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

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Speaker 1: the Thursday of the twenty sixth of February twenty twenty six,

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Speaker 1: Oh Michael Thompson, and every afternoon, We've got the five

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

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Speaker 1: Let's go with story number one. The S and PA

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Speaker 1: SEX two hundred climbed zero point five percent today to

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Speaker 1: a fresh record of nine thousand, one hundred and seventy

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Speaker 1: five points. It also hid an intra day record as well,

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Speaker 1: passing the nine thousand, two hundred point mark. So Far

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Speaker 1: this month, the index is up about three and a

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Speaker 1: half percent. It's on track for its best month since

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Speaker 1: April of last year. A lot of it today was

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Speaker 1: due to improving sentiment around the tech stocks and the

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Speaker 1: outlook for the AI boom after Nvidia published some very

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Speaker 1: strong numbers earlier this morning. A bit more on that later,

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Speaker 1: but the impact on the local textocks, you've got to say,

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Speaker 1: was pretty much profound. Zero jumped eight point six percent,

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Speaker 1: Megaport was up twelve point six percent, Technology one gained

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Speaker 1: more than six percent, and Wisetech Global close two point

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Speaker 1: six percent higher. A good day too for the big

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Speaker 1: miners BHP was up two point two percent. The Big

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Speaker 1: Australians had a cracker of a week. Really, it's up

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Speaker 1: more than eight percent so far, and Rio Tinto climbed

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Speaker 1: three point seven percent today. Healthcare stocks went well. Promedicus

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Speaker 1: was up ten percent, and a few companies reporting results

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Speaker 1: in that space, which I'll get to in a moment.

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Speaker 1: At the other end of the market, Quantus tumbled more

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Speaker 1: than nine percent today on concerns about international demand despite

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Speaker 1: a good profit number, and blue Scope Steel fell more

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Speaker 1: than two percent after rejecting another takeover approach from SGH

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Speaker 1: and Steel Dynamics. I'm just story number two now. And

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Speaker 1: Reserve Bank Governor Michelle Bullock says inflation is quote not

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Speaker 1: taking off again, but remains a little bit elevated, and

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Speaker 1: she's worn that it's unclear whether interest rates should rise

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Speaker 1: or fall as the economy recovers. She was speaking at

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Speaker 1: Melbourne University last night in a very wide ranging fireside chat.

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Speaker 1: Learned a lot about the way the Reserve Bank is

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Speaker 1: operating and what the board is thinking. Michelle Bullock said

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Speaker 1: that the economy was quite close to balance, maybe a

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Speaker 1: little bit tight, with employment at four point one percent

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Speaker 1: and underlying inflation edging up to three point four percent

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Speaker 1: in January. She said monetary policy decisions are now more

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Speaker 1: finely balanced than during the post COVID surgeon inflation, when

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Speaker 1: it was clear that rates needed to rise. She said

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Speaker 1: the judgments are a little bit more difficult, which I

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Speaker 1: suspect is probably a bit of an understatement. She's calling

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Speaker 1: for patients as the board weighs the risks to price

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Speaker 1: stability and the labor market. Bill Look rejected suggestions that

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Speaker 1: the RBA was backwards looking, saying that data is being

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Speaker 1: used to cast forward rather than react to single readings.

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Speaker 1: She also stressed the need for clearer communication and greater

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Speaker 1: diversity in economics, saying the bank did not want to

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Speaker 1: be seen as operating in a bubble. I told you

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Speaker 1: a very wide ranging conversation story. Number three. Dependents of

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Speaker 1: Australian officials posted in Israel and Lebanon have been directed

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Speaker 1: to leave as tensions escalate across the Middle East ahead

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Speaker 1: of talks in Geneva over Iran's nuclear program. Smart Traveler

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Speaker 1: says the move is a precaution in response to the

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Speaker 1: deteriorating security situation. Australia's embass embassies rather in Tel Aviv

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Speaker 1: and Beirut remain open, with travel advice set at reconsider

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Speaker 1: your need to travel. Advice for Iran remains do not travel.

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Speaker 1: The governments also extended voluntary departments departures rather to dependence

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Speaker 1: of officials in Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

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Speaker 1: Similar measures were taken during previous regional flare ups. The

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Speaker 1: developments come as the United States increases its military presence

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Speaker 1: in the region and diplomatic efforts intensify. All eyes are

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Speaker 1: on those talks now in Geneva story number four. A

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Speaker 1: lot of results around Today. Sigma Healthcare reported a twenty

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Speaker 1: three percent jump in net profit and said sales at

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Speaker 1: its Chemist Warehouse stores climbed nearly seventeen percent in the

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Speaker 1: first seven weeks of twenty twenty six. Not a bad result.

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Speaker 1: At super Retail Group with Jones, Rebel Sport and Super

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Speaker 1: Cheap Aorto, I'm supposed to a rise in sales, but

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Speaker 1: profits actually fell twenty percent in the first half of

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Speaker 1: the financial year due to more discounting. Its share price

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Speaker 1: climbed eight percent today. Clean Away the waste management Group,

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Speaker 1: reported a near fifty percent drop in net profit, but

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Speaker 1: upgraded guidance for the rest of the financial year. Its

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Speaker 1: share price climbed seven and a half percent. Today. IDP Education,

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Speaker 1: which is Australia's largest listed provider of international education, well

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Speaker 1: it announced day sixty five percent slump in full year profit,

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Speaker 1: but it increased its full year earnings forecast at share

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Speaker 1: price rose seven and a half percent. Ramsey Healthcare I

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Speaker 1: told you there was a lot of results. Ramsey Healthcare

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Speaker 1: recovered from a loss twelve months ago to a first

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Speaker 1: half profit of one hundred and sixty one million dollars.

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Speaker 1: That's on improved hospital performances in Australia. Its share price

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Speaker 1: jumped ten percent, while mining services company Walley share price

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Speaker 1: dropped ten percent after reporting a thirty percent drop in

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Speaker 1: net profit for the first half. Some big moves today,

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Speaker 1: and finally, story number five chip maker and Video has

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Speaker 1: reported a quarterly profit of forty three billion US dollars,

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Speaker 1: beating market expectations and lifting its annual profit to one

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Speaker 1: hundred and twenty billion US dollars. The company, which is

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Speaker 1: obviously at the center, the very center of the AI boom,

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Speaker 1: controls about ninety percent of the high end AI chip market.

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Speaker 1: Just listen to some of these numbers right. Revenue in

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Speaker 1: the quarter jumped to almost sixty two billion US dollars,

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Speaker 1: and the company forecast current quarter revenue of seventy eight

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Speaker 1: billion US dollars, up seventy seven percent from a year

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Speaker 1: earlier and ahead of Wall Street estimates of seventy two

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Speaker 1: billion US dollars. The results have helped to ease some

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Speaker 1: of these concerns about the sustainability of the AI investment boom,

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Speaker 1: reassuring investors about demand. Clearly very strong demand for artificial

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Speaker 1: intelligence chips. And that's it for the Afternoon Report for Thursday,

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Speaker 1: the twenty sixth of February. Make sure you're following the podcast,

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Speaker 1: and please head along to Fearangreed dot com dot au

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Speaker 1: to sign up for our free daily newsletter. A'm Michael Thompson.

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Speaker 1: Enjoy your evening.