1
00:00:03,800 --> 00:00:06,720
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business News Afternoon Report

2
00:00:06,800 --> 00:00:09,520
Speaker 1: for Wednesday, the fourteenth of May twenty twenty five. Are

3
00:00:09,560 --> 00:00:12,280
Speaker 1: Michael Thompson. Every afternoon, We've got the five stories that

4
00:00:12,320 --> 00:00:14,360
Speaker 1: happened today that you need to know about. Let's jump

5
00:00:14,360 --> 00:00:17,720
Speaker 1: into it. Story number one. The S and p ASX

6
00:00:17,760 --> 00:00:21,360
Speaker 1: two hundred closed up just zero point one percent higher

7
00:00:21,400 --> 00:00:24,880
Speaker 1: today to eighty two hundred and eighty points, enough still

8
00:00:24,920 --> 00:00:28,440
Speaker 1: to record its sixth consecutive day of gains. The big

9
00:00:28,480 --> 00:00:32,680
Speaker 1: miners helped to offset losses from Macquarie and Aristocrat Leisure.

10
00:00:32,920 --> 00:00:35,760
Speaker 1: More on those two shortly. The other big loser today

11
00:00:35,840 --> 00:00:40,240
Speaker 1: was Insignia Financial, which fell almost sixteen percent after Bang

12
00:00:40,360 --> 00:00:43,839
Speaker 1: Capital withdrew its five dollars per share offer that valued

13
00:00:44,040 --> 00:00:46,400
Speaker 1: the one hundred and seventy nine year old firm at

14
00:00:46,640 --> 00:00:50,560
Speaker 1: three point four billion dollars. That leaves CC Capital now

15
00:00:50,600 --> 00:00:54,080
Speaker 1: as the only contender for Insignia. The owner of MLC

16
00:00:54,600 --> 00:00:57,320
Speaker 1: Comonwealth Bank reported a six percent increase in cash profit

17
00:00:57,360 --> 00:01:00,120
Speaker 1: for the March quarter to two point six billion dollars,

18
00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:03,800
Speaker 1: slightly ahead of expectations. Its share price closed up zero

19
00:01:03,840 --> 00:01:06,720
Speaker 1: point eight percent today. Chief executive Matt Commons said the

20
00:01:06,720 --> 00:01:09,520
Speaker 1: Bank is still tipping an interest rate cut when the

21
00:01:09,600 --> 00:01:12,319
Speaker 1: Reserve Bank meets next week. That is a move that's

22
00:01:12,400 --> 00:01:15,839
Speaker 1: unlikely to be affected by today's wage price index, which

23
00:01:15,959 --> 00:01:19,319
Speaker 1: shows annual wages growth picked up to three point four

24
00:01:19,360 --> 00:01:22,720
Speaker 1: percent from three point two percent last quarter. Onto story

25
00:01:22,800 --> 00:01:25,360
Speaker 1: number two, and I mentioned Macquarie Bank. The group is

26
00:01:25,400 --> 00:01:29,040
Speaker 1: being sued by ASSEK for misleading conduct and could be

27
00:01:29,120 --> 00:01:32,800
Speaker 1: fined more than seven hundred million dollars. Macquarie is, of

28
00:01:32,800 --> 00:01:36,039
Speaker 1: course Australia's fifth largest bank, and as well as savings

29
00:01:36,120 --> 00:01:39,319
Speaker 1: and home loans, it has a giant global business in

30
00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:42,840
Speaker 1: asset management and investment banking. It is being sued by

31
00:01:42,880 --> 00:01:47,560
Speaker 1: the corporate regulator for misreporting millions of short sales, essentially

32
00:01:47,640 --> 00:01:49,680
Speaker 1: when you sell something you don't own in the hope

33
00:01:49,720 --> 00:01:51,440
Speaker 1: of buying it back later at a cheaper price in

34
00:01:51,480 --> 00:01:56,240
Speaker 1: pocketing the difference. ASSEX chair Joe Longo says, Macquarie underreported

35
00:01:56,280 --> 00:02:00,000
Speaker 1: the amount of short sales by seventy three million between

36
00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:02,800
Speaker 1: in two thousand and nine and twenty twenty four, meaning

37
00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:06,240
Speaker 1: financial markets have been given misleading and false information for

38
00:02:06,280 --> 00:02:09,560
Speaker 1: more than fourteen years. He calls it a serious neglect

39
00:02:09,600 --> 00:02:13,400
Speaker 1: of systems and disregard for operational controls. Macquarie, though, says

40
00:02:13,440 --> 00:02:16,320
Speaker 1: the problems are now fixed and additional controls are in place.

41
00:02:16,639 --> 00:02:20,919
Speaker 1: It shares fell one point six percent today. Story number three.

42
00:02:20,960 --> 00:02:24,000
Speaker 1: The other company I mentioned, Aristocrat Leisure, the pokem machine maker,

43
00:02:24,160 --> 00:02:27,480
Speaker 1: posted results that fell short of expectations, sending its share

44
00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:30,239
Speaker 1: price down almost nine percent. Aristocrat is one of the

45
00:02:30,280 --> 00:02:34,839
Speaker 1: world's biggest designers and manufacturers of poker machines. It's really

46
00:02:34,880 --> 00:02:37,120
Speaker 1: been a bit of a market darling for years, selling

47
00:02:37,160 --> 00:02:40,440
Speaker 1: slot machines to the US and running a wildly popular

48
00:02:40,560 --> 00:02:44,119
Speaker 1: series of mobile phone games that kind of simulate casinos

49
00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:47,280
Speaker 1: and poke machines. But it's made a shift recently towards

50
00:02:47,440 --> 00:02:49,919
Speaker 1: leasing the machines and taking share of how much money

51
00:02:49,960 --> 00:02:52,600
Speaker 1: is being fed into them instead of selling them. The

52
00:02:52,639 --> 00:02:56,000
Speaker 1: hope is that they'll make more money the more people gamble.

53
00:02:56,320 --> 00:02:59,000
Speaker 1: It's early days, but that plan is falling somewhat short

54
00:02:59,000 --> 00:03:01,440
Speaker 1: of market expectation, and the share price took a tumble

55
00:03:01,440 --> 00:03:05,440
Speaker 1: today as a result. Story number four. Looking overseas, Israel's

56
00:03:05,480 --> 00:03:09,720
Speaker 1: military is increasingly optimistic that they have killed Hermasa's top

57
00:03:09,800 --> 00:03:12,239
Speaker 1: leader in Gaza in an air strike. According to The

58
00:03:12,280 --> 00:03:15,640
Speaker 1: Wall Street journal and Israeli official said the strike was

59
00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:18,320
Speaker 1: aimed at Muhammad Sinwa, who took over as the head

60
00:03:18,320 --> 00:03:21,440
Speaker 1: of Hamas in Gaza last year after Israel killed his brother,

61
00:03:21,560 --> 00:03:25,200
Speaker 1: the then Hamas leader. The strike hit an underground site

62
00:03:25,280 --> 00:03:28,640
Speaker 1: near a hospital in carn Unis, targeting a HERMAS command

63
00:03:28,760 --> 00:03:32,399
Speaker 1: and control facility. This is according to Israel's military. Gaza's

64
00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:36,080
Speaker 1: health ministry said six people were killed and dozens were injured.

65
00:03:36,280 --> 00:03:38,760
Speaker 1: Officials say though it could take days for Israel to

66
00:03:38,880 --> 00:03:43,600
Speaker 1: determine whether the strike was successful in killing Sinhwa and finally,

67
00:03:43,640 --> 00:03:47,440
Speaker 1: story number five, Donald Trump has hailed the US's relationship

68
00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:50,240
Speaker 1: with Saudi Arabia. Just hours after the White House unveiled

69
00:03:50,240 --> 00:03:53,800
Speaker 1: a series of deals covering defense, artificial intelligence, and more,

70
00:03:54,280 --> 00:03:57,400
Speaker 1: the US President met with Saudi Arabia's Prince Muhammad bin

71
00:03:57,520 --> 00:04:01,680
Speaker 1: Salman at Riad, where he announced an arms package worth

72
00:04:01,760 --> 00:04:04,400
Speaker 1: almost one hundred and forty two billion US dollars. The

73
00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:07,320
Speaker 1: White House described it as the largest defense cooperation agreement

74
00:04:07,400 --> 00:04:11,360
Speaker 1: Washington has ever done. The president also announced the lifting

75
00:04:11,440 --> 00:04:14,880
Speaker 1: of sanctions against Siria, saying he was acting actually on

76
00:04:14,960 --> 00:04:17,839
Speaker 1: a request from the Saudi ruler. Donald Trump is on

77
00:04:17,880 --> 00:04:20,440
Speaker 1: a three nation tour of the golf and with plenty

78
00:04:20,480 --> 00:04:24,520
Speaker 1: of high powered US executives joining the delegation, including Elon

79
00:04:24,640 --> 00:04:28,400
Speaker 1: Musk and Vidio boss Jensen Huang and Black Crocks CEO

80
00:04:28,560 --> 00:04:31,800
Speaker 1: Larry Fink from Saudi Arabia, the President will next travel

81
00:04:31,800 --> 00:04:34,560
Speaker 1: to Qatar and then onto the United Arab Emirates. That's

82
00:04:34,560 --> 00:04:37,479
Speaker 1: it for the afternoon report for Wednesday, the fourteenth of

83
00:04:37,560 --> 00:04:39,760
Speaker 1: May twenty twenty five. Make sure you hit follow on

84
00:04:39,800 --> 00:04:42,120
Speaker 1: the podcast and we'll be back tomorrow morning with the

85
00:04:42,200 --> 00:04:45,360
Speaker 1: Thursday edition of Fear and Greed. I'm Michael Thompson. Enjoy

86
00:04:45,400 --> 00:04:45,719
Speaker 1: your EVI