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Speaker 1: It's Tuesday, the third of December twenty twenty four. Welcome

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Speaker 1: to the Fast five Business News by Fear and Greed,

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

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Speaker 1: need to know in US. Five minutes are Michael Thompson

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Speaker 1: and good morning, Sean Aylmer, Good morning, Michael Sewan. Five stories,

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Speaker 1: five minutes. Let's go story number one. A big week

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Speaker 1: for the economy with economic growth figures out tomorrow but Sean,

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Speaker 1: but ahead of them, there's been figures showing a jump

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Speaker 1: in retail spending and building approvals, but a drop in

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Speaker 1: corporate profits.

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Speaker 2: Now, retail sales were stronger than expected last month, in

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Speaker 2: part driven by early Black Friday promotions. What we're seeing

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Speaker 2: in retail in Australia now it might be a cost

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Speaker 2: of living thing. Retail does well when there's a sales event,

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Speaker 2: and that happened again last month. The numbers are good,

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Speaker 2: but there's a fair bit going on. Population growth pushes

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Speaker 2: up retail sales. We've got plenty of population growth at

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Speaker 2: the moment. Also, sales events boost turnover. We just mentioned that,

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Speaker 2: but otherwise sales are fairly weak. Also, there's been tax

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Speaker 2: cuts this year. Consumer se picking up as well. On

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Speaker 2: the building side of things, approvals jumped for the second

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Speaker 2: seccess of a month in October. Now these numbers bounce

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Speaker 2: around a bit. Last month there was a big rise

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Speaker 2: in apartments, but detached houses went backwards. Overall, look at

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Speaker 2: the trend where we're running at about one hundred and seventy

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Speaker 2: eight thousand dwellings per month. That's much better than where

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Speaker 2: we were, nowhere near as good as the two fifty

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Speaker 2: thousand target of the government. Finally, corporate profit figures are

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Speaker 2: released by the Bureau Statistics. Yesterday they felt four point

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Speaker 2: six percent, much worse than expected. Something for everyone, Michael, Yeah.

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Speaker 1: What does it mean though, Sean? What's it mean for

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Speaker 1: the economy? What's it mean for inflation? What does it

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Speaker 1: mean for interest rates?

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Speaker 2: Most of the data at the moment suggests the umph

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Speaker 2: has come out of underlying inflation. Some of those figures

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Speaker 2: yesterday didn't suggest that, but generally that's what people think.

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Speaker 2: Having said that rates won't fall until the middle of

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Speaker 2: next year, that's the consensus among market economists, all right.

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Speaker 1: Moving on to storry number two. Now, Australia's biggest gold miner,

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Speaker 1: Northern Star, will buy small arrival to Gray Mining for

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Speaker 1: five billion dollars, which Sean is one of the highest

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Speaker 1: prices ever paid for an undeveloped project.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so gold prices have been training really high. It's

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Speaker 2: a safe place to put your money in a Trump world.

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Speaker 2: With lots going on in the Middle East, Europe, South China, Sea,

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Speaker 2: investors want to buy gold. All this has helped companies

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Speaker 2: like Northern Star. Now It's share price until yesterday was

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Speaker 2: up twenty five percent since early July. Fell a bit yesterday,

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Speaker 2: but the fact that his share price is so much

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Speaker 2: higher gives it currency to buy stuff. It's peaked up

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Speaker 2: to Gray, which owns the Hami mine in Western Australia's

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Speaker 2: Pilboro region. It's considered the country's best undeveloped gold project.

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Speaker 2: It's supposed to hold about eleven million ounces of gold.

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Speaker 2: They need to spend one point three billion dollars to

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Speaker 2: construct a mine. De Gray shareholders get Northern Star stock.

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Speaker 2: The bid is about thirty seven percent above last Friday's

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Speaker 2: closing price. It's been recommended by the board. Degray's shares

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Speaker 2: jumped sharply yesterday. The other interesting player and all this

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Speaker 2: is a great called gold Road Resources. They own a

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Speaker 2: big chunk of degrade. They're a mined themselves, see what

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Speaker 2: they think about the deal. But I reckon one way

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Speaker 2: or another, the gray mine is going to be bought.

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Speaker 1: Indeed. Story number three there's still no end to the

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Speaker 1: strike by Woolworth's warehouse workers Sean who walked off the

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Speaker 1: job two weeks ago, affecting four distribution centers.

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Speaker 2: Woolworth's warehouse workers walked off the job like at Michael,

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Speaker 2: fifteen hundred of them. In fact, what they want is

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Speaker 2: an immediate pay increase of more than twenty five percent,

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Speaker 2: then fifteen percent in years two and three. They're also

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Speaker 2: upset about the retailer's new performance management system. They are

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Speaker 2: saying that it puts unreasonable pressure for them to hit

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Speaker 2: productivity targets. It means that Woolly's shelves has been under stopped.

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Speaker 2: Three of the centers are in Victoria, one in New

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Speaker 2: South Wales, so the southern state has been hit hardest.

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Speaker 2: Not good timing. November December account for about twenty percent

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Speaker 2: of Woollie's sales.

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Speaker 1: Story number four. More than eight thousand taxi and higher

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Speaker 1: car drivers are set to claim a slice of a

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Speaker 1: two hundred and seventy one million dollar settlement with rideshare

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Speaker 1: group Uber.

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Speaker 2: The Victorian Supreme Court approved a class action settlement. Morris

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Speaker 2: Blackburn will take thirty eight million. Litigation funder Harbor will

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Speaker 2: take eighty one million, leaving one hundred and fifty two

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Speaker 2: million to two drivers. The original case alleged the introduction

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Speaker 2: of Uber into Australian into Australia in twenty eighteen caused

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Speaker 2: significant disruption to taxi and car hire industries. According to

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Speaker 2: the Australian, the drivers claimed that they suffered loss and

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Speaker 2: damaged by an alleged conspiracy by unlawful milli means by

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Speaker 2: the Uber companies. It's the fifth largest class action recovery

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Speaker 2: in Australian history.

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Speaker 1: Last one, sorry, number five. The outgoing US President Joe

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Speaker 1: Biden has pardoned his son Hunter for federal felony, gun

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Speaker 1: and tax convictions. The thing is, though, Sean, that's a

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Speaker 1: reversal of previous promises he made to not use his

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Speaker 1: powers to benefit his family.

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Speaker 2: That's right, change of heart on this one. It means

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Speaker 2: hart On Biden will stay out of jail. Hunter Biden

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Speaker 2: was convicted in two cases, one California one in Delaware.

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Speaker 2: He was waiting his punishment the extraordinary powers of the

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Speaker 2: president means he can pardon his son, and that's exactly

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Speaker 2: what he's done. This has been going on pretty much

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Speaker 2: ever since Joe Biden took the top job. Joe has

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Speaker 2: stood by his son publicly as Hunter fell into drug

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Speaker 2: addiction before turning his life around. Political rivals have used

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Speaker 2: Hunter's mistakes against his father. That's what Joe Biden says yesterday.

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Speaker 2: He said Hunter's charges were political and Hunter was signaled out,

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Speaker 2: hence the pardon.

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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 very much, Sean.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Michael.

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Speaker 1: It is Tuesday, the third of December twenty twenty four.

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

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Speaker 1: minutes isn't it enough, you can find our longer daily

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Speaker 1: show called Fear and Greed wherever you listen to podcasts.

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Speaker 1: I'm Michael Thompson and that was the fast bard Business

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Speaker 1: News by Fear and Greed. Have a great day.