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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Fast five Business News by Fear and Greed.

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Speaker 1: Will we give you the top five business stories you

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Speaker 1: need to know in just five minutes. I'm Michael Thompson

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Speaker 1: and good morning, Sean Aylmer.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Michael, Sean.

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Speaker 1: Five stories in five minutes. Let's get cracking with story

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Speaker 1: number one. Five years on from the declaration of COVID

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Speaker 1: as a pandemic, house prices in Australia have surged by

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Speaker 1: forty percent, The share market has risen by the same amount,

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Speaker 1: Interest rates have tumbled to record lows and then twelve

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Speaker 1: year highs, and the way we work has changed, maybe forever.

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Speaker 2: The Well Health Organization declared COVID nineteen a global pandemic

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Speaker 2: on eleven March twenty twenty. Most of us didn't know

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Speaker 2: back then, but in the past five years it's pretty

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Speaker 2: much changed the way the economy works, how we invest,

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Speaker 2: how we work. Starting with the housing market. Initially, home

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Speaker 2: values fell, then surged until twenty twenty two, then dropped

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Speaker 2: again before rising since twenty twenty three, according to core Logic,

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Speaker 2: up about thirty eight percent. That's house price adding about

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Speaker 2: two hundred and twenty seven thousand dollars to the median

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Speaker 2: dwelling wages growth, notwithstanding a surge last financially is up

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Speaker 2: less than twenty percent over the past five years. That

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Speaker 2: has made housing affordability much much tougher. Elsewhere in the economy,

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Speaker 2: we had very low interest rates, followed by the fastest

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Speaker 2: increased rate cycle ever, with the cash rate hitting at

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Speaker 2: twelve year high. We're still at those levels, or close

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Speaker 2: to them at least. The economic growth rate surged after COVID,

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Speaker 2: but in the past couple of years has come in

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Speaker 2: below the long term trend to think to those higher

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Speaker 2: interest rates, while the unemployment rate has fallen into levels

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Speaker 2: I don't think we thought was possible.

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Speaker 1: What about investment markets, particularly.

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Speaker 2: Equities, Yeah, so what's interesting is the SMPA six two

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Speaker 2: hundred is up forty percent over the past five years.

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Speaker 2: That's about the same as a housing market. Of course,

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Speaker 2: many investors would have gotten dividends since then, so broadly,

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Speaker 2: a million dollars in equities would have done much better

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Speaker 2: than a million dollars in property. Tech stocks have boomed,

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Speaker 2: Financial stocks have boomed less impressive. The consumer staples bullies culls.

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Speaker 2: Healthcare hasn't done so well, neither has utilities. What about

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Speaker 2: the way we work. Well, has that changed forever? Hard

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Speaker 2: to measure? I reckon it has. What about you, Michael?

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Speaker 1: Yes, the default now seems to be a hybrid situation.

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Speaker 1: That is a change, right, cool? Stay number two, what's

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Speaker 1: happening with the Aussie dollar? Sean? Is there any appreciation

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Speaker 1: against the US dollar?

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Speaker 2: Well? No, it's still around that sixty three US sense,

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Speaker 2: But it's worth looking at the Euro and pound, particularly

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Speaker 2: ahead of the northern summer, just in case some people

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Speaker 2: might be going on holiday.

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Speaker 1: Is there who might that be? Sean?

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Speaker 2: Mostly it's bad news against the euro. Against the pound,

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Speaker 2: the Aussie dollar is around a five year low. That

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Speaker 2: makes overseas holidays much more expensive. In fact, against the pound,

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Speaker 2: one Aussie dollar is now worth forty nine pence, so

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Speaker 2: it's less than two for one. The actual good news

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Speaker 2: and all this is that a weeker dollar supports local

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Speaker 2: economic growth. Mind you, most of us just care about

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Speaker 2: our holidays.

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Speaker 1: Indeed, starting number three, power prices are on the right,

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Speaker 1: with Bill's next financial years set to jump by up

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Speaker 1: to nine percent for some customers in New South Wales,

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Speaker 1: Queensland and South Australia.

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Speaker 2: But if you live in Victoria you might not end

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Speaker 2: up paying much more at all. Benchmark prices for residential

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Speaker 2: electricity supply will increase by between two and a half

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Speaker 2: and eight point nine percent starting on July one. For

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Speaker 2: business customers or small business customers somewhere between four point

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Speaker 2: two percent and eight point two percent now. Rising costs

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Speaker 2: of holes and wires, infrastructure and volatile prices due to

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Speaker 2: coal power station outages are the main reasons for the hikes.

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Speaker 2: Default prices are ruled on by the Australian Energy Regulator.

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Speaker 2: Theyffeked about ten percent of households directly, but the bulk

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Speaker 2: of the market indirectly because they really do set the

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Speaker 2: standard energy missed it. Chris Bowen yesterday said consumers should

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Speaker 2: shop around. I totally agree.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, indeed sorry number before Australians will be incentivized to

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Speaker 1: buy locally made products after twenty five percent US tariffs

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Speaker 1: were imposed on aluminium and steel exports.

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Speaker 2: Asked if It'sustralian should boycott US goods. Prime Minister Anthony

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Speaker 2: Albanezi said the budget, to be delivered in about twelve

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Speaker 2: days time, will include extra support free by Australian campaign.

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Speaker 2: He went on towards Australians to buy Australian. He told

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Speaker 2: ABC radio that's the one way consumers can help out.

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Speaker 2: The PM again said the tariffs imposed by the US

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Speaker 2: were very disappointing and the government continues to try to

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Speaker 2: negotiate an exemption with the US.

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Speaker 1: Last one story, number five spare of thought Sean for

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Speaker 1: International Space Station astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sonny Williams, who

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Speaker 1: went to space in June last year for a one

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Speaker 1: week mission and still still haven't been brought home yet.

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Speaker 1: SpaceX has delayed now the launch of a mission that

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Speaker 1: would have transported them home.

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Speaker 2: NASA and SpaceX said the launch will stood down because

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Speaker 2: of an issue with the ground equipment used to support

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Speaker 2: the flight. The delay came less than an hour before

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Speaker 2: the scheduled launch time. The crew of four two from

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Speaker 2: the US, one from Japan, one from Russia, were already

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Speaker 2: seated in the capital when they canceled it. Foot well,

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Speaker 2: they didn't cancel it. Michael Lake postponed it. Fortunately for

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Speaker 2: Butch and Sonny, it's been rescheduled. It's a post to

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Speaker 2: launch tomorrow.

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Speaker 1: All right, there we go the top five business stories

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Speaker 1: in five minutes.

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Speaker 2: Thank you Sean, Thank you Michael.

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Speaker 1: It is Friday, the fourteenth of March twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 1: Remember to hit follow on the podcast and in five minutes,

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Speaker 1: isn't it enough? You can find our longer daily show

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Speaker 1: called Fear and Greed wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm

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Speaker 1: Michael Thompson and that was the fast five Business news

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Speaker 1: by Fear and Greed. Have a great day.