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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 third of December. I'm Michael Thompson, and

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Speaker 1: every afternoon we have the five big stories you need

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Speaker 1: to know about. Let's go with story number one. The

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Speaker 1: S and PA SEX two hundred climbed slightly today, up

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Speaker 1: zero point two percent to eighty five hundred and ninety

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Speaker 1: five points. It was a lot higher than that earlier

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Speaker 1: in the day after third quarter GDP data showed the

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Speaker 1: economy grew by zero point four percent in the three

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Speaker 1: months to September, less than economists we're expecting, which dits

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Speaker 1: bark a little bit of hope that the RBA could

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Speaker 1: in fact still cut interest rates next year, or at

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Speaker 1: least not increase them, which saw the ASEX jump by

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Speaker 1: as much as zero point five percent before easing. Eight

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Speaker 1: of the eleven sectors gained ground today, led by the

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Speaker 1: real estate companies. Stockland was up one point four percent,

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Speaker 1: Westfield owner Center Group climbed one percent. A mixed bag

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Speaker 1: really for the banks, A and zed Westpac and nabral

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Speaker 1: Higher Commonwealth Bank underperformed. Same for the big miners, BHP

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Speaker 1: and Rio Tinto were both up, but Fortescu was down.

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Speaker 1: The big issue for these miners was Brazilian giant Valet,

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Speaker 1: which cut its forecast for the output of iron ore

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Speaker 1: next year with lower demand and greater supply coming out

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Speaker 1: of Africa. And why is that global? Worth a mention

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Speaker 1: today up four and a half percent after its investor day.

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Speaker 1: Really bit of an outlier in the tech sector, where

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Speaker 1: there were big losses for other companies like Block, Megaport

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Speaker 1: and Life three sixty on destorying number two now and

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Speaker 1: investors in the collapsed First Guardian Master Fund are unlikely

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Speaker 1: to get their four hundred and forty six million dollars

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Speaker 1: back in full, but liquidators do expect to recover enough

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Speaker 1: money to repay its lenders. FTI Consulting has recovered just

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Speaker 1: one point six million dollars so far from the failed fund.

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Speaker 1: That one point six million includes the sale of a

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Speaker 1: Lamborghini allegedly bought with investor money, which sold for three

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Speaker 1: hundred and thirty six thousand dollars. The liquidator says the

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Speaker 1: fund doesn't even have enough money at this stage to

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Speaker 1: pay their own fees, which are expected to reach five

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Speaker 1: million dollars. They've now asked ASEK for emergency government funding

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Speaker 1: normally reserved for assetless companies. Creditors who loaned money to

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Speaker 1: First Guardian are expected to be repaid, but investors who

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Speaker 1: put millions of dollars into the fund are being warned

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Speaker 1: to expect the worst. It increases the pressure on the

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Speaker 1: platforms that hosted First Guardian products to compensate those investors.

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Speaker 1: Story number three. Bruce Lherman has lost his appeal against

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Speaker 1: last year's defamation ruling that found, on the balance of

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Speaker 1: probabilities that he raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in

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Speaker 1: twenty nineteen. Lherman had originally sued Network ten and journalist

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Speaker 1: Lisa Wilkinson for defamation over broadcasts in which the allegations

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Speaker 1: of rape were made. That legal bid was rejected last

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Speaker 1: year by Justice Michael Lee, and Lherman then appealed that decision,

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Speaker 1: arguing there wasn't enough evidence to justify the original finding

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Speaker 1: by Justice Lee and that he was denied proceed drel fairness.

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Speaker 1: The Full Federal Court today dismissed that appeal and ordered

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Speaker 1: him to pay legal costs, but the ruling today went

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Speaker 1: even further than the original judgment, saying Lerman wasn't reckless

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Speaker 1: about consent, but instead was aware that Higgins did not

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Speaker 1: consent and proceeded anyway. Lherman maintained that he had no

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Speaker 1: sexual contact with Higgins and may now seek a High

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Speaker 1: Court review of the decision. His criminal trial was abandoned

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Speaker 1: in twenty twenty two due to DURA misconduct, and charges

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Speaker 1: were later dropped over concerns for Higgins's mental health. Story

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Speaker 1: number four. Australia's small and medium sized businesses have had

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Speaker 1: their strongest half years since twenty twenty three. Manufacturing and

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Speaker 1: financial services led the way with six percent growth, while

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Speaker 1: property services rose five percent. Productivity and profitability improved even

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Speaker 1: as employment stayed flat. According to accounting software group MIOB

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Speaker 1: and its latest SME Performance Indicator, manufacturing recorded its longest

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Speaker 1: run of monthly growth since twenty twenty three, helped by

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Speaker 1: renewed investment in advanced manufacturing and lower missions technologies. SME

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Speaker 1: activity is still slightly below pre pandemic levels, but NOOB

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Speaker 1: says the gap is narrowing and confidence is stabilizing. And finally,

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Speaker 1: story number five, the search for flight MH three P

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Speaker 1: seventy is set to resume later this month, more than

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Speaker 1: a decade after the Malaysian Airlines Boeing Triple seven disappeared.

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Speaker 1: The aircraft was carrying two hundred and twenty seven passengers,

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Speaker 1: including seven Australian citizens and residents, and twelve crew when

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Speaker 1: it went missing en route from Kowala Lumpur to Beijing

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Speaker 1: in twenty fourteen. Malaysia's Transport Ministry says a marine robotics

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Speaker 1: company will recommence a seabed search in the Southern Indian

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Speaker 1: Ocean on December thirty. That search had been suspended back

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Speaker 1: in April this year because of poor weather. Dozens of

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Speaker 1: pieces of debris have washed up on shores in the

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Speaker 1: Indian Ocean over the last decade, but exactly what happened

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Speaker 1: to the aircraft and where it ended up still remain

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Speaker 1: a mystery. That's it for the afternoon Report for Wednesday,

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Speaker 1: the third of December. Make sure you're following the podcast,

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Speaker 1: and please head along to Fearangreed dot com dot au

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Speaker 1: to sign up for our free daily news that I'll

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Speaker 1: put a link in today's show notes as well. I'm

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Speaker 1: Mike Thompson. Have a good evening,