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Speaker 1: It's Friday, the fourteenth of February twenty twenty five. Welcome

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Speaker 1: to the Fast five Business News by Fear and Greed,

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Speaker 1: where we give you the top five business stories you

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Speaker 1: need to know in just five minutes. Are Michael Thompson

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Speaker 1: and Good morning Sean Aylmer.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Michael, Sean.

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Speaker 1: Five stories, five minutes. Let's go Story number one. The

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Speaker 1: local share market hit a record high yesterday, touching eighty

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Speaker 1: five hundred and seventy five points, as investors grow confident

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Speaker 1: that the Reserve Bank of Australia will cut interest rates

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Speaker 1: next week.

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Speaker 2: It has been our great start of the year with

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Speaker 2: the SMPASX two hundred and five percent. Mostly it's been

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Speaker 2: about gold stocks, the big banks, led by Commwealth Bank

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Speaker 2: and consumer discretionary companies. Some we've loved JB Highfi, some

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Speaker 2: we haven't loved but are starting to find friends again Domino's.

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Speaker 2: The rate decision next week is likely to be a

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Speaker 2: cut of twenty five basis points. It would be the

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Speaker 2: first cut since November twenty twenty. We've had plenty of

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Speaker 2: rises in that time. The fact that the Reserve Bank

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Speaker 2: isn't saying anything to correct the market speculation about a

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Speaker 2: cut is seen to as a reason to have more

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Speaker 2: confidence that it will go ahead. It isn't a done

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Speaker 2: deal though. Higher inflation in the US overnight highlights how

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Speaker 2: price rises in economies are tricky things to get hold of,

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Speaker 2: but markets are confident and the quality stocks are booming.

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Speaker 1: Sure on the story of the dayo was really the

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Speaker 1: trading of the combined Sigma Healthcare Chemist Warehouse business. It

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Speaker 1: was day one for the new company, worth thirty two

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Speaker 1: billion dollars and at share price jumped five percent. Great

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Speaker 1: first day.

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Speaker 2: If you spend one thousand dollars in that stock in

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Speaker 2: September last year, you'd now be sitting on about two thousand,

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Speaker 2: five hundred ben incredible. Happiest person would have been co

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Speaker 2: founder and CEO Mario Verrocki. He's now worth five billion dollars.

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Speaker 2: Well done, Mario. A bunch of Chemists Warehouse franchisees one

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Speaker 2: hundred and four of them will also be happy. They

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Speaker 2: have the merged with shares worth between five million and

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Speaker 2: twenty five million dollars. Officially, Sigma took over at Chemists Warehouse,

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Speaker 2: but really it's the other way around. Chemi's Warehouse has

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Speaker 2: taken over Sigma.

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Speaker 1: Story number two. Sean Labor is going to have a

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Speaker 1: tough time of it dealing with crossbenches if there's a

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Speaker 1: minority government after the federal election, as demonstrated yesterday by

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Speaker 1: Independent Zali Stegel confronting Special Minister of State Don Farrell

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Speaker 1: when he was holding a press conference.

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Speaker 2: Happens sometimes that a politician interrupts another while giving a

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Speaker 2: press conference, but not regularly. The issue yesterday was anighble

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Speaker 2: Hall of election laws. Labor and the Coalition shut out

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Speaker 2: the Independence in voting for changes that limit the ability

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Speaker 2: of individuals to bank role candidates. Now, Simon Holmes at

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Speaker 2: Courts Climate two hundred group backed a bunch of Teal candidates.

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Speaker 2: We have six Teel members in the House of Representatives.

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Speaker 2: Climate two hundred spent about six million dollars. That funding

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Speaker 2: will be limited. Meantime, Labor and the Libs or Labor

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Speaker 2: and the Coalition will get about one hundred and forty

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Speaker 2: million dollars in public funding. Not Surprisingly, Teals aren't happy.

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Speaker 2: Now Zali stegeles emerged as a de facto leader of

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Speaker 2: the Independence. She confunded Farrell over the changes yesterday. It

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Speaker 2: just shows that whoever wins the next election if it's

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Speaker 2: a minority government, and that's probably the most lightly outcome

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Speaker 2: they're going to have to deal with the independence. They

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Speaker 2: better tread very carefully from now till then.

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Speaker 1: Yes, Indeed. Story number three. Treasury Wine Estates has dumped

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Speaker 1: plans to sell its low cost brands Wolf Blass, Lindermann's

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Speaker 1: Yellow Glend and Blossom Hill because it can't get a

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Speaker 1: high enough price.

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Speaker 2: Its main brand is pen Foles, and it's been trained

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Speaker 2: to offload a bunch of these other ones since August

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Speaker 2: last year. Just not getting there. It's been a tough

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Speaker 2: time for the wine maker. It downgraded its full year

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Speaker 2: profit outlook, even though its profit for the six months

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Speaker 2: to December was pretty good. The highlight was definitely the

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Speaker 2: pen Fols division, and that's on the back of the

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Speaker 2: fact that they can sell in China. But the mid

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Speaker 2: tier and commercial wine brands are really struggling. So wine

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Speaker 2: under ten dollars, well, there's a glut of the supply

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Speaker 2: at the moment, and younger consumers are turning to ready

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Speaker 2: to drink spirits, so they're just consumer preferences are working

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Speaker 2: against Trees as well. Its share price was down six

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Speaker 2: percent yesterday.

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Speaker 1: Story number four. IAG's share price tumbled thirteen percent yesterday,

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Speaker 1: even though the insurer almost doubled its net profit thanks

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Speaker 1: to pretty benign weather conditions.

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Speaker 2: Problem for IAG, it didn't meet or beat expectations and

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Speaker 2: the outlook wasn't as strong as people had hoped. What's

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Speaker 2: happening there? IAG won't be able to push through premium

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Speaker 2: increases as much as they have previously. Bad news for shareholders.

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Speaker 2: Do you know how that's good news for the Michael.

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Speaker 2: It's you and I US paying house insurance, car insurance.

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Speaker 2: So out of the IG result yesterday, we find out

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Speaker 2: that the premium increases in our insurance won't be as

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Speaker 2: much as with previous the previous couple of years.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, that is good news, Sean. Good news is story

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Speaker 1: number five. Apple has finally released its streaming platform on

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Speaker 1: rival Android devices, and it's going to let customers pay

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Speaker 1: for subscriptions on Google Play accounts as regulatory pressure really

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Speaker 1: mounts to open up its tightly controlled ecosystem.

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Speaker 2: The Apple TV app and streaming service Apple TV Plus

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Speaker 2: will be available on Samsung phones and tablets and Google Pixels,

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Speaker 2: or any device that supports Android ten or later. According

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Speaker 2: to reporting, the Australian Apple says it's built the app

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Speaker 2: from the ground up to deliver Android used as a

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Speaker 2: familiar and intuitive interface. The world's most valuable company has

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Speaker 2: been under pressure to open up its ecosystem, including allowing

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Speaker 2: payments outside its own system in Australia, Britain and Europe.

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Speaker 2: In fact, locally, the hb'll see the Competition watchdog's been

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Speaker 2: investigating the market power of Apple and some of the

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Speaker 2: other tech titans as part of a rolling five year inquiry.

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Speaker 1: All right, there we go, the top five business stories

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Speaker 1: in five minutes. Thank you Sean, Thank you Michael. It

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Speaker 1: is Friday, the fourteenth of February twenty twenty five, remembered

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Speaker 1: hit follow on the podcast and if five minutes isn't enough,

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Speaker 1: you can find our longer daily show called Fear and

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Speaker 1: Greed wherever you listen to podcasts. I'm Michael Thompson and

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Speaker 1: that was the fast five business news by Fear and Greed.

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Speaker 2: Had a great day.