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

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Speaker 1: for Monday, the eighth of December. I'm Michael Thompson, and

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Speaker 1: every afternoon we've got the five stories that happen today

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Speaker 1: that you need to know about. Let's go with story

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Speaker 1: number one. The S and p ASX two hundred closed

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Speaker 1: just a touch lower today, down zero point one percent

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Speaker 1: to six hundred and twenty four points. Nine of the

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Speaker 1: eleven sectors lost ground, with utilities and miners the worst

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Speaker 1: the best, with the telcos. Telstra jumped to one and

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Speaker 1: a half percent today. Broadly, it seems to investors are

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Speaker 1: perhaps waiting a little to see what happens tomorrow when

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Speaker 1: the Reserve Bank Board meets. It's less about the cash

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Speaker 1: rate decision. The RBA is widely tipped to keep rates

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Speaker 1: on hold, and more about what Governor Michelle Bullock says

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Speaker 1: afterwards about the outlook and inflation. We've also got the

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Speaker 1: US Federal Reserve expected to cut rates later in the week. Two.

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Speaker 1: I mentioned the miners having a bit of an ordinary day.

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Speaker 1: The gold miners were off today. Numont was down two

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Speaker 1: point one percent, Northern Star off one point four percent,

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Speaker 1: but the lithium miners had a cracker, still enjoying last

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Speaker 1: week's optimism after UBS upgraded the outlook for the sector.

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Speaker 1: Liontown was up nearly fifteen percent today, Pilborough minerals up

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Speaker 1: more than six percent and it's quickly worth a mention.

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Speaker 1: The Australian dollar hit a three month high this morning,

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Speaker 1: just under sixty six and a half US sense story

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Speaker 1: number two. Now, it's been a busy day in Canberra,

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Speaker 1: or in this case, I suppose Tamworth really where Barnaby

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Speaker 1: Joyce is confirmed he is joining One Nation. On a

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Speaker 1: local radio station alongside Pauline Hanson. Joyce said he will

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Speaker 1: stay on as the Member for New England for now

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Speaker 1: before trying to move back into the Senate by twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty eight, which is when the next selection is expected.

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Speaker 1: Pauline Hanson said that she is emotional about the move

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Speaker 1: and believes Joyce brings serious economic and rural experience, calling

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Speaker 1: him a front row forward, not a bench player. National's

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Speaker 1: leader David little Proud has slammed the decision as you

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Speaker 1: would expect, accusing Joyce of turning his back on the

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Speaker 1: party that backed him and I quote through his darkest

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Speaker 1: moments elsewhere in federal politics. They storm over travel entitlements

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Speaker 1: claimed by Communications Minister Anika Wells is continuing to build

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Speaker 1: with reports she build tax payers almost nine thousand dollars

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Speaker 1: for flights so that her husband could attend three consecutive

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Speaker 1: AFL Grand Finals. And Treasurer Jim Chalmers has announced the

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Speaker 1: government's three hundred dollar power bill subsidy will be scrapped

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Speaker 1: at the end of the year. More on all of

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Speaker 1: these stories tomorrow morning under story number three. Now and

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Speaker 1: Arnot's the maker of tim tams and shapes and Scotch

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Speaker 1: fingers and SOEs and saladas and more. I can keep

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Speaker 1: listening them. Really, it's getting a forty five million dollar

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Speaker 1: injection from the federal government's National Reconstruction Fund. The money

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Speaker 1: is part of a one point seventy five billion dollar

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Speaker 1: refinancing deal as the heavily indebted company, owned by US

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Speaker 1: private equity giant KKR, rolls over loans that were due

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Speaker 1: next year. Arnot's sales climbed to one point seventy six

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Speaker 1: billion dollars last year, helping it to scrape back in

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Speaker 1: to the black with a small profit after a sizable

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Speaker 1: loss the previous year. The National Reconstruction Fund says the

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Speaker 1: funding will help upgrade production lines, support advanced manufacturing, and

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Speaker 1: back on it's push to sell more timtams offshore, but

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Speaker 1: the opposition has labeled it a taxpayer bailout. Onto story

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Speaker 1: number four, the former chair of the Future Fund, Peter Costello,

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Speaker 1: personally intervened to stop a planned international business class trip

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Speaker 1: for the CEO's executive assistant. The Financial Review reports that

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Speaker 1: the trip, if it had gone ahead, would have been

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Speaker 1: the EA's third such trip. We talked a fair bit

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Speaker 1: about the first two last week. It comes after the

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Speaker 1: two hundred and sixty one billion dollar Future Fund has

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Speaker 1: already admitted spending about twenty thousand dollars sending the EA

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Speaker 1: overseas to inspect hotels and negotiate room rates, plus a

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Speaker 1: second business class trip to assist the board. CEO Raphael

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Speaker 1: Ant has defended the costs, saying the project delivered larger

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Speaker 1: savings on accommodation. The government says the travel at the

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Speaker 1: sovereign Wealth fund owned by taxpayers does meet official guidelines,

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Speaker 1: but critics suggest that it shows accountability as slipping. And finally,

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Speaker 1: story number five, Australia and Japan have jointly condemned an

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Speaker 1: incident where a Chinese fighter jet repeatedly locked its fire

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Speaker 1: control radar onto Japanese aircraft near japan dok and Our

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Speaker 1: Islands over the weekend. That kind of lock on is

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Speaker 1: treated potentially as a lead in to an attack, forcing

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Speaker 1: jets to take evasive action the Japanese military aircraft for

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Speaker 1: tracking a Chinese carrier at the time. Japan's Defense minister

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Speaker 1: has called it a dangerous and extremely regrettable incident and

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Speaker 1: lodged a strong protest with Beijing. China has rejected the

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Speaker 1: claims as completely inconsistent with the facts and accused Japan

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Speaker 1: of smearing it As tensions rise between the two countries.

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Speaker 1: Defense Minister Richard Marles, who was in Tokyo to inspect

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Speaker 1: shipyards after a major warship deal, says Australia is deeply

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Speaker 1: concerned by the incident. It for the Afternoon Report for Monday,

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Speaker 1: the eighth of December. Make sure you're following the podcast

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Speaker 1: and headlong to Fearandgreed dot com dot au to sign

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Speaker 1: up for our free daily newsletter. I'm Michael Thompson. Enjoy

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Speaker 1: your evening,