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Speaker 1: It's Thursday, the fifth of March twenty twenty six. 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. I'm Michaele Thompson

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Speaker 1: and good morning Sean.

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Speaker 2: Ailmer, Good morning Michael Shawn.

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Speaker 1: Five stories in five minutes. And before we get going,

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Speaker 1: a reminder, hit follow on the podcast if you haven't already.

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Speaker 1: I've been talking about it for weeks, so you probably

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Speaker 1: already have. But if you haven't and you're listening through

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Speaker 1: Spotify and through your daily Drive playlist, that playlist is

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Speaker 1: going to disappear very soon, which makes it harder to

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Speaker 1: find the Fast five. So hit follow so you can

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Speaker 1: keep hearing us every day on with the show store

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Speaker 1: Sean story number one. The Australian economy ended last year

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Speaker 1: growing at its fastest paced since twenty twenty two, boosted

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Speaker 1: by government spending, boosted by data center investment, and boosted

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Speaker 1: by a bit of a Black Friday shopping spree by consumers.

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Speaker 1: The annual rate of growth jumped to two point six

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Speaker 1: percent last calendar year, up from two point one percent

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Speaker 1: three months earlier. This is according to the Bureau of Stats.

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Speaker 1: For the quarter, the economy expanded at a zero point

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Speaker 1: eight percent clip. It is faster than economists expected, and

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Speaker 1: it spread across both the public and private sectors and

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Speaker 1: adds a bit of weight to arguments that the Reserve

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Speaker 1: Bank will lift interest rates when it meets in less

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Speaker 1: than a fortnight. Broadly, the data shows that the economy

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Speaker 1: rebounded strongly right in the second half of last year.

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Speaker 2: Very true, but in economics they're always caveats. Private business

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Speaker 2: investment bit lackluster. That's important for future growth. Consumers spending

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Speaker 2: also tapering, still adding to the economy, but it was

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Speaker 2: actually much stronger in the June quarter than it was

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Speaker 2: by the end of the year. Household's account for about

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Speaker 2: half of total GDP total economic growth, so that slowed

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Speaker 2: down is significant. Household savings rate ticked up to nearly

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Speaker 2: seven percent. That suggests some degree of caution among consumers.

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Speaker 2: Treasure of Jim Charmers, who's been under fire for the

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Speaker 2: big spending by the federal government, said, the figures show

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Speaker 2: to pick up in private sector activity, and I have

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Speaker 2: roll good news for the economy, particularly in uncertain times.

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Speaker 1: What does it mean for interest rates?

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Speaker 2: Then?

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Speaker 1: Sean, and you mentioned Jim Charmers there. What about pressure

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Speaker 1: on the government to reduce spending so that interest rates

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Speaker 1: don't go up more than they actually have to.

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Speaker 2: So household consumption was below four casts, but the number

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Speaker 2: was really messy, things like legal tobacco sales mucking it up.

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Speaker 2: The fact that ACDC Metallica Oasis concerts through November last year.

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Speaker 2: Lots of people spent money on that and the ashes,

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Speaker 2: So it just looks like people discretionary spending is high.

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Speaker 2: Public sector you mentioned nearly twenty eight percent of the

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Speaker 2: economy record level. No matter what the Treasurer says, public

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Speaker 2: spending is high. It is adding to interstrate pressures. What's

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Speaker 2: it mean, Well, there could be a rate rise next

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Speaker 2: or March sevent eight. It's in two weeks time or

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Speaker 2: a bit less than that. More likely there will be

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Speaker 2: one in March, sorry, in May.

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Speaker 1: Michael Okay Sean story number two. The local share market

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Speaker 1: yesterday experienced its worst sell off since April last year,

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Speaker 1: since the Liberation Day tariffs were introduced. The benchmark s

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Speaker 1: and PA Sex two hundred closed down nearly two percent

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Speaker 1: yesterday to eighty nine hundred and one points. The fall

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Speaker 1: in the local market followed Wall Street, tumbling by as

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Speaker 1: much as two percent yesterday. There's fears of a spike

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Speaker 1: in inflation, translating to less chance of rate cuts in

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Speaker 1: the US and the world's biggest economy.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so analysts believe the conflict could be more drawn

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Speaker 2: out than first hope for Locally, all eleven sub in

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Speaker 2: disees fell yesterday, led by materials, including the mining companies.

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Speaker 2: Real estate stocks fell, financials fell, consumer staples fell. Think

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Speaker 2: more than eighty percent of the A six two hundred

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Speaker 2: companies ended the day lower. Among the large caps of

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Speaker 2: banks were lower, the miners, as I mentioned, the large

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Speaker 2: retailers were down. The exception oil and gas giant wood

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Speaker 2: side those prizes there.

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Speaker 1: Story number three is linked to that global oil prices

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Speaker 1: surged yesterday and Brent crude is now fetching around eighty

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Speaker 1: two dollars a barrel. It's up twenty five percent since

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Speaker 1: the US first started moving its fleet to the Middle East.

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Speaker 1: Market watches worn that it could go much higher, which

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Speaker 1: of course will hit people at the petrol bowser. And

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Speaker 1: just to kind of put a bit of kind of

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Speaker 1: a description to that show and the agriable c updates

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Speaker 1: its prices across the capital cities every Monday, and ahead

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Speaker 1: of the latest spike, a leader of petrol and Sydney

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Speaker 1: Melbourne bridgebombers, but it was well over two dollars a liter.

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Speaker 1: It is likely they will head towards two dollars fifty

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Speaker 1: elita in coming days, and possibly as much as three dollars.

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Speaker 1: Suddenly you've got a fifty letter petrol tank. You feel

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Speaker 1: it once a week. That's one hundred and fifty dollars cost.

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Speaker 2: Cost of living, ouch, happening everywhere. Donald Trump's very aware

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Speaker 2: of that risk what that means for the US economy,

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Speaker 2: So yesterday he said the US would escort oil tankers

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Speaker 2: through the Strait of Hormuz if necessary. Now that passage

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Speaker 2: transports about twenty percent of the world's oil, but saying

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Speaker 2: it and doing it are very different things. Lots of

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Speaker 2: pressure on oil prices, given it's the main energy used

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Speaker 2: in transporting of goods around the world. Higher oil prices

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Speaker 2: doesn't just hit petrol bowser, but ultimately other goods and services.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Story number four Sean fighting in the Middle East,

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Speaker 1: as we've been talking about, continues to escalate, with Israeli

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Speaker 1: and US missiles hitting Tehran yesterday today while the RAN

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Speaker 1: was firing at targets right across the Middle East, and

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Speaker 1: retaliation for the attacks started over the weekend. Critically, reports

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Speaker 1: from Iranian non state media claim that the late Supreme

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Speaker 1: leader's second son, at Moshitaba Hamena, has now been elected

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Speaker 1: to succeed his father and become the new Supreme Leader.

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Speaker 2: That's what the report's saying. Also over the past twenty

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Speaker 2: four hours, Donald Trump said the US Navy will be

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Speaker 2: directed to escort the tankers. As I mentioned a moment ago,

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Speaker 2: Israeli troops entered southern Lebanon as Hesbala launched a cross

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Speaker 2: border attack. Now that Israeli Defense Force issued an evacuation

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Speaker 2: warning for sixteen villages in Lebanon, warning strikes re eminant.

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Speaker 2: Back home, Foreign Affairs Minister Pennywong announced an additional six

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Speaker 2: crisis response teams on top of regular consular support to

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Speaker 2: help Australians get out of the Middle East.

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Speaker 1: Last one story number five, how about this US biotech

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Speaker 1: and sisse By Biosciences that's a mouthful says it has

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Speaker 1: published its first peer reviewed clinical but on an oral

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Speaker 1: overdose protection approach for opioid medicines using what it calls

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Speaker 1: MPAR technology as part of a growing field of anti

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Speaker 1: overdose medicines, which I just find fascinating.

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Speaker 2: So the basic promise is pretty straightforward. A person takes

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Speaker 2: the medication as directed, but like a normal pain pill.

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Speaker 2: If they don't too much of the product, well it

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Speaker 2: resists that overdose pathway. If this, holes are huge impacts

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Speaker 2: for consumers, mean patients, safer access to pain relief, families,

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Speaker 2: reduce the risk of misuse, teenagers finding medication, then cupboards

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Speaker 2: and stuff like that, like certainly safer in that sense.

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Speaker 2: These abuse to terrant or safety in hands. Drug designs

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Speaker 2: aren't just a clinical debate, you know, insure as they're

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Speaker 2: interested in them, affects pricing power manufacturers. Ultimately, it needs

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Speaker 2: proof that they work, not promises. And this is what

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Speaker 2: this US biotech is suggesting is that it has a

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Speaker 2: drug that does work. Still a long way to go,

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Speaker 2: but promising.

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Speaker 1: Okay, there we go the top five business stories in

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

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Speaker 2: Thanks Michael.

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Speaker 1: It is Thursday, the fifth of March twenty twenty sixth.

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Speaker 1: Remember to hit follow on the podcast. As I mentioned

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Speaker 1: many times now in a five minutes isn't enough. You

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

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

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Speaker 1: was the past five Business news by Fear and Greed.

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Speaker 1: Had a great day,