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

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Speaker 1: for Friday, the thirtieth of August twenty twenty four. Michael Thompson.

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Speaker 1: Every afternoon, we've got the five stories that happen today

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Speaker 1: that you need to know about. So let's get cracking

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Speaker 1: story number one. The S and PA Sex two hundred

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Speaker 1: closed up zero points six percent today to eight thousand,

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Speaker 1: ninety two points, closing out another busy week of earnings.

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Speaker 1: The top performing sector was industrials, with energy also doing well.

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Speaker 1: Consumer discretionary fell as did consumer staples and healthcare. Ramsey

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Speaker 1: Healthcare reported net profit of around two hundred and seventy

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Speaker 1: point six million dollars, just above guidance but lower year

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Speaker 1: on years. Shares fell by six point eight percent after

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Speaker 1: the business warned it'll take some time to get back

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Speaker 1: to pre pandemic margins and patient growth. One of the

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Speaker 1: other major companies reporting earnings today was TPG Telecom. Its

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Speaker 1: profits fell forty percent to twenty nine million dollars amid

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Speaker 1: what it called sustained inflation pressures. It is now planning

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Speaker 1: to cut one hundred and twenty jobs in a bid

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Speaker 1: to save twenty million dollars. Investors responded positively to the

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Speaker 1: cost cutting news and shares jumped eight point three percent,

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Speaker 1: and just quickly Offshore and Video also continued to fall,

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Speaker 1: closing down six point four percent. Story number two. Discussions

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Speaker 1: with tech giants have kicked off over extra funding for

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Speaker 1: open Ai, which could value the startup at above one

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Speaker 1: hundred billion US dollars. That's according to Bloomberg and The

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Speaker 1: Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

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Speaker 1: This would be a major fundraising round for open Ai,

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Speaker 1: which of course launched chat GPT in twenty twenty two.

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Speaker 1: Among those named as involved in the conversations to provide

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Speaker 1: backing is chip Maker and Video, Apple, and Microsoft. And

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Speaker 1: Video is apparently looking at contributing one hundred million US

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Speaker 1: Microsoft is a current backer and open AI's biggest source

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Speaker 1: of funding, if about thirteen billion US dollars already tipped

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Speaker 1: in since twenty nineteen. The funding round is reportedly being

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Speaker 1: run by Thrive Capital, which led the last funding rounds

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Speaker 1: as well. Story number three. Even Harvey Norman is in

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Speaker 1: on the AI boom. Chairman Jerry Harvey is looking at

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Speaker 1: AI enabled products to drive growth this financial year as

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Speaker 1: consumers start to upgrade to the new tech this may

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Speaker 1: give their shops a much needed boost. The electronic Retailer

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Speaker 1: revealed at sales had fallen two point six percent to

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Speaker 1: eight point eighty six billion dollars over the last financial

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Speaker 1: year and it's under pressure from the cost of leaving

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Speaker 1: crisis and higher interest rates. A fairly common story that

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Speaker 1: one net profit after tax fell thirty five percent to

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Speaker 1: three hundred and fifty two point five million dollars. Its

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Speaker 1: shares dropped six point three percent across the day to

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Speaker 1: day on this result. Despite all this, it has kept

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Speaker 1: its final dividend payment in line with the year before

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Speaker 1: at twelve cents a share. Story number four. The New

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Speaker 1: South Wales casino Regulator has published a scathing review into

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Speaker 1: Star Entertainment and its former CEO, Robbie Cook, on the

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Speaker 1: same day that the company was due to publish earnings.

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Speaker 1: The review says that Starr had breached compliance rules multiple times,

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Speaker 1: remained unsuitable to be associated with managing and operating a casino,

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Speaker 1: and the Cook was responsible for the quote dysfunctional state

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Speaker 1: of management. Ultimately, the casino operators executives were found to

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Speaker 1: have failed in their duty to provide the necessary level

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Speaker 1: of leadership and oversight, and despite there being a number

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Speaker 1: of years since the whole review process commenced, the business

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Speaker 1: was still only in the early stages of turning itself around.

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Speaker 1: The author of the review, Arthur bel sc did, however,

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Speaker 1: say he was confident that new leadership could fix things.

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Speaker 1: That of course includes current CEO Steve McCann. Starr went

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Speaker 1: into a trading halt on the news mid plans to

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Speaker 1: write down one point four billion dollars of its casino

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Speaker 1: assets and start cost cutting, saying it needed to assess

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Speaker 1: any disclosure requirements for the market. All eyes will now

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Speaker 1: be on the company's delayed earnings results and finally, story

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Speaker 1: number five, It is going to be a big auction

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Speaker 1: weekend ahead, with two thousand, three hundred and thirty three

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Speaker 1: homes scheduled to go under the hammer in capital cities.

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Speaker 1: That's a ten point two percent rise on last week,

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Speaker 1: according to core Logic's official figures, and it is more

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Speaker 1: than the same time last year when two two hundred

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Speaker 1: and eighty six were scheduled. The busiest city will be Melbourne,

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Speaker 1: with auctions above the one thousand figure for the first

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Speaker 1: time since mid June. About nine hundred and thirty are

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Speaker 1: planned for Sydney, which is the biggest week since before Easter.

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Speaker 1: Brisbane is getting a boost to one hundred and sixty

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Speaker 1: six auctions, Adelaide is down slightly at one hundred and

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Speaker 1: forty three, Canberra auctions pretty flat with sixty five, and

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Speaker 1: there's a handful in Perth with none due in Tasmania.

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Speaker 1: Clearance rates last week were largely in the mid to

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Speaker 1: low sixties, with an average around sixty five percent, so

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Speaker 1: it is a big test this weekend to see if

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Speaker 1: that shifts at all. That's it for the afternoon report

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Speaker 1: for Friday, the thirtieth of August twenty twenty four. Don't

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Speaker 1: forget to hit follow on the podcast and find Fear

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Speaker 1: and Greed on LinkedIn, Instagram, ex TikTok and Facebook. Join

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Speaker 1: us tomorrow morning for the weekend edition of the Fast

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Speaker 1: five Business News by Fear and Greed. I'm Michael Thompson.

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Speaker 1: Enjoy your evening.