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

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Speaker 1: for Tuesday, the seventeenth of February. Oh, Michael Thompson, and

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Speaker 1: every afternoon, we've got the five stories that happened today

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Speaker 1: that you need to know about.

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Speaker 2: Let's go with storing number one.

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Speaker 1: The S and p ASX two hundred climbed zero point

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Speaker 1: two percent today to eighty nine hundred and fifty nine points.

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Speaker 2: Materials was the best performing sector. That was largely.

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Speaker 1: Due to BHP, the big Australian, which got a whole

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Speaker 1: lot bigger today. It reported a bumper set of results,

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Speaker 1: with copper generating more earnings than iron ore for the

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Speaker 1: first time ever. At share price climbed a whopping four

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Speaker 1: point seven percent today to a record high. We'll have

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Speaker 1: plenty more on this one tomorrow morning. Elsewhere on the markets,

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Speaker 1: steal a bit of volatility for tech stocks wise, Tech

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Speaker 1: Global off one point six percent, zero down zero point

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Speaker 1: seven percent.

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Speaker 2: That's still due to those concerns about AI and what

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Speaker 2: it all means for software companies, but it was a

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Speaker 2: little subdued today with Wall Street closed last night for

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Speaker 2: President's Day. Chinese markets also shut for the week for

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Speaker 2: the lunar new year. JB High five was the other

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Speaker 2: big standout today. It jumped more than eight percent after

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Speaker 2: its stock was upgraded by analysts following its half year

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Speaker 2: results yesterday. On a story number two, now and new

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Speaker 2: federal Liberal leader Angus Taylor has opened his first real

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Speaker 2: policy front against Labour. His challenging Labour's commitment to universal childcare,

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Speaker 2: calling it too expensive and too inflexible. The alternative that

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Speaker 2: he's floating is essentially nanny vouchers and tax off sets,

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Speaker 2: essentially giving families more choice about how they spend their

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Speaker 2: childcare dollars rather than funneling everything through institutional centers. Childcare

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Speaker 2: costs are a massive pain point for young families. Anyone

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Speaker 2: listening to this with young kids would know exactly what

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Speaker 2: I'm talking about, and Labour's universal model is expensive. Taylor

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Speaker 2: is framing himself here as the candidate who respects family

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Speaker 2: choice and fiscal discipline simultaneously. Whether it works is another question.

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Speaker 2: Angus Taylor has also announced his new shadow ministry this afternoon.

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Speaker 2: We'll have more on that one tomorrow morning. Story number three.

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Speaker 2: I mentioned BEHP. There are plenty of other companies reporting today.

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Speaker 2: It wasn't just BHP though, that did overshadow things Just

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Speaker 2: to touch. Judo Bank climbed two point four percent after

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Speaker 2: the lenders first half profit rows forty six percent on

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Speaker 2: the back of higher profit margins. Retailer Baby Bunting surged

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Speaker 2: more than eight percent after it provided an improved full

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Speaker 2: year profit guidance. Annuities provider and fund manager Challenger It

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Speaker 2: fell two and a half percent after reporting a below

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Speaker 2: consensus half year profit. And plumbing group Reliance Worldwide had

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Speaker 2: a tougher than expected first half and investors did not

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Speaker 2: like that much. Its share price dropped more than nine percent. Today,

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Speaker 2: story number four is one that's going to hit people

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Speaker 2: right in the hip pocket. Unfortunately, households and businesses in

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Speaker 2: New South Wales are about to wear the cost of

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Speaker 2: a massive blowout on a critical energy project. It's the

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Speaker 2: Energy Connect Cable, which is the high voltage interconnector linking

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Speaker 2: New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria. Transgrid, which owns

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Speaker 2: the New South Wales section, is proposing that consumers pay

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Speaker 2: for three quarters of a one point one billion dollar

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Speaker 2: cost overrun. The project was originally approved at one point

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Speaker 2: eight billion dollars, it's now north of three point six billion. Dollars.

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Speaker 1: Energy connect was supposed to be operational in twenty twenty three.

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Speaker 1: It is now twenty twenty six, and it is still

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Speaker 1: not finished, And now they're asking households to pick up

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Speaker 1: most of the tab It's the kind of story perhaps

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Speaker 1: that makes people a little bit cynical about the energy transition.

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Speaker 1: And finally, story number five, Elon Musk's SpaceX and Xai,

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Speaker 1: two companies that he owns, are competing in a new

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Speaker 1: one hundred million dollar Pentagon challenge to develop voice controlled

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Speaker 1: autonomous drone swarming technology. This is according to Bloomberg. The

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Speaker 1: six month contest aims to create software that converts battlefield

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Speaker 1: voice commands into digital instructions to coordinate multiple drones across

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Speaker 1: air and see which is apparently a very difficult thing

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Speaker 1: to do. Later phases would move to live testing, including

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Speaker 1: someone ominously the Offensive Applications. SpaceX is already a major

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Speaker 1: US defense contractor, but the project marks a deeper move

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Speaker 1: into AI enabled weapons. Elon Musk has previously warned about

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Speaker 1: the dangers of autonomous weapons. OpenAI is also involved via

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Speaker 1: a partner company. Defense officials have reportedly raised a few

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Speaker 1: concerns about the risks of using generative AI in lethal

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Speaker 1: systems without strong human oversight because of the risk of hallucinations.

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Speaker 1: That does sound like a concern. That's it for the

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Speaker 1: Afternoon Report for Tuesday, the seventeenth of February twenty twenty six.

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

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

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Speaker 1: free daily newsletter or put a link in the show

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Speaker 1: outs as well.

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Speaker 2: I'm Milcoel Thompson. Enjoy your evening.