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Speaker 1: Welcome to the weekend edition of the Fast Five Business

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

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Speaker 1: Adam Lang.

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Speaker 2: Hello Michael Adam.

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Speaker 1: On weekdays, it's all about the Fast five, the top

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Speaker 1: five business stories in five minutes. On the weekend, we

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Speaker 1: still keep it to five minutes, of course, but we

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Speaker 1: are going to pick out the biggest business story of

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Speaker 1: the week, the most remarkable business story, a mystery category

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Speaker 1: that we change every week, and then our favorite business

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Speaker 1: ish story. Can I go first?

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Speaker 2: Please?

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Speaker 1: The biggest story I thought this week was interest rates.

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Speaker 1: The RBA cut the official cash rate by twenty five

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Speaker 1: basis points on Tuesday to three point six percent. We

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Speaker 1: expected this last month, we got it this month instead. Basically,

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Speaker 1: the RBA was waiting to see that inflation was coming back,

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Speaker 1: continuing to head back down into the target range, which

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Speaker 1: it certainly is. Expectations now that there will be maybe

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Speaker 1: three more cuts November February May A couple of things though,

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Speaker 1: to mention productivity, The Governor of the Reserve Bank, Michelle Bullock,

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Speaker 1: was at pains to point out that Australia has a

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Speaker 1: productivity challenge. It really puts a lot of pressure on

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Speaker 1: the government to deliver something from its roundtable which comes

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Speaker 1: up in a few days in Canberra. And the other

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Speaker 1: thing to mension is the market reaction. The ASX responded

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Speaker 1: very well to the rate cut and hit another high.

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Speaker 1: We had record after record after record being set on

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Speaker 1: the ax. JB high. Fire's worth A mentioned it had results.

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Speaker 1: On Monday, share price slumped because the CEO left, and

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Speaker 1: then it bounced back on Tuesday after the Reserve Bank decision.

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Speaker 1: Because people are going to have more money in their

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Speaker 1: pockets and they might go and spend it in shops

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Speaker 1: like JB. That's the biggest story for me.

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Speaker 2: For me, Michael, it was the bank results. Australia's biggest

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Speaker 2: banks delivered strong earnings this week. Commonwealth Bank of Australia

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Speaker 2: posted a record ten point twenty five billion dollar profit,

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Speaker 2: Westpac rose five percent, ANZ and NAB were steady, and

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Speaker 2: mcquarie met expectations. But Commonwealth Bank's share price fell nearly

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Speaker 2: five percent on that great result, dragging down the ASEX

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Speaker 2: financials and with financials making up twenty eight percent of

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Speaker 2: the A six two hundred that hit hard, investors are

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Speaker 2: watching interest rates, credit growth, artificial intelligence and costs big profits,

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Speaker 2: big influence, but forecasts, not result are driving the market sentiment.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, big story. The most remarkable category, what did you

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Speaker 1: pick out for this one, Adam?

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Speaker 2: For me, Michael, as you mentioned, the RBA cut the

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Speaker 2: cash rate from three point eight five to three point

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Speaker 2: six percent, easing mortgage costs, and that was welcome, but remarkably,

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Speaker 2: the decision came before key Australian Bureau Statistics labor and

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Speaker 2: wage data. Unemployment fell to four point two percent, full

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Speaker 2: time jobs surged sixty five hundred, female participation hit sixty

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Speaker 2: three point five percent, and then we saw that wages

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Speaker 2: rose three point four percent annually. The RBA says it's

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Speaker 2: guide guided by data, but the data arrived days later

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Speaker 2: after the decision. The Australian Bureau Statistics and Reserve Bank

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Speaker 2: of Australia release schedules are set long in advance, so

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Speaker 2: surely can align their diaries to avoid such a calendar mismatch.

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Speaker 1: A little bit of coordination, please please. The most remarkable

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Speaker 1: story for me, just a quick one. The Federal government

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Speaker 1: announcing that it will join other countries like Canada, of

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Speaker 1: the UK and France in recognizing Palestinian statehood. It's going

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Speaker 1: to happen at the UN General Assembly next month, with

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Speaker 1: the Prime Minister saying that a two state solution is

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Speaker 1: the best hope of ending the conflict in Gaza. It

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Speaker 1: has been brewing for a while, but it really came

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Speaker 1: about quite quickly early in the week. Then, because of

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Speaker 1: Israel's intentions to occupy Gaza. We are at odds with

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Speaker 1: the US over this one. The US is not happy

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Speaker 1: about it, but Australia is certainly making its own decisions here. Yeah, Now,

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Speaker 1: mystery story of the week, this is the reform story.

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Speaker 1: That's what we've picked out for this one, and it

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Speaker 1: is because of what's happening in Canberra midweek.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Michael. The Economic Reform round Table will gather leaders

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Speaker 2: in Canberra from nineteen to twenty one August. A headline

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Speaker 2: topic it's the four day work week. The trials show

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Speaker 2: that productivity can hold steady or rise productivity with that

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Speaker 2: four day working week. But this week the Reserve Bank

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Speaker 2: of Australia cut its productivity forecast from one percent to

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Speaker 2: zero points seven percent for the country, trimming our growth

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Speaker 2: prospects to one point seven percent. Now, competition is global,

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Speaker 2: productivity is weak in our country and reform is vital.

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Speaker 2: A four day work week may work in some sectors

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Speaker 2: some of the time, but it should be a choice

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Speaker 2: for employers and employees and not a government mandate. Michael,

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Speaker 2: what did you have?

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Speaker 1: Well, I picked another reform proposal that's going to be

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Speaker 1: discussed at the roundtable. This one might actually get off

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Speaker 1: the ground because ask is suggesting a change to the

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Speaker 1: way it looks at super funds that invest in housing.

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Speaker 1: Basically the end result what the goal here is to

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Speaker 1: unlock the power of super funds that might end up

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Speaker 1: getting something like eight billion dollars in new housing development

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Speaker 1: paid for by super funds and could fast track the

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Speaker 1: development of thirty five thousand new homes. And we saw

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Speaker 1: data this week just talking about how expensive the housing

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Speaker 1: market has become, and more data as well then showing

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Speaker 1: that the rental crisis is picking up pace again. We

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Speaker 1: clearly need more supply in the market and so this

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Speaker 1: is an interesting suggestion that will get covered and discussed

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Speaker 1: at length in Canberra in the next week. Favorite story,

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Speaker 1: Can I nominate one for the lease? Go? Okay, lots

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Speaker 1: of results out this week. We talked about a few

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Speaker 1: of them already, but Telstra is definitely worth a mention

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Speaker 1: because there's a lot of shareholders, more than a million shareholders,

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Speaker 1: a lot of kind mum and dad and retirees. Annual

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Speaker 1: net profit of two point three billion dollars, up a

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Speaker 1: massive thirty one percent on last year, increased dividend. The

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Speaker 1: companies cut out a lot of costs, increasing the price

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Speaker 1: of some of its services, but it's also really leaning

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Speaker 1: into AI to make that business more efficient. It was

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Speaker 1: just a massive result from them this week.

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Speaker 2: Exceptional Michael for me, I've gone to the air Michael,

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Speaker 2: something that you like to do from time to time.

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Speaker 2: Premium cabins hold just five percent of airline passengers, but

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Speaker 2: they deliver twenty percent of domestic and thirty percent of

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Speaker 2: international airline revenue. United, Delta Air New Zealand, and Quantus

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Speaker 2: are adding premium seats, bars and little luxuries to help

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Speaker 2: lift twenty twenty five profit forecasts to US thirty six

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Speaker 2: billion dollars. Delta's premium revenue rose five percent as economy

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Speaker 2: sales dipped. Airlines of betting travelers will pay more for

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Speaker 2: space and comfort even in a cost of living squeeze,

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Speaker 2: and so far the numbers show they are right.

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Speaker 1: Oh, we can always dream Coeck. Adam, all right, there

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Speaker 1: we go five minutes and pretty much everything you need

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Speaker 1: to know in the world of business.

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Speaker 2: Thank you very much, Adam, Thank you, Michael.

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Speaker 1: We'll be back on Monday morning with the top five

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Speaker 1: business stories in five minutes. Head to our website Fearangreed

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Speaker 1: dot com, tod au and sign up for our free

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Speaker 1: daily newsletter. Oh Michael Thompson, and this is the fast

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Speaker 1: five business news by Fear and Greed.