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Speaker 1: Today on Fear and Greed. There are plenty of jobs

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Speaker 1: for everyone, it seems, which is great news for workers,

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Speaker 1: but it probably pushes out the next interest rate cut.

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Speaker 1: Canberra and South Australia to pony up two point four

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Speaker 1: billion dollars to save the Wayala Steelworks and Apple set

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Speaker 1: to release a brand new cheap iPhone, plus profit results

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Speaker 1: from Telstra, Wes Farmers, Rio Tinto and Fortescue medals, and

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump finally earns the ayre of local politicians. Welcome

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Speaker 1: to Fear and Greed. Daily business news for people who

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Speaker 1: make their own decisions. It is Friday, the twenty first

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Speaker 1: of February twenty twenty five. I'm Michael Thompson and good morning,

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Speaker 1: Sean Aylmer. Quite the introduction that one, Michael morning. There's

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Speaker 1: a lot in today's show. It is a big, big,

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Speaker 1: big Friday. The main story this morning, Sean. The Australian

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Speaker 1: economy added another forty four thousand jobs last month. That

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Speaker 1: is more than double what was expected, which is of

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Speaker 1: course good news if you wanted the Aussie dollar appreciate,

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Speaker 1: but not if you want another interest rate cut next month.

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Speaker 2: Yes, the bottom line, I suppose is that this economy

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Speaker 2: is still doing okay, more than one hundred thousand new

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Speaker 2: jobs being created over the past couple of months. Although

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Speaker 2: the unemployment rate last month ticked up to four point

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Speaker 2: one percent, more people than ever are participating in the workforce.

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Speaker 2: More Australians want a job. Sixty seven point three percent.

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Speaker 2: Quite an incredible figure, that one.

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Speaker 1: Is that, Sean, And I know you've got plenty more

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Speaker 1: that you're going to tell me about this, But is

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Speaker 1: that part time, full time, everything, gig economy, the whole lot,

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Speaker 1: kind of a whole.

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Speaker 2: One yep, Okay, sixty seven point three percent, that's very

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Speaker 2: home fact, it's a record level. Now. I remember on

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Speaker 2: Tuesday there as i've been Governor Michelle Bullock said the

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Speaker 2: job's market was tight and on some measures getting tighter.

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Speaker 2: And on Wednesday we had wage figures which actually rose

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Speaker 2: by three point two percent. They suggested, actually maybe there's

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Speaker 2: not that much heat in the market. They were contradictory. Really,

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Speaker 2: what happened on Tuesday and Wednesday, what we saw yesterday,

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Speaker 2: it leans it towards what Michelle Bullet was saying on Tuesday.

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Speaker 2: The labor market has been the surprise packet. Unemployment bottomed

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Speaker 2: at three point four percent in late twenty twenty two,

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Speaker 2: more than two years ago. It's still only about four percent.

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Speaker 2: That's not up that much, to be perfectly honest, I

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Speaker 2: mean pre COVID we're talking five or six percent. We're

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Speaker 2: talking four point one percent. At the moment. There's jobs

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Speaker 2: in full time and part time positions. Last month. It

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Speaker 2: wasn't just like healthcare, social work, education, a bunch of

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Speaker 2: jobs in hospitality, retail, construction, real estate. It's a really

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Speaker 2: hot jobs market.

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Speaker 1: Yes, certainly is what was the reaction like yesterday to

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Speaker 1: something like this that's really kind of well and truly

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Speaker 1: beyond what was expected.

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Speaker 2: I think everyone's a bit punch drunk yesterday because we'd

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Speaker 2: had interest rates on Tuesday, wages on Wednesday. Yesterday alone,

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Speaker 2: there were profit results for Telstra, Wes, Farmers, Rio, FORTESQW,

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Speaker 2: Metals Group, TRANSERB, and a bunch of others. Everyone's trying

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Speaker 2: to just too much information coming really at the moment.

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Speaker 2: Bond markets, let's go to them first, because they really

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Speaker 2: do try and forecast what future interest rates will be.

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Speaker 2: After yesterday's unemployment figures, bond yields rose. They now think

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Speaker 2: there's a seventy percent chance of a rate cut in May,

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Speaker 2: down from about eighty percent before the data. The Ausidolloc

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Speaker 2: rose out the announcement as well. That sort of is

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Speaker 2: the idea that there's less chance of a rate cut.

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Speaker 2: Probably most important was Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank

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Speaker 2: Andrew Houser. He said, the labor market is incredibly strong,

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Speaker 2: absolutely no bad news and the jobs figures. The government

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Speaker 2: also welcomed the data. But the bottom line here is

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Speaker 2: that people think, wow, this labor market is so strong,

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Speaker 2: the next interest rate cut might not come along for

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Speaker 2: a while.

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Speaker 1: Okay, all right, now another big story you talk about

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Speaker 1: that we were just spoiled for big stories over the

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Speaker 1: last twenty four hours. The federal and South Australian governments

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Speaker 1: sean will pony up two point four billion dollars to

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Speaker 1: upgrade the Wyala Steel Works in the hope of luring

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Speaker 1: a buyer and putting the facility back on a sustainable path.

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Speaker 2: It came after the South Australian government called it. Administrators

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Speaker 2: called a mentha on Wednesday. They took control from billionaire

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Speaker 2: san Jeev Gugda, who owes tens, perhaps hundreds of millions

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Speaker 2: of dollars to the South Australian government. As a result

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Speaker 2: of what they've done yesterday, South Australia will scrap its

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Speaker 2: plans to build a green hydrogen plant at Wyala and

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Speaker 2: use the six hundred million dollars in savings to contribute

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Speaker 2: to the rescue deal. That government was criticized by people

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Speaker 2: who said, well, you know, you're actually trying to save

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Speaker 2: an old technology rather than reinventing a new technology. The

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Speaker 2: federal government unveiled the one billion dollar Green Iron Investment Fund,

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Speaker 2: of which five hundred million dollars will be available to

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Speaker 2: the new owner of Wyala to help transition towards cleaner

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Speaker 2: steel production. The most significant upgrade announced yesterday will be

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Speaker 2: the installation or is the installation of an electric arc

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Speaker 2: furnace to replace the aging coal fired blast furnace. But

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Speaker 2: at this point it is still not a particularly clean

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Speaker 2: energy facility, even with that new electric arc furnace.

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Speaker 1: Now, before we leave politics, we have to talk about

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Speaker 1: this one and this is one of the more extraordinary

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Speaker 1: stories that have come out of the Trump presidency to date.

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Speaker 1: It is indeed saying something because Australia is standing by

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Speaker 1: Ukraine after Donald Trump's attack on its leader, rejecting the

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Speaker 1: president's claim that Vladimir Zolensky is a dictator.

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Speaker 2: Donald Trump slammed the Ukrainian president dictator without elections is

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Speaker 2: what he called. What he said, he falsely claimed that

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Speaker 2: Kiev had started the Russian War. The US president also

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Speaker 2: incorrectly stated Zelenski's approval rating was down to four percent.

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Speaker 2: Not true. Now, asked if Zelenski was a dictator, our

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Speaker 2: own Defense Minister Richard Miles simply replied no. The Australian position,

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Speaker 2: he said, is that we see that the global rules

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Speaker 2: based order is under threat by what Russia did in

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Speaker 2: respect of Ukraine. Will continue to support Ukraine so they're

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Speaker 2: able to resolve this conflict on their terms. Now, Opposition

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Speaker 2: leader Peter Dutton came out. He just said Donald Trump

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Speaker 2: got it wrong in relation to the Zelensky commentary, saying

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Speaker 2: the Ukrainians didn't start the war. Everyone in the world

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Speaker 2: seems to think that Australia has committed more than one

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Speaker 2: and a half billion dollars in aid to Ukraine since

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Speaker 2: Russia's invasion almost three years ago. What's interesting about this

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Speaker 2: is leaders, global leaders are tiptoeing around Donald Trump at

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Speaker 2: the moment. But what Peter Dutton, he's not in power

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Speaker 2: obviously easier for him to say, but even Richard Miles,

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Speaker 2: they're starting to firm up a bit.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, and it was good on Peter Dutton also.

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Speaker 1: Of course he's coming from the position of opposition where

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Speaker 1: you can say a lot of things, but to jump

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Speaker 1: out there quickly and criticize someone else from the conservative

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Speaker 1: side of politics was I think a strong move there.

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Speaker 1: But some of those figures, some of those statistics that

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Speaker 1: Donald Trump has been quoting, saying that that Ukraine has

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Speaker 1: essentially stolen three hundred and fifty billion dollars when it's

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Speaker 1: been one hundred forty two billion dollars that have been

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Speaker 1: committed by the US so far.

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Speaker 2: Aid, I mean, that's a US decision, So they didn't

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Speaker 2: steal us the millions of people that have died, which

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Speaker 2: is just incorrect.

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Speaker 1: Too many people have died, but not millions. It's just extraordinary.

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Speaker 1: It's just one of those very very unusual stories and

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Speaker 1: that provoked a very strong local political response. Now after

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Speaker 1: the show, Sean, You've got an interview coming up. This

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Speaker 1: is from our friends at Osby's with BHP's CFO Vandita Pant.

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Speaker 2: Yes we do. It's a great interview. Because BHP came

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Speaker 2: out this week and disappointed endless in terms of their

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Speaker 2: profit eight billion dollars for the half year, and so

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Speaker 2: Osby's asks Vandita about why that number came in and

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Speaker 2: what it means in terms of Copper Iron or great chat.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it certainly is. And we've been working with our

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Speaker 1: friends at Osby's throughout reporting season to bring a bunch

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Speaker 1: of interviews with business leaders. Osby's is of course Australia's

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Speaker 1: leading provider of live and on demand video of the

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Speaker 1: latest news in Australian business markets, economy and startup sign

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Speaker 1: up at Osby's dot com dot au. It is Sean

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Speaker 1: entirely free. We have got a lot still to come.

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Speaker 1: It has been, as we said, a massive, massive day.

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Speaker 1: We've got to surprise news from WIS Tech Global at

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Speaker 1: Telstra's new mobile phone deal speaking of phones for Talking

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Speaker 1: Apple launching a new cheap iPhone. Plenty still to come.

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Speaker 1: Don't go anywhere, we'll be back in a moment with

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Speaker 1: the rest of the day's business news. Sean Telstra is

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Speaker 1: spending a big in its mobile phone business, doing a

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Speaker 1: deal with Ericson to make its five G network faster,

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Speaker 1: more efficient, more reliable.

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Speaker 2: That's I hope anyway. Telstra will spend eight hundred million

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Speaker 2: dollars upgrading its network over the next four years. The

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Speaker 2: bottom line for Telstra for the six months at the

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Speaker 2: end of December is pretty good pre tax profit of

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Speaker 2: four point twenty five billion dollars. What is performing best

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Speaker 2: at the telco is its mayobile business. It's also done

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Speaker 2: pretty well cutting costs. In fact, it's lost nine well

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Speaker 2: not lost, it's cut nine percent of its workforce over

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Speaker 2: the past twelve months or so. Telstra announced an increase

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Speaker 2: in the dividend, very important to the more than one

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Speaker 2: million shareholders. There's also seventy one hundred and fifty million

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Speaker 2: dollars share buy back. Its own share price was up

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Speaker 2: five and a half percent on the news. Yes, so

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Speaker 2: interesting company Tellstra because we think of it as polls

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Speaker 2: and wires, but it's not. It really is becoming a

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Speaker 2: mayobile business and it's Australia's leading mayobil business. It's still

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Speaker 2: got legacy issues and it's still got the enterprise division

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Speaker 2: which isn't performing so well. Do people still have phones

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Speaker 2: on their desks? Maybe in landlines?

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Speaker 1: Yeah no, no, you know what, I've been wandering around

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Speaker 1: the studios here, plenty of officers. I have not seen

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Speaker 1: a single landline pine.

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Speaker 2: I remember Vicky Brady last results said she doesn't have

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Speaker 2: a landline on her Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. And if that's not a signal of kind of

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Speaker 1: where where we're heading, on where that business is heading,

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Speaker 1: then and I don't know what is market darling. Wise

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Speaker 1: Tech Global Sean has gone into a surprise trading halt

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Speaker 1: as the company's directors consider undisclosed governance matters, which you've

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Speaker 1: got to say sounds a little little bit ominous.

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Speaker 2: So Richard White founded the company. He's been under pressure

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Speaker 2: since last year over allegations over his relationships with several

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Speaker 2: female employees, including the purchase of a seven million dollar

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Speaker 2: Melbourne waterfront property for employee and former partner Christine Contos.

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Speaker 2: He was forced to resign in October last year, though

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Speaker 2: he then signed it well I don't know whef he

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Speaker 2: signed it, but apparently he was given a one million

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Speaker 2: dollar contract to continue consulting to the company. In November,

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Speaker 2: Wise texted law firms had cleared mister White of serious

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Speaker 2: wrongdoings fair enough. Last week, nine Media reported three more

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Speaker 2: women had come forward with allegations of inappropriate behavior against

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Speaker 2: mister White. We don't know whether the surprise trading hall

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Speaker 2: yesterday has anything to do with that, but the directors

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Speaker 2: did say it's about undisclosed governance matters, so we'll wait

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Speaker 2: and see.

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Speaker 1: Wait and see on that. One. The country's largest conglomerate,

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Speaker 1: West Farmers, has announced to jump in revenue and sales

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Speaker 1: thanks to, of course, Bunnings and Camut.

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Speaker 2: Yes, one point five billion dollars for the six months.

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Speaker 2: That's the net profit, much higher than an analysts expected.

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Speaker 2: Better dividend as well. Bunnings, well, what a powerhouse, biggest

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Speaker 2: division of wes Farmers by far. Sales up three percent

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Speaker 2: doesn't sound like much, but when you're selling ten billions

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Speaker 2: dollars worth of stuff, three percent is significant. You know

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Speaker 2: what the popular categories at Bunnings are at the moment

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Speaker 2: you love them.

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Speaker 1: I would assume something gardening, Yeah, it's kind of still

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Speaker 1: gardening season. Yes, power tools, power tools, that's just that's

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Speaker 1: higher risk for people like you and me. Physical risk.

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Speaker 2: Home maintenance also doing well came up that just continues

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Speaker 2: to power of This came on was a dud Moll

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Speaker 2: five to ten years ago. This Enco brand, which they've

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Speaker 2: introduced eighty five percent of stuff that sold a Kman

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Speaker 2: is now Enco brand.

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Speaker 1: It is an extraordinary success story.

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Speaker 2: It's fantastic and Walmont and Canada are now selling it.

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Speaker 2: It's just doing so well for them.

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Speaker 1: I'll tell you what we needed, a new kettle and toaster. Recently,

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Speaker 1: a couple of weeks ago went into Kmart going, oh,

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Speaker 1: do you get kind of your fancy of brands from

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Speaker 1: another place? Harvey Norman or somewhere went into k Mart.

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Speaker 1: It's thought, actually, these actually looked pretty nice, and bought

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Speaker 1: a twenty nine dollar toaster and a twenty nine dollars

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Speaker 1: kettle from Kmart. And they are doing the job perfectly.

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Speaker 1: And that's Aco brand.

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Speaker 2: We'll speak in three months.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I will gladly report back in three months and

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Speaker 1: report on my superbly toasted bread Sean. Two of the

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Speaker 1: three big miners, four deescuw Medals and Rio Tinto both

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Speaker 1: reported yesterday and both stocks were sold off by investors

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Speaker 1: at rare profit fell by eight percent, will pay its

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Speaker 1: lowest dividend in seven years, and the back of higher

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Speaker 1: production costs and lower commodity prices.

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Speaker 2: Basically, China just isn't demanding as much iron or Rio

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Speaker 2: is trying to cut costs in that division. There were

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Speaker 2: some good news for the I part of the business stay.

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Speaker 2: Japanese giant Mitsui will pay five point four billion US

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Speaker 2: dollars for a forty percent stake in the roads at

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Speaker 2: Reach of Mine that Rio plans to build over the

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Speaker 2: next five years. At fort es qu the profit for

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Speaker 2: the six months to the end of December halved on

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Speaker 2: the back of lower prices. Same deal at fort es

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Speaker 2: Quas is at Rao in terms of demand out of China.

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Speaker 2: The group also said it's considering pausing almost one billion

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Speaker 2: dollars of approved hydrogen projects in Australia. In the US

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Speaker 2: on the back of the Trump administration's attitude to clean energy.

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Speaker 2: Its share price was down by about six or seven

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Speaker 2: percent yesterday.

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Speaker 1: Super Retail Group, It's another interesting one, announced to lower

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Speaker 1: net profit for the December half. It is battling a

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Speaker 1: downturn in spending in the automotive sector, which is hurting

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Speaker 1: it super cheap auto business and forcing it to discount products.

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Speaker 2: It's share price in the end finished down about twelve

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Speaker 2: percent years so I think that was the worst of

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Speaker 2: the top two hundred or someone's rebel that did pretty

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Speaker 2: well over Christmas thanks to high sales of footwear and

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Speaker 2: licensed NRL apparel. Also, fitness technology was very popular there.

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Speaker 2: We're getting the real insight into what people are buying today.

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Speaker 1: Fascinating, isn't it. It really kind of tells you a

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Speaker 1: lot about our behavior.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, it does. Macpack, which is also part of Super Retail,

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Speaker 2: isn't doing so well. To the outdoor sportswear brand struggling

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Speaker 2: a bit, and BCF, the boating and camping brand. One

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Speaker 2: of my children works at BCF.

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Speaker 1: Really a fan. Do you get a discount?

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Speaker 2: We I haven't bought anything yet. He's a relatively new employee,

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Speaker 2: but yeah, I think there's a discount.

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Speaker 1: And does that extend to colleagues friends of bad luck?

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Speaker 1: I'm just glad that she just me as a friend,

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Speaker 1: though a colleague.

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Speaker 2: BC. If you go in there, you could spend hours

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Speaker 2: in there just fiddling, Yeah, and stuff I wouldn't know

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Speaker 2: how to use, but it's just interesting. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I would walk out with like forty different fishing lulers.

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Speaker 2: Yes, yes, I don't fish, I'd still do it.

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Speaker 1: Look, we've talked a lot about equities throughout the show.

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Speaker 1: It was Super Thursday yesterday, Anything else that you can

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Speaker 1: tell us about yesterday.

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Speaker 2: Look, I mean there's a few reporting like transerm The

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Speaker 2: Toll Group reported it's doing better because people are not

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Speaker 2: working from home as much. They're traveling into the office,

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Speaker 2: therefore paying tolls. TAB Corp their earnings did pretty well.

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Speaker 2: Nage Will mcglocken runs tab Corp, used to run the AFL.

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Speaker 2: He seems to have turned that business around pretty well.

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Speaker 2: Good on him. Supply Chainelistic Logistics Group Brambles it had

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Speaker 2: a pretty decent half year. But I want to talk

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Speaker 2: about the banks. So the A and Z provided its

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Speaker 2: quarterly report yesterday. It said lending growth was decent, adding

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Speaker 2: though that there's a pickup in impaired loans. Its share

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Speaker 2: price was down three percent. NAV and Westpac were down

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Speaker 2: three percent last week. The Index of Financials or Index

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Speaker 2: of Banks on the AX two hundred is off nine

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Speaker 2: percent in five days. These are the stocks that we

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Speaker 2: have been watching run so hard. National Australian Bank in

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Speaker 2: particular has been sold off after its quarterly announcement. But

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Speaker 2: it's interesting how the market is turning against the banks

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Speaker 2: all of a sudden.

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Speaker 1: Wow, that is quite significant in just five days. Let's

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Speaker 1: turn to international News Now we talked a lot earlier

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Speaker 1: about Donald Trump. Another one out of the US though,

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Speaker 1: Apple well next week introduced a new low end smartphone

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Speaker 1: called the iPhone sixteen E, priced at five hundred and

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Speaker 1: ninety nine US dollars, aiming to revive sales growth.

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Speaker 2: So the rebranded device will cost one hundred and seventy

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Speaker 2: dollars US more than the iPhone se that it replaces

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Speaker 2: in Australia. I went to the Apple website. It's already

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Speaker 2: on sale for nine to ninety nine, so you can

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Speaker 2: pick up this phone, the iPhone sixteen E, for nine

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Speaker 2: ninety nine. It's modernized the device. It's removed the home button.

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Speaker 2: I didn't actually realize that the cheaper phones had the

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Speaker 2: home button.

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Speaker 1: Still, it feels very old school, doesn't it? Very does physical,

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Speaker 1: very tactile.

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Speaker 2: A larger six point one inch screen, face ID, forty

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Speaker 2: eight megapixel camera same as the eighteen chip as the

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Speaker 2: iPhone sixteen has, so pretty good USBC charging port also

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Speaker 2: runs the company's AI software.

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Speaker 1: Does it that'll be the big draw is a big

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Speaker 1: drawer card?

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Speaker 2: Oh wow?

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Speaker 1: Because otherwise you've got to get one of the would

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Speaker 1: have thought you need to get the higher end yep.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so you get the AI software Apple Intelligence in

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Speaker 2: this one. It's the biggest change in the history of

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Speaker 2: Apple's low end iPhone. The SE was introduced in twenty sixteen,

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Speaker 2: last updated about three years ago, so this is a

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Speaker 2: really big move. It's part of the shift to try

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Speaker 2: and sell more of these cheaper phones because Apple sales

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Speaker 2: have been slightly problematic, I wouldn't say bad, but slightly

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Speaker 2: problematic recently, so this is an effort to address that.

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Speaker 1: And just quickly, Sean, I've got a space junk story

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Speaker 1: for you. We were talking earlier this week about how

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Speaker 1: crowded the skies have obviously been getting and how crowded

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Speaker 1: they're predicted to get. Well, there's been another big chunk

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Speaker 1: of space junk found, this time in poll Ah.

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Speaker 2: You are showing me the video.

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Speaker 1: I know, I show anyone who walks past he look

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Speaker 1: at this. You need to see this. And it's just

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Speaker 1: this footage of this stuff just streaking across the sky

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Speaker 1: and apparently it is over over Poland. Big chunk of

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Speaker 1: metal hit the ground in the country's west. SpaceX has

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Speaker 1: been contacted by the Polish authorities. It is really getting

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Speaker 1: crowded in the sky.

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Speaker 2: It is Michael. It is love that.

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Speaker 1: I love that story. I just had to squeeze it

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Speaker 1: in there. It's probably going to make an appearance in

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Speaker 1: the weekend edition. Up next is the Fear and Greed

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Speaker 1: Daily Interview at bhps Vandita pant is our guest today

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Speaker 1: courtesy of our friends and partners at Osby's. It is

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Speaker 1: coming up in the Fear and Greed playlist on your

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Speaker 1: podcast platform or at Fearangreed dot com. Today you thank

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Speaker 1: you very much, Sean, Thank you.

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Speaker 2: Michael.

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Speaker 1: It is Friday, the twenty first of February twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 1: Make sure you're following the podcast and please join us

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Speaker 1: online on LinkedIn, Instagram, x TikTok and Facebook. Michael Compson.

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Speaker 1: That was Fear and Greed. Have a great day.