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Speaker 1: Welcome to Fear and Greed business news you can use today.

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Speaker 1: The Australian economy sheds jobs as the employment market slows,

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Speaker 1: Oasis Metallica and ACDC spur consumer spending, and a scientist

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Speaker 1: claims to have proof that the Star of Bethlehem that

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Speaker 1: purportedly led shepherds to the birthplace of Jesus Christ might

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Speaker 1: have been real. Plus Australians traveling to the US could

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Speaker 1: have their social media accounts vetted, and Woolworths and Coles

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Speaker 1: go head to head on home delivery. It is Friday,

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Speaker 1: the twelfth of December twenty twenty five. I'm Michael Thompson

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Speaker 1: and good morning, Sean Aylmer.

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Speaker 2: Morning Michael, it might just be in an And if

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Speaker 2: you think the stories are getting a little bit wackier

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Speaker 2: as we go.

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Speaker 1: I don't think I've wouldever I've expected to see Oasis, Metallica,

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Speaker 1: ACDC and the Star of Bethlehem in the same paragraph.

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Speaker 1: But that's fear agreed for you. The main story this morning, Sean.

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Speaker 1: The local economy shared more than twenty one thousand jobs

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Speaker 1: last month, an outcome worse than expected, while the unemployment

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Speaker 1: rates stayed at four point three percent. The result will

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Speaker 1: be closely considered by the Reserve Bank, with Governor Michelle

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Speaker 1: Bullock earlier this week saying the labor market was important

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Speaker 1: for interest rates.

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Speaker 2: Now, the employment market is a long way from a crisis,

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Speaker 2: a long long way, but yesterday's numbers were mixed at best.

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Speaker 2: Full time employment dropped by fifty seven thousand in November.

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Speaker 2: According to the Bureau Statistics, Men comprised most of those

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Speaker 2: job losses. Part time employment was up thirty five thousand.

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Speaker 2: Most of those jobs went to women. There would have

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Speaker 2: been an increase in the unemployment rate except that the

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Speaker 2: participation rate fell, as did the employment to population ratio.

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Speaker 2: If you look through all that, it does suggest that

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Speaker 2: maybe the labor market's not quite as tight as the

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Speaker 2: Reserve Bank has been worried about. The underemployment rate increased

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Speaker 2: to its highest level in a year. In fact, over

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Speaker 2: the past twelve months, the number of people employed has

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Speaker 2: risen by one point three percent the population has grown

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Speaker 2: by two percent. That mismatch there suggests there are people

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Speaker 2: without jobs. Employment numbers jump around a bit, but as

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Speaker 2: our resident economist, the wonderful Stephen Cocula says, watch the

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Speaker 2: unemployment rate that is a good lead the trend, Michael,

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Speaker 2: as you know, is your friend, and that's what the

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Speaker 2: unemployment rate gives us. So four point thy percent still

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Speaker 2: very low, but just a hint of softening in the

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Speaker 2: labor market in those numbers. Now.

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Speaker 1: The jobs news here in Australia came after the US

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Speaker 1: Federal Reserve cut interest rates in the world's biggest economy

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Speaker 1: by another twenty five basis points. But it was a

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Speaker 1: pretty contentious decision with dissenting views within the Central Bank.

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Speaker 1: While President Donald Trump complained, complained about a deadhead FED.

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Speaker 2: Very few people can have the one liner like Donald

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Speaker 2: Trump can.

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Speaker 1: It's great, It's a cracker, the deadhead FED.

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Speaker 2: Deadhead FED. The decision to cut rates pushes at US

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Speaker 2: lending costs their lowest level in three years. Although FED

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Speaker 2: chairs your own, Powell said the bank will now pause

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Speaker 2: in the cycle and assess how three cuts this year

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Speaker 2: has affected the economy. Trump demanded a bigger cut. He

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Speaker 2: said the reduction should have been at least double what

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Speaker 2: was announced. Powell said that Trump's tariffs were the primary

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Speaker 2: driver of inflation staying above the Fed's target. So you

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Speaker 2: can kind of get why Donald Trump doesn't like try

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Speaker 2: IMpower that much, and I dare say not that I

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Speaker 2: know Powell's probably not a huge fan of Donald Trump.

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Speaker 2: Three FED officials dissented. Two officials wanted to keep the

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Speaker 2: rate unchanged, while Trump appointee Stephen Miron wanted a larger cut.

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Speaker 2: Imagine negotiating that. Overall, Powell was upbeat on the economy,

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Speaker 2: saying consumers had proven resilient and spending on data centers

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Speaker 2: and other artificial intelligence related initiatives had held up business investment.

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Speaker 1: All right, bringing it back home to US here, Sean,

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Speaker 1: what about interest rates? Here? What's the outlook?

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Speaker 2: So inflation is definitely the number one priority for the

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Speaker 2: reserve banks. One month's employment reading won't make too much

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Speaker 2: of a difference, and the fact that the US's cut

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Speaker 2: race probably doesn't have too much of an impact. Although

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Speaker 2: the Aussie dollar yesterday it hit almost sixty seven US cents.

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Speaker 2: After that's the highest in quite a long time, So

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Speaker 2: almost sixty seven cents after FED announcement, it did come

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Speaker 2: back a little bit. The slight bias to Titan remains here.

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Speaker 2: In Australia, those wanting a rate cut would be encouraged

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Speaker 2: by the labor force stats, though.

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Speaker 1: The financial markets didn't seem to read too much into

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Speaker 1: the employment figures. Yesterday, Shawn, the S and PASX two

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Speaker 1: hundred closed up just a touch to eighty five hundred

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Speaker 1: and ninety two points, a pretty similar story really to

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Speaker 1: most of this week. The mining companies did best, the

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Speaker 1: tech stocks did worst. We mentioned before sean Oasis, Metallica ACDC.

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Speaker 1: Household spending rose last month according to Commonwealth Bank card data,

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Speaker 1: in part thanks to tours by those groups, which I

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Speaker 1: think is just extraordinary that Commonwealth Bank can actually track

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Speaker 1: that and see that happening pretty much in real time.

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Speaker 1: The Ashes cricket test in Perth and the release of

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Speaker 1: the movie Wicked for Good as well, these things that

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Speaker 1: were really kind of fueling recreation spending.

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Speaker 2: Yes, so Commonwealth Bank has plenty of data and what

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Speaker 2: people spending money on through credit and debit cards. That's

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Speaker 2: why this data is so cool, is it's really up

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Speaker 2: to date. Last month spending was up half a percent,

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Speaker 2: making the jump for the year to five and a

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Speaker 2: half percent. Incredibly. Spending on blockbuster sport and music events

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Speaker 2: that you were talking about actually overshadowed the Black Friday sales.

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Speaker 2: According to the Commonwealth Bank, recreation spending rows, most followed

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Speaker 2: by spending in electronic clothing and furniture stores, so no

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Speaker 2: doubt that is Black Friday sales. The sect that film

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Speaker 2: most was utilities, which Commonwealth Bank said reflected some energy

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Speaker 2: rebates coming to an end. I'm wondering whether or not

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Speaker 2: if you read between the lines there that the rebates

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Speaker 2: aren't there. Some of those state rebates came to an

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Speaker 2: end for people probably pulling back on their energy usage. Now,

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Speaker 2: I always think of energy as it must have and

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Speaker 2: it's just a bit concerning that people might be pulling back.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, indeed, all right, a quick break, Sean plenty still

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Speaker 1: to come. We'll be back in a moment with the

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Speaker 1: rest of the day's business news. Sean. Australians wanting to

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Speaker 1: travel to the United States will have to provide their

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Speaker 1: social media history over the last five years in order

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Speaker 1: to enter the country. Under new proposals by the Trump administration.

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Speaker 2: Travelers from Australia, Germany, Japan, the UK and thirty eight

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Speaker 2: other countries that can enter the US without a visa

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Speaker 2: would be screened. More than one million Australians travel to

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Speaker 2: the US in twenty twenty four. They masically use the

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Speaker 2: short stay visa waiver program that allows travel without a visa.

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Speaker 2: Basically that you have to do that EST the pre

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Speaker 2: trouble screening via EST. Now, the Trump administration has certainly

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Speaker 2: been less friendly to overseas visitors. Yesterday we talked about

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Speaker 2: the increase in the national parks costs. Last month there

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Speaker 2: was an announcement of Donald Trump announced a travel ban

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Speaker 2: on thirty countries following the shooting of two National Guard members.

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Speaker 2: At the time, Trump said he'd moved to permanently pause

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Speaker 2: migration from all third world countries. He's now making it

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Speaker 2: harder for people to travel into the US from places

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Speaker 2: like Australia.

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Speaker 1: Westpac held its AGM yesterday and around a dozen climate

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Speaker 1: protesters greeted shareholders, banging drums holding placards calling on the

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Speaker 1: bank to stop funding for new fossil fuel projects.

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Speaker 2: Chair Stephen greg said the bank was Australia's largest lender

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Speaker 2: to renewable energy, reflecting its support for the nation's transition

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Speaker 2: while balancing energy reliability, security and affordability. The bank's exposure

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Speaker 2: to the fossil fuel sect represents a small percentage of

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Speaker 2: total loans, he said, just zero point six percent. Westpake's

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Speaker 2: exposure to upstream oil and gas extraction has fallen ten

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Speaker 2: percent over the past year, now represents zero point one

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Speaker 2: percent of Westpax title loans and the bank is no

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Speaker 2: corporate lending to the thermal coal mining customers. Clearly, however,

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Speaker 2: it is still an issue for the banks about who

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Speaker 2: they lent to.

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Speaker 1: Woolworths has entered a new partnership with delivery group Door

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Speaker 1: Dash Sean, hoping to capitalize on shoppers wanting convenience this

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Speaker 1: holiday period. They are looking straight at me for this,

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Speaker 1: just as Cold ramps up its partnership with Uber.

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Speaker 2: I don't know about you, but the Black Friday sales

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Speaker 2: and Christmas shopping this year I have done, I'm guess

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Speaker 2: seeing ninety percent of it online.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, oh absolutely. I mean it is the convenience, yeah.

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Speaker 1: And it is the fact that you can do it

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Speaker 1: so far ahead of time without ever having to set

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Speaker 1: foot in a physical shop.

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Speaker 2: Yeah. And now this is pushing into supermarkets, which I

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Speaker 2: think is pretty incredible. So Woolworth's customers will be able

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Speaker 2: to purchase a range of products on the delivery app

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Speaker 2: Tree Staples, fresh fruit, food, household essentials have them delivered

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Speaker 2: in under two hours from seven hundred different stores. They

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Speaker 2: can also order direct to boot, where customers can pick

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Speaker 2: up their order from the local store in under sixty minutes.

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Speaker 2: At Coal's it said it's going to expand its partnership

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Speaker 2: with Uber to provide fifty percent more groceries for delivery

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Speaker 2: within an hour. So what the big retailers do is

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Speaker 2: book out time with the providers, the delivery group providers,

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Speaker 2: so that they can guarantee people can get products within

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Speaker 2: an hour. At the announcement yesterday, the Coal's announcement, we

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Speaker 2: found out some very important information, Michael. The most popular

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Speaker 2: items last year in terms of Uber delivering Coals groceries.

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Speaker 2: Number one the Coal's Christmas gingerbread house okay. Number two

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Speaker 2: the Coals Deli Forward cooked prawns delithward but okay. And

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Speaker 2: number three Paul's Christmas eggnog. Oh yeah yeah, I'd be

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Speaker 2: there for that one. This is quite extraordinary, the battle

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Speaker 2: between the supermarkets with the delivery partners. Because I have

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Speaker 2: used Uber for Coal's deliveries, I've also used door Dash

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Speaker 2: for Aldi deliveries. And the partnerships that are developing there

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Speaker 2: and the speed at which they are.

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Speaker 1: Delivering it is the competition. It's ferocious at the moment

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Speaker 1: and perfectly catered to someone who doesn't like to leave

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Speaker 1: the house, the house which is me now. Maya's share

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Speaker 1: price jumped nearly ten percent yesterday after executive chair Olivia

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Speaker 1: Worth told the Department Stores AGM that sales were up

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Speaker 1: three percent in the first nineteen weeks of this financial

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Speaker 1: year and the best ever Black Friday sales for Meyer.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, Home Wears, women's wear, and concessions all saw double

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Speaker 2: digit sales grow. Both Mayra apparel brands are up one

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Speaker 2: point three percent, driven by an improvement in just Genes.

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Speaker 2: The group laws a point billionaire retailer Solomon Lou to

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Speaker 2: the board in April. Now, of course, Solomon Lou's Premier

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Speaker 2: Investments sold its apparel business to Maya earlier in the year. Lou,

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Speaker 2: of course, the largest shareholder in Premiere. He will now

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Speaker 2: join the Maya board.

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Speaker 1: Might be the end of the year. There's still quite

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Speaker 1: a bit of corporate news around. Yesterday, Origin Energy said

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Speaker 1: it will further expand its large battery at its Araing

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Speaker 1: coal power station site. It's going to cost eighty million dollars.

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Speaker 2: Flight Center said it will buy UK online cruise agency

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Speaker 2: Igloo ig Lu for about two hundred and forty million

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Speaker 2: dollars and upgraded it's for full year earnings guidance. Its

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Speaker 2: share price jump to five percent.

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Speaker 1: Iag plans to buy the insurance business of the Royal

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Speaker 1: Automobile Club of Western Australia. Those plans have been rejected

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Speaker 1: by the A Triple C. They said the one point

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Speaker 1: three to five billion dollar deal will reduce competition, So

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Speaker 1: that's not happening.

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Speaker 2: No, And I think ID we're probably trying to peel

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Speaker 2: that somewhere on the line. Also amp Rose after it

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Speaker 2: reached an agreement in principle to settle the class action

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Speaker 2: over historical advice and insurance commissions for twenty million dollars.

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Speaker 2: I'm sure they're happy to get that off their books.

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Speaker 1: Let's talk checks, Sean, because I know that you are

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Speaker 1: a big user of checks. I can just over this

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Speaker 1: image of you just whipping out your checkbook at Coles

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Speaker 1: or Woolli's to pay. That was always the worst. Actually,

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Speaker 1: when it was kind of five to six on a

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Speaker 1: Sunday evening, You're working the checkout at Bilo and someone

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Speaker 1: would come in and they would pull out their checkbook

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Speaker 1: like it is five minutes to six the shop's about

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Speaker 1: to shut police, just let us go home, Like I know,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to do this properly. These checks were once

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Speaker 1: a mainstay of the financial system, alongside cash, but they

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Speaker 1: now account for just zero point one percent of all payments.

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Speaker 1: So that's what ten cents in every one hundred dollars

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Speaker 1: worth of payments.

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Speaker 2: But Michael, they have not gone the way of the

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Speaker 2: dodo they not get dead? Remarkable. A year ago, the

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Speaker 2: government announced plans to wind down the check system, phasing

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Speaker 2: out the writing of personal, commercial, government and bank checks

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Speaker 2: by the middle of twenty twenty eight. Now, as of today,

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Speaker 2: Australians are holding an estimated three point five million bank

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Speaker 2: checks worth about eight hundred and twenty million dollars. Now,

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Speaker 2: what I think is really fascinating. Eighty percent of those

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Speaker 2: that are over three years old. I thought about this.

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Speaker 2: I actually have a number of bank checks, like they

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Speaker 2: might be five dollars or a return, like really really

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Speaker 2: small amounts. I just never you just I mean, I

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Speaker 2: couldn't be rather going to a bank cashing.

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Speaker 1: Do they expire? So you can tell I'm a frequent

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Speaker 1: check user. Yeah, I know, a personal check has to

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Speaker 1: be deposited within a certain time period. But I don't

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Speaker 1: know about a bank check anyway. That's probably a very

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Speaker 1: very niche q and a topic that one Sean. I

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Speaker 1: don't know whether there's going to be much in interest

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Speaker 1: in that. But checks not yet dead? Is the story here?

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Speaker 2: Not yet?

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Speaker 1: They're hanging on turning to international news now, Sean, and

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Speaker 1: the Star of Bethlehem that, according to the Bible, sat

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Speaker 1: above the town where Jesus Christ was born and led

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Speaker 1: wise men to the stable might have actually happened, even

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Speaker 1: those stars don't normally hover over small towns.

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Speaker 2: A NASA scientist claims to have presented the first scientifically

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Speaker 2: grounded theory capable of explaining the light strange movement in

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Speaker 2: the sky as described in the Bible. The answer, he suggests,

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Speaker 2: may involve a comet that very nearly plowed into the

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Speaker 2: earth a little over two thousand years ago. This is

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Speaker 2: according to a story in The Times Now in the

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Speaker 2: Gospel of Matthew, the star that leads the wise men

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Speaker 2: to the infant Jesus first appears in the east. It

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Speaker 2: then goes before them on their short journey from Jerusalem

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Speaker 2: to Bethlehem. That's about ten k's before it standing over

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Speaker 2: the star stands over the place where Jesus was born.

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Speaker 2: The scientific view is that's highly, highly unlikely, and the

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Speaker 2: Star of Bethlehem was a miracle, maybe metaphor maybe, but

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Speaker 2: good news. Mark Mattney, a planetary scientist for NASA, said

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Speaker 2: Chinese astronomers recorded a bright comet visible for more than

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Speaker 2: seventy days in the spring of five b C, which

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Speaker 2: is when historians think Jesus was born. He's looked at

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Speaker 2: how this comet might have moved in the sky when

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Speaker 2: viewed from the ground, and in one model, its trajectory

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Speaker 2: would have brought it close enough to worth that for

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Speaker 2: a few hours, its eastward motion would nearly cancel out

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Speaker 2: the effect of the Earth's rotation. Effectively, it would have

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Speaker 2: looked to have paused in the sky. So Heathen's out there.

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Speaker 2: Maybe the Star of Bethlehem is true? Am I lad

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Speaker 2: to say that? Maybe not?

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Speaker 1: I'll that you are choosing to finish the show to

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Speaker 1: all the Heathens listening to us today. Listen up, Okay,

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Speaker 1: there we go.

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Speaker 2: Up next, take it back, actually, Michael, I've got to

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Speaker 2: take that back, you know.

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Speaker 1: Up next, Fear and Greed, Q and A. Your guest today,

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Speaker 1: Sean James Thornton, CEO of Intrepid Travel.

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Speaker 2: We have a great chat about where people are traveling

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Speaker 2: to how to get good deals. Stop laughing at me,

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Speaker 2: Michael can't. Yeah, it's a great chat with James.

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Speaker 1: It is just coming up next to the Fear and

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Speaker 1: Green player playlist on your podcast platform, or at Fearandgreed

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Speaker 1: dot com dot au, which is where you sign up

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Speaker 1: for the free daily newsletter. Whether you're a heathen or not,

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Speaker 1: you are welcome. I'll put a link in the show notes.

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Speaker 1: Thank you very much, Sean, Thank you, Michael. It's Friday,

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Speaker 1: the twelfth of December twenty twenty five. Make sure you're

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Speaker 1: following the podcast and join us online on LinkedIn, Instagram,

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Speaker 1: x TikTok and Facebook. I'm Uncle Thompson and that was

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Speaker 1: Fear and Great. I have a great day, yeah,