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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: Sean Ailema, Hello Michael Sewan. On weekdays, it's all about

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Speaker 1: the Fast five, the top five business stories in five

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Speaker 1: minutes on the weekend, though we still keep it to

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Speaker 1: five minutes, of course, but we're going to pick out

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Speaker 1: the biggest story of the week, the most remarkable business story,

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Speaker 1: a sleeper story, one that's flying under the radar a

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Speaker 1: little bit, and then our favorite business related story. Let's

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Speaker 1: jump straight into the biggest story of the week.

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Speaker 2: What was it for you? Oh? For me, it's Rio

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Speaker 2: Tinto's bid for arcadium lithium nine point nine billion dollars.

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Speaker 2: Haven't had a big takeover on the ASEX all Yeah,

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Speaker 2: the board of Arcadium said okay, now goes to shareholders.

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Speaker 2: Looks like it will get their approval. We've had some

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Speaker 2: good deals. Air Trunk's twenty billion dollar plus deal was big,

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Speaker 2: but it wasn't listed air Trunk. It's also Behp's failed

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Speaker 2: bid for Ango American. We also had altium sale to

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Speaker 2: a Japanese group which wasn't listed. It's a big deal

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Speaker 2: for Rio Tinto still makes the vast majority of money

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Speaker 2: from its own or mind it needs to get into

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Speaker 2: something kills. It's a big tilted lithium, particularly in Argentina

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Speaker 2: where we are already has a mine. It's big for lithium.

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Speaker 2: The price of lithium went from twenty thousand US to

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Speaker 2: six hundred thousand US back to seventy five thousand in

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Speaker 2: US in about a two year period. Clearly they still demand.

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Speaker 2: They're big for the other lithium stocks. Just a big

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Speaker 2: takeout of story, Michael.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it certainly is. Sean. The biggest story I thought

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Speaker 1: this week was the reality facing so many businesses in

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Speaker 1: Australia company insolvency. It's hitting a record high, more than

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Speaker 1: six six hundred firms failing in just six months, covering

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Speaker 1: a whole range of sector's construction, accommodation of food services,

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Speaker 1: retail trade, professional, scientific and technical services, manufacturing. Really it

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Speaker 1: is just everywhere. There's a whole lot of factors, high

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Speaker 1: interest rates, high inflation, the ato chasing money, cyber attacks

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Speaker 1: as well, and really a lot of this is about

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Speaker 1: small businesses and it is going to continue. Because we

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Speaker 1: had a report from Commonwealth Bank and Cosboa this week,

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Speaker 1: describing the colossal pressures that small businesses are under right now.

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Speaker 1: Banjo Loans reports to thirty five percent increase in the

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Speaker 1: number of loan applications being rejected because these are businesses

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Speaker 1: looking for finance when they are already in trouble. You

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Speaker 1: put it all together and it is a pretty big

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Speaker 1: story of a lot of businesses in Australia in trouble

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Speaker 1: at the moment.

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Speaker 2: Can't tell you my most remarkable story for the week. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: just how easy it is to invest in war. There

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Speaker 2: are always movies that are about dodgy characters running guns. Well,

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Speaker 2: nowadays you can just buy an ETF. There are now

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Speaker 2: three on the ASX two listed this week Global X

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Speaker 2: and bt Shares of NX also got one. What they

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Speaker 2: do is buy up to sixty companies which derive at

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Speaker 2: least half their revenues from the development and manufacture of

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Speaker 2: military and defense equipment. Lockheed Martin, Bae Systems, General Dynamics

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Speaker 2: and ETF. Is definitely a way of spreading your risk.

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Speaker 2: You can now jump in quite remarkably, you can now

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Speaker 2: jump in and buy these products which benefit from war.

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Speaker 2: No value judgment, but it's just a little bit icky.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Look. The other remarkable story I thought this week

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Speaker 1: was the way that consumer sentiment is improving. People are

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Speaker 1: expecting interest rates to come back down soon, despite the

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Speaker 1: fact that the RBA has not actually said that. Nothing

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Speaker 1: in what the RBA has said suggests that that's the case.

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Speaker 1: The Westpac Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index showed a solid

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Speaker 1: six percent lift in confidence in the economy. It is

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Speaker 1: the best reading in ages. Everyone's still pretty negative overall,

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Speaker 1: but consumers are getting excited about kind of inflation dropping

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Speaker 1: and how resilient the labor market is, and a whole

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Speaker 1: bunch of different things. Business confidence is up to business

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Speaker 1: conditions as well. I just think it is remarkable that

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Speaker 1: there is this growing optimism with both consumers and business,

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Speaker 1: despite really the ongoing pessimism of the Reserve Bank that

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Speaker 1: rates could still go either way.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. Remarkable, but positive, Michael.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, positively remarkable. Sean sleeper story. What have you found?

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Speaker 2: Ah? Look, I don't know whether it's the Sleeper story,

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Speaker 2: but I love the story this week about the value

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Speaker 2: of residential real estate in Australia pushing beyond eleven trillion

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Speaker 2: dollars for the first time. That's up almost a trillion

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Speaker 2: dollars over the last year would have been more except

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Speaker 2: for the fact that Home Valley's advice Tember quarter grew

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Speaker 2: just one percent. Across the nation. Basically, in the twelve

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Speaker 2: months through September, they're up about six point seven percent.

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Speaker 2: The previous twelve months are up closer to ten percent. Sydney, Brisbane,

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Speaker 2: Adelaide and Perth dwelling values are currently at record high,

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Speaker 2: but the market's cooling takes longer to sell a home.

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Speaker 2: There's discounting going on. There's also more listings compared to

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Speaker 2: this historical average across the country. The super sector is

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Speaker 2: heading towards four trillion dollars, so the value of dwellings

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Speaker 2: across the country is almost three times out of super

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Speaker 2: quite incredible.

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Speaker 1: It certainly is last one favorite story, Sean. Can I

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Speaker 1: nominate one for this?

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Speaker 2: Go for it.

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Speaker 1: So it's about our love affair with smartphones. I shouldn't

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Speaker 1: have left such a large pause between love affair and

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Speaker 1: with smartphones there, Sean. But it is about smartphones and

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Speaker 1: nearly four million phones were sold in the first half

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Speaker 1: of twenty twenty four, up eight percent from a year ago,

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Speaker 1: and smartphone analyst tell Site expects that number to reach

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Speaker 1: eight point seven million units for the full year, which

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Speaker 1: is just extraordinary. Twenty six million people in this country.

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Speaker 1: It suggests that one in three people will get a

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Speaker 1: new phone this year, which I just I almost find

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Speaker 1: that hard to believe if they weren't statistics, and they

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Speaker 1: were believable. A little bit of history for Sean, and

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Speaker 1: I'm going off on a little bit of a tangent,

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Speaker 1: but in twenty twenty two, the number of active mobile

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Speaker 1: phones in use worldwide past the number of people on

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Speaker 1: the planet. So that means there were more phones in

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Speaker 1: use than there were people on the planet. Just amazing.

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Speaker 1: But wait for this. The first mobile phone call ever

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Speaker 1: made was just over fifty years ago, in nineteen seventy three.

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Speaker 1: And I know we are going way way way back here,

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Speaker 1: but it was made by Motorola engineer Martin Cooper from

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Speaker 1: a street in New York. And you know who he called.

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Speaker 1: I love this because he could have It could have

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Speaker 1: been a really momentous occasion. It was like, it's the

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Speaker 1: equivalent of landing on the moon, right for I suppose

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Speaker 1: for mobile phone technology, he could have called the president,

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Speaker 1: he could have called his colleagues, he could have called

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Speaker 1: his wife, his parents, his kids, anyone he didn't. In

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Speaker 1: what is possibly one of the most petty workplace acts

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Speaker 1: I have ever heard, he called his chief rival, Joel

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Speaker 1: Engel at Bell Labs, the person who was racing in

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Speaker 1: order to develop the first mobile phone, and he said, Joel,

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Speaker 1: this is Marty. I'm calling you from a cell phone,

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Speaker 1: a real handheld portable cell phone. It is just it

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Speaker 1: is the ultimate savage victory. He rubbed that in well

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Speaker 1: and truly, I just love that whole story.

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Speaker 2: That's brilliant.

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Speaker 1: Indeed, there we go five minutes and pretty much everything

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Speaker 1: you need to know in the world of business. Thank you, Sean,

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Speaker 1: Thank you Michael. We'll be back on Monday morning with

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Speaker 1: the top five business stories in five minutes. Don't forget

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Speaker 1: to hit follow and join us online on Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn,

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Speaker 1: Facebook and x Michael Thompson and this is the past

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Speaker 1: five business news I'd fear and grat