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Speaker 1: It's Thursday, the fourteenth of November twenty twenty four. Welcome

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Speaker 1: to the Fast five by Fear and Greed, where we

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Speaker 1: give you the top five business stories you need to

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Speaker 1: know in just five minutes. I'm Adam Lang and good morning,

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Speaker 1: Sean Aylmer.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, Adam.

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Speaker 1: All right, Sean. Story number one. Public sector wages grew

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Speaker 1: faster than the private sector for the first time in

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Speaker 1: four years during September, and that's good news for anyone

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Speaker 1: hoping interest rates will fall sooner rather than later.

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Speaker 2: Overall salary growth fell to a two year low, with

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Speaker 2: the Bureau of Statistics saying wages growth it was three

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Speaker 2: and a half percent in the year to September, down

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Speaker 2: from four point one percent in the twelve months to June.

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Speaker 2: Public sector growth was three point seven percent, private sector

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Speaker 2: three and a half per cent for the quarter. Across

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Speaker 2: public camp private it was zero point eight percent, below expectations.

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Speaker 2: Interest rates are definitely slowing. The private sector's wages just

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Speaker 2: aren't rising as much. Remember, much of the growth in

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Speaker 2: employment that we've seen has been in government funded sectors,

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Speaker 2: the public sector, aged care, health education. The September quarter

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Speaker 2: reading is critical because many wages reset on July one.

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Speaker 2: In fact, about forty five percent of employees got to

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Speaker 2: pay increase during the September quarter. The Fair Work Commission

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Speaker 2: decision this year was the three point seven five percent

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Speaker 2: increase last year was five point seventy five percent. We're

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Speaker 2: seeing that flows through now. Wages big part of keeping

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Speaker 2: prices low. Put Simply, if wages rise, companies tend to

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Speaker 2: pass on the extra costs in higher prices. If it

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Speaker 2: don't rise so much, you don't get that pushed through.

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Speaker 2: All this reflects the cooling of economy. The numbers themselves

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Speaker 2: were weaker than expected. As I mentioned, the good news

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Speaker 2: is that wages aren't putting as much pressure on inflation.

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Speaker 1: And Sean There was more good news on that inflation

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Speaker 1: front from the Commonwealth Bank. Its STATA suggested the majority

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Speaker 1: of Stage three tax cuts which commenced on one July

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Speaker 1: were used to pay down debt rather than buy more

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Speaker 1: goods and services.

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Speaker 2: Exactly, they can see that in terms of how much

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Speaker 2: people are paying off their mortgages. We've also had retail

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Speaker 2: trade figures from the Bureau that back that up. There's

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Speaker 2: been no great surgeon spending as a result of people

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Speaker 2: receiving more money in their pay packets. For anyone hoping

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Speaker 2: interest rates will fall, this too, is good news. The

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Speaker 2: fear was that people would spend their tax cuts and

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Speaker 2: keep pressure on inflation, but a couple of bits of

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Speaker 2: data yesterday suggest that's not the case.

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Speaker 1: Sewan Stey Number two. The federal opposition will support government

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Speaker 1: proposals to shake up merger laws, which will introduce mandatory

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Speaker 1: notification where companies involved in mergers meet certain monetary thresholds.

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Speaker 2: Federal treasure Jim Charms is trying to stop mergers that

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Speaker 2: boost industry concentration, less in competition and give dominant players

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Speaker 2: more ability to push up prices at the moment. It's

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Speaker 2: what they call a voluntary notification regime. OUE of the

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Speaker 2: new rules, there are a bunch of things, like a

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Speaker 2: revenue for the combined businesses is above two hundred million dollars,

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Speaker 2: if one of the businesses has turnover above fifty million dollars.

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Speaker 2: If the company's more than two hundred and fifty million

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Speaker 2: dollars in revenue globally, then the ahable See will have

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Speaker 2: a look at it. The atrooble See will also be

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Speaker 2: able to request the Treasurer designate sectors of the economy

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Speaker 2: where deals would require approval, according to the fin Review. Now,

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Speaker 2: the competition watchdog chair Gina Cass Gottlieb has already singled

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Speaker 2: out soupmarkets, liquor stores, pathology and private cancer radiation for

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Speaker 2: special treatment.

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Speaker 1: Sewn. Story number three, Tech leader Weistek Global is facing

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Speaker 1: a class action alleging that the group failed to tell

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Speaker 1: investors it was falling short of aggressive earning Stargus.

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Speaker 2: The allegations in the Supreme Court of Victoria's so the

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Speaker 2: company had several opportunities to update guidance in mid twenty nineteen,

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Speaker 2: but didn't. Weistech said it was on track for record

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Speaker 2: earnings of about one hundred and fifty million dollars for

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Speaker 2: the year end of June twenty twenty Twice it said

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Speaker 2: it was on tracked hit guidance, but eventually it revised

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Speaker 2: its earnings to around one hundred and twenty three million dollars.

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Speaker 2: That triggered a twenty seven percent fall in its share

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Speaker 2: price in one session another twelve percent the next day.

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Speaker 2: That's what this class action is all about, Sean.

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Speaker 1: Another big one at story number four, The Trump trade

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Speaker 1: has taken a breather with Tesla's share price falling six

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Speaker 1: percent and US equity steady, while Bitcoin has come off

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Speaker 1: a touch.

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Speaker 2: Just a touch, back under eighty eight thousand US dollars

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Speaker 2: a unit. Wall Street, in particularly the share price of

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Speaker 2: Tesla has jumped post the Trump election. Tesla until yesterday

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Speaker 2: was up more than forty percent and five sessions. The

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Speaker 2: hope'es on Wall Street of that Donald Trump enacts big

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Speaker 2: tax cuts for large businesses, helping earnings. Trump administration one

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Speaker 2: point zero did exactly that. Now the difference this time

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Speaker 2: around them and that in the year before Trump was

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Speaker 2: elected in twenty sixteen, Wall Street went backwards. In the

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Speaker 2: year to last Tuesday, Wall Street's up more than twenty

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Speaker 2: five percent. Back in twenty sixteen, Wall Street was undervalued.

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Speaker 2: Not so today. We'll have to wait and see what

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Speaker 2: happens there. Otherwise, Brent Cruise, training around seventy two US

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Speaker 2: dollars a barrel gold continues it's slow decline and announce

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Speaker 2: of the precious metal is worth just over twenty six

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Speaker 2: hundred US dollars. Training the Aussie dollar, he's training just

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Speaker 2: over sixty five US cents.

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Speaker 1: As sean a remarkable one. It's story number five. President

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Speaker 1: elect Donald Trump continues to unveil members of his incoming team,

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Speaker 1: and Elon mas and Vim and Vivek Ramaswami will co

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Speaker 1: lead a US Department of Government Efficiency.

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Speaker 2: Gotta love the name mask. We know Ramswamy ran in

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Speaker 2: the Republican primaries. He's an entrepreneur who previously made a

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Speaker 2: lot of money from a fundaceutical company. Trump said it

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Speaker 2: will become the Manhattan Project of our time that was

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Speaker 2: about building the atomic bomb. Not quite sure where the

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Speaker 2: analogy there is. Mister Trump said the new department will

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Speaker 2: seek to slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditure, and restructure

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Speaker 2: federal agencies. Now, mister Musk, in a very Trump esque

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Speaker 2: moment last month, said he could cut two trie in

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Speaker 2: US dollars from the federal budget. That's about a third

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Speaker 2: of total spending. Factor is more than a third title spending.

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Speaker 2: To know what happens to Social Security and Medicaid and

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Speaker 2: veterans benefits and all that. There's more, though probably more astounding,

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Speaker 2: is that Donald Trump announced that Peter Hegsith, who is

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Speaker 2: a Fox News anchorman a Fox News host, he'll be

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Speaker 2: his Secretary of Defense. Peter Heggsith is an Army veteran,

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Speaker 2: but absolutely no government experience. He'll be in char a

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Speaker 2: three million military and civilian employees. Also, former Texas Congressman

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Speaker 2: John Ratcliffe is going to be director of the CIA.

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Speaker 1: That's it, the top five business stories you need to

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Speaker 1: know in just five minutes. Thank you Sean, Thank you Adam.

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Speaker 1: It's Thursday, the fourteenth of November twenty twenty four. Remember

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Speaker 1: to hit follow on the podcast and if five minutes

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Speaker 1: isn't enough, then find our longer podcast called Fear and

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Speaker 1: Greed on your favorite podcast platform. I'm Adam Lang and

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Speaker 1: that was the Fast five by Fear and Greed. Have

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Speaker 1: a great date.