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

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Speaker 1: for Thursday, the twenty second of August twenty twenty four.

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Speaker 1: I'm Sean a Elma. Every afternoon, We've got the five

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

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Speaker 1: Story Num. One. The SMPA SX two hundred gain to

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Speaker 1: zero point two percent today to eighty twenty seven points,

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Speaker 1: marking two weeks of positive closes. The huge jump in

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Speaker 1: Wise Tech Globals share price yesterday after its earnings announcement

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Speaker 1: continued today, with Wisstech up another eight percent. Founder Richard

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Speaker 1: White's bank balance is up about two billion dollars on

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Speaker 1: the back of the last couple of days. The Wise

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Speaker 1: Tech surge helped the Tech index, which was the best

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Speaker 1: of the eleven indices on the AX. Brambles was another

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Speaker 1: strong performer among the large caps. Some of the profit

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Speaker 1: results today. Tech player Megaport tumbled twenty percent after its

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Speaker 1: result missed expectations. KFC and A. Collin's Foods plunged to

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Speaker 1: thirteen percent after it warned its profit margins will fall

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Speaker 1: in financial twenty twenty five due toizing labor, energy and

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Speaker 1: store costs. Childcare Group G eight Education has grown profits

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Speaker 1: and earnings in the first half of twenty twenty four,

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Speaker 1: but flagged difficult times ahead for the industry. Coming into

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Speaker 1: the new financial lim Its share price tumbled fifteen percent.

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Speaker 1: Gold to explore a Northern Star doubled its underlying full

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Speaker 1: year net profit and declared an increase in dividend. Now

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Speaker 1: that's thanks to the higher price of gold. Of course.

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Speaker 1: Discount retailer The Reject Shop blamed sowing costs for a

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Speaker 1: thirty six percent drop in net profit, and retailer Beacon

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Speaker 1: Lighting post an eleven percent full and net profit, in

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Speaker 1: part due to higher costs, which the group blamed on

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Speaker 1: ongoing inflation. Story number two Bank of Queensland will sack

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Speaker 1: four hundred staff and acquire one hundred and fourteen franchised

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Speaker 1: branches in a major overhaul of Australia's sixth largest bank.

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Speaker 1: Chief executive Patrick Alloways to the changes, aimed to simplify

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Speaker 1: the bank, will cost up to one hundred and twenty

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Speaker 1: five million dollars in an effort to make the lender profitable,

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Speaker 1: or at least more profitable. Mister Alloway said the days

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Speaker 1: of rivers of gold for banks are over and analyst

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Speaker 1: said that it's particularly the case for the regional banks.

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Speaker 1: Profit margins are being crunched as customers shift to digital channels.

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Speaker 1: Having a legacy retail banking operation isn't something CEOs want anymore,

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Speaker 1: or at least they want it less. Bank of Queensland's

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Speaker 1: share price fell more than six percent today. Story number

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Speaker 1: three developer Stockland built more houses than at forecasts last year,

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Speaker 1: settling five six hundred and thirty seven lots, and is

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Speaker 1: predicting increased settlements over the medium term. It's some good

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Speaker 1: news for the housing sector and there hasn't been much

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Speaker 1: of that recently. The country's largest diversified developer said conditions

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Speaker 1: had improved in the second half of the last financial year,

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Speaker 1: in part due to a more stable interst rate environment.

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Speaker 1: Chief Executive Tarrean Gupta said Stockland launched fifteen new master

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Speaker 1: planned communities and land lease communities last financial year another

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Speaker 1: eight this financial year. Revenue fell six percent to three

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Speaker 1: billion dollars. Funds from operations, which is an industry measure

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Speaker 1: of profit, fell seven percent. Net profit after tax was

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Speaker 1: down thirty one percent, partly reflecting an increase in property devaluations.

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Speaker 1: Stocklands share price raise four percent story number four. Australia's

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Speaker 1: biggest private health insurer, medibanks. Its earnings were helped by

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Speaker 1: strong growth in the number of foreign students taking out

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Speaker 1: private health insurance, but fewer permanent residents signed up for

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Speaker 1: policies last year due to stronger competition. Chief executive David

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Speaker 1: Kosar said industry growth would moderate this year, after reporting

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Speaker 1: a fourteen percent increase in underlying net profit for the

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Speaker 1: year to June thirty that was in line with expectations.

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Speaker 1: There were fourteen thy four hundred net new resident policy

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Speaker 1: holders and an extra sixty nine thousand non resident policy holders,

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Speaker 1: reflecting all that student interests. The health insurance market remains competitive,

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Speaker 1: with some insurance chasing volumes rather than margins, according to analysts.

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Speaker 1: Medibank's share price fell two percent today, And finally, story

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Speaker 1: number five, several US Federal Reserve officials acknowledged that there

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Speaker 1: was a plausible case for cutting interest rates at their

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Speaker 1: last meeting before the Central Banks Policy Committee voted unanimously

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Speaker 1: to keep them steady, according to minutes of the meeting,

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Speaker 1: and the vast majority of officials observe that if the

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Speaker 1: data continues to come in about as expected, it would

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Speaker 1: likely be appropriate to ease policy at the next meeting.

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Speaker 1: Futures markets in the US are pricing in about one

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Speaker 1: hundred bases points, or one percentage point of easing this year.

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Speaker 1: The FED chair is scheduled to speak on the economic

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Speaker 1: outlook tomorrow night Australian time. Our wise, Brent crude is

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Speaker 1: trending lower, while gold is hovering around the twenty five

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Speaker 1: hundred US dollars an ounce level. The uranium price, that's

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Speaker 1: an interesting one. It's falling to eighty US dollars a pound.

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Speaker 1: That's at its lowest level since November last year. There

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Speaker 1: was the dollars buying sixty seven point four US cents.

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Speaker 1: That's it. If the Afternoon Report for Thursday, the twenty

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Speaker 1: second August twenty twenty four, don't forget to follow on

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Speaker 1: the podcast and find Fear and Greed on LinkedIn, Instagram,

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Speaker 1: TikTok x, and Facebook. Join Michael Thompson and I tomorrow

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Speaker 1: morning for the Fast Five by Fear and Greed, the

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Speaker 1: top five business stories you need to know in five minutes.

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Speaker 1: I'm Sean Elmer. Enjoy reading