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

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Speaker 1: for Wednesday, the twenty fifth of February twenty twenty six.

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

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Speaker 1: stories that happen today that you need to know about.

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Speaker 1: Let's go with story number one. A heck of a

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Speaker 1: day for the local share market. The S and PA

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Speaker 1: SEX two hundred jumped one point two percent today to

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Speaker 1: a record close of nine thousand, one hundred and twenty

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Speaker 1: eight points after hitting an intra day high above one

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Speaker 1: hundred and thirty points. The gain surpassed the previous record

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Speaker 1: close set back in October. Investors seemingly brushing off a

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Speaker 1: surprisingly high monthly inflation number today, a number that probably

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Speaker 1: increases the likelihood of another interest rate hike. And there

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Speaker 1: are three sectors in particular that I want to mention

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Speaker 1: this afternoon, techtocs, consumer staples, and the miners. Let's start

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Speaker 1: with technology. The sector rebounded today after a strong rally

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Speaker 1: on Wall Street overnight that was largely due to AI

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Speaker 1: Giant Thropic reassuring investors that its product supports rather than replaces,

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Speaker 1: other software companies. Zero climbed five and a half percent today,

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Speaker 1: next DC added about the same and Wistec surged eleven

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Speaker 1: point one percent. It also reported results today and announced

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Speaker 1: some big job cuts onto consumer staples. The standout was

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Speaker 1: Woolworth's soring thirteen percent. That is its biggest one day

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Speaker 1: gain in three decades after delivering earnings about six percent

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Speaker 1: ahead of expectations. That is a seventeen month high for

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Speaker 1: Woollies and a very big turnaround from where it was

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Speaker 1: about six months ago when investors hammered it after its

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Speaker 1: results back in August, and I mentioned the miners. A

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Speaker 1: great day for the big miners. Fourdescue was up four

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Speaker 1: point seven percent after reporting a twenty three percent rise

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Speaker 1: in half year net profit to one point nine billion

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Speaker 1: US dollars, and the big Australian BHP you climbed more

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Speaker 1: than three percent to another record high. You put it

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Speaker 1: all together and it helped push the ASX two hundred

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Speaker 1: to its own record close. Unto story number two, now

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Speaker 1: and I mentioned the company's reporting results, there was a

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Speaker 1: few of them already, Woolly's, Ford, Escu, Wisetech, a few

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Speaker 1: others worth a mention. TABCRP surged twenty three and a

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Speaker 1: half percent today after first half earnings came in well

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Speaker 1: ahead of expectations. Shoe retailer Accent Group jumped almost twenty

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Speaker 1: percent on a stronger than expected half. Drone shield that

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Speaker 1: is a volatile stock. It jumped twelve point six percent

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Speaker 1: today after reporting a wait for it, three hundred and

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Speaker 1: sixty seven percent surge in profit and a two hundred

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Speaker 1: and seventy six percent spike in revenue, driven of course,

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Speaker 1: by booming global demand for counter drone technology. And finally,

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Speaker 1: Dominoes tumbled eleven percent after slashing its interim dividend and

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Speaker 1: flagging softer same store sales. The company is moving away

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Speaker 1: from heavy discounting of pizzas and it is taking a

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Speaker 1: little bit of adjustment. Story number three. A bomb threat

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Speaker 1: forced the evacuation of Prime Minister Anthony Albanezi from the

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Speaker 1: lodge after an email claimed explosives had been planted at

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Speaker 1: the Prime Minister's official Canberra residents. This all happened last night.

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Speaker 1: The message, written in Chinese, demanded the cancelation of upcoming

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Speaker 1: performances by Shenyun Performing Arts, which is a group previously

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Speaker 1: associated with the spiritual movement Fell and Gong, which is

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Speaker 1: banned from performing in mainland China. The letter claimed that

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Speaker 1: and I quote large quantities of nitro glycerine explosives had

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Speaker 1: been placed around the lodge and that if the Shenyun

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Speaker 1: shows went ahead, blood will flow like a river. The

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Speaker 1: Australian Federal Police searched the lodge for about three hours

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Speaker 1: last night before declaring it's safe. No explosives were found.

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Speaker 1: The threat was deemed a hoax, but all the details

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Speaker 1: now are coming out. Story number four. Deloitte Australia has

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Speaker 1: worn staff to stop uploading confidential client data to chat,

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Speaker 1: GPT and other public AI platforms, citing a spike in

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Speaker 1: internal data incidents. In an email to its audit division

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Speaker 1: reported in The Financial Review today, the firm said there

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Speaker 1: had been a quote sudden increase in breaches, including staff

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Speaker 1: sending files to personal email accounts or using unapproved technology.

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Speaker 1: Partners and employees are instead directed to use Deloitte's approved

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Speaker 1: internal AI tools instead of publicly available systems where uploaded

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Speaker 1: information may be stored externally and actually used to train

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Speaker 1: the models. It's probably a timely warning for anyone who's

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Speaker 1: perhaps getting a little overly friendly with Chat, GPT, sharing

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Speaker 1: personal health and financial information with it that is private

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Speaker 1: data that won't necessarily stay private. And finally, story number five.

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Speaker 1: The director of the Louver Lauren de car has resigned

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Speaker 1: after months of pressure following an eighty eight million euro

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Speaker 1: duel heist at the Paris Museum last October. We talked

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Speaker 1: about this a lot at the time. Thieves broke into

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Speaker 1: the building and stole eight historic pieces, including jewels linked

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Speaker 1: to two empresses. Suspects have been charged over the robbery,

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Speaker 1: but the items they allegedly stole have not been recovered.

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Speaker 1: Desca initially offered to step down after the theft, but

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Speaker 1: was asked to stay in the role to steady the

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Speaker 1: ship during a public inquiry. That inquiry this week criticized

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Speaker 1: systematic failures in security. French President Emmanuel mccron has now

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Speaker 1: accepted her resignation, saying the museum requires renewed leadership. And

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Speaker 1: that is it for the Afternoon Report for Wednesday, Hit

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Speaker 1: the twenty fifth of February. Make sure you're following the

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

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

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Speaker 1: A'm Michael Thompson. Enjoy your evening,