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Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, the ninth of October twenty twenty four. Welcome

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Speaker 1: to the Fast five Business News by Fearing Greed, where

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Speaker 1: we give you the top five business stories you need

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Speaker 1: to know in just five minutes. Are Michael Thompson and

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Speaker 1: Good Morning, Sean Aylmer.

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Speaker 2: Good Morning Michael, Sean.

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Speaker 1: Five big stories to race through in five minutes, so

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Speaker 1: we better get cracking with story number one. Finally, the

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Speaker 1: consumer mood is starting to pick up, with sentiment now

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Speaker 1: at its highest level since the Reserve Bank started lifting

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Speaker 1: rates in May twenty twenty two.

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Speaker 2: The Westpac Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index row six percent

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Speaker 2: over the past month to almost eighty nine points in

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Speaker 2: While any reading below one hundred is still negative, it

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Speaker 2: is much better than any time recently. Slowing inflation prospects

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Speaker 2: of no more rate hikes, coupled with plenty of government

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Speaker 2: spending and a resilient labor market have all helped push

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Speaker 2: consumer confidence higher. The Stage three text cuts probably helped

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Speaker 2: out as well. Consumers are more positive about the future,

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Speaker 2: but family finances versus a year ago still deeply negative.

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Speaker 2: The other data POINTMOUS like to look at is the question,

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Speaker 2: is now a good time to buy a household item

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Speaker 2: reading that's still really weak. Good time to buy a

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Speaker 2: dwelling that's getting better, though it's still negative. Consumers have

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Speaker 2: been a miserable bunch for the past couple of years, Michael.

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Speaker 2: While we can't say they're happy, they're a bit less

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Speaker 2: grumpy at the moment.

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Speaker 1: That does sound like progress, Sean. And business confidence is

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Speaker 1: also improving.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so both business conditions and confidence have ticked up

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Speaker 2: according to the National Australia Bank Business surveys. However, the

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Speaker 2: trend line is still down. Business conditions in particular and

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Speaker 2: to a lesser extent, confidence, have been in positive territory

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Speaker 2: for most of the past decade, accepting the COVID period.

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Speaker 2: That seems to be changing, with leading indicators such as

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Speaker 2: forward orders softening. The price measures are always worth looking at.

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Speaker 2: They show that while input price growth for companies remain

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Speaker 2: a bit elevated, output price growth is back to more

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Speaker 2: normal levels. That suggests in fation is still slowing. That's

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Speaker 2: a good thing indeed.

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Speaker 1: All right on to story number two now and Prime

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Speaker 1: Minister Anthony Albenezi says two hundred and fifteen Australians permanent

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Speaker 1: residents and their immediate family members have been assisted by

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Speaker 1: the government to leave Lebanon.

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Speaker 2: There were two flights out of the area on Saturday,

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Speaker 2: two on Sunday to on Monday too expected to go overnight.

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Speaker 2: Three eight hundred and ninety two Australians in their immediate

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Speaker 2: family members are registered to depart. Still, the PM has

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Speaker 2: condemned Hamas's terror attacks on Israel and called for an

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Speaker 2: immediate ceasefire and the release of the remaining hostages in

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Speaker 2: a motion in the House of Representatives. The motion condemned

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Speaker 2: the murder and violence of the attacks on October seven

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Speaker 2: last year, when twelve hundred innocent Israeli has lost their lives.

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Speaker 2: Misstrailbenesi said Parliament stood against all forms of anti Semitism.

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Speaker 2: The Coalition didn't support the motion. Oppositionally that Peter Dunn

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Speaker 2: said that mister Albanesi was seeking to walk both sides

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Speaker 2: of the street in the device of debate surrounding tensions

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Speaker 2: in the Middle East.

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Speaker 1: Story number three. Nearly four million smartphones were sold in

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Speaker 1: the first half of twenty twenty four. That's up eight

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Speaker 1: percent from a year ago.

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Speaker 2: Of those sales, Android phones accounted for fifty six that

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Speaker 2: while Apple took out the remaining forty four percent. According

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Speaker 2: to smartphone analyst tell Site. Tell site expects total smartphone

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Speaker 2: sales to each eight point seven million units for the

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Speaker 2: full year, which would be up seven percent on last year.

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Speaker 2: And Michael, there are twenty six million in Australian so

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Speaker 2: that's just one in three Aussies. Then woman and child

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Speaker 2: gets a new phone every year. Having said that, tell

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Speaker 2: Site said that customers are beginning to hang on to

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Speaker 2: their smartphones for longer, particularly in the sub one thousand

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Speaker 2: dollar market, where the average life cycle is about four years.

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Speaker 2: Premium smartphone users replace their devices every three years. I

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Speaker 2: think that all means that people now increasingly holding more

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Speaker 2: than one smartphone device. Tell Site said the spike and

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Speaker 2: Android sales could be attributed to the rise of devices

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Speaker 2: with artificial intelligence features already embedded, particularly at lower price points.

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Speaker 1: Story number four Hurricane warnings have been issued for portions

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Speaker 1: of west central Florida as Milton, a top tier category

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Speaker 1: five hurricane over the Gulf of Mexico, continues to rapidly

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Speaker 1: gain strength.

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Speaker 2: The storm is expected to make landfall late on Wednesday

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Speaker 2: US time, that's tomorrow our time. It's an extremely life

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Speaker 2: threatening major hurricane. According to the National Hurricane Center. The

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Speaker 2: Senate said it could produce a potentially devastating ocean surge

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Speaker 2: of over three meters in some areas. According to report

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Speaker 2: in The Washington Post, Milton has the potential to be

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Speaker 2: one of the most destructive hurricanes on record for West

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Speaker 2: central Florida. The Center said the storm went from category

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Speaker 2: one to Category five in just twenty four hours. Pete

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Speaker 2: wins more than one hundred and fifty kilometers an hour.

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Speaker 2: Milton's the strongest Gulf of Mexico hurricane on record for

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Speaker 2: this late in the year, and is among the three

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Speaker 2: strongest at any.

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Speaker 1: Time last one Sean story number five. Apple has backtracked

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Speaker 1: on plans to release major films in theaters and rather

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Speaker 1: as pushing production back towards its streaming service.

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Speaker 2: It comes after the disappointing box office performance of several

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Speaker 2: big budget films, including Killers of the Flower Moon, Napoleon Argyll,

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Speaker 2: and fly Me to the Moon. Apple canceled plans to

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Speaker 2: release Wolf's in action comedy with George Clooney Brad Pitt

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Speaker 2: thousands of theaters globally. Instead, the picture made his debut

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Speaker 2: in a limited number of venues before it became available

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Speaker 2: on Apple streaming service. According to Bloomberg, Apple plans to

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Speaker 2: use a similar approach with the next few titles on

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Speaker 2: its calendar, including the World War II drama Blitz. After

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Speaker 2: spending upwards one hundred million dollars and in some cases

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Speaker 2: more than two hundred million dollars on some of the

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Speaker 2: films I mentioned, Apple will now focus on making about

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Speaker 2: a dozen movies a year, most of them produced for

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Speaker 2: less than one hundred million dollars.

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Speaker 1: All right, there we go the top five business stories

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Speaker 1: in five minutes. Thank you Sean, Thank you Michael. It

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Speaker 1: is Wednesday, the ninth of October twenty twenty four. Remember

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Speaker 1: to hit follow on the podcast. And if five minutes

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Speaker 1: isn't it, iough you can find our longer daily show

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Speaker 1: called Fear and Greed whereever you listen to podcasts. And

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Speaker 1: don't forget that every Wednesday we release a new episode

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Speaker 1: of our sister podcast. How do they afford that this

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Speaker 1: week's episode is a great one. It is all about

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Speaker 1: affordable technology, this idea that you do not need to

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Speaker 1: spend a fortune to get some pretty premium tech. You

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Speaker 1: can find that wherever you listen to podcasts, and 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: Michael Thompson and that was the Fast five business news

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Speaker 1: by Fear and Greed. Had a great day.