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

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Speaker 1: for Monday, the twenty third of March twenty twenty six.

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Speaker 1: I'm Michael Thompson, and 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: Let's get going with story number one. The S and

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Speaker 1: p ASX two hundred fell zero points seven percent today

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Speaker 1: to eighty three hundred and sixty six points, with the

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Speaker 1: benchmark index down more than nine percent from its recent peak,

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Speaker 1: wiping about three hundred billion dollars now in value since

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Speaker 1: the Middle East conflict began a few weeks ago. Having

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Speaker 1: said that today's result was actually much worse earlier in

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Speaker 1: the day, the market was down as much as two

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Speaker 1: percent earlier in the session, meaning that it was briefly

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Speaker 1: beyond the ten percent loss figure that would signal a

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Speaker 1: technical correction. Energy stocks continue to outperform. Woodside was up

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Speaker 1: more than two percent, Santos gained one percent, Ampole lifted

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Speaker 1: one percent as well. As this sector extends its strong

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Speaker 1: run on the back of those high oil and gas

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Speaker 1: is due to the Iran conflict. Retailers were among the

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Speaker 1: few gainers today. Premier Investments was up nearly six percent,

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Speaker 1: JB Hi Fi adding more than two percent, car dealership

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Speaker 1: Eagers Automotive jumped more than six percent. The gold mineers, though,

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Speaker 1: were sold off after the price of the precious metal

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Speaker 1: reported its biggest weekly drop last week since nineteen eighty three,

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Speaker 1: then went down another two point seven percent today. It

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Speaker 1: is currently sitting at around four th three hundred and

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Speaker 1: seventy five US dollars an ounce. Neumont was off seven

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Speaker 1: and a half percent today. The banks also weighed on

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Speaker 1: the market, with Commonwealth Bank, Westpac, and A and Z

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Speaker 1: all down around one percent, while NAB fell closer to

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Speaker 1: two percent. Contos Story Number two and Quantas boss Vanessa

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Speaker 1: Hudson has taken the somewhat unusual step of assuring passengers

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Speaker 1: that the carrier's fuel needs are secure until at least

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Speaker 1: next month. With the Middle East conflict enclosure of the

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Speaker 1: Strait of Humus constricting the flow of oil around the globe,

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Speaker 1: some airlines have discussed cutting flights, but Hudson told staff

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Speaker 1: the Quantus quote is in regular contacts with government and

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Speaker 1: fuel suppliers, who continued to tell us they have a

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Speaker 1: strong level of confidence in supply. Well into April, Quantus

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Speaker 1: has increased its international airfares by five percent, Virgins increasing

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Speaker 1: its domestic airfares by five percent. We've talked about that

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Speaker 1: in recent days. It follows comments from Energy Minister Chris

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Speaker 1: Bowlen over the weekend when he said six shipments that

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Speaker 1: had been due to carry oil to Australia had been canceled.

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Speaker 1: Air France and United Airlines have reportedly been looking at

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Speaker 1: reducing flights as they contend with both higher fuel costs

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Speaker 1: and reduced demand. Quantus had already cut flights to the US,

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Speaker 1: where weak demand had entered its first half results. Today,

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Speaker 1: though Quantus's share price was down around two point three percent.

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Speaker 1: Onto story number three and former Billabong executives are pushing

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Speaker 1: km D Brands to carve up its business and sell

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Speaker 1: rip Curl with a consorting and proposing a demerger the

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Speaker 1: iconic surfware brand. According to a report in the Financial Review,

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Speaker 1: the proposal, led by a former Billabong executive and backed

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Speaker 1: by industry figures, was rejected by ASX listed KMD, which

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Speaker 1: also owns Katmandu and is currently working through a recapitalization

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Speaker 1: process as its share price languages near record lows. The consortium,

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Speaker 1: which already owns two other surf brands, wants to create

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Speaker 1: a pure play surf company centered on rip curl, arguing

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Speaker 1: it would be better managed by specialists committed to the sector.

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Speaker 1: Kmd's largest shareholder, Alan Gray, has urged the company to

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Speaker 1: consider all options, warning the businesses under pressure and needs

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Speaker 1: to move more quickly to address its challenges. Story number four. Today,

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Speaker 1: radio broadcaster Kyle Sandalands has officially launched legal action against

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Speaker 1: ARN Media after the company terminated his one hundred million

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Speaker 1: dollar contract following his on air dispute with Jackie O Henderson.

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Speaker 1: AARN has told the ASX this morning that sandaland It's

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Speaker 1: legal team is arguing the termination was invalid, claiming there

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Speaker 1: was no serious misconduct or breach of contract and that

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Speaker 1: the move was unconscionable under consumer law. Sandalands A is

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Speaker 1: seeking to have the contracts enforced, along with payment and damages.

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Speaker 1: While ARN has said it will defend the claim and

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Speaker 1: that it is too early to estimate the outcome. This

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Speaker 1: one clearly has a long way to go. The company's

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Speaker 1: share price fell almost five percent today, and finally, story

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Speaker 1: number five, US President Donald Trump has ordered ICE that

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Speaker 1: is Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to be deployed at

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Speaker 1: airports to help ease long security lines amid a funding

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Speaker 1: standoff affecting homeland security agencies. The move comes as hundreds

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Speaker 1: of thousands of workers, including TSA the Transportation Security Administration staff,

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Speaker 1: have been working without pay during the budget impass that's

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Speaker 1: leading to these extended delays at some of the major

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Speaker 1: airports in the States. Officials say ICE agents could be

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Speaker 1: used to monitor exit land or check passenger identification, freeing

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Speaker 1: up the TSA staff to focus on security screening. The

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Speaker 1: deployment is part of a broader effort by the Trump

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Speaker 1: administration to manage disruption caused by the funding dispute, with

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Speaker 1: details of the plan still being finalized ahead of its

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Speaker 1: implementation tonight. And that's it for the Afternoon Report for Monday,

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Speaker 1: the twenty third of March. Make sure you're following the

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Speaker 1: podcast and head along to Fearandgreed dot com dot au

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Speaker 1: to sign up for our free daily newsletter. I'm Michael Thompson.

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Speaker 1: Enjoy reading