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

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Speaker 1: for Monday, the twenty third of March twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 1: I'm 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 get going with storry number one. The S and

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Speaker 1: p ASX two hundred fell zero points seven percent today

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Speaker 1: to eighty three hundred and sixty six points, with the

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Speaker 1: benchmark index down more than nine percent from its recent peak,

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Speaker 1: wiping about three hundred billion dollars now in value since

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Speaker 1: the Middle East conflict began a few weeks ago. Having

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Speaker 1: said that today's result was actually much worse earlier in

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Speaker 1: the day, the market was down as much as two

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Speaker 1: percent earlier in the session, meaning that it was briefly

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Speaker 1: beyond the ten percent loss figure that would signal a

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Speaker 1: technical correction. Energy stocks continued to outperform. Woodside was up

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Speaker 1: more than two percent, Santos gained one percent, Ampole lifted

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Speaker 1: one percent as well. As this sector extends its strong

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Speaker 1: run on the back of those high oil and gas

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Speaker 1: prices due to the Iran conflict. Retailers were among the

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Speaker 1: few gainers today. Premier Investments was up nearly six percent,

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Speaker 1: JB hi FI adding more than two percent, car dealership

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Speaker 1: Eagers Automotive jumped more than six percent. The gold miners, though,

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Speaker 1: were sold off after the price of the precious metal

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Speaker 1: reported its biggest weekly drop last week since nineteen eighty three,

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Speaker 1: then went down another two point seven percent today. It

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Speaker 1: is currently sitting at around four three hundred and seventy

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Speaker 1: five US dollars an ounce. Neumont was off seven and

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Speaker 1: a half percent today. The banks also weighed on the market,

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Speaker 1: with Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, and A and Z all down

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Speaker 1: around one percent, while NAB fell closer to two percent.

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Speaker 1: CONTA Story Number two and Quantas boss Vanessa Hudson has

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Speaker 1: taken the somewhat unusual step of assuring passengers that the

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Speaker 1: carrier's fuel needs are secure until at least next month.

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Speaker 1: With the Middle East conflict and closure of the Strait

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Speaker 1: of Humus constricting the flow of oil around the globe,

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Speaker 1: some airline and have discussed cutting flights, but Hudson told

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Speaker 1: staff that Quantus Quote is in regular contacts with government

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Speaker 1: and fuel suppliers, who continued to tell us they have

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Speaker 1: a strong level of confidence in supply well into April,

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Speaker 1: Quantus has increased its international airfares by five percent, Virgins

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Speaker 1: increasing its domestic airfares by five percent. We've talked about

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Speaker 1: that in recent days. It follows comments from Energy Minister

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Speaker 1: Chris Bowen over the weekend when he said six shipments

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Speaker 1: that had been due to carry oil to Australia had

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Speaker 1: been canceled. Air France and United Airlines have reportedly been

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Speaker 1: looking at reducing flights as they contend with both higher

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Speaker 1: fuel costs and reduced demand. Quantus had already cut flights

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Speaker 1: to the US, where weak demand had dented its first

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Speaker 1: half results. Today, though Quantus's share price was down around

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Speaker 1: two point three percent. Onto story number three and former

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Speaker 1: Billabong executives are pushing km D Brands to carve up

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Speaker 1: its business and sell Ripcurl with a consorting and proposing

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Speaker 1: a merger of the iconic surfware brand. According to a

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Speaker 1: report in the Financial Review, the proposal, led by a

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Speaker 1: former Billabong executive and backed by industry figures, was rejected

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Speaker 1: by ASX listed KMD, which also owns Katmandu and is

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Speaker 1: currently working through a recapitalization process as its share price

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Speaker 1: languages near record lows. The consortium, which already owns two

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Speaker 1: other surf brands, wants to create a pure play surf

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Speaker 1: company centered on Ripcurl, arguing it would be better managed

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Speaker 1: by specialists committed to the sector. Kmd's largest shareholder, Alan Gray,

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Speaker 1: has urged the company to consider all options, warning the

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Speaker 1: businesses under pressure and needs to move more quickly to

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Speaker 1: address its challenges. Story number four Today, radio broadcaster to

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Speaker 1: Kyle Sandalands has officially launched legal action against ARN Media

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Speaker 1: after the company terminated his one hundred million dollar contract

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Speaker 1: following his on air dispute with Jackie O Henderson. AARN

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Speaker 1: has told the ASX this morning that Sandaland's legal team

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Speaker 1: team is arguing the termination was invalid, claiming there was

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Speaker 1: no serious misconduct or breach of contract and that the

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Speaker 1: move was unconscionable under consumer law. Sandalands is seeking to

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Speaker 1: have the contracts enforced along with payment and damages. While

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Speaker 1: ARN has said it will defend the claim and that

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Speaker 1: it is too early to estimate the outcome. This one

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Speaker 1: clearly has a long way to go. The company's share

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Speaker 1: price fell almost five percent today, and finally, story number five,

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Speaker 1: US President Donald Trump has ordered ice that is immigration

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Speaker 1: and Customs Enforcement agents to be deployed at airports to

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Speaker 1: help ease long security lines amid a funding standoff affecting

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Speaker 1: homeland security agencies. The move comes as hundreds of thousands

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Speaker 1: of workers, including TSA the Transportation Security Administration staff, have

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Speaker 1: been working without pay during the budget impass that's leading

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Speaker 1: to these extended delays at some of the major airports

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Speaker 1: in the States. Officials say ICE agents could be used

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Speaker 1: to monitor exit lanes or check passenger identification, freeing up

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Speaker 1: the TSA staff to focus on security screening. The deployment

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Speaker 1: is part of a broader effort by the Trump administration

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Speaker 1: to manage disruption caused by the funding dispute, with details

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Speaker 1: of the plan still being finalized ahead of its implementation tonight.

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Speaker 1: And that's it for the Afternoon Report for Monday, the

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Speaker 1: twenty third of March. Make sure you're following the podcast

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

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

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Speaker 1: Enjoy read