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Speaker 1: Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business News Afternoon Report

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Speaker 1: for Thursday, the eighteenth of December twenty twenty five. Are

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Speaker 1: Michael Thompson and every afternoon we've got the five stories

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

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Speaker 1: go a story number one. The SMPA SEX two hundred

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Speaker 1: closed pretty much flat today, up just three points or

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Speaker 1: zero point zero four percent, to eighty five hundred and

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Speaker 1: eighty eight points. The energy sector slumped a couple of

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Speaker 1: reasons for that. First, oil had been sitting at five

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Speaker 1: year lows on renewed hopes of an end to the

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Speaker 1: Ukraine conflict, but a spike in geopolitical tensions has seen

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Speaker 1: the price of crude rise by two percent. Woodside was

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Speaker 1: sold off down two point two percent, but that was

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Speaker 1: also on news that CEO Meg O'Neil is leaving to

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Speaker 1: take on the chief executive role at Global Giant BP. Elsewhere,

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Speaker 1: local textocs struggled today after a bit of a tough

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Speaker 1: night on Wall Street. Tech giant Oracle was sold off

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Speaker 1: five percent after a report that you the US fund

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Speaker 1: manager Blue Owl won't back a ten billion US dollar

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Speaker 1: deal to build a data center in Michigan, which then

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Speaker 1: fueled concerns over the outlook for the AI boom. Locally,

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Speaker 1: shipbuilder Hostel was one of the best performers on the

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Speaker 1: bors today, up more than five percent after signing a

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Speaker 1: one billion dollar contract with the Australian Army to build

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Speaker 1: eighteen landing craft vessels in Western Australia onto story number

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Speaker 1: two now and Prime Minister Anthony Albernezi has announced a

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Speaker 1: five point plan to fight anti Semitism, including a crackdown

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Speaker 1: on hate preachers and those who promote violence in the

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Speaker 1: aftermath of the Bondo Beach terror attack. There'll also be

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Speaker 1: a task force led by David Gonsky designed to improve

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Speaker 1: Holocaust and anti Semitism teaching in the national education system. Meanwhile,

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Speaker 1: three more funerals have been held today for victims of

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Speaker 1: the shooting, including a service for ten year old Matilda,

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Speaker 1: the youngest to be killed in the attack. New South

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Speaker 1: Wales Premier Chris Min's read a poem called Ode to

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Speaker 1: Matilda before a funeral procession down Oxford Street in Sydney's

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Speaker 1: Eastern suburbs, with Labor Front bencher Tanya Plibsek and Governor

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Speaker 1: General Sam Mostyn among the hundreds of mourners. Story number three.

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Speaker 1: A and Z's shareholders have delivered a second strike against

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Speaker 1: the bank's remuneration report, with Chairman Paul O'Sullivan signaling more

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Speaker 1: executive pay could still be clawed back. Thirty two point

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Speaker 1: four percent of investors voted against the pay report at

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Speaker 1: the bank's AGM today, venting frustration over A and Z's

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Speaker 1: string of compliance failures and a record two hundred and

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Speaker 1: forty million dollar fine that A and z received from Assek.

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Speaker 1: O'Sullivan acknowledged the protest and said that the board can

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Speaker 1: make further adjustments to executive pay where appropriate. He defended

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Speaker 1: the board's action so far, saying it had already stripped

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Speaker 1: thirty two million dollars in bonuses from current and former executives,

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Speaker 1: including former chief executive Shane Elliott, who's now taking legal

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Speaker 1: action over that decision. A and Z is now the

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Speaker 1: first major bank since Westpac in twenty nineteen to receive

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Speaker 1: a second strike on remuneration. Story number four. Profitability in

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Speaker 1: Australia's housing market has hit its highest level in more

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Speaker 1: than twenty years. Catality's latest Pain and Gain report shows

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Speaker 1: ninety five point five percent of residential property sellers made

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Speaker 1: a profit in the September quarter that is the strongest

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Speaker 1: result since two thousand and five. The median gain from

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Speaker 1: resale hit a new record of three hundred and thirty

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Speaker 1: five thousand dollars, which was driven by rising home prices

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Speaker 1: after three interest rate cuts. This year, Brisbane led the

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Speaker 1: Capital cities for profitability, with almost every resale delivering a

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Speaker 1: gain and a median profit of four hundred and forty

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Speaker 1: four thousand dollars. Adelaide and Perth followed closely behind. Houses

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Speaker 1: continued to outperform units, while Regional Australia is still more

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Speaker 1: profitable than the combined Capital cities. And finally, story number five,

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Speaker 1: Warner Brothers Discovery has urged share to reject a hostile

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Speaker 1: takeover bid from Paramount, insisting that a proposed deal with

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Speaker 1: Netflix remains the better option. In a letter to investors,

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Speaker 1: Warner described Paramounts all cash offer as illusory, raising concerns

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Speaker 1: about how the bid would be funded, questioning the credibility

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Speaker 1: of the equity backing it. Paramount's proposal to buy the

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Speaker 1: whole Warner Brothers business values the company at about seventy

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Speaker 1: eight billion US dollars, but Warner Brothers says Netflix's plan

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Speaker 1: to buy its studios and the Hbomac streaming platform offers

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Speaker 1: greater certainty and less risk, saying it's backed by a

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Speaker 1: company with a market cap above four hundred billion US

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Speaker 1: dollars with an investment grade balance sheet. The Netflix deal

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Speaker 1: is valued at roughly seventy two billion US dollars compared

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Speaker 1: to the seventy eight billion of the Paramount offer. Paramount

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Speaker 1: claims that its offer delivers better value and would face

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Speaker 1: fewer regulatory hurdles. The company, though, can still raise its

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Speaker 1: bid before its offer expires in early January. And that's

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Speaker 1: it for the Afternoon Report for Thursday, the eighteenth of December.

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Speaker 1: Make sure you're following the podcast and head along to

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Speaker 1: Fearandgreed dot com dot au to sign up for our

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Speaker 1: pre daily newsletter. B'm Michael Thompson. Enjoy your evening.