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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 fourteenth of February twenty twenty five. Are

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Speaker 1: Michael Thompson. Every afternoon, We've got the five stories that

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Speaker 1: happened today that you need to know about. So let's

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Speaker 1: jump into it with story number one. It's really a

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Speaker 1: case of another day, another record high for the S

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Speaker 1: and p ASX two hundred. It closed up zero point

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Speaker 1: two percent today to eighty five hundred and fifty six points.

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Speaker 1: It was much higher earlier in the day, setting a

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Speaker 1: new intra day record as well, but it lost a

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Speaker 1: lot of those gains, led by a selloff in Commonwealth

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Speaker 1: Bank shares after the bank hit a new record this morning.

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Speaker 1: Commonwealth Bank closed down zero point five percent for the day.

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Speaker 1: The worst performers were two companies that both reported results,

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Speaker 1: Amp and Cochlear more on those shortly. The best performer

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Speaker 1: was Sigma Healthcare. Fresh from its merger with Chemist Warehouse.

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Speaker 1: The new pharmaceutical giant rose almost seven percent today. In

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Speaker 1: commodity markets, the price of gold hit a new record

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Speaker 1: and seems to be heading towards US three thousand dollars

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Speaker 1: an ounce. Iron ore holding up reasonably well trading at

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Speaker 1: one hundred and six US dollars a ton. Oil prices

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Speaker 1: are stable, with a barrel of brent fetching seventy five

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Speaker 1: US dollars, and the Aussie dollar is at a two

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Speaker 1: month high, buying more than sixty three US cents. Story

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Speaker 1: number two. Donald Trump has ordered his trade advisors to

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Speaker 1: come up with reciprocal tariffs on US trade partners in

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Speaker 1: retaliation against taxes and other measures, and Australia's GST system

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Speaker 1: could be in the firing line. The President said the

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Speaker 1: new tariffs would be designed to target unfair behavior by

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Speaker 1: trading partners who apply higher tariffs to specific American goods

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Speaker 1: than the United States supplies to the same products from

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Speaker 1: those countries. He wants officials to examine tariffs on a

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Speaker 1: country by country basis. Now, while America and Australia have

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Speaker 1: got free trade agreement under which most tariffs have been

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Speaker 1: reduced or scrapped altogether, the President's new order specifically targets

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Speaker 1: value added taxes, raising concerns that are Australia might be

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Speaker 1: hit because of the GST ondo Story number three. Now

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Speaker 1: and hearing implant company Cocklear's share price fell more than

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Speaker 1: thirteen percent today, after the group downgraded its full year

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Speaker 1: revenue forecast on the back of cost of living pressures

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Speaker 1: in the United States. Those pressures were hurting sales and

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Speaker 1: upgrades of Cocklear devices. For the six months to the

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Speaker 1: end of December, profit improved in line with expectations. Story

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Speaker 1: number four I mentioned another company that reported one time

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Speaker 1: blue chip company AMP has announced a halving of profit

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Speaker 1: for the twenty twenty four financial year. The chief executive,

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Speaker 1: Alexis George, says this reflects the sale of the firm's

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Speaker 1: advice arm and a simplification of its business. Investors certainly

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Speaker 1: thought there was more to it, and the group's share price,

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Speaker 1: which has done very well over the past year up

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Speaker 1: more than forty percent, tumbled fifteen point four percent today.

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Speaker 1: Ms George said AMP had hit its targets for reducing

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Speaker 1: cost and its wealth business was competing strongly and would

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Speaker 1: soon launch a digital advice business. AMP Bank reported an

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Speaker 1: underlying profit down twenty percent, and finally, story number five

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Speaker 1: in Global News back to Donald Trump. He says that

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Speaker 1: he would love to have Russia returned to the Group

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Speaker 1: of Seven Nations, saying it was a mistake for Moscow

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Speaker 1: to be expelled Russia had been a member of the

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Speaker 1: G seven Club of industrialized Democracies, then known of course

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Speaker 1: as the G eight, until Moscow was excluded following its

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Speaker 1: annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region. This is back in twenty

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Speaker 1: fourteen that this happened. The President said, I'd love to

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Speaker 1: have them back. I think it was a mistake to

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Speaker 1: throw them out. Look, it's not a question of liking

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Speaker 1: Russia or not liking Russia. It was the G eight.

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Speaker 1: He then went on to add that I think Putin

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Speaker 1: would love to be back. There was no immediate reaction

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Speaker 1: to Trump's comments from Canada, which is chair of the

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Speaker 1: G seven this year. That's it for the Afternoon Report

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Speaker 1: for Friday, the fourteenth of February twenty twenty five. Make

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Speaker 1: sure you hit follow on the podcast and we'll be

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Speaker 1: back tomorrow morning with the weekend edition of the Fast

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Speaker 1: five Business News by Fear and Grade Are Michael Thompson.

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Speaker 1: Enjoy your evening.