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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 first of December. I'm Michael Thompson, and

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Speaker 1: every afternoon we have the five big stories you need

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Speaker 1: to know about. So let's get going with story number one.

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Speaker 2: Bit of a strange day for the share market today.

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Speaker 1: The SMPAX two hundred closed zero points six percent lower

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Speaker 1: to eighty five hundred and sixty five points. But a

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Speaker 1: system outage saw about eighty companies placed in long trading

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Speaker 1: holts because the ASX wasn't able to publish market sensitive announcements.

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Speaker 1: The delay lasted for about three hours. That did plenty

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Speaker 1: of angst for companies and for investors. It is the

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Speaker 1: latest in a string of problems for the share market

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Speaker 1: operator ASX. The company that is fell almost three percent today.

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Speaker 1: A bit more on this one tomorrow. Losses on the

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Speaker 1: burs were led by healthcare today both CSL and Sigma,

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Speaker 1: which is the operator of Chemist's Warehouse, They were both

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Speaker 1: off one point four percent today. Grocery wholesale met Cash

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Speaker 1: fell more than nine percent after half year revenue came

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Speaker 1: in below expectations. Insurance broker and underwriter AUB tumbled almost

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Speaker 1: eighteen percent. After ending takeover talks with two private equity

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Speaker 1: firms that would have valued the company at more than

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Speaker 1: five billion dollars. All four banks were lower, with investors

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Speaker 1: heading instead to commodities. Big miners BHP, Rio Tinto and

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Speaker 1: Fordescu were all higher, as was oil and gas giant

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Speaker 1: Woodside On destorying number two now an Origin Energies giant

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Speaker 1: Aararing coal power plant cannot close in twenty twenty seven

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Speaker 1: without risking blackouts in New South Wales. That's the warning

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Speaker 1: from the Australian Energy Market Operator, who also said that

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Speaker 1: equipment needed to keep the grid secure will not be

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Speaker 1: installed in time. The threat to power supply from shutting

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Speaker 1: down Erring is not because of a lack of electricity

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Speaker 1: to replace the two eight hundred and eighty megawatt generator,

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Speaker 1: which is the country's biggest, but because of a lack

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Speaker 1: of system strength services for the power grid. These services

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Speaker 1: essentially act as a shock absorber, maintaining grid voltage and

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Speaker 1: frequency stability. They are particularly important in a grid powered

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Speaker 1: by relatively volatile wind and solar generation. This is according

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Speaker 1: to a report in the Financial Review. System strength services

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Speaker 1: have typically been provided by coal plants, but these are

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Speaker 1: being phased out. Story number three. Online shopping and delivery

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Speaker 1: is shaping up to be the key battleground for the

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Speaker 1: supermarketsi Christmas, with Woolworth's announcing a new strategy designed to

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Speaker 1: claw market share back from rival Coals. From today, Woolworth's

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Speaker 1: is opening up an extra one million delivery and pickup slots,

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Speaker 1: plus free delivery for any online order over one hundred

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Speaker 1: and fifty dollars. It comes as Wooly's sales growth is

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Speaker 1: lagging somewhat behind Coals by the widest gap in nearly

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Speaker 1: twenty years. Woolworth's CEO Amanda Bardwell, has also tipped more

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Speaker 1: than one hundred million dollars into lower shelf prices and discounting,

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Speaker 1: fueling a bit of a price war with Colds and

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Speaker 1: also with Aldi and Costco.

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Speaker 2: But this new strategy banks more on convenience than price,

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Speaker 2: with the Australian newspaper reporting that the supermarkets expecting more

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Speaker 2: than four million orders online across the festive season that

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Speaker 2: has two point four million home deliveries one point six

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Speaker 2: million pickups. Story number four. Tensions between the US and

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Speaker 2: Venezuela have escalated sharply after President Donald Trump reportedly delivered

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Speaker 2: a blunt ultimatum to Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro, telling him

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Speaker 2: to resign and leave the country or face consequences. According

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Speaker 2: to US media reports, the two spoke by phone recently,

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Speaker 2: and Maduro asked for guarantees, including global amnesty for himself

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Speaker 2: and his allies, and also the right to keep control

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Speaker 2: of Venezuela's military in exchange for free elections. Trump reportedly

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Speaker 2: rejected both demands immediately and told Maduro that he, his wife,

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Speaker 2: and son could leave Venezuela only if they did it

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Speaker 2: right away. Asked about the phone call, Trump confirmed that

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Speaker 2: it happened, but offered no details, saying only it was

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Speaker 2: a phone call. Since then, the US president has announced

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Speaker 2: online that Venezuelan airspace should be considered closed in its entirety,

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Speaker 2: with maps showing international airlines are now largely avoiding the area.

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Speaker 2: He also warned that US military operations inside the country

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Speaker 2: could begin quote very soon. Finally, story number five. This

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Speaker 2: might be a little left field for a business podcast,

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Speaker 2: but considering the Formula one brand as worth billions, I

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Speaker 2: think it probably fits. Australian F one driver Oscar Pstre's

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Speaker 2: title Dream has suffered a major blow after a brutal

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Speaker 2: strategy decision from his McLaren team in Qatar. Pstre was

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Speaker 2: dominating all weekend comfortably. The fastest driver took pole position

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Speaker 2: was leading the race when a crash saw a safety

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Speaker 2: car come out early. The crash did not involve Pastree.

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Speaker 2: It does get a little bit complicated here, but in short,

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Speaker 2: the McLaren team made the decision not to use that

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Speaker 2: time for Pastre and his teammate Atlando Norris to head

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Speaker 2: into the pits while every other driver did, and that

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Speaker 2: mistake ended up costing the Australian the lead and the win.

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Speaker 2: It is the latest in a run of mistakes by

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Speaker 2: the McLaren team. Piastre said he was left speechless by

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Speaker 2: the error. It is now set up a three way

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Speaker 2: decider next week in Abu Dhabi, an outcome that seemed

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Speaker 2: extremely unlikely earlier in the season. And that's it for

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Speaker 2: the Afternoon Report for Monday, the first of December. Make

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Speaker 2: sure you're following the podcast, and please head along to

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Speaker 2: Fear and Greed dot com dot au to sign up

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Speaker 2: for our free daily newsletter.

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Speaker 1: I'm Uncle Thompson.

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Speaker 2: Have a good evening,