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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business News Afternoon Report

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Speaker 1: for Monday, the second of February twenty twenty six. I'm

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Speaker 1: Michael Thompson, and every afternoon we've got the five stories

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Speaker 1: that happened today do you need to know about Let's

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Speaker 1: get straight into story number one. The S and PA

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Speaker 1: Sex two hundred closed one percent lower today to eighty

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Speaker 1: seven hundred and seventy nine points eight of eleven sectors,

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Speaker 1: the lower in what was the market's biggest fall in

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Speaker 1: ten weeks. The price of gold continues to slide. It's

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Speaker 1: actually about one thousand US dollars below its peak of

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Speaker 1: last week. It's now trading at around four thousand, six

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Speaker 1: hundred and sixty seven US dollars announce it was a

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Speaker 1: bit lower than that earlier today. A lot of it

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Speaker 1: is the extended reaction to the US President Donald Trump's

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Speaker 1: appointment of Kevin Walsh as the new Federal Reserve Chair,

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Speaker 1: which we talked about this morning. The local gold miners

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Speaker 1: have been sold off today, Neumont down more than ten percent,

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Speaker 1: Northern Start more than eight percent lower. Similar story with

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Speaker 1: the silver miners like South thirty two and Sun Silver.

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Speaker 1: The price of silver is dropping as well. A bit

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Speaker 1: of a mixed day for the banks, but Commonwealth Bank

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Speaker 1: was up one point four percent ahead of tomorrow's Reserve

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Speaker 1: Bank announcement, with the Central Bank widely tipped to increase

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Speaker 1: interest rates. Now Combank's climb today was enough for it

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Speaker 1: to take back the title of the largest company on

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Speaker 1: the BOSS also helped that minor BHP dropped two point

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Speaker 1: three percent, shunting it down into second place onto story

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Speaker 1: number two. Now and Bitcoin has fallen to a fresh

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Speaker 1: ten month low today, extending last month sell off. The

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Speaker 1: cryptocurrency fell as much as two and a half percent

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Speaker 1: day to around seventy four and a half thousand US

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Speaker 1: dollars before recovering slightly. Bitcoin fell eleven percent in January.

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Speaker 1: That was its fourth straight month of declines, the longest

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Speaker 1: losing streak since twenty eighteen. Other cryptocurrencies have also been

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Speaker 1: moving lower. Ethereum down nearly three percent, Solana off more

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Speaker 1: than one percent today. Story number three one from Politics

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Speaker 1: National's leader David little Prowd has survived a leadership challenge,

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Speaker 1: but now faces mounting pressure to reunite with the Liberals

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Speaker 1: as the coalition's political standing just continues to deteriorate. As expected,

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Speaker 1: Queensland MP Colin Boyce did not get enough support to

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Speaker 1: force a spill vote today, but the challenge does seem

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Speaker 1: to have given a bit of courage to critics who

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Speaker 1: don't like the way Little Prowd has handled the split

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Speaker 1: with Opposition leader Susan Lee. In a fairly significant development,

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Speaker 1: senior Nationals MP Darren Chester has moved a motion calling

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Speaker 1: for the party to re enter the coalition. There are

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Speaker 1: talks between Susan Lee and David Little Prowd. They are

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Speaker 1: scheduled for six pm this evening. There will be a

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Speaker 1: further Nationals party room meeting planned for tomorrow to consider

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Speaker 1: the outcome. They'll look at anything that's proposed out of

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Speaker 1: this evening's meeting. We will have more on this one tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: Story number four, the battle between Quantas and Virgin Australia

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Speaker 1: for economy passengers are certainly heading up, with both airlines

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Speaker 1: now offering extra legro seats for as little as fifteen

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Speaker 1: dollars on top of the airfare. Quantas has now announced

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Speaker 1: its new Economy plus seats on three different types of aircraft,

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Speaker 1: with more coming later this year. The seats offer up

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Speaker 1: to forty percent more leg room, priority boarding guaranteed overhead

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Speaker 1: locker space. The prices vary by route, but just for instance,

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Speaker 1: Sydney to Melbourne is about thirty dollars extra. If you're

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Speaker 1: a top tier frequent flyer, you get the seats free.

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Speaker 1: Virgin Australia has actually been offering Economy X similar products

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Speaker 1: for years. That's responded with a sale, letting passengers get

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Speaker 1: that extra leg room for as little as fifteen dollars.

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Speaker 1: It is a good time to be a tall person

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Speaker 1: flying Economy. Finally, story number five. The Grammys have just

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Speaker 1: wrapped up for twenty twenty six, with a series of

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Speaker 1: high profile artists using the stage to speak out against

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Speaker 1: immigration and Customs enforcement or ICE in the United States.

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Speaker 1: Billie Eilish ended her Song of the Year acceptance speech

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Speaker 1: with a very clear condemnation of ICE, while other artists,

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Speaker 1: including Olivia Dean and Bad Bunny use their awards on

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Speaker 1: stage to highlight the contributions of immigrants and to condemn

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Speaker 1: the Trump administration's crackdown. Protests have intensified in the States

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Speaker 1: following the fatal shooting of nurse alex Pretty by federal

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Speaker 1: agents in Minneapolis, and for those following the Grammy Awards themselves.

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Speaker 1: Bad Bunny took out the biggest award of the night,

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Speaker 1: the Puerto Rican Artists winning Album of the Year, the

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Speaker 1: first all Spanish language album to win the Grammy. And

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Speaker 1: that's it the Afternoon Report for Monday, the second of

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Speaker 1: February twenty twenty six. Make sure you're following the podcast,

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Speaker 1: and please head along to Fear and Greed dot com

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Speaker 1: dot agu to sign up for our free daily newsletter.

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Speaker 1: I'm Michael Thompson. Enjoy aries