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

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Speaker 1: for Friday, the twenty seventh of March 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 happened today that you need to know about.

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Speaker 1: Let's go a story number one. The SMPA is X

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Speaker 1: two hundred closed zero point one percent lower today to

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Speaker 1: eighty five hundred and sixteen points, but the BOSS still

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Speaker 1: finished up one percent for the week. That's its first

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Speaker 1: weekly gain since the Middle East conflicts began. And today's

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Speaker 1: result being down zero point one percent, it's actually probably

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Speaker 1: better than you would have thought earlier this morning. It

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Speaker 1: followed a woeful lead in from Wall Street. The S

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Speaker 1: and P five hundred overnight fell one point seven percent.

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Speaker 1: The tech heavy Nasdaq was off two point four percent,

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Speaker 1: taking it into technical correction territory, defined as ten percent

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Speaker 1: below its recent peak. That all came after comments from

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Speaker 1: US President Donald Trump that the impact on oil and

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Speaker 1: markets hadn't been as bad as he thought. While the

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Speaker 1: price of Brent crue jumped by the most in about

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Speaker 1: a fortnight to hit one hundred and eight US dollars

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Speaker 1: a barrel, but the President then extended the deadline for

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Speaker 1: a deal with Iran by ten days, giving a little

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Speaker 1: bit of breathing space. Locally, we saw energy stocks do well.

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Speaker 1: Santos was up one point three percent, Ampole rose two percent,

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Speaker 1: Woodside edged higher. Coal stocks also gained today. Whitehaven jumped

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Speaker 1: almost five percent after an upgrade. Technology stocks led the losses.

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Speaker 1: Next DC was down nearly eight percent, while financials were

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Speaker 1: mostly weaker, including declines in NAB and Macquarie. The mining

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Speaker 1: stocks certainly helped steady the market. BHP, Rio, Tinto, and

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Speaker 1: Fortescue were all higher today. The best on the boss

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Speaker 1: though today Treasury Wine or States up eight percent, while

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Speaker 1: the worst performer was Drone Shield, which tumbled nearly thirteen

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Speaker 1: percent after a massive surge earlier in the week. Onto

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Speaker 1: story number two. Now and Prime Minister Anthony Albinezi has

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Speaker 1: pushed back on criticism from US President Donald Trump, saying

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Speaker 1: Australia has not received any specific request to provide military

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Speaker 1: support in the Middle East. Trump overnight singled out Australia

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Speaker 1: and the UK for not assisting with efforts to secure

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Speaker 1: the Strait of muz which has of course talked about

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Speaker 1: it a lot of key shipping route for about twenty

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Speaker 1: percent of the world's oil supply. The President said that

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Speaker 1: the UK didn't want to help us. This is a

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Speaker 1: direct quote Australia too. Australia was not great. I was

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Speaker 1: a little surprised by Australia, But at a press conference today,

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Speaker 1: the Prime Minister said Australia had acted constructively, pointing to

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Speaker 1: the deployment of a wedge tail surveillance aircraft and defensive

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Speaker 1: support for Golf states, while noting that canber was not

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Speaker 1: consulted before the US joined Israel's military action in Iran.

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Speaker 1: Story number three. A wave of shutdowns across Western Australia's

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Speaker 1: major LNG plants due to Cyclone NoREL has deepened a

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Speaker 1: global gas shortgage already strained by the Iran war. This

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Speaker 1: cyclone was a Category four as it moved across the area.

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Speaker 1: It appears to have downgraded now to a Category three,

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Speaker 1: but it is still a very powerful storm. Facilities, including

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Speaker 1: Chevron's Gorgan and Wheatstone plants, have suspended production. Workers have

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Speaker 1: been evacuated from woodsides platforms off the WA coast, with

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Speaker 1: disruptions also affecting at much of the company's northwest shelf project.

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Speaker 1: It can add as well to the outages that we

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Speaker 1: talked about earlier in the week, Santos's Darwin LNG plant

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Speaker 1: being taken offline due to modifications needed at the company's

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Speaker 1: new Barossa offshore gas operation. The timing couldn't be worse

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Speaker 1: because all of these outages combine. Just as Qatars LNG

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Speaker 1: exports remain offline following an Iranian strike. Analysts estimate that

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Speaker 1: more than thirty percent of global LNG supply is now disrupted,

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Speaker 1: driving prices sharply higher and really tightening supply across Asia

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Speaker 1: and Europe story number four. Now, Conwealth Bank has upgraded

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Speaker 1: its forecast for inflation and downgrade that its outlook for

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Speaker 1: the Australian economy as the conflict pushes up those energy prices.

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Speaker 1: The bank has lowered its growth forecast to one point

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Speaker 1: six percent by the end of this year, while lifting

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Speaker 1: its inflation outlook to five point four percent by midyear.

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Speaker 1: The bank expects unemployment to rise to four point six percent,

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Speaker 1: while petrol prices remain elevated at around two dollars fifty

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Speaker 1: a liter in the near term. The outlook raises the

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Speaker 1: risk of further interest rate hikes this year, with Comwealth

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Speaker 1: Bank tipping another move in May and potentially later in

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Speaker 1: twenty twenty six as well. However, little bit of good news,

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Speaker 1: the bank also expects rate cuts to follow in twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty seven, as then the slower growth begins to bite.

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Speaker 1: And finally, story number five. President Donald Trump's signature will

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Speaker 1: appear on US dollar notes later this year, in a

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Speaker 1: move that the Treasury Department says as tied to celebrations

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Speaker 1: marking America's two hundred and fiftieth anniversary. This is according

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Speaker 1: to The New York Times. The change would make Trump

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Speaker 1: the first sitting president to have his signature on US currency,

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Speaker 1: replacing the traditional inclusion of the US Treasurer's name at

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Speaker 1: Treasury Secretary Scott Besson said the move reflects the significance

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Speaker 1: of the anniversary, while critics argue that it represents an

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Speaker 1: unusual personalization of national institutions. The move is likely to

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Speaker 1: prove a tad controversial, but it may also create collectible

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Speaker 1: currency if future administrations actually reverse the decision. And that's

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Speaker 1: it for the Afternoon Report for Friday, the twenty seventh

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Speaker 1: of March. Make sure you're following the podcast and headlo

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Speaker 1: to Fearandgreed dot com dot au to sign up for

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Speaker 1: our free daily newsletter, I'm Michael Thompson. Enjoy read