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

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Speaker 1: for Wednesday, the fourth of March twenty twenty six. Oh

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Speaker 1: Michael Thompson, and every afternoon we've got the five stories

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Speaker 1: that happened today that you need to know about. Let's

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Speaker 1: go with story number one. It is a big one.

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Speaker 1: The S and PA Sex two hundred plunged nearly two

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Speaker 1: percent today. It was down one point nine percent by

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Speaker 1: the close as global markets reacted to fears that the

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Speaker 1: Middle East conflicts could widen. It triggered a broad sell off,

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Speaker 1: with all eleven sectors finishing lower. We weren't alone. It

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Speaker 1: was a meltdown across Asian markets. Locally, sixty three billion

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Speaker 1: dollars in value was wiped on the local burs today.

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Speaker 1: Materials and mining stocks were among the hardest hit. Gold

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Speaker 1: Mine has dropped despite the price of the precious metal

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Speaker 1: rising one and a half percent. Newmont, West Gold Resources,

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Speaker 1: West African Resources all suffered big dips today. The iron

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Speaker 1: ore miners had a tough one to BHP down three

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Speaker 1: and a half percent, four dieskew off three percent, Rio

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Speaker 1: Tinto down one point six percent. As iron ore. The

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Speaker 1: price of iron ore slipped below one hundred US dollars

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Speaker 1: a ton, banks and property stocks also retreated. The big

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Speaker 1: four lenders were all down more than one percent today.

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Speaker 1: A and Zed actually was off nearly four percent. Goodman Group,

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Speaker 1: the property company, fell three point seven percent. This is

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Speaker 1: a similar story we talked about this over the last

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Speaker 1: couple of days that rising oil prices have lifted inflation concerns.

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Speaker 1: The chance of an interest rate hikes soon has also

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Speaker 1: increased today with the release of the latest GDP data,

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Speaker 1: which showed that the economy grew at its fastest pace

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Speaker 1: in almost three years in the December quarter. We'll have

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Speaker 1: more on that one in tomorrow morning show on de

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Speaker 1: Story number two now and the first commercial flight carrying

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Speaker 1: Australians out of the Middle East since the conflict escalated

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Speaker 1: has departed Dubai for Sydney, as thousands of travelers remained

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Speaker 1: stranded across the region. Foreign Minister Penny Wong confirmed that

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Speaker 1: Emirates flight EK four to one four or left Dubai

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Speaker 1: this morning after talks with UAE authorities aimed at restarting

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Speaker 1: limited commercial flights. It is due to arrive in Australia

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Speaker 1: this evening about twenty four thousand Australians are believed to

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Speaker 1: be in the UAE, while as many as one hundred

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Speaker 1: and fifteen thousand Aussies rstimated to be caught up in

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Speaker 1: the broader regional disruption. Airports in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and

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Speaker 1: Doha have been closed since the weekend after the military

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Speaker 1: strikes in a run triggered those attacks in retaliation across

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Speaker 1: the Gulf, grounding thousands of flights and creating what officials

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Speaker 1: have described as an unprecedented consular crisis. Story number three

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Speaker 1: and back home here where business groups and economists are

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Speaker 1: warning that a union push to lift the minimum annual

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Speaker 1: leave entitlement to five weeks could worsen inflation and increase

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Speaker 1: productivity pressures as well. It's coming from the ACTU, which

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Speaker 1: is proposed at the change which would affect more than

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Speaker 1: ten million full time work because it's come about as

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Speaker 1: part of a parliamentary inquiry international employment standards. According to

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Speaker 1: The Financial Review, economist Warren Hogan estimates that the move

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Speaker 1: could lift labor costs by about two percent, which businesses

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Speaker 1: may then pass on to consumers if productivity does not rise.

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Speaker 1: The federal government says that the proposal is not currently

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Speaker 1: under consideration, though the inquiry is continuing to hear submissions

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Speaker 1: from unions and from employer groups. Story number four now

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Speaker 1: in Deva Group's new chief executive, Jane Herdliker, plans to

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Speaker 1: retain both its retail liquor business and its hotels portfolio,

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Speaker 1: saying this is the best option for investors. There had

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Speaker 1: been speculation that Endeavor may sell the hotel's business to

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Speaker 1: major investor Bruce Matheson. According to the Financial Review. Herdlicker

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Speaker 1: says that the group will continue to focus on cutting

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Speaker 1: prices at its Dan Murphy's store and accelerate investment in

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Speaker 1: its three hundred and fifty odd hotels. Jane Herdlicker was

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Speaker 1: speaking after in Ever announced a slight rise in sales

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Speaker 1: and a drop in net profit for the first half

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Speaker 1: of this financial year. Heardlecker acknowledge that momentum in both

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Speaker 1: businesses has slowed in February compared to January, and Devis

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Speaker 1: share price closed three point five percent lower today. Finally,

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Speaker 1: story number five, Apple has updated its MacBook Air and

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Speaker 1: MacBook Pro laptops with faster M five processes but higher

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Speaker 1: prices as the tech industry grapples with rising memory chip costs.

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Speaker 1: A consequence of course of the AI boom. The new

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Speaker 1: MacBook Air will use the M five chip, while the

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Speaker 1: MacBook Pro will feed tore the M five Pro and

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Speaker 1: M five Max processes. This is all about faster performance.

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Speaker 1: Improved graphics. Prices have increased across the lineup, though Apple

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Speaker 1: has also doubled based storage on some models. There are

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Speaker 1: memory chip shortages that are pushing up costs right across

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Speaker 1: the electronics industry, and Bloomberg reports that Apple is really

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Speaker 1: looking to revive the Mac sales within the company following

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Speaker 1: a six point seven percent decline during the last quarter.

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Speaker 1: And that's it for the afternoon report for Wednesday, the

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Speaker 1: fourth of March. Make sure you're following the podcast and

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Speaker 1: head along to Fear and Greed dot com Today. You

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

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Speaker 1: Enjoy your evening.