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

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Speaker 1: for Thursday, the eighteenth of December twenty twenty five. Oh,

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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 that you need to know about. Let's

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Speaker 1: go with story number one. The SMPA SEX two hundred

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Speaker 1: closed pretty much flat today, up just three points or

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Speaker 1: zero point zero four percent, to eighty five hundred and

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Speaker 1: eighty eight points. The energy sector slumped a couple of

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Speaker 1: reasons for that. First, oil had been sitting at five

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Speaker 1: year lows on renewed hopes of an end to the

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Speaker 1: Ukraine conflict, but a spike in geopolitical tensions has seen

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Speaker 1: the price of crude rise by two percent. Woodside was

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Speaker 1: sold off down two point two percent, but that was

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Speaker 1: also on news that CEO Meg O'Neil is leaving to

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Speaker 1: take on the chief executive role at Global Giant BP. Elsewhere,

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Speaker 1: local techtocs struggled today after a bit of a tough

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Speaker 1: night on Wall Street. Tech giant Oracle was sold off

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Speaker 1: five percent after a report that US fund managed Blue

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Speaker 1: Owl won't back a ten billion US dollar deal to

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Speaker 1: build a data center in Michigan. Which then fueled concerns

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Speaker 1: over the outlook for the AI boom. Locally, shipbuilder Hostel

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Speaker 1: was one of the best performers on the bors today,

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Speaker 1: up more than five percent after signing a one billion

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Speaker 1: dollar contract with the Australian Army to build eighteen landing

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Speaker 1: craft vessels in Western Australia onto story number two now

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Speaker 1: and Prime Minister Anthony Albernezi has announced a five point

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Speaker 1: plan to fight anti Semitism, including a crackdown on hate

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Speaker 1: preachers and those who promote violence in the aftermath of

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Speaker 1: the Bondeo Beach terror attack. There'll also be a task

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Speaker 1: force led by David Gonsky designed to improve Holocaust and

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Speaker 1: anti Semitism teaching in the national education system. Meanwhile, three

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Speaker 1: more funerals have been held today for victims of the shooting,

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Speaker 1: including a service for ten year old Matilda, the youngest

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Speaker 1: to be killed in the attack. New South Wales Premier

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Speaker 1: Chris Min's red a poem called to Matilda before a

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Speaker 1: funeral procession down Oxford Street in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs, with

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Speaker 1: Labour Front bencher Tanya Pliversk and Governor General Sam Mostyn

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Speaker 1: among the hundreds of mourners. Story number three. A and Z'

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Speaker 1: shareholders have delivered a second strike against the bank's remuneration report,

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Speaker 1: with Chairman Paul O'Sullivan signaling more executive pay could still

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Speaker 1: be clawed back. Thirty two point four percent of investors

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Speaker 1: voted against the pay report at the bank's AGM today,

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Speaker 1: venting frustration over A and Z's string of compliance failures

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Speaker 1: and a record two hundred and forty million dollar fine

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Speaker 1: that A and z received from Assek. O'Sullivan acknowledged the

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Speaker 1: protest and said that the board can make further adjustments

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Speaker 1: to executive pay where appropriate. He defended the board's action

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Speaker 1: so far, saying it had already stripped thirty two million

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Speaker 1: dollars in bonuses from current and former executives, including former

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Speaker 1: chief executive Shane Elliott, who's now taking legal action over

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Speaker 1: that decision. A and zed Is is now the first

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Speaker 1: major bank since Westpac in twenty nineteen to receive a

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Speaker 1: second strike on remuneration. Story number four. Profitability in Australia's

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Speaker 1: housing market has hit its highest level in more than

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Speaker 1: twenty years. Catality's latest Pain and Gain report shows ninety

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Speaker 1: five point five percent of residential property sellers made a

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Speaker 1: profit in the September quarter that is the strongest result

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Speaker 1: since two thousand and five. The median gain from resale

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Speaker 1: hit a new record of three hundred and thirty five

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Speaker 1: thousand dollars, which was driven by rising home prices after

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Speaker 1: three interest rate cuts. This year. Brisbane led the Capital

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Speaker 1: cities for profitability, with almost every resale delivering a gain

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Speaker 1: and a median profit of four hundred and forty four

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Speaker 1: thousand dollars. Adelaide and Perth followed closely behind. Houses continued

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Speaker 1: to outperform units, while Regional Australia is still more profitable

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Speaker 1: than the combined Capital cities. And finally, story number five,

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Speaker 1: Warner Brothers Discovery has urged shareholders to rejected a hostile

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Speaker 1: takeover bid from Paramount, insisting that a proposed deal with

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Speaker 1: Netflix remains the better option. In a letter to investors,

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Speaker 1: Warner described Paramounts all cash offer as illusory, raising concerns

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Speaker 1: about how the bid would be funded, questioning the credibility

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Speaker 1: of the equity backing it. Paramount's proposal to buy the

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Speaker 1: whole Warner Brothers business values the company at about seventy

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Speaker 1: eight billion US dollars, but Warner Brothers says Netflix's plan

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Speaker 1: to buy its studios and the Hbomac streaming platform offers

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Speaker 1: greater certainty and less risk, saying it's backed by a

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Speaker 1: company with a market cap above four hundred billion US

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Speaker 1: dollars with an investment grade balance sheet. The Netflix deal

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Speaker 1: is valued at roughly seventy two billion US dollars compared

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Speaker 1: to the seventy eight billion of the Paramount offer. Paramount

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Speaker 1: claims that its offer delivers better value and would face

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Speaker 1: fewer regulatory hurdles. The company, though, can still raise its

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Speaker 1: bid before its offer expires in early January. And that's

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Speaker 1: it for the Afternoon Report for Thursday, the eighteenth of December.

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Speaker 1: Make sure you're following the podcast and head along to

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Speaker 1: free daily newsletter by Michael Thompson. Enjoy your evening