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Speaker 1: Welcome to the weekend edition of the Fast five Business

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Speaker 1: News by Fear and Greed. O'm Michael Thompson and Hello

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Speaker 1: Sean aylmer Hlli Michael Sean. On weekends it is very

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Speaker 1: different to our weekday show. The weekdays are all about

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Speaker 1: the past five the top five business stories in five minutes.

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Speaker 1: On the weekend, we still keep it to five minutes,

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Speaker 1: but we are going to pick out the biggest business

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Speaker 1: story of the week, the most remarkable business story, a

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Speaker 1: sleeper story, one that's kind of flying under the radar

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Speaker 1: a little bit, and then our favorite business ish story.

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Speaker 1: Let's jump straight into the biggest one though. What was

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Speaker 1: it for you this week?

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Speaker 2: Oh? The legislation the past this week thirty pieces of

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Speaker 2: it thanks to a mega deal between the Government, the

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Speaker 2: Greens and Independence David Pocock and Jackie Lambe those grouping

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Speaker 2: past twenty seven pieces of legislation. The Government and the

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Speaker 2: Coalition got together on some of the other stuff. What

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Speaker 2: was it all about? Well, there changes to the Reserve

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Speaker 2: Bank Board introduction of a Future Made in Australia legislation.

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Speaker 2: That's a stack of money to help transition to net zero.

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Speaker 2: There was changes in the bouncing market, hopefully to improve

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Speaker 2: the housing crisis. The ban on under sixteen year olds

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Speaker 2: using social media was introduced, changes to migration laws. Few

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Speaker 2: things weren't in it, extra tax on earnings from super

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Speaker 2: accounts that didn't make it. They're also proposed electoral reforms

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Speaker 2: that didn't make it. Very busy week, Michael.

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Speaker 1: Certainly was also a big week globally as well, Sean,

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Speaker 1: because we had Donald Trump earlier in the week declaring

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Speaker 1: that he had imposed a twenty five percent tariff on

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Speaker 1: all products from Mexico and Canada on his first day

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Speaker 1: in office. He hasn't even taken office yet. It's not

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Speaker 1: for another kind of five or six weeks or so,

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Speaker 1: ten percent as well on goods from China. This is

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Speaker 1: all over kind of illicit drugs and issues like illegal immigration.

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Speaker 1: It was a very very aggressive move and it scared investors.

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Speaker 1: Markets fell, a few commodities fail, the US dollar surge surged.

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Speaker 1: The shockwaves from this kind of did roll out around

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Speaker 1: the world. China remarkably was the voice of reason here,

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Speaker 1: saying that a trade war helps no one. The thing is,

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Speaker 1: this might all just be political posturing, and look, it

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Speaker 1: probably is, but it does suggest that hey, we are

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Speaker 1: in for a fairly chaotic four years. Locally, the local

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Speaker 1: markets were hit as well, but then they bounced back,

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Speaker 1: and they bounced back really really well. We actually ended

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Speaker 1: up having a number of records. Had another record high

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Speaker 1: for the ASX two hundred, another record for Commonwealth Bank.

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Speaker 1: Just a big week overall, global markets, local markets, investors, everywhere.

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Speaker 1: Everyone's affected right now, Sean.

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Speaker 2: Can I tell you my most remarkable story when I'm

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Speaker 2: going to anyway, it's the fact that superannuation, the amount

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Speaker 2: of superannuation in the system is now four point one

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Speaker 2: trillion dollars, up four percent during the September quarter. A

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Speaker 2: couple of reasons for that, superannuation guaranteed when from eleven

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Speaker 2: to eleven and a half percent on July one, also

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Speaker 2: strong market returns. What's pretty incredible though, of that for

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Speaker 2: treating about twenty five percent a self managed super funds,

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Speaker 2: people doing their own investing for retirement. Not sure whether

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Speaker 2: that's a good or a bad things. This pot of

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Speaker 2: money is going to keep growing. Eleven and a half

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Speaker 2: percent of our wages each week goes into super mind

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Speaker 2: you two and a half million people retiring over the

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Speaker 2: next decade, so some will come out quite remarkable. That

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Speaker 2: pot of honey that is super.

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Speaker 1: It just isn't it. The other remarkable thing this week

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Speaker 1: was we saw that we just really can't get inflation

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Speaker 1: under control. It seems trimmed mean or the underlying inflation measure,

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Speaker 1: which is the RBA's preferred rate, the one that they

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Speaker 1: really look at when they're making their decisions about interest rates,

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Speaker 1: et cetera, actually rose. It rose from three point two

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Speaker 1: percent to three point five percent. These price pressures that

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Speaker 1: we've been talking about now for so long are persisting.

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Speaker 1: This is not getting better at this point. The headline

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Speaker 1: inflation figure was perhaps a little bit misleading. If you

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Speaker 1: just look at that, it's at two point one percent,

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Speaker 1: and you go, yes, hey, this is great at the

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Speaker 1: kind of the bottom of the RBA's target range. But

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Speaker 1: when you take away the energy rebates and all these

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Speaker 1: other things, the headline numbers will then kind of jump.

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Speaker 1: The problem is for anyone with a home loan, is

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Speaker 1: that the Reserve bankers looking for sustained reductions in inflation.

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Speaker 1: So we're talking kind of two quarters here. That means, unfortunately,

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Speaker 1: it's pretty unlikely there'll be rate cuts until the middle

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Speaker 1: of next year. Really, at the earliest, which will be

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Speaker 1: from a political perspective after the federal election as well.

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Speaker 1: Adds another little element into the mix, doesn't it, Sean?

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Speaker 2: Sure does, Michael. Now my sleeper story of the week,

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Speaker 2: deals are back. We had the I mean you just

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Speaker 2: mentioned inflation. We had all the legislation going through in Parliament.

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Speaker 2: We had Donald Trump. Underneath all that, we had a

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Speaker 2: bunch of deals. PE Group Pacific Equity Partners made a

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Speaker 2: bid for SG Fleet Group for leasing company IAG, which

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Speaker 2: already owns the RACV and NRMA. We're just going to

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Speaker 2: buy the RACQ, the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland. We

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Speaker 2: had an American real estate giant, Approprium Capital, bidding three

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Speaker 2: hundred and seventy four million dollars for AV Jennings. AV

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Speaker 2: Jennings is one of the oldest house builders in the country.

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Speaker 2: All of a sudden, at the bottom end of the market,

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Speaker 2: we're starting to see a bunch of deals. It's great

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Speaker 2: to see.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it certainly is. Can I nominate a favorite story?

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Speaker 1: Sean and I suspect this almost be our joint favorite

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Speaker 1: story because we've talked a lot both on and off

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Speaker 1: air this week about subc cables. It just seems to

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Speaker 1: have fascinated us. Now, these are cables that are a

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Speaker 1: long way below the ocean. They're on the ocean floor.

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Speaker 1: They run big tween countries between capital cities all over

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Speaker 1: the place. It is basically what allows information to move

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Speaker 1: around the world, all right. And so there is one

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Speaker 1: and a half million kilometers of these subsea data cables

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Speaker 1: essentially criss crossing the ocean floors, and we had two

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Speaker 1: big stories come out about them this week. Number one

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Speaker 1: was that the tech giant Google backed Australia Connect which

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Speaker 1: is a project that will build two new of these

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Speaker 1: subsea cables between mainland capital cities and Christmas Island. So

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Speaker 1: that is a big project that is going to help

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Speaker 1: Australia maintain its connectivity with the rest of the world. Fantastic.

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Speaker 1: You go to the other side of the world, right

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Speaker 1: your head along way North and you've got a Chinese

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Speaker 1: ship suspected of severing two critical Internet cables in the

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Speaker 1: Baltic Sea. This speculation that this is an active sabotage

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Speaker 1: that may have been orchestrated by Russia. This Chinese registered

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Speaker 1: bulk carrier allegedly dragged its anchor along the seabed for

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Speaker 1: more than one hundred and sixty kilometers, just severing cables,

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Speaker 1: just anything that was in its path. The suggestion that

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Speaker 1: China is potentially behind all of this, and the best part,

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Speaker 1: of course, is the senior European investigator that told the

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Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal it is extremely unlikely that the captain

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Speaker 1: would not have noticed that his ship dropped and dragged

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Speaker 1: a tanker, losing speed for hours and cutting cables on

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Speaker 1: the way. It just shows the importance of these cables.

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Speaker 1: Just an extraordinary story all round, Sean.

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Speaker 2: Sure is Michael all right?

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Speaker 1: There we go five minutes and pretty much everything you

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Speaker 1: need to know in the world of business. Thank you

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Speaker 1: very much. Sure, Thank you, Michael, and make sure you're

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Speaker 1: following the podcast, and please join us online on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok,

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Speaker 1: Facebook and X Michael Thompson and this is the Fast

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Speaker 1: five Business News back You're a greed