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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business Years. 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 sure, alma, every afternoon we've got the five stories

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

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Speaker 2: Story number one.

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Speaker 1: Inflation data for the month of April release today shows

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Speaker 1: that headline inflation is running at a two point four

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Speaker 1: percent pace and underlying flation is.

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Speaker 2: At a two point eight percent pace.

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Speaker 1: Both are within the Reserve Banks target range of two

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Speaker 1: to three percent, auguring well for more rate cuts later

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Speaker 1: in the year. Also today, the federal government green lighted

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Speaker 1: the extension of Woodside's massive Northwest shelf gas project, pushing

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Speaker 1: the energy company's share price up four percent. Otherwise, the

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Speaker 1: share market jumped at the outset in response to a

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Speaker 1: strong knight on Wallstream, then it started falling back. The

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Speaker 1: slide ended with the release at eleven thirty am of

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Speaker 1: the monthly CPI figures. By the close, the market was

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Speaker 1: a touch lower at eighty three hundred and ninety seven points,

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Speaker 1: straying number two. The government's legislation agenda got easier today

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Speaker 1: after labour security third Senate spot in Victoria, guaranteeing it

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Speaker 1: at least twenty eight senators, means combined with the Greens,

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Speaker 1: the ALP will have control of the Upper House. The

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Speaker 1: Victorian result means Labour now hosts twenty eight seats. The

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Speaker 1: Greens have eleven two parties together thirty nine votes. That's

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Speaker 1: what you need to pass a bill in the Senate.

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Speaker 1: LABE has already won an extra Senate spot in both

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Speaker 1: South Australia and Queensland. It has a good chance to

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Speaker 1: win an extra Senate seat in New South Wales and

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Speaker 1: one in Western Australia when those counts are finalized, giving

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Speaker 1: it as many as thirty Upper House seats. It means

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Speaker 1: legislation such as higher taxation of large superannuation balances, which

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Speaker 1: the Greens support, is likely to pass. That legislation imposes

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Speaker 1: a new fifteen percent tax on the earnings of superannuation

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Speaker 1: accounts valued at over three million dollars.

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Speaker 2: Stray number three. The best performing stock on the AX

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Speaker 2: today was travel group web Travel, which jumped twelve percent

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Speaker 2: after it posted a twenty percent rise in bookings to

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Speaker 2: the year to the end of March. Web Travel Group

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Speaker 2: aggregates hotel rooms and sells bulk hotel rooms to travel

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Speaker 2: agents it was recently spun out of webjeb. Now the

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Speaker 2: strong year to March continued into April and may hence

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Speaker 2: the surge in the share price. In fact, bookings are

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Speaker 2: up twenty nine percent in the eight weeks to Monday.

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Speaker 2: Web Travel is going against the trend with other travel

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Speaker 2: companies recently reporting as slowing in the market. While revenue

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Speaker 2: was much higher, net profit was down twenty two percent

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Speaker 2: on the back of larger corporate costs and tighter margins.

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Speaker 2: A straight number four industrial property and data center giant

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Speaker 2: Goodman has warned that the uncertain economic and trade environment

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Speaker 2: is delaying customer decisions in the logistics space. The comments

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Speaker 2: were made as the group confirmed its forecast financial year

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty five operating earnings growth of nine percent. Goodman

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Speaker 2: now hosts thirteen point seven billion dollars of the bees

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Speaker 2: thirteen point seven billion dollars of development work in progress

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Speaker 2: across sixty six projects globally. Data centers represent more than

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Speaker 2: fifty percent of that workbook. Chief Executive Greg Goodman said

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Speaker 2: notwithstanding the current uncertainty, long term structural demand drivers are intact.

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Speaker 2: He said space in Goodman's markets is scarce and supply

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Speaker 2: limited in the data center space. Goodman continues to see

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Speaker 2: significant business investment from hyperscale operators as they work to

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Speaker 2: meet rising demand for cloud and AI services. And finally,

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Speaker 2: story number five, the board of US outdoor decking and

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Speaker 2: railings group AZEK has told its shareholders they should vote

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Speaker 2: in favor of the proposed fourteen billion dollar cash and

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Speaker 2: script buyout by James Hardy.

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Speaker 1: Also today, Fisher and Paykele dropped despite reporting a forty

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Speaker 1: three percent rise in net profit, and Mineral Resources fell

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

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Speaker 1: Eagers 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 for 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: to our morning with the Thursday edition up here and

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Speaker 1: Green Business News.

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Speaker 2: I'm sure I elma enjoy your evening.