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

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Speaker 1: for Thursday, the thirty first of October twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 1: I'm Sean Elmer. Every afternoon, we've got the five stories

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Speaker 1: that happened today that you need to know about straight

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Speaker 1: numer one. The SMPASX two hundred fell one quarter of

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Speaker 1: a percent today to eighty one hundred and sixty points.

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Speaker 1: Fair bit of corporate news around. But before we get there,

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Speaker 1: the banks were mixed, PHP Woollies Ria were all lower,

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Speaker 1: Wisett Global was higher. West Farmers held its AGM today.

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Speaker 1: Chair Michael Cheney came out fighting. He said contributions of

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Speaker 1: companies like West Farmers have been underappreciated in Canberra. He

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Speaker 1: said some changes to employment laws, payroll taxes and environmental

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Speaker 1: laws work against productivity improvements. Overall, he said the company

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Speaker 1: generally was doing pretty well. JB High Fi share price

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Speaker 1: jump to five percent today after it released quarterly sales

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Speaker 1: figures that were better than expectations and canvas Worth of mentioned.

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Speaker 1: No it's not listed, but the software group to share

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Speaker 1: Sale valued the company at almost fifty billion Australian dollars.

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Speaker 1: That's up about twenty three percent since it was last

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Speaker 1: value that was in April. If it was listed, it

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Speaker 1: would be the eleventh largest company on the AX, ahead

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Speaker 1: of Telstra, bigger than Woollies and bigger than Wires Tech.

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Speaker 1: Story Number two Retail trade figures four September were released

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Speaker 1: today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the name

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Speaker 1: number came in flat following a boom August. Now a

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Speaker 1: month ago we were talking about unseasonably warm weather helping retailers.

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Speaker 1: The spending has held up, though it hasn't grown. In fact,

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Speaker 1: was actually up by zero point one percent for the month. Cafes,

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Speaker 1: restaurants and takeaway food services were the only industries to

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Speaker 1: rise significantly in September. Department stores were the worst. If

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Speaker 1: you look at the quarter, the September quarter, that's interesting

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Speaker 1: because it's after those July one tax cuts energy bill relief. Well,

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Speaker 1: volume was up, but revenue was flat. Spending per person

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Speaker 1: actually fell for the ninth straight quarter, lowest three years.

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Speaker 1: That means people didn't splurge their tax cuts on goods

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Speaker 1: and services. That's probably a good thing. Keeps a lid

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Speaker 1: on inflation. Story. At number three, there are signs of

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Speaker 1: life in a home building sector, with approvals jumping. In September,

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Speaker 1: building approvals were up four point four percent. That reverses

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Speaker 1: the previous month. There was a big jump in compartments.

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Speaker 1: The trend is great. For seven months, building approvals have

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Speaker 1: been trending higher. They're currently at about thirteen percent above

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Speaker 1: their lowest level. They're running at about one hundred and

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Speaker 1: seventy thousand approvals a month below the two hundred and

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Speaker 1: forty thousand approvals needed to meet the government's housing accord,

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Speaker 1: but still the trend is our friend. In this instance.

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Speaker 1: The long term key to solving the housing crisis is

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Speaker 1: more houses, so the numbers are certainly welcome. Story number four.

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Speaker 1: The US recorded decent growth last month and the labor

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Speaker 1: market remains strong. That hit financial markets over the past

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Speaker 1: twenty four hours. Bond markets trimmed bets of the size

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Speaker 1: of rate cuts in the US in coming months. Now

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Speaker 1: there's a meeting next week. It is expected to cut

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Speaker 1: rates by twenty five basis points, but the strong economy

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Speaker 1: in the US certainly will probably hold things back from

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Speaker 1: any further rate cuts or any larger rate cuts. That

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Speaker 1: pushed the Aussie dollar lower. It had been heading towards

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Speaker 1: sixty six US sins. It's back down in about sixty

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Speaker 1: five and a half US cents. Gold keeps shining brighter,

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Speaker 1: hitting a new record today just below twenty eight hundred

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Speaker 1: US dollars. An ounce it's a safe haven. People like

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Speaker 1: it ahead of the US selection. It's up more than

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Speaker 1: thirty percent this year. Also, there were figs out of

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Speaker 1: China today showing factory activity has responded to recent stimulus efforts.

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Speaker 1: Good news for Australian exporters and story number five. Some

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Speaker 1: of the big tech companies have reported September quarter earnings.

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Speaker 1: Out of the past twenty four hours, Microsoft share price

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Speaker 1: fell after its forecast slower cloud revenue growth. Microsoft basically

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Speaker 1: can't get data centers online fast enough to keep up

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Speaker 1: with demand for AI services. Otherwise, Microsoft's earnings report was

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Speaker 1: pretty upbeat. Meta reported as well. They said they'd be

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Speaker 1: ramping up vestments in AI and the metaverse. Its share

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Speaker 1: price entered down three percent in after hours. Training and

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Speaker 1: AMD Advanced micro Devices said sales for its AI chips

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Speaker 1: had slowed more than anticipated. That's at its share price

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Speaker 1: down eleven percent. That's it. The afternoon report for Thursday,

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Speaker 1: the thirty first of October twenty twenty four, Michael Thompson

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Speaker 1: and I will be back tomorrow morning with the Friday

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Speaker 1: Edition off beer and greed business news. I'm Seane Elmer.

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Speaker 1: Enjoy your evening,