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Speaker 1: Obviously a big week ahead for the economy with the

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Speaker 1: Reserve Bank Board meeting today and tomorrow, and after that

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Speaker 1: we've got the interview with Matt Waycher, Chief Investment Officer

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Speaker 1: Asia Pacific at morning Star. They must listen for investors.

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Speaker 1: They are both coming up next to the Fear and

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Speaker 1: Greed playlist on your podcast platform or at Fearangreed dot

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Speaker 1: com dot au. Thank you very much, Sean.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Michael.

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Speaker 1: It is Monday, the ninth of December twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 1: Make sure you're following the podcast most important and join

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Speaker 1: us online as well on LinkedIn, Instagram, x TikTok and Facebook.

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Speaker 1: I'm Michael Thompson and that was Fear and Greed. Have

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Speaker 1: a great day.