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

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Speaker 1: for Wednesday, the thirty first of July twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 1: I'm suan al month Every afternoon, We've got the five

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Speaker 1: stories that happened today that you need to know about

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Speaker 1: straight number one. Figures from the Bureau of Statistics today

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Speaker 1: show Australia's inflation rate climbing one percent during the June

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Speaker 1: quarter and three point eight percent for the last financial year.

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Speaker 1: That was slightly higher than three months earlier, but also expected.

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Speaker 1: The all important measure of underlying inflation was slightly lower

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Speaker 1: than expected, and that send bond yields down as investors

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Speaker 1: reassessed the likelihood of an interest rate hike when the

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Speaker 1: Reserve Bank Board meets next week. That is now very unlikely,

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Speaker 1: and the S and p ASX two hundred surged one

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Speaker 1: point to seventy five percent today. As a result, it

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Speaker 1: closed out eight and ninety two points, a new record.

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Speaker 1: Some of the interest rate sensitive stocks did best. Consumer

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Speaker 1: discretionary groups like Wes Farmers, JB hi Fi and Harvey

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Speaker 1: Norman all did well. The banks did well, led by

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Speaker 1: Wespack which roise two and a half percent. National Australian

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Speaker 1: Bank and Z jump two percent, and Commonwealth Bank was

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Speaker 1: up one percent. Techtocs outperformed with zero ARIA and Weis

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Speaker 1: tech Global all doing well. The energy companies also did well,

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Speaker 1: as oil rallied following unrest in the Middle East. A

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Speaker 1: strong performance by Rio Tinto, which announced nine billion dollars

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Speaker 1: in earnings for the last half year, pushed up its

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Speaker 1: share price and BHPN forour to squ medals went along

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Speaker 1: for the ride story number two. The federal government will

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Speaker 1: accept one hundred and thirty of one hundred and seventy

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Speaker 1: two recommendations in principle, but only thirteen in full. After

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Speaker 1: the Disability Royal Commission handed down its findings, The Albanezi

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Speaker 1: government will focus on improving job pathways for Australians with

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Speaker 1: disabilities as part of a broad three hundred and seventy

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Speaker 1: one million dollar package that comes in response to the

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Speaker 1: harrowing stories that emerged from the Royal Commission. According to

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Speaker 1: a report in the Guardian, the long awaited response to

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Speaker 1: the Inquiry into Violence, abuse, neglect and Exploitation of People

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Speaker 1: with Disability comes ten months after its final report shed

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Speaker 1: light on the harm, exclusion and discrimination many experienced human

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Speaker 1: rights was at the center of the landmark report recommending

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Speaker 1: urgent reforms a cross housing, education, health, employment, criminal justice

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Speaker 1: and disability services to make Australia a more inclusive society.

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Speaker 1: The principles agreed to in full include a review of

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Speaker 1: the National Disability Strategy, improvements to the Employment Services model,

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Speaker 1: and transition guidelines for NDIS participants entering custody and returning

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Speaker 1: to the community. Storing number three. Ain Z has officially

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Speaker 1: taken control of sun Corps banking operations seven hundred and

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Speaker 1: forty three days later. It also cost them four point

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Speaker 1: nine billion dollars. I'm sure it's a relief for both

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Speaker 1: Ainz and sun Court. The deal was initially rejected by

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Speaker 1: the Competition watchdog. That decision was reversed after Ainz appeled

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Speaker 1: and the Melbourne based bank now becomes a much bigger

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Speaker 1: player in the home mortgage market, particularly in Queensland. The

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Speaker 1: Brisbane based Suncourt becomes the pure insurance play, thus ending

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Speaker 1: the only major player in the bank assurance trend that

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Speaker 1: started a couple of decades ago. Ain Z's under pressure

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Speaker 1: on the back of the bond trading scandal of recent weeks.

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Speaker 1: It now has to integrate some corpse customers to its

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Speaker 1: own systems. That'll be quite the job story. Number four

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Speaker 1: Westpac customers will be able to speak to staff at

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Speaker 1: their bank via its banking app using a verified call,

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Speaker 1: in a move with the company hopes will help reduce

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Speaker 1: the hundreds of millions of dollars Austrainings are losing to

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Speaker 1: banking scams each year. In a bid to block ever

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Speaker 1: more sophisticated impersonation scams, Westpac will roll out a new

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Speaker 1: security product in partnership with Telcale OPTAs that allows customers

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Speaker 1: to receive Westpac branded calls via the bank's app, which

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Speaker 1: is used by three point six million people each month.

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Speaker 1: The calls, which will be verified by OPTAs, will also

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Speaker 1: show the reason for the bank getting in touch with

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Speaker 1: a customer. According to report in the Cinney Morning Herald

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Speaker 1: and Age, Westpac Chief executive Peter King said it should

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Speaker 1: provide customers with the confidence and added security to help

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Speaker 1: beat scammers and know that they're really talking to their bank.

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Speaker 1: Asseic estimates that in twenty twenty three, thirty one thousand

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Speaker 1: banking customers had about five hundred and fifty eight million

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Speaker 1: dollars lost in scams in storing. Number five growth in

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Speaker 1: Microsoft Azure cloud service business slowed last quarter, disappointing investors

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Speaker 1: anxious to see a payoff from huge investments in artificial

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Speaker 1: intelligence products. TATAL revenue in the June quarter increased fifteen

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Speaker 1: percent to sixty five billion US dollars. It's about ninety

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Speaker 1: nine billion OZZI for the three months, but the Azure

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Speaker 1: cloud computing service has been Microsoft's main engine growth in

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Speaker 1: recent years. The pace of its growth, though, decelerated twenty

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Speaker 1: nine percent from thirty one percent. Great numbers, but wallstream

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Speaker 1: investors want exceptional numbers. At the moment, Microsoft's share price

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Speaker 1: fell about six percent in extended trading. Alongside peers such

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Speaker 1: as Amazon and Google. Microsoft has been constructing new data

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Speaker 1: centers to meet demand for cloud computing and power hungry

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Speaker 1: AI services, but in recent weeks, investors have been less

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Speaker 1: patient with tech company's efforts to make money out of

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Speaker 1: their cloud computing and AI invest that's it for the

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Speaker 1: Afternoon report for Wednesday, the thirty first of July twenty

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Speaker 1: twenty four. Don't forget to follow on the podcast and

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Speaker 1: find Fear and Greed on LinkedIn, Instagram, x TikTok and Facebook.

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Speaker 1: Join Michael Thompson and I tomorrow morning for the Fast

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Speaker 1: Five by Fear and Greed, the top five business stories

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Speaker 1: you need to know in just five minutes. I'm Suan Elma.

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Speaker 1: Enjoy your evening,