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Speaker 1: Welcome to the weekend edition of the Fast five Business

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Speaker 1: News by Fear and Great. I'm Rcale Thompson and hello

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Speaker 1: Natalie McDonald. Hello now Natalie. On weekdays, it's all about

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Speaker 1: the Fast five, the top five business stories in five minutes.

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Speaker 1: On the weekend, we still keep it to five minutes,

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Speaker 1: but we're going to pick out the biggest business story

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Speaker 1: of the week, the most remarkable story of the week,

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Speaker 1: a mystery category, and then our favorite story. What do

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Speaker 1: you reckon?

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Speaker 2: The biggest story was I'm going to go with inflation.

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Speaker 2: So just when we thought we had rates figured out,

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Speaker 2: we get what one economists referred to as and I

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Speaker 2: believe this is a technical term for it, an absolute shocker.

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Speaker 2: Inflation search to two point eight percent in July, the

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Speaker 2: highest annual rates since this time last year, fueled by

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Speaker 2: rising household costs, alcohol and the end of state energy rebates.

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Speaker 2: While economists and even the treasurer a quick to stress

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Speaker 2: caution in interpreting monthly figures, we all know what this means. Well,

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Speaker 2: another cut is still possible by November. Expectations for September

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Speaker 2: reduction have finished.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that was big. The other big story this week,

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Speaker 1: it is obviously our earning season. At the moment, we've

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Speaker 1: had a bumper week of results. If I just pick

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Speaker 1: one that just shows how extreme both the results have been,

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Speaker 1: but also how extreme the investor reactions have been. I

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Speaker 1: would say it's Colds and Woolies pretty much the standout

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Speaker 1: clash of reporting season. Colds delivered profit growth and a

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Speaker 1: nine percent share price jump. Woolies posted a seventeen percent

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Speaker 1: earnings full and a fifteen percent share price dive, absolutely

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Speaker 1: hammered by investors. They've also got a few other complications

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Speaker 1: in terms of big w is just dragging on that company.

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Speaker 1: But it really does show it's a direct contrast between

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Speaker 1: the two companies that are fighting for the same customers,

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Speaker 1: and really at the moment it is consumers who are

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Speaker 1: winning because it is fueling a grocery price war. Natalie,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to take a breath. Most remarkable story, what

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Speaker 1: did you like?

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Speaker 2: I am not so much as a like, but certainly

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Speaker 2: as far as something that not being on anyone's Bengo

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Speaker 2: card for the week was Australia's decision to sever diplomatic

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Speaker 2: ties after intelligence gathered implicated Iran's IRGC in orchestrating two

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Speaker 2: anti Semitic arsen attacks in Sydney and Melbourne last year,

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Speaker 2: the Iranian ambassads to Australia and three other officials were expelled,

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Speaker 2: this representing the first expulsion of a foreign ambassad by

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Speaker 2: Australia since World War II. What is I think pretty

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Speaker 2: remarkable though, is the accusation that has emerged since of

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Speaker 2: Australia failing to act sooner. There were hundreds of Iranian

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Speaker 2: Australians who told a Senate inquiry back in twenty twenty

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Speaker 2: two that they were being watched and harassed by agents

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Speaker 2: of Iran. Opposition leader Susan Lee challenging Anthony Albanesi over

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Speaker 2: why he didn't act sooner, while Labor says that it

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Speaker 2: relied on intelligence advice.

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Speaker 1: Just remarkable for me was the fact that the federal

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Speaker 1: government fast tracking a plan to help first home buyers.

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Speaker 1: It's a five percent deposit scheme buyers can get a

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Speaker 1: home without paying lender's mortgage insurance. It was going to

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Speaker 1: start next year, it's going to start in October now

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Speaker 1: instead they've increased the price limits as well, so one

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Speaker 1: and a half million dollars in Sydney, and I think

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Speaker 1: it's nine hundred feve two thousand dollars in Melbourne. What

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Speaker 1: is remarkable about this is the timing. We're coming into

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Speaker 1: spring selling season. The market is already being fueled by

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Speaker 1: three interest rate cuts. We are seeing clearance rates at

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Speaker 1: near record high's. Economists are basically lining up to say

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Speaker 1: that this scheme is likely to inflight prices, so we

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Speaker 1: could be in for a house price boom. Mystery category

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Speaker 1: the one that we change every week. They are work

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Speaker 1: from home related stories, What did you like?

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Speaker 2: Victoria's business climate has actually become a really major theme

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Speaker 2: of reporting season. We've seen leaders blaming in trench work

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Speaker 2: from home culture and rising crime for some of the

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Speaker 2: major challenges that they've been facing. CSL chair saying that

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Speaker 2: Melbourne's work from home habits contributed to research failures as

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Speaker 2: the biotech giant looks to cut three thousand jobs locally.

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Speaker 2: He joins a number of other executives, including Reese's Peter Wilson,

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Speaker 2: who in a really very vulnerable analyst call admitted that

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Speaker 2: all options will be on the table if they can't

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Speaker 2: get workers back into the office, along with investor John Wiley,

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Speaker 2: who has warned that Premier just into Allen's plan to

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Speaker 2: legislate a right to work from home could deter investment.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, big story, and I would add on to that.

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Speaker 1: The other work from home one this week was SafeTrack,

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Speaker 1: which is a compliance training company under police investigation for

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Speaker 1: allegedly turning staff laptops into covert listening devices during work

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Speaker 1: from home. Ugly ugly story. That one favorite story. Let's

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Speaker 1: finish off on something positive. Can I suggest one? It

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Speaker 1: is Nvidia, the ongoing outperformance of the world's biggest company.

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Speaker 1: The chip maker delivered another bumper set of results. One

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Speaker 1: result in particular just stood out for me. It made

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Speaker 1: twenty five point eight billion US dollars in profit in

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Speaker 1: just one quarter. The AI boom is well and truly

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Speaker 1: still booming. What did you notice as your favorite story

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Speaker 1: of the way. I say that knowing what you're going

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Speaker 1: to say, because you've brought it up several times so

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Speaker 1: far this week.

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Speaker 2: I'm going to do this for all the Swifties out there,

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Speaker 2: and it is Tina Swifts and Geiche. It is more

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Speaker 2: than just a love story. The singer is a She's

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Speaker 2: a billion dollar brand. Every life chapter becomes the one

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Speaker 2: to watch in business. This Yes, this is full of puns,

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Speaker 2: luxury houses are already eyeing a blank space when it

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Speaker 2: comes to tians rings, fashion, lifestyle and retailers are preparing

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Speaker 2: for all too well, sales spikes on themed merchandise. I

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Speaker 2: mean it's their will this dreams come true. Streaming platforms, publishers,

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Speaker 2: they can all expect red hot traffic. The Instagram engagement

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Speaker 2: alone on that announcement pulled in close to ten million

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Speaker 2: likes within the first hour. It's really a reminder that

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Speaker 2: influence sells. Swift's Swift's reputation has the power to turn

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Speaker 2: cultural capital into commercial impact. This is already obvious through

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Speaker 2: some of the mimic pre effect that we're seeing in

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Speaker 2: socials campaigns, the selling out of the Ralph Lauren dress.

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Speaker 2: In short, her engagement is no cruel summer for markets,

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Speaker 2: but a fearless lesson in how to make brand storytelling ever.

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Speaker 1: More, I hated that, but I actually kind of enjoyed

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Speaker 1: it as well. Thank you very much, Natalie, Thank you Michael.

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Speaker 1: We go five minutes and pretty much everything you need

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Speaker 1: to know in the world of business. We'll be back

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Speaker 1: on Monday morning with the top five business stories in

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Speaker 1: five minutes. Don't forget to hit follow and head along

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Speaker 1: to Fearangreed dot com dot au and sign up for

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Speaker 1: our free daily newsletter. I'm Michael Thompson and this is

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Speaker 1: the Fast five business news by Fear and Greed