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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 twenty second of August twenty twenty four.

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

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Speaker 1: have happened today that you need to know about. Story

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Speaker 1: tum one. The SMPAX two hundred gain to zero point

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Speaker 1: two percent today to eighty twenty seven points, marking two

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Speaker 1: weeks of positive closes. The huge jump in Wise Tech

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Speaker 1: Globals share price yesterday after its earnings announcement continued today

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Speaker 1: with Weisstech up another eight percent. Founder Richard White's bank

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Speaker 1: balance is up about two billion dollars on the back

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Speaker 1: of the last couple of days. The Wis Tech surge

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Speaker 1: helped the Tech index, which was the best of the

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Speaker 1: eleven indices on the AX. Brambles was another strong performer

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Speaker 1: among the large caps. Some of the profit results today.

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Speaker 1: Tech player Megaport tumbled twenty percent after its result missed expectations.

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Speaker 1: KFC and A Collins thirds plunged to thirteen percent after

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Speaker 1: it warned its profit margins will fall in financial twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty five due toizing labor, energy store costs. Childcare group

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Speaker 1: G eight Education has grown profits and earnings in the

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Speaker 1: first half of twenty twenty four, but flagged difficult times

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Speaker 1: ahead for the industry coming into the new financial lim.

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Speaker 1: Its share price tumbled fifteen percent Gold to Explore a Northern

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Speaker 1: Star doubled its underlying full year net profit and declared

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Speaker 1: an increase in dividend. Now that's thanks to the higher

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Speaker 1: price of gold. Of course, Discount retail and the Reject

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Speaker 1: Shop blamed sawing costs for a thirty six percent drop

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Speaker 1: in net profit, and retailer Beacon Lighting post an eleven

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Speaker 1: percent full and net profit in part due to higher costs,

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Speaker 1: which the group blamed on ongoing inflation. Story number two

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Speaker 1: Bank of Queensland will sack four hundred staff and acquire

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Speaker 1: one hundred and fourteen franchised branches in a major overhaul

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Speaker 1: of Australia's sixth largest bank. Chief executive Patrick Alloway so

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Speaker 1: to the changes aimed to simplify the bank will cost

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Speaker 1: up to one hundred and twenty five million dollars in

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Speaker 1: an effort to make the lender profitable or at least

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Speaker 1: more profitable. Mister Alloway said the days of rivers of

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Speaker 1: gold for banks are over, and analyst said that It's

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Speaker 1: particularly the case for the regional banks. Profit margins are

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Speaker 1: being crunched as customers shift to digital channels. Having a

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Speaker 1: legacy retail banking operation isn't something CEOs want anymore, or

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Speaker 1: at least they want it less. Bank of Queensland's share

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Speaker 1: price fell more than six percent today. Story Number three

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Speaker 1: developer Stockland built more houses than at forecasts last year,

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Speaker 1: settling five six hundred and thirty seven lots, and is

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Speaker 1: predicting increased settlements over the medium term. It's some good

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Speaker 1: news for the housing sector and there hasn't been much

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Speaker 1: of that recently. The country's largest diversified developer said conditions

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Speaker 1: had improved in the second half of the last financial year,

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Speaker 1: in part due to a more stable interst rate environment.

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Speaker 1: Chief Executive Tarrean Gupta said Stockland launched fifteen new master

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Speaker 1: planned communities and land lease communities last financial year another

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Speaker 1: eight this financial year. Revenue fell six percent to three

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Speaker 1: billion dollars. Funds from operations, which is an industry measure

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Speaker 1: of profit, fell seven percent. Net profit after tax was

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Speaker 1: down thirty one percent, partly reflecting an increase in property devaluation.

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Speaker 1: Stockland share price raise four percent. Story Number four, Australia's

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Speaker 1: biggest private health insurer, medibanks. Its earnings were helped by

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Speaker 1: strong growth in the number of foreign students taking out

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Speaker 1: private health insurance, but fewer permanent residents signed up for

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Speaker 1: policies last year due to stronger competition. Chief executive David

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Speaker 1: Kosar said industry growth would moderate this year, after reporting

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Speaker 1: a fourteen percent increase in underlying net profit for the

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Speaker 1: year to June thirty that was in line with expectations.

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Speaker 1: There were fourteen th four hundred net new resident policy

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Speaker 1: holders and an extra sixty nine thousand non resident policy holders,

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Speaker 1: reflecting all that student interests. The health insurance market remains competitive,

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Speaker 1: with some insurance chasing volumes rather than margins, according to analysts.

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Speaker 1: Medibank's share price fell two percent today and finally story

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Speaker 1: number five, several US Federal Reserve officials acknowledged that there

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Speaker 1: was a plausible case for cutting interest rates at their

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Speaker 1: last meeting before the Central Banks Policy Committee voted unanimously

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Speaker 1: to keep them steady. According to minutes of them meeting,

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Speaker 1: and the vast majority of officials observed that if the

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Speaker 1: data continues to come in about as expected, it would

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Speaker 1: likely be appropriate to ease policy at the next meeting.

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Speaker 1: Futures markets in the US are pricing in about one

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Speaker 1: hundred bases points, or one percentage point of easing this year.

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Speaker 1: The FED chair is scheduled to speak on the economic

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Speaker 1: outlook tomorrow night Australian time. Our wise, Brent crude is

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Speaker 1: trending lower, while gold is hovering around the twenty five

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Speaker 1: hundred US dollars an ounce level. The uranium price, that's

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Speaker 1: an interesting one. It's falling to eighty US dollars a pound.

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Speaker 1: That's at its lowest level since November last year. I

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Speaker 1: was the dollars buying sixty seven point four US cents.

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Speaker 1: That's it for afternoon report for Thursday, the twenty second

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Speaker 1: of August twenty twenty four. Michael Thompson and I will

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Speaker 1: be back tomorrow morning with a Friday edition of Fear

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Speaker 1: and Greed Business Years. I'm Sean Elma. Enjoy your evening.