1
00:00:04,200 --> 00:00:07,040
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business News Afternoon Report

2
00:00:07,080 --> 00:00:09,800
Speaker 1: for Wednesday, the twenty fifth of March twenty twenty six,

3
00:00:09,880 --> 00:00:12,119
Speaker 1: Oh Michael Thompson, and every afternoon, we've got the five

4
00:00:12,160 --> 00:00:14,240
Speaker 1: stories that happened today that you need to know about.

5
00:00:14,520 --> 00:00:17,600
Speaker 1: Let's go with story number one. It was a terrific

6
00:00:17,680 --> 00:00:20,119
Speaker 1: day on the local share market. The S ANDPA SX

7
00:00:20,120 --> 00:00:24,040
Speaker 1: two hundred climbed almost one point nine percent today, closing

8
00:00:24,040 --> 00:00:27,360
Speaker 1: at eighty five hundred and thirty four points. It added

9
00:00:27,400 --> 00:00:30,400
Speaker 1: about fifty five billion dollars in value in the best

10
00:00:30,400 --> 00:00:33,400
Speaker 1: session in six weeks. The rally was really driven by

11
00:00:33,400 --> 00:00:36,120
Speaker 1: a combination of a couple of things. Softer than expected

12
00:00:36,120 --> 00:00:39,360
Speaker 1: inflation headline inflation came in at three point seven percent

13
00:00:39,600 --> 00:00:42,920
Speaker 1: for February, and signs that the US may be moving

14
00:00:42,960 --> 00:00:45,839
Speaker 1: towards talks with a run with reports of a fifteen

15
00:00:45,920 --> 00:00:50,120
Speaker 1: point piece plan helping ease fears around oil supplies out

16
00:00:50,120 --> 00:00:53,560
Speaker 1: of the region. Material stocks led the rebound. The sector

17
00:00:53,600 --> 00:00:57,920
Speaker 1: climbed four point four percent today. Estella day for gold companies,

18
00:00:57,960 --> 00:01:02,400
Speaker 1: the miners at Newmont jumped nearly nine percent, Northern Star

19
00:01:02,600 --> 00:01:06,880
Speaker 1: seven percent. Bellevue Gold swed more than eleven percent. Gold

20
00:01:06,920 --> 00:01:11,480
Speaker 1: prices rallied, approaching forty six hundred US dollars an ounce.

21
00:01:11,600 --> 00:01:15,480
Speaker 1: Retailers also gained today. Eagles Automotive, the car dealership company

22
00:01:15,680 --> 00:01:18,280
Speaker 1: that was up five point six percent, JB High five

23
00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:20,440
Speaker 1: was up more than two and a half percent, while

24
00:01:20,440 --> 00:01:23,240
Speaker 1: the best on the boss was Drone Shield. The defense

25
00:01:23,319 --> 00:01:26,000
Speaker 1: tech company tends to go up and down a bit,

26
00:01:26,040 --> 00:01:30,520
Speaker 1: but today it was definitely up. Surged nineteen point three percent,

27
00:01:30,920 --> 00:01:34,800
Speaker 1: continuing to benefit from the geopolitical tensions. But as oil

28
00:01:34,840 --> 00:01:38,640
Speaker 1: prices fell sharply, the energy stocks copped at Woodside was

29
00:01:38,680 --> 00:01:42,240
Speaker 1: down three point two percent, Santos off more than two percent,

30
00:01:42,880 --> 00:01:46,760
Speaker 1: and Karn Energy slid more than seven percent today on

31
00:01:46,880 --> 00:01:50,680
Speaker 1: destory number two now in, Japan's ambassador to Australia has

32
00:01:50,720 --> 00:01:53,800
Speaker 1: warned that any move to impose a windfall tax on

33
00:01:54,040 --> 00:01:58,240
Speaker 1: LNG exports would be seen as a bad surprise and

34
00:01:58,400 --> 00:02:02,000
Speaker 1: risk driving investment l elsewhere. It comes after the PM's

35
00:02:02,040 --> 00:02:05,320
Speaker 1: Department asked Treasury to model the twenty five percent tax

36
00:02:05,400 --> 00:02:08,760
Speaker 1: on gas exports amid surging prices linked to the Middle

37
00:02:08,800 --> 00:02:13,840
Speaker 1: East conflict. Kazihiro Suzuki said retrospective changes, including a tougher

38
00:02:13,880 --> 00:02:18,720
Speaker 1: petroleum resources rent tax would undermine confidence, warning that Japanese

39
00:02:18,760 --> 00:02:22,200
Speaker 1: investors could shift capital to other countries if policy settings

40
00:02:22,320 --> 00:02:26,080
Speaker 1: change abruptly, adding that and I quote surprise in the

41
00:02:26,160 --> 00:02:30,880
Speaker 1: Japanese business dictionary is always bad. He also played down

42
00:02:30,960 --> 00:02:34,040
Speaker 1: the potential for a two way deal between Australia and Japan,

43
00:02:34,080 --> 00:02:38,520
Speaker 1: which would see Australia guarantee LNG supplies for Japan in

44
00:02:38,600 --> 00:02:42,200
Speaker 1: exchange for a supply of oil and story number three

45
00:02:42,240 --> 00:02:45,040
Speaker 1: on the topic of oil. Jetstar has cut more than

46
00:02:45,080 --> 00:02:47,520
Speaker 1: ten percent of its flights across the Tasman and within

47
00:02:47,560 --> 00:02:51,200
Speaker 1: New Zealand as soaring oil prices begin to hit demand

48
00:02:51,280 --> 00:02:54,840
Speaker 1: and airline economics. The low cost carrier has said that

49
00:02:54,919 --> 00:02:59,640
Speaker 1: twelve percent of scheduled services have been temporarily removed, including

50
00:02:59,720 --> 00:03:04,200
Speaker 1: route between Auckland, Sydney and Brisbane, as jet fuel costs

51
00:03:04,360 --> 00:03:07,120
Speaker 1: climb sharply. We've been talking about this for days now.

52
00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:10,760
Speaker 1: The cuts follow a broader shift across the whole aviation sector.

53
00:03:11,080 --> 00:03:14,680
Speaker 1: Quantas and Virgin Australia have already announced that lifting at

54
00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:17,280
Speaker 1: ticket prices by about five percent in response to those

55
00:03:17,360 --> 00:03:21,040
Speaker 1: higher fuel costs, and international airlines, including out of the US,

56
00:03:21,080 --> 00:03:25,200
Speaker 1: have cut significant numbers of flights. Story number four. More

57
00:03:25,240 --> 00:03:28,680
Speaker 1: than two thousand ABC staff have walked off the job today,

58
00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:32,959
Speaker 1: and the broadcaster's largest strike in two decades, triggering widespread

59
00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:37,720
Speaker 1: disruption across radio, TV and digital services. Regular programming was

60
00:03:37,760 --> 00:03:41,600
Speaker 1: replaced by pre recorded messages and BBC feeds, while flagship

61
00:03:41,640 --> 00:03:44,960
Speaker 1: shows including The seven PM News and seven point thirty

62
00:03:45,280 --> 00:03:47,800
Speaker 1: have been pulled from the schedule. The twenty four hour

63
00:03:47,880 --> 00:03:51,360
Speaker 1: Industrial action centers on pay and job security, with staff

64
00:03:51,400 --> 00:03:54,600
Speaker 1: rejecting a proposed ten percent wage increase over three years

65
00:03:54,800 --> 00:03:58,560
Speaker 1: as insufficient given cost of living pressures. Management warned that

66
00:03:58,600 --> 00:04:02,680
Speaker 1: the timing was challenging given global events, and has broadened

67
00:04:02,760 --> 00:04:07,680
Speaker 1: the definition of emergency broadcasting as a potential way to

68
00:04:07,920 --> 00:04:11,839
Speaker 1: order striking staff back to work. And finally, story number five,

69
00:04:11,960 --> 00:04:15,760
Speaker 1: Apple is preparing a major overhaul of its voice assistant Siri,

70
00:04:16,200 --> 00:04:19,919
Speaker 1: including a standalone app and a new ask Siri feature

71
00:04:19,960 --> 00:04:22,600
Speaker 1: embedded across its devices as it really ramps up its

72
00:04:22,640 --> 00:04:26,200
Speaker 1: AI push. According to Bloomberg, the redesigned will shift Siri

73
00:04:26,240 --> 00:04:29,320
Speaker 1: from a basic voice assistant to a more advanced chatbot

74
00:04:29,360 --> 00:04:33,559
Speaker 1: style system capable of handling conversations, which it can't do now,

75
00:04:33,920 --> 00:04:37,640
Speaker 1: completing tasks within apps and drawing on personal data like

76
00:04:37,720 --> 00:04:41,160
Speaker 1: emails and messages. The new system is expected to be

77
00:04:41,240 --> 00:04:45,240
Speaker 1: unveiled at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in June, and it's

78
00:04:45,240 --> 00:04:49,160
Speaker 1: designed to complete to compete rather more directly with tools

79
00:04:49,160 --> 00:04:52,920
Speaker 1: like CHATJPT and the AI offerings from Google. The move

80
00:04:53,040 --> 00:04:56,559
Speaker 1: does mark a pretty significant strategic shift as Apple looks

81
00:04:56,560 --> 00:04:59,239
Speaker 1: to catch up in the AI race after its initial

82
00:04:59,360 --> 00:05:03,360
Speaker 1: Apple Intel Diligence roll out, really struggle to gain traction.

83
00:05:03,839 --> 00:05:06,279
Speaker 1: And that's it for the Afternoon Report for Wednesday, the

84
00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:08,960
Speaker 1: twenty fifth of March. Make sure you're following the podcast

85
00:05:09,000 --> 00:05:11,960
Speaker 1: and headlong to Fearandgreed dot com dot au to sign

86
00:05:12,000 --> 00:05:14,080
Speaker 1: up for our free daily newsletter. I'll put a link

87
00:05:14,120 --> 00:05:16,680
Speaker 1: in the show notes as well. I'm Michael Thompson. Enjoy

88
00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:17,200
Speaker 1: your evening,