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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 eighth of May twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 1: I'm suan Alma. Every afternoon, we've got the five stories

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Speaker 1: that happened today that you need to know about. Strat

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Speaker 1: number one, inflation data for the month of April release

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Speaker 1: today shows that headline inflation is running at a two

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Speaker 1: point four percent pace and underlying flation is at a

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Speaker 1: two point eight percent pace. Both are within the Reserve

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Speaker 1: Banks target range of two to three percent, auguring well

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Speaker 1: for more rate cuts later in the year. Also today,

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Speaker 1: the federal government green lighted the extension of Woodside's massive

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Speaker 1: Northwest Shelf gas project, pushing the energy company's share price

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Speaker 1: up four percent. Otherwise, the share market jumped at the

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Speaker 1: outset in response to a strong knight on Wallstream, then

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Speaker 1: it started falling back. The slide ended with the release

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Speaker 1: at eleven thirty am of the monthly CPI figures. By

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Speaker 1: the close, the market was a touch lower at eighty

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Speaker 1: three hundred and ninety seven points, straying number two. The

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Speaker 1: government's legislation agenda got easier today after Labour's cured a

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Speaker 1: third Senate spot in Victoria, guaranteeing it at least twenty

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Speaker 1: eight senators. Means combined with the Greens, the LP will

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Speaker 1: have control of the Upper House. The Victorian result means

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Speaker 1: Labour now host twenty eight seats. The Greens have eleven

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Speaker 1: two parties together thirty nine votes. That's what you need

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Speaker 1: to pass a bill in the Senate. LABE has already

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Speaker 1: won an extra Senate spot in both South Australia and Queensland.

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Speaker 1: It has a good chance to win an extra Senate

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Speaker 1: seat in New South Wales and one in Western Australia

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Speaker 1: when those counts are finalized, giving it as many as

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Speaker 1: thirty Upper House seats. It means legislation such as higher

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Speaker 1: taxation of large superannuation balances, which the Greens support, is

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Speaker 1: likely to pass. That legislation imposes a new fifteen percent

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Speaker 1: tax on the earnings of superannuation accounts valued at over

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Speaker 1: three million dollars. Story number three. The best performing stock

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Speaker 1: on the AX today was travel group web Travel, which

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Speaker 1: jumped twelve percent after it posted a twenty percent rise

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Speaker 1: in bookings to the year to the end of March.

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Speaker 1: Web Travel Group aggregates hotel rooms and sells bulk hotel

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Speaker 1: rooms to travel agents. It was recently spun out of webjep.

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Speaker 1: Now the strong year to March continued into April and

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Speaker 1: may hence the surge in the share price. In fact,

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Speaker 1: bookings are up twenty nine percent in the eight weeks

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Speaker 1: to Monday. Web Travel is going against the trend with

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Speaker 1: other travel companies recently reporting as slowing in the market.

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Speaker 1: While revenue was much higher, net profit was down twenty

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Speaker 1: two percent on the back of larger corporate costs and

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Speaker 1: tighter margins. Au straight number four industrial property and data

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Speaker 1: center giant Goodman has warned that the uncertain economic and

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Speaker 1: trade environment is delaying customer decisions in the logistics space.

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Speaker 1: The comments were made as the group confirmed its forecast

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Speaker 1: financial year twenty twenty five operating earnings growth of nine percent.

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Speaker 1: Goodman now hosts thirteen point seven billion dollars of the

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Speaker 1: bees thirteen point seven billion dollars of development work in

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Speaker 1: progress across sixty six projects globally, data centers to represent

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Speaker 1: more than fifty percent of that workbook. Chief Executive Greg

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Speaker 1: Goodman said notwithstanding the current uncertainty, long term structural demand

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Speaker 1: drivers are intact. He said, space in Goodman's markets is

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Speaker 1: scarce and supply limited in the data center space, Goodman

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Speaker 1: continues to see significant business investment from hyperscale operators as

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Speaker 1: they work to meet rising demand for cloud and AI services.

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Speaker 1: And finally, story number five, the board of US outdoor

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Speaker 1: decking and railings group AZEK has told its shareholders they

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Speaker 1: should vote in favor of the proposed fourteen billion dollar

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Speaker 1: cash and script buy out by James Hardy. Also today,

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Speaker 1: Fisher and Paykele dropped despite reporting a forty three percent

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Speaker 1: rise in net profit, and Mineral Resources fell after again

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Speaker 1: cutting its full year guidance for iron ore production. Finally,

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Speaker 1: Eager's Automotive said its business is performing ahead of expectations,

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Speaker 1: with the second half performance set to benefit from improving

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Speaker 1: industry conditions and without some of the disruptions experienced in

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Speaker 1: the first half. That's it. If the afternoon report for Wednesday,

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Speaker 1: the twenty eighth of May twenty twenty five, Make sure

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Speaker 1: you hit follow on the podcast. We will be back

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Speaker 1: tomorrow morning with your first day edition. Past five Business

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Speaker 1: News by Fear and Greek. I'm Sean Elma. Enjoy your

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Speaker 1: evening