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Speaker 1: Welcome to Fear and Greed business news you can use Today.

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Speaker 1: Telstra announces a jump in its dividend as it's mobile

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Speaker 1: business powers earnings, just as West Farmers provides a note

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Speaker 1: of caution about consumer spending. The unemployment rate last month

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Speaker 1: came in at four point one percent, upping the chance

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Speaker 1: of an interest rate hike in coming months, and the

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Speaker 1: local share market hits an all time high. Plus Mark

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Speaker 1: Zuckerberg concedes it is difficult to enforce age limits on

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Speaker 1: social media and the era of supersized meals might be

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Speaker 1: coming to an end. It is Friday, the twentieth of

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Speaker 1: February twenty twenty six. I'm Michael Thompson and good morning,

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Speaker 1: Sean Alma.

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Speaker 2: Michael, i'd don't reckon. There are many busier days in

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Speaker 2: my journalistic career than yesterday. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, just there are stories all over the place, like

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Speaker 1: a bump every day for results, and they're not limited

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Speaker 1: to that.

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Speaker 2: No. So there were six of the top twenty companies

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Speaker 2: had results yesterday. You and I gave a speech.

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Speaker 1: It was a great speech.

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Speaker 2: At the Independent Agents conference yesterday morning, which was great.

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Speaker 2: We had some great interviews we'll talk about later on.

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Speaker 2: I mean, what fun.

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Speaker 1: Oh, it has been a crack up. Let's get onto

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Speaker 1: the main story, because that is the fact that we

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Speaker 1: had two of Australia's biggest companies both report yesterday too

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Speaker 1: with massive shareholder basis. Telstra West Farmers have reported strong earnings,

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Speaker 1: though there are a few concerns as I mentioned over

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Speaker 1: consumer spending. Let's start with Telstra. A big jump in

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Speaker 1: earnings has allowed the telco to give its more than

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Speaker 1: one million shareholders gifts of a higher half year dividend

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Speaker 1: and an increase in the telcos share buyback scheme.

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Speaker 2: So earning to the December half RaSE fourteen percent to

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Speaker 2: nearly two and a half billion dollars better than analysts expected.

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Speaker 2: Share to the share price closed up four percent. Telstra

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Speaker 2: the most widely held stock on the A six, probably

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Speaker 2: one point two one point three million shareholders thanks to

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Speaker 2: once being government owned. Its dividend is critical to many

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Speaker 2: retireing income. So when the dividend rises, that is good.

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Speaker 2: Use a share buyback too. Let's just do the maths

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Speaker 2: on that. Let's say there's a hundred shares out there

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Speaker 2: earnings there are one hundred dollars one dollars per share.

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Speaker 2: When you end up with buying the company buying back

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Speaker 2: the shares, so you end up with ninety shares, still

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Speaker 2: got one hundred dollars. Each share is worth more. So

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Speaker 2: that's how that works. The group's strong growth and its

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Speaker 2: mobile business continues. It's been a real success story for Telstrom.

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Speaker 2: It's been able to increase revenue per user on post

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Speaker 2: paid plans five percent, prepaid by about fourteen percent. So, Michael,

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Speaker 2: if you're you know you use a Telstra futmobile and

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Speaker 2: the build up last year well probably did basically downside

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Speaker 2: for Telstra was the postpaid users. The number of them

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Speaker 2: fell slightly cuts in the workforce through about one thousand

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Speaker 2: fewer employees at the end of the half compared to

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Speaker 2: the beginning of the half. That's also helping the bottom

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Speaker 2: line in the enterprise division, which includes the fixed phones business.

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Speaker 2: That one continues to client.

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Speaker 1: I know all leaders, all CEOs of listed companies have

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Speaker 1: a duty to their shareholders, right, but do you reckon?

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Speaker 1: Vicki Brady, the CEO of Telstra, would almost feel that more,

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Speaker 1: knowing in particular that so many retirees rely on that

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Speaker 1: business and the dividends provided by that business for their

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Speaker 1: retirement income.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, I'd imagine, so I'd have to carry it. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Now Australia's mentioned West Farmers, Australia's biggest conglomerate, posted a

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Speaker 1: rise in sales and profit, but warned that the heat

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Speaker 1: was coming out of consumer spending and that helped send

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Speaker 1: a share price down five and a half percent. Nowadays,

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Speaker 1: West Farmers is mostly a retailer. It operates Bunnings. Of course,

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Speaker 1: we talked about that a lot, and that continues to boom.

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Speaker 1: Last year provided fifty seven percent of earnings. Kmart's doing well,

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Speaker 1: though disappointed a little in the December half year provided

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Speaker 1: twenty eight percent of earnings. It also operates office works

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Speaker 1: where a big restructuring costs hampered earnings and target which

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Speaker 1: targets just continuing to struggle, isn't it.

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Speaker 2: Yes, we have an interview and we'll talk about the

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Speaker 2: interview in a moment where the person I speak to,

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Speaker 2: the CEO of West Farmers, Rob Scott, kind of disagrees

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Speaker 2: with me on that one. More recently, West Farmers also

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Speaker 2: pushed into health, including priceline pharmacies. That business is growing.

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Speaker 2: It's got a chemicals, energy and fertilizers business. Profits jumped

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Speaker 2: in that segment thanks for a strong contribution from its

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Speaker 2: lithium business. While the December half profit was up nine percent,

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Speaker 2: Boss Rob Scott was a little less excited about this year.

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Speaker 2: Higher costs a weighing on household in business spending, residential

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Speaker 2: construction remains su viewed that has hit parts of the business.

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Speaker 2: So great half year the outlook perhaps not as good

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Speaker 2: as you might hope.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and definitely stick around for that interview. It's coming

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Speaker 1: up after the show Fear and Greed Q and A

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Speaker 1: today speaking to Rob Scott about that result. We talk

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Speaker 1: about leaders and feeling the duty to their shareholders. Here's

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Speaker 1: one who is very passionate about the business that he leads.

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Speaker 2: Sure is.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, great conversation coming up and a bit. The S

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Speaker 1: and PA Sex two hundred hit a record high yesterday, Sean.

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Speaker 1: It really was one of the busiest days of the

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Speaker 1: earnings calendar. The boss hit one hundred and eighteen points

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Speaker 1: around lunchtime before closing up almost one percent to nine

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Speaker 1: thousand and eighty six points.

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Speaker 2: Yes, it was of its highs, but it did hit

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Speaker 2: a high at one point yesterday I think was twelve

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Speaker 2: eighteen pm. If you want to be exacted on that

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Speaker 2: one which we do so far this year, Mining and

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Speaker 2: energy stocks to a let's to extent the banks have

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Speaker 2: pushed the ASEX two hundred more than four percent. They've

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Speaker 2: been dragged back a bit by tech stocks particularly and

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Speaker 2: tealthcare CSL, particularly the big movers yesterday that didn't report

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Speaker 2: BHP in Woodside, NAB, Westpac, and A and Z.

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Speaker 1: And oil price is sean a rising, which isn't great

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Speaker 1: news for car drivers. I suppose if you're driving an

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Speaker 1: EV it probably doesn't matter too much. But Brent is

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Speaker 1: now back above seventy US dollars a barrel, and that

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Speaker 1: really follows these reports about American military intervention in Ira

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Speaker 1: potentially coming sooner than expected.

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Speaker 2: That's right. Crypto has continued to lag just to touch

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Speaker 2: bitcoins below sixty seven thousand U S dollars. A unit

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Speaker 2: in the Aussie dollar is buying about seventy and a

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Speaker 2: half few US cents.

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Speaker 1: What a day, So much already covered, so much more

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Speaker 1: still to come back in a moment with the rest

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Speaker 1: of the day's business news. Sure day is stronger than expected.

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Speaker 1: Labor force report from the ABS yesterday has kept the

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Speaker 1: pressure on the Reserve Bank to lift interest rates. The

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Speaker 1: Unemployment rates stayed at a relatively low four point one

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Speaker 1: percent last month, after eighteen thousand people found a job.

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Speaker 2: Yes, but if you look behind the top line number,

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Speaker 2: it's much stronger than that. Full time employment rose by

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Speaker 2: fifty thousand while there it was a thirty three thousand

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Speaker 2: person fall in part time employment. Presumably a lot of

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Speaker 2: those people went from part time to full time. So

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Speaker 2: if you look that, that really does show the strength

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Speaker 2: in the labor market. The Reserve Bank has consistently called

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Speaker 2: the labor market tight or a little tight, Michael. This

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Speaker 2: number certainly backs up that assertion. With inflation above target,

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Speaker 2: labor market constrained, Well, you're going to get inflationary pressures.

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Speaker 2: I'm afraid that means another interest rate hike. Financial markets

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Speaker 2: say there is now more than a fifty percent chance

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Speaker 2: of a rate hike in May.

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Speaker 1: Australia's biggest property company, Goodman Group, has announced a dropping

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Speaker 1: operating profits, sending its share price down four percent. The

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Speaker 1: industrial property group, which has succeeded by building and investing

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Speaker 1: in logistics properties things like warehouses for retailers online operations,

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Speaker 1: it's now shifting seriously in a big way into data centers.

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Speaker 2: In fact, About three quarters of Goodman's fourteen point four

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Speaker 2: billion dollar workbook across fifty one projects, is devoted to

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Speaker 2: data centers to support the AI revolution. Chief executive Greg

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Speaker 2: Goodman said demand for data centers is expected to outstrip

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Speaker 2: supply materially in the foreseeable future. One of the big

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Speaker 2: questions is whether these data centers can get enough pain,

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Speaker 2: and that's one of Goodman's challenges. It said yesterday it

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Speaker 2: had secured a global power bank of six gigawatts, up

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Speaker 2: from five gigawatts last year. Now asked me to explain.

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Speaker 2: I mean, I kind of get the gist of it.

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Speaker 2: You know, it's getting a lot more power than it

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Speaker 2: had before and securing it. But that's like a Michael,

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Speaker 2: you have something about interesting about data centers. How would

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Speaker 2: you measure the size of a data center.

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Speaker 1: With a tape measure sean.

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Speaker 2: You go square footage? Some people would measure it by

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Speaker 2: the amount of data that it houses.

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Speaker 1: Yes, yes, that would make sense.

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Speaker 2: Actual measurement is energy it uses. Really yes, I do

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Speaker 2: say measure a data center. It's based on energy. It uses.

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Speaker 1: Look, I learned something in every show and that's sometimes

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Speaker 1: years ago, yeah, sometimes less.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: That just also means I can switch off for the

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Speaker 1: rest and stop absorbing information because I've already reached my quota.

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Speaker 1: Mining giant Rio Tinto reported a fourteen percent drop in

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Speaker 1: full year profit to fourteen billion dollars shawn, though it

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Speaker 1: did lift its dividend.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Rio said weaker iron ore prices outweighed surging copper

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Speaker 2: prices entire production. It's due a list, of course, that's

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Speaker 2: listed here and on the London Stock Exchange. The announcement

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Speaker 2: came after the market closed last night, so we'll have

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Speaker 2: to see what happens today when the market opens.

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Speaker 1: If there is one prize shown that a company does

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Speaker 1: not want to win during earning season, it is this one.

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Speaker 1: By Now Pay Later group Zipco has taken out the

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Speaker 1: prize for the biggest share price fall after an earnings announcement.

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Speaker 1: It dropped forty percent after it missed its forecast. It

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Speaker 1: disappointed with its guidance. It said doubtful debts were rising.

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Speaker 1: It recovered a little bit. By the close it was

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Speaker 1: down just thirty four percent.

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Speaker 2: Oh really, yeah, what a pickup?

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Speaker 1: Still got the prize.

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Speaker 2: I mean it missed its core profit, missed its guidance.

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Speaker 2: It felt like there had been some duds this season.

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Speaker 2: Let's be honest, like Nick Scarley Promedicus Temple and Webster,

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Speaker 2: they al got canned kind of you know, twenty five

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Speaker 2: to thirty percent. Yeah, zip Co goes forty percent. CEOs

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Speaker 2: Cynthia Scott said zip is a high growth, efficient and

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Speaker 2: sustainably profitable business using AI to improve customer engagement. Problem is,

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Speaker 2: investors have already heard that news, I want something new.

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Speaker 2: What they did find out is that bad debts arising now.

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Speaker 2: You know, when bad buy our pay later and after

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Speaker 2: paying those companies were being created and encouraged. In Australia.

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Speaker 2: We talked a lot about bad debt levels. In the US,

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Speaker 2: they've risen to one point eight four percent of the netbook.

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Speaker 2: That's partly because we've got this new pay and aid

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Speaker 2: installment product. But you don't want bad debt. If you

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Speaker 2: want to lose money in buying now, pay later, you

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Speaker 2: end up, you know, just make sure you've got a

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Speaker 2: lot of bad debts and that's what analysts are worried about.

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Speaker 1: More traffic and lower finance and maintenance costs has helped

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Speaker 1: toll road group Transurban to return to profitability, though that

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Speaker 1: could not prevent a two point four percent drop in

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Speaker 1: share price yesterday. What's most interesting in toll road results? Sure, sure,

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Speaker 1: which is the only setting a fairly low bar to

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Speaker 1: step over here, But it's just how many people actually

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Speaker 1: use the roads.

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Speaker 2: So this story in the next story arguably about products

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Speaker 2: that are about as boring as they can. However it

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Speaker 2: actually affects us every day. So like in Sydney, if

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Speaker 2: you live in Sydney, traffic clients in the Eastern distributor

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Speaker 2: that's been going on since West Connects open in twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty three. If you live in Melbourne, traffic levels generally

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Speaker 2: r up three percent. They remain below pre pandemic levels

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Speaker 2: in that city, still pretty amazing the new Westgate Tunnel,

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Speaker 2: which opened just before Christmas average of thirty five thousand

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Speaker 2: vehicles a day. Transurban has been an underperformer over the pasty,

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Speaker 2: with share price up just four point five percent in

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Speaker 2: the twelve months. And look, I know a guy who's

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Speaker 2: very senior at transurbent truly one of life gentlemen, a

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Speaker 2: wonderful person. But I'm sorry the company's a bit dull.

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Speaker 1: But sure, and more is it more interesting than a

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Speaker 1: company that makes palettes?

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Speaker 2: No palette?

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Speaker 1: Well, you have established in the past that you are

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Speaker 1: fascinated by palettes and just the way they move around

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Speaker 1: the world and how they keep tracking them. But anyway,

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Speaker 1: Brambles is the company we're talking about, makes palettes. It's

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Speaker 1: a share price jumped four point four percent yesterday after

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Speaker 1: announcing a strong half year result. But boss Graham Chipchase said,

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Speaker 1: volatility around the world is it's making it more difficult

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Speaker 1: to make strategic decisions.

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Speaker 2: So if you make the humble palette right, and then

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Speaker 2: your job's just to get them around the world and

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Speaker 2: back again. And you know, I've got to get them

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Speaker 2: to China because they're sending stuff to the US, and

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Speaker 2: then you get tariffs. It's like, how many do we

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Speaker 2: need this year? It wouldn't be that easy a gig,

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Speaker 2: I would imagine it is.

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Speaker 1: It is just a fascinating just the idea of trying

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Speaker 1: to keep track of that much stuff moving around the

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Speaker 1: world that is just essentially wood, but on that wood

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Speaker 1: moves so much stocks.

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Speaker 2: I tracted the Branble maybe fifteen years ago. It might

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Speaker 2: have me longer. When they had to announce that their

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Speaker 2: results that they'd lost a million palettes. There's somewhere in

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Speaker 2: the world but we don't know where. Ever since then,

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Speaker 2: it's been one of my all time favorite companies.

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Speaker 1: Anyway, Unfortunately, I think we both found that we are

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Speaker 1: a pair of Palette enthusiasts, which is we are where

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Speaker 1: we go.

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Speaker 2: They did brands of the like it's our top twenty

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Speaker 2: company did really well to September last year, then it

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Speaker 2: fell off. It's come back a bit. But roads, toll

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Speaker 2: roads or Palettes. This is an exciting podcast. There is

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Speaker 2: no doubt about it, Michael, let's.

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Speaker 1: Get to international news. Sean Mark Zuckerberg yesterday testified that

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Speaker 1: it is quote very difficult to enforce Instagram's age limits

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Speaker 1: and downplayed how much team users do for the company's

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Speaker 1: bottom line. During a landmark trial over social media addiction,

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Speaker 1: the chief executive of Meta was on the witness stand

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Speaker 1: in California about the company's efforts to attract and engage

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Speaker 1: teens and whether it adequately policed accounts belonging to children

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Speaker 1: under thirteen despite rules barring them from using the app.

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Speaker 2: Suckerberg said Meta has introduced some proactive tools to try

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Speaker 2: and identify and remove accounts used by children under thirteen. Obviously,

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Speaker 2: in Australia it's under sixteen because we have federal legislation

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Speaker 2: on that, but he called that a challenging problem. He

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Speaker 2: also added that people lie about their age. He said

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Speaker 2: he overruled concerns about teens well being from staff and

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Speaker 2: eighteen experts at one point to lift a band on

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Speaker 2: Instagram beauty filters because he was concerned about free expression.

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Speaker 2: The trial centers on a twenty year old woman who

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Speaker 2: blames Meta's Instagram and Google's YouTube for her years of

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Speaker 2: mental health struggles. The trial, which he's expected to run

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Speaker 2: through to the end of March, will serve as a

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Speaker 2: basically a critical test for thousands of other lawsuits that

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Speaker 2: target Meta and Google, TikTok, Snap, et cetera. So this

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Speaker 2: is kind of seen as a landmark case. Clearly, Mark

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Speaker 2: Zuckerbu Meta thinks so because Mark Zuckerbu was in the

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Speaker 2: stand yesterday.

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Speaker 1: Do you remember when we spoke to Michael Whipper Whipfley,

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Speaker 1: who was one of the founders of the thirty six

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Speaker 1: Months campaign to get the the age limit raised, and

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Speaker 1: he told us in that interview some of the tactics

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Speaker 1: that have been used by these companies in the past.

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Speaker 1: That if a young person, for instance, was to upload

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Speaker 1: a photo and then delete the photo, have a change

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Speaker 1: of heart that then they are the algorithm would feed

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Speaker 1: them content that was geared towards praying on that self

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Speaker 1: esteem issue, which is just vastly, incredibly confronting and seeing

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Speaker 1: things like this coming out with that beauty filter being

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Speaker 1: overruled from the very top, It's a fascinating case, Sean.

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Speaker 1: The super sized servings yes, that have long defined American

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Speaker 1: dining are shrinking as rising costs and the growing use

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Speaker 1: of weight loss drugs prompt restauranteurs to offer smaller portions. Basically,

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Speaker 1: the trend towards lighter and snack size main meals across

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Speaker 1: the US also comes as restaurants seek cash strapped consumers

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Speaker 1: who want lower cost options. So the option is just

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Speaker 1: serve half the food and charge a bit less for it.

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Speaker 1: You've got Asian Fusion Chain PF Chains, which has got

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Speaker 1: two hundred locations across the US. They've got a medium

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Speaker 1: portion of its main course dishes. I introduced that last year.

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Speaker 1: KFC is adjusting portion sizes and tailoring crispiness at its

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Speaker 1: four thousand American outlets. According to the chief executive of

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Speaker 1: Young Brands, which owns KFC and Olive Garden, which is

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Speaker 1: the chain of Italian food restaurants known for its never

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Speaker 1: ending soup or salad and breadsticks offering that gives customers

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Speaker 1: unlimited refills. Last month introduced seven existing menu items in

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Speaker 1: reduced sizes at its nine hundred US restaurants. This thing

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Speaker 1: is catching on.

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Speaker 2: I love Ali of God. I think it's Oliver Garden.

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Speaker 2: You can basically get cheese stuffed into anything at Olive Garden.

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Speaker 2: It is seekt we struggling five consecutive months of slowing

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Speaker 2: trafficking sales. According to the Financial Times, restaurants have been

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Speaker 2: facing increased food, energy and labor costs, including record high

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Speaker 2: beef prices. That's one issue. The other one is a

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Speaker 2: growing use of GLP one weight loss medications that suppresses

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Speaker 2: the appetite. Analysts basically think that this is a trend

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Speaker 2: that is here to stay. Just smaller plates, all right.

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Speaker 1: Up next, Fear and Greed Q and A your interview

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Speaker 1: today with Rob Scott, chief executive of West Farmers. Must listen.

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Speaker 1: It's a great chat. It's coming up next to the

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Speaker 1: Fear and Greed playlist on your podcast platform or at

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Speaker 1: Fearangreed dot com dot au. Thank you very much, Sean.

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Speaker 2: Thanks Michael.

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Speaker 1: It's Friday, the twentieth of February twenty twenty six. Make

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Speaker 1: sure you're following the podcast and join us online on

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Speaker 1: LinkedIn and Instagram. I'm like Thompson, that was fear and greed.

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Speaker 1: A great day,