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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 fourth of December. I'm Michael Thompson, and

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Speaker 1: every afternoon we have the five big stories that you

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Speaker 1: need to know about. Let's get going with story number one.

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Speaker 1: The S and BA SEX two hundred closed zero point

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Speaker 1: three percent higher today to eighty six hundred and eighteen points.

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Speaker 1: That was largely thanks to the big miners and the

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Speaker 1: price of copper, which I will get to in a moment.

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Speaker 1: But the other key piece of data affecting markets today

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Speaker 1: was household spending figures, which jumped by the most in

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Speaker 1: two years. More economists now talking about rate hikes next year.

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Speaker 1: The banks then, were all up today, with A and

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Speaker 1: Z best of the bunch, up one point seven percent.

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Speaker 1: The real estate sector went the other way, weighed down

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Speaker 1: by the potential for higher borrowing costs if rates rise.

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Speaker 1: Stockland was down one point eight percent and Goodman Group

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Speaker 1: off two point seven percent. Retailers also had a tough day,

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Speaker 1: with JB High Fire down more than one percent. But

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Speaker 1: as I'm mean mentioned, the big story in markets was

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Speaker 1: in the minors, which takes us neatly to story number two.

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Speaker 1: The price of copper has surged to a record high

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Speaker 1: on fears that potential new US tariffs could tighten global supply,

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Speaker 1: just as demand for the metal keeps on climbing. Copper

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Speaker 1: is of course, we've talked about this a lot. It's

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Speaker 1: vital for the transition to a greener economy. It's used

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Speaker 1: in so many different aspects of electrification, from electric cars

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Speaker 1: to wind and solar everything in between. There are fears

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Speaker 1: that these US tariffs could affect supply. The price is rising.

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Speaker 1: The benchmark copper price on the London Metal Exchange is

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Speaker 1: around eleven and a half thousand US dollars a ton.

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Speaker 1: Great news for Australia's big miners, particularly BHP has really

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Speaker 1: doubled down on its copper operations in the last few years.

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Speaker 1: BHP share price was up three point seven percent today

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Speaker 1: to its highest level in more than a year. Rio

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Speaker 1: Tinto jumped two point nine percent to a new record

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Speaker 1: for the company, South thirty two more than four percent,

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Speaker 1: Sandfire Resources up four point one percent, and Capstone Copper well,

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Speaker 1: that was the best for the miners, up eight percent today.

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Speaker 1: At pretty remarkable day all round for the miners, all

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Speaker 1: thanks to that price of copper moving on to story

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Speaker 1: number three now and the Corporate Regulator says too many

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Speaker 1: Australian businesses are still making it hard for whistleblowers to

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Speaker 1: speak up about misconduct. A survey of one hundred and

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Speaker 1: thirty four companies by ASK found that one in three

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Speaker 1: don't have a dedicated whistleblower web page, one in five

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Speaker 1: don't offer a hotline, and even where systems exist, nearly

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Speaker 1: a quarter of firms reported zero disclosures over the year.

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Speaker 1: Most reports that did come through were about workplace mistreatment

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Speaker 1: or disputes, and around one in four investigated cases were

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Speaker 1: likely true. Asset Commissioner Alan Kirkland says companies should benchmark

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Speaker 1: themselves against the data and lift their game, warning that

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Speaker 1: without trusted whistleblower programs, serious misconduct can stay hidden for years.

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Speaker 1: Ring number four. Border authorities are investigating how six Chinese

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Speaker 1: nationals ended up in one of the most remote parts

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Speaker 1: of Australia's coastline. The men were found near an isolated

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Speaker 1: community in far north western Australia, an area currently cut

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Speaker 1: off by road only reachable by air or by boat.

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Speaker 1: Two men were first spotted by an off duty police

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Speaker 1: officer about twelve kilometers from town, with four more later

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Speaker 1: found walking in from the beach. Locals say they stood

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Speaker 1: out in the tropical heat. They were wearing long pants

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Speaker 1: no obvious way of having arrived. Border force vessels were

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Speaker 1: sent to the area. The men were assessed at the

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Speaker 1: local police facility, then flown out. It's not known where

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Speaker 1: they were taken to. Authorities said they couldn't release that

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Speaker 1: citing operational reasons. It is the second suspected unauthorized boat

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Speaker 1: arrival on WA's remote northern coast in the last couple

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Speaker 1: of years, and finally story number five. Australians are being

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Speaker 1: warned to brace for dangerous heat over the next couple

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Speaker 1: of days, with severe and extreme heat wave conditions building

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Speaker 1: across multiple states and territories. The Bureau of Meteorology has

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Speaker 1: issued heat wave alerts for parts of New South Wales,

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Speaker 1: Western Australia and the Northern Territory. The New South Wales

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Speaker 1: South Coast faces an extreme heat wave, which is the

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Speaker 1: highest risk category, while western Sydney and parts of the

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Speaker 1: Hunter are expected to climb into the low forties by Saturday.

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Speaker 1: Severe heat wave conditions also forecast are parts of the

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Speaker 1: Kimberley and Pilborough daytime temperatures in the high thirties to

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Speaker 1: mid forties, hot nights probably not offering a great deal

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Speaker 1: of relief. A cool change should reach New South Wales

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Speaker 1: late Saturday into Sunday, but the heat in WA and

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Speaker 1: the Northern Territory likely to linger into next week. And

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Speaker 1: that's it for the Afternoon Report for Thursday, the fourth

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

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Speaker 1: along to Fear and Greed dot com dot au to

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Speaker 1: sign up for our free daily newsletter. I'll put a

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Speaker 1: link in today's show notes as well. I'm Mirk Thompson.

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Speaker 1: Have a good evening.