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Speaker 1: It's Thursday, the fourth of July 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: Whill we give you the top five business stories you

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

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Speaker 1: and Good Morning, Sean Aylmer.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Michael, Sean.

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Speaker 1: Five stories, five minutes. Let's go story number one. The

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Speaker 1: superannuation funds are announcing their performance over the last financial year,

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Speaker 1: and some of the biggest funds aren't actually at the

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Speaker 1: top of the rankings.

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Speaker 2: According to chant West, the median return for the last

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Speaker 2: financial years forecast b nine percent plus, so that's a benchmark.

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Speaker 2: Ozzie Suber came out yesterday. It's the country's biggest super fund.

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Speaker 2: It's delivering an eight and a half percent return in

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Speaker 2: its balanced option, which is the fourth option for new members.

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Speaker 2: The result reflects the decision to become defensive around equities

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Speaker 2: early in the financial year, meaning the fund missed some

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Speaker 2: of the run on US tech stocks, particularly in video.

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Speaker 2: Still a pretty good return though, and well above the

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Speaker 2: fund's goal of CPI plus four percent. The Australian Retirement

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Speaker 2: Trust said it's my super option, which is the default

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Speaker 2: fund return to eleven point three percent. Hester is my

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Speaker 2: super option return nine point one percent. No doubt superfunds

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Speaker 2: have done very well in the twenty twenty four financial year.

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Speaker 2: Of course, it's a three point nine trillion dollar industry,

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Speaker 2: second largest asset class behind property. The amount being contributed

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Speaker 2: by us all also increased on July one, from eleven

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Speaker 2: to eleven and a half percent. Big business and all

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Speaker 2: of us are affected by it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, certainly, Sean, Now that's what happened last year. What

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Speaker 1: about this year? Can the super funds repeat the performance?

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Speaker 1: I suppose not just a last year, but also the

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Speaker 1: year before that. Whether the median fund then came in

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Speaker 1: around nine percent as.

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Speaker 2: Well, let's have say that would be a very good effort.

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Speaker 2: In AUSSI Super's case. Chief investment officer Mark Delaney said

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Speaker 2: he realized that equity markets weren't going to tumble late

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Speaker 2: last year and started buying stocks. He's now slightly overweight equities,

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Speaker 2: but he told the AFR that the last two years

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Speaker 2: have been so good. Something has to give. UNI supers

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Speaker 2: chief investment officer John Pierce told the FINN that tech

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Speaker 2: stocks in the Commonwealth Bank are of a value, but

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Speaker 2: he conceded it's tough to call, even harder for long

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Speaker 2: term investors to actually sell because they'll eventually have to

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Speaker 2: buy back. In his quote is you were going to

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Speaker 2: have to live with overvalued assets. I think the best

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Speaker 2: way to sum it up is that the chief investment

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Speaker 2: officers are entering the new financial year with some trepidation.

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Speaker 1: Yes Sean. Story number two. Prime Minister Anthony Abernezi has

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Speaker 1: told Parliament that he expects Fatima Payman to quit the

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Speaker 1: Labor Party in coming days.

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Speaker 2: Amid expectations the rebel senator will move to the cross

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Speaker 2: bench with the backing of Muslim groups. Miss Albernesis the

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Speaker 2: plan had been in trained for more than a month.

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Speaker 2: Senator Payment crossed the floor last week to support a

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Speaker 2: Green's motion to recognize the state of Palestine. That and

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Speaker 2: her subsequent refusal to abide by party rules resulted in

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Speaker 2: her indefinite suspension from the caucus. Miss Alberesi has met

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Speaker 2: with Senator Payment on two separate occasions to discuss her

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Speaker 2: future in the Labour Party. He has repeatedly maintained that

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Speaker 2: he hoped she would return to caucus.

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Speaker 1: Story number three. Retail sales jumped zero points six percent

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Speaker 1: in May which sounds pretty good, but most of it

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Speaker 1: was on the back of discounting by retailers.

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Speaker 2: Shoppers took advantage of early end of financial leer promotions

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Speaker 2: and sales according to the Bureau of Statistics, and retailers

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Speaker 2: continue to rely on discounting and sales events to encourage

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Speaker 2: shoppers to spend. While seasonally adjusted spending rows, underlying spending

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Speaker 2: was stagnant compared to a year ago, the trend is

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Speaker 2: up only one and a half percent. Retailers are working

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Speaker 2: really hard to boost sales at the moment, and we

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Speaker 2: know that from the spate of companies who have worn

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Speaker 2: the shareholders about soft turnover. Amp's chief economis Shane Oliver

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Speaker 2: yesterday said we're in the midst of the worst retail

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Speaker 2: recession we've seen in the history of the data, both

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Speaker 2: in terms of length and magnitude. Just can be very

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Speaker 2: interesting though, to see what happens when the Stage three

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Speaker 2: tax cuts kick in.

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Speaker 1: Story number four. Turning to the US for this one,

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Speaker 1: Sean Joe Biden is under increasing pressure to drop out

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Speaker 1: of the presidential race after a Democratic congressman from Texas

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Speaker 1: called on him to withdraw and state governors sought a

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Speaker 1: White House meeting to discuss his candidacy. Sean, there's a

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Speaker 1: lot happening for Joe Biden.

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Speaker 2: Yes. The Texas congressman is a guy called Lloyd Doggett.

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Speaker 2: He became the first person from the president's own party

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Speaker 2: to publicly call for mister Biden to step down, saying

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Speaker 2: too much is at state to risk a Donald Trump

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Speaker 2: victory in November's election. A Democratic congressman from Maine later

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Speaker 2: said he had no confidence in Biden's ability to win

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Speaker 2: the election, while another from Washington State said she thought

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Speaker 2: Biden's performance in the last week's presidential debate had cost

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Speaker 2: him the election. The concern among Democrats, including state governors

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Speaker 2: who are apparently gathering in Washington, DC, is mister Biden's

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Speaker 2: age and fitness. The Supreme Court decision this week, which

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Speaker 2: gives the president legal immunity when acting in an official capacity,

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Speaker 2: has acted as a bit of a rallying call for

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Speaker 2: Democrats who are fearful that Donald Trump, if elected, will

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Speaker 2: abuse that right. Joe Biden said his performance last week

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Speaker 2: reflected his travel schedule ahead of the debate, though he

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Speaker 2: did actually spend the week immediately before last Thursday at

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Speaker 2: Camp David preparing don't know where that one comes from.

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Speaker 1: Last one story number five. Google's greenhouse gas emissions have

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Speaker 1: surged forty eight percent in the past five years due

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Speaker 1: to the expansion of its data centers that underpin artificial

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Speaker 1: intelligence systems.

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Speaker 2: The tech giant's commitment to get to net zero by

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Speaker 2: twenty thirty is now in doubt, and the dilemma highlights

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Speaker 2: a less beneficial consequence of the growth of cloud computing

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Speaker 2: and artificial intelligence i e. The huge demand for power.

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Speaker 2: Google's pollution amounted to fourteen point three million tons of

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Speaker 2: carbon equivalent in twenty twenty three. That's up forty eight

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Speaker 2: percent from its twenty nineteen baseline thirteen percent from the

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Speaker 2: previous year. According to a report in The Financial Times,

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Speaker 2: the tech giants said the future environmental impact of AI

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Speaker 2: is complex and difficult to predict. The company's now calling

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Speaker 2: its twenty thirty target extremely ambitious, but it does say

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Speaker 2: there are tremendous opportunity for climate solutions that are enabled

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Speaker 2: by AI.

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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's Thursday,

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Speaker 1: the fourth of July twenty twenty four. Remember to hit

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Speaker 1: follow on the podcast, and if five minutes isn't enough,

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Speaker 1: you can find our longer daily show called Fear and

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Speaker 1: Greed wherever you listen to podcasts, and check out our

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Speaker 1: sister podcast as well. How do they afford that? This

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Speaker 1: week's episode, it is all about preparing for a potential

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Speaker 1: rate hike, which may be coming as soon as August.

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Speaker 1: I'm Michael Thompson and that was the Fast five Business

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Speaker 1: news by Fear and Greed. Have a great date,