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Speaker 1: It's Thursday, the sixteenth of January 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. I'm 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 a story. Number one.

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Speaker 1: Household spending fell nearly two percent in December after a

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Speaker 1: surge the previous month thanks to Black Friday sales, adding

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Speaker 1: to calls for a rate cut next month.

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Speaker 2: The Combank Household Spending Insights Index shares a drop in

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Speaker 2: spending on household goods stuff like clothing. Consumers brought forward

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Speaker 2: their spending to take advantage of sales activity in November

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Speaker 2: those Black Friday sales, but then it fell off in December.

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Speaker 2: There were relatively large declines in spending on hospitality, food

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Speaker 2: and beverage and recreation. Come Off Bank takes information from

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Speaker 2: seven million customers, puts it all together and comes up

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Speaker 2: with his information. It's about t to percent of all

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Speaker 2: consumer transaction, huge amount of data. Clearly, consumer spending is slaid.

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Speaker 2: Consumer spending is the biggest part of economic growth. We've

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Speaker 2: been very reliant on government spending that State and FEDS.

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Speaker 2: We need to get off that and start worrying more

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Speaker 2: about the consumer. Now, the Reserve Bank meets. The board

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Speaker 2: meets on February seventeen eighteen. Between now and then you'll

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Speaker 2: have December quarter inflation figures, very important. We'll also get

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Speaker 2: a bit of a sense of what Donald Trump and

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Speaker 2: his administration will be like, whether he's going to hike

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Speaker 2: tariffs immediately, whether he's going to kick out non citizens, etc.

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Speaker 2: Stephen how Marrik, the chief economist at Commonwealth Bank, reckons

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Speaker 2: that there should be a rate to cut next month

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Speaker 2: and four this year in total. It doesn't quite mean

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Speaker 2: he's predicting it. He just reckons there should be one.

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Speaker 1: Okay, Moving on to story number two now and relations

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Speaker 1: between Canberra and Moscow are at a low EBB sean

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Speaker 1: After reports that thirty two year old former Melbourne Grammar

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Speaker 1: student Oscar Jenkins, who had been caught by Russia while

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Speaker 1: fighting for Ukraine, had been executed.

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Speaker 2: Foreign Minister Penny Wong said she or the government's making

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Speaker 2: urgent inquiries into mister Jenkins' well being. She's asked Russia

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Speaker 2: and Ukraine for information She also said all options are

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Speaker 2: on the table if he has been executed. The Russian

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Speaker 2: ambassador to Australia, Alexei Pavlovski, was called in. Yesterday, now

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Speaker 2: seven years reported that mister Jenkins had been executed and

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Speaker 2: his body found. He was captured while fighting alongside Ukrainians.

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Speaker 2: Opposition leader Peter Dutton supported the government. He said that

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Speaker 2: the envoys should be sent packing if it's true that

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Speaker 2: mister Jenkins has been executed. It's the worst point in

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Speaker 2: Camera Moscow relations since the downing of MH seventeen back

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Speaker 2: in twenty fourteen.

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Speaker 1: Sean story number three, Macquarie Asset Management, which is part

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Speaker 1: of the Macquari Group, will invest up to eight billion

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Speaker 1: dollars in US owned data centers.

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Speaker 2: That's right, so it's about five billion US. Step one,

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Speaker 2: it's investing nine hundred million dollars in a company called

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Speaker 2: Applied Digital and particularly its data center campus in North Dakota.

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Speaker 2: Step two, up to another four point one billion US

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Speaker 2: dollars in future Applied Digital data centers. As in return,

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Speaker 2: McQuary Asset Management will get a fifteen percent stake in

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Speaker 2: Applied Digital's high performance computing business. Mcuaar Asset Management and

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Speaker 2: Quari has a bit of a history and data center

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Speaker 2: it owned well. Along with the pension farm. It owned

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Speaker 2: eighty eight percent of air Trunk that was sold last

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Speaker 2: year to private equity for twenty three and a half

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Speaker 2: billion dollars. Data centers are very, very popular at the moment.

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Speaker 2: You know, when you think groups like Amazon and Google

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Speaker 2: are desperate for more processing power space to house growing

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Speaker 2: AI platforms and cloud computing operations, than that means data

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Speaker 2: centers are in high demand. And McQuary Asset Management is

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Speaker 2: buying into the space again.

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Speaker 1: All right, Story number four. This is one out of

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Speaker 1: the US where the Securities and Exchange Commission has sued

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Speaker 1: Elon Musk over allegations that he misled shareholders about his

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Speaker 1: Twitter stock purchases. It is escalating the agency's long simmering

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Speaker 1: feud with the billionaire.

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Speaker 2: The lawsuit claims mister Musk delayed disclosure of his ownership,

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Speaker 2: allowing him to save more than one hundred and fifty

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Speaker 2: million dollars in buying Twitter stock. According to report in

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Speaker 2: The Wall Street Journal, the late disclosure herd investors who

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Speaker 2: sold at artificially low prices because they didn't know mister

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Speaker 2: Musk's plans. The SEC says the lawsuit comes after a

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Speaker 2: long investigation that Musk sometimes delayed by not appearing for testimony.

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Speaker 2: He's very closely aligned with President Lake Donald Trump. The

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Speaker 2: speculation around now that given that the SEC will get

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Speaker 2: a new commissioner after Donald Trump takes power, will just

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Speaker 2: ask that person to withdraw the case. A very big

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Speaker 2: test for the independence of these Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Speaker 1: All right, last one, storing up A five. A new

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Speaker 1: global report says too many people are being diagnosed as obese,

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Speaker 1: pushing demand for weight loss drugs, when in reality definitions

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Speaker 1: probably need to be more nuanced.

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Speaker 2: Doctors should consider the overall health of patients excess fat

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Speaker 2: rather than just measuring their body mass index BMI. According

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Speaker 2: to a report by fifty medical experts published in the

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Speaker 2: Lancet Diabetes and Endochronology Journal, more than a billion people

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Speaker 2: are estimated to be living with obesity worldwide, and prescription

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Speaker 2: weight loss drugs are in high demand as a result.

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Speaker 2: But those with chronic illnesses caused by their weight should

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Speaker 2: be diagnosed as clinical can clean the obese, those with

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Speaker 2: no health problems should be pre clinical OBEs. According to

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Speaker 2: these experts, currently in many countries, obesity is defined as

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Speaker 2: having a BMI body mass index over thirty and that's

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Speaker 2: a measurement that estimates body fat based on height and weight.

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Speaker 2: Access to weight loss drugs such as we gob as

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Speaker 2: Zempi are often restricted to patients in that category.

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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 very much, Sean, Thank you, Michael.

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Speaker 1: It is Thursday, the sixteenth of January twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 1: Remember to hit follow on the podcast. And if five

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Speaker 1: minutes just isn't long enough for you, you can find our

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Speaker 1: longer daily show called Fear and Greed wherever you listen to.

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Speaker 1: Podcasts are Michael Thompson. And that was past five Business

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Speaker 1: news by Fear and Greed. Had a great day.