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

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Speaker 1: for Friday, the sixth of September twenty twenty four. Oh

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Speaker 1: Michael Thompson. Every afternoon, We've got the five stories that

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Speaker 1: happened today that you need to know about. So let's

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Speaker 1: get going. Story number one. The S and p ASX

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Speaker 1: two hundred closed up zero point four percent today to

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Speaker 1: eighty thirteen points, clawing back a few of the losses

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Speaker 1: from earlier this week. The utilities and consumer discretionary stocks

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Speaker 1: had a strong day, but financials were at the top.

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Speaker 1: I mean, it was all about the banks. Commonwealth Bank, Westpac,

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Speaker 1: A and Z and NAB were all up one point

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Speaker 1: four percent or more. Resources, metal and mining and materials

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Speaker 1: were the worst performers, with oil prices hitting a fourteen

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Speaker 1: month low. Leading the declines were Whitehaven Coal, Liontown Resources,

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Speaker 1: and Mineral Resources BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue also dipped

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Speaker 1: over the day. Woodside Energy has become a new target

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Speaker 1: for short sellers, with the Financial Review reporting it a

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Speaker 1: track two hundred million dollars in short positions over August.

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Speaker 1: Shorts now total about six hundred and fifty million dollars

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Speaker 1: in the business shares were down three point nine percent today.

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Speaker 1: Later tonight, Worth mentioning the US is releasing a critical

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Speaker 1: jobs report which is being awaited by investors as a

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Speaker 1: significant indicator of how the US economy is faring and

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Speaker 1: how the Federal Reserve might act. This will most likely

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Speaker 1: affect markets into next week. Onto story number two, It's

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Speaker 1: not a bad time to be an Aussie banker. This

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Speaker 1: week marked Australia's biggest week of twenty twenty four for

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Speaker 1: mergers and acquisitions activities so far, and in fact the

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Speaker 1: best week in a number of years. The Financial Review

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Speaker 1: cited data from Deologic, which calculated that when divestitures are included,

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Speaker 1: the volume hit twenty five point nine billion dollars, or

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Speaker 1: the biggest week since twenty twenty one for deal making. Now,

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Speaker 1: this doesn't even include Area Group's potential takeover of UK

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Speaker 1: real estate Portal Right move, which could be nine billion

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Speaker 1: dollars or more that was discussed through the week, but

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Speaker 1: it does include some of the major deals that we

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Speaker 1: have been discussing on fear and greed, including air Trunks

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Speaker 1: twenty four billion dollar deal and Aurora's sale of its

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Speaker 1: US packaging business for one point seven eight billion dollars

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Speaker 1: onto Story number three now and the rental boom might

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Speaker 1: soon be over. New data from core Logic shows the

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Speaker 1: peak of rent growth might have passed, with the annual

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Speaker 1: change in unit rents easing from fourteen percent in the

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Speaker 1: year to April at its peak to six point seven

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Speaker 1: percent over the year to August. For houses, the peak

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Speaker 1: was in the twelve month to September twenty twenty one

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Speaker 1: at ten point eight percent, and it's now at seven

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Speaker 1: point eight percent. Core Logic's national rent index has overall

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Speaker 1: eased to seven point two percent on an annual basis,

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Speaker 1: markingly lowest rate since May twenty twenty one for all

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Speaker 1: dwellings combined. Perth and Adelaide are still surging, but even

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Speaker 1: in those two cities there is a sign of a slowdown,

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Speaker 1: and Sydney marked the first fall in rent prices in

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Speaker 1: the three months to August since October twenty twenty when

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Speaker 1: lockdown's kicked in. Hobart and Canberra are also slipping lower.

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Speaker 1: Story number four. Today, Donald Trump is promising to slash

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Speaker 1: the US corporate tax rate to fifteen percent if he

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Speaker 1: wins the November presidential election. At the moment, the tax

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Speaker 1: rate is twenty one percent, meaning this would be a

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Speaker 1: significant reduction for big businesses. But there's a catch. He's

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Speaker 1: only going to offer this reduction for companies making goods locally,

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Speaker 1: saying that if a company chooses to outsource, offshore or

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Speaker 1: replace American workers, they will not be a recipient of

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Speaker 1: these benefits. He's also promising to reduce red tape. It

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Speaker 1: does pose a bit of a challenge though, because small

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Speaker 1: private businesses face tax rates of up to thirty seven percent,

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Speaker 1: and there may be criticisms relating to fairness or calls

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Speaker 1: to reduce these rates too, and the US is having

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Speaker 1: to handle big deficits. Kamala Harris has pitched an increase

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Speaker 1: in the corporate tax rate to twenty eight percent. And finally,

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Speaker 1: story number five, what do you make of this one?

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Speaker 1: Legal experts suggesting Virgin Australia breached employees privacy after a

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Speaker 1: critical Fair Work Commissioned decision. The Commission recently decided to

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Speaker 1: overturn the sacking of a crew member. One of the

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Speaker 1: complaints against the crew member was that he organized a

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Speaker 1: hookup on dating app Grinder when staying in a Brisbane hotel,

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Speaker 1: and the catches though that he asked for a roster

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Speaker 1: amendment for an afternoon flight due to fatigue. Now Virgin

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Speaker 1: investigated the claim and as part of this the airline

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Speaker 1: requested CCTV footage from the hotel and also swipe card details.

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Speaker 1: This revealed that the crew member returned with a guest

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Speaker 1: to his hotel room at around five o'clock in the morning,

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Speaker 1: with the guest then leaving around nine am. While Fairwork

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Speaker 1: made no reference to the CCTV access in its decision,

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Speaker 1: employment lawyers and academics told The Guardian that it may

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Speaker 1: well be a problem under the Privacy Act, while others

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Speaker 1: have said it raises quite complex legal issues. Virgin says

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Speaker 1: it accessed the material lawfully and that's it for the

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Speaker 1: afternoon report for Friday, the sixth of September twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 1: We will be back tomorrow morning with the weekend edition

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Speaker 1: of Fear and Greed. I'm Michael Thompson. Enjoy your evening.