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

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Speaker 1: for Wednesday, the twenty first of May twenty twenty five.

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

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

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Speaker 1: S and p ASX two one hundred was up another

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Speaker 1: half percent today to finished eight thousand, three hundred and

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Speaker 1: eighty seven points. It's only a couple of percent below

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Speaker 1: its all time peak, which it reached in February this year.

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Speaker 1: Commonwealth Bank hit its third inter day high in three days.

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Speaker 1: It reached one hundred and seventy six dollars and forty

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Speaker 1: six cents. The share plenty of corporate news around Maine Farmers'

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Speaker 1: share price plunged thirty percent after it said it had

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Speaker 1: been notified by the US group bidding for it that

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Speaker 1: that group had concerns about the six hundred and seventy

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Speaker 1: two million dollar offer. The company's called Cosset. It warned

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Speaker 1: there'd been a materially adverse change in Maine Farmers training conditions.

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Speaker 1: Seeks share price jumped to seven percent after it provided

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Speaker 1: a positive trading update the proposed acquisition of Gold Road

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Speaker 1: Resources by South Africa headquartered gold Fields was agreed to

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Speaker 1: by Treasurer Jim Chalmers. That's a deal that's almost done now,

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Speaker 1: and New Farm tumble thirty percent after the global farm

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Speaker 1: chemical supplier downgraded its earnings guidance. New Farm reported lower

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Speaker 1: first half profit driven by weakness and fissualil pricing and

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Speaker 1: higher costs. Story number two. Federal Treasury says the government's

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Speaker 1: push to increase wages above three percent won't be inflationary,

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Speaker 1: augering well for wage hikes in that sort of range. Now,

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Speaker 1: the Fair Work Commission is holding its annual wage review.

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Speaker 1: It asked if wage growth of three point one to

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Speaker 1: three point two five percent was inflationary. Treasury, in short,

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Speaker 1: said no, the economy can afford that type of increase

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Speaker 1: and still keep inflation in the reserve banks preferred two

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Speaker 1: to three percent target range. The ACTU, as part of

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Speaker 1: the review, is pushing for a four and a half

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Speaker 1: percent increase for two point nine million a ward wages.

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Speaker 1: Employers are pushing for an amount about two point four

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Speaker 1: four percent. The federal government wants it to be economically sustainable,

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Speaker 1: so loose threes is a pretty good guess for them.

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Speaker 1: Story number three. James Hardy says the United States renovations

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Speaker 1: market is weaker than expected as it pushes ahead with

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Speaker 1: its controversial fourteen billion dollar buyout of US based Outdoor

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Speaker 1: Decking Group AASEEC. Chief executive of James Hardy, Aaron Erta,

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Speaker 1: yesterday told investors the company will be able to offset

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Speaker 1: the weak market conditions by winning market share. Investors aren't

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Speaker 1: say sure, as share price fell yesterday and is down

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Speaker 1: twenty three percent since the bid was announced back in

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Speaker 1: late March. There's been a substantial drop off and building

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Speaker 1: activity in the past month in the US on the

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Speaker 1: back of Donald Trump's tariffs. Erta expects market volumes across

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Speaker 1: the entire US housing construction market to decline over the

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Speaker 1: next twelve months or so, not good news for James Hardy.

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Speaker 1: It generates about seventy five percent of its revenues from

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Speaker 1: North America AAAC. The company's taking over ninety nine percent

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Speaker 1: of its business is in the US, so a week

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Speaker 1: US housing market bad news for James Hardy. Story number four.

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Speaker 1: Webjet has blamed the demise of Regional Express on a

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Speaker 1: steep drop in its domestic bookings, even though it managed

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Speaker 1: to eke out a small profit. Chief executive Katrina Barry

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Speaker 1: said the twenty one million dollar profit for the year

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Speaker 1: to the end of March came despite a challenging consumer environment.

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Speaker 1: Helping the bottom line was progress on cutting costs, and

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Speaker 1: Webjet's share price closed higher. And finally, story number five,

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Speaker 1: Elon Musk said he's committed to still leading Tesla five

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Speaker 1: years from now and expects to reduce his political spending

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Speaker 1: and time in Washington as he works to calm investor

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Speaker 1: concerns about the future of the electric vehicle company. The

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Speaker 1: billionaire offered new details about his plans in an interview

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Speaker 1: with Bloomberg News. He repeated criticism of a number of people,

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Speaker 1: from Bill Gates to a Delaware judge who's twice ruled

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Speaker 1: against his massive Tesla pay package. The fifty three year

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Speaker 1: old down paid the extent of Tesla's challenges, saying that

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Speaker 1: it's already turned around. Musk disputed the extent to which

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Speaker 1: he's damaged Tesla's brand, saying that while the company may

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Speaker 1: be losing some sales among consumers on the political left,

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Speaker 1: it's gained others on the right. He also criticized protesters,

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Speaker 1: saying they've committed massive violence against his companies, saying they're

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Speaker 1: on the wrong side of history. That's it for the

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Speaker 1: afternoon Report for Wednesday, the twenty first of May twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty five. Make sure you hit follow on the podcast.

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Speaker 1: We will be back tomorrow morning with Thursday edition of

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Speaker 1: the past five business news by Fear and Greed. I'm

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Speaker 1: Sean Elmer. Enjoy your each