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Speaker 1: It's Friday, the twenty first of February twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 1: Welcome 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 just five minutes. Oh Michael Thompson,

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Speaker 1: and good morning Sean Ayleman.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Michael, Sean.

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Speaker 1: What a massive day we've had in the last twenty

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Speaker 1: four hours. Five big stories to race through in just

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Speaker 1: five minutes. Let's go story number one. The Australian economy

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Speaker 1: added another forty four thousand jobs last month, more than

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Speaker 1: double what was expected, which is good news if you

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Speaker 1: wanted the Aussie dollar to appreciate, but not if you

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Speaker 1: want another interest rate cut next month.

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Speaker 2: More than one hundred thousand new jobs were created part

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Speaker 2: time end full time over the past couple of months.

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Speaker 2: Although the unemployment rate in January picked up to four

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Speaker 2: point one percent, more than ever people are participating in

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Speaker 2: the workforce. Sixty seven point three percent of people are

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Speaker 2: looking for a job. Pretty cool. On Tuesday, the Reserve

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Speaker 2: Bank Governor Michelle Bullock said the jobs market was tight

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Speaker 2: and on some measures getting tighter. Those figures yesterday suggest

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Speaker 2: she was correct. Market really has been the surprise packet

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Speaker 2: of the economy. Unemployment got as low as three point

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Speaker 2: four percent. Then it's been rising well saud arising for

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Speaker 2: the last two years, but it hasn't gotten very far.

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Speaker 2: It's still just around that four percent level pre COVID

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Speaker 2: with more than the five to six percent range.

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Speaker 1: Michael, it was a lot going on yesterday, Sean, But

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Speaker 1: what was the reaction like to this.

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Speaker 2: Well, bond market's now priced in a seventy percent chance

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Speaker 2: of rate cut in May. Previously there are at eighty percent,

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Speaker 2: So obviously those figures yesterday tip the balance somewhat against

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Speaker 2: a rate cut anytime soon. The Aussie dollar rose after

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Speaker 2: the announcement. The Deputy Government of the Reserve Bank, Andrew Howse,

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Speaker 2: was also talking. He said, the labor market is incredibly strong.

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Speaker 2: No bad news in the jobs figures. I think that's

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Speaker 2: probably true. The government also welcomed the data.

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Speaker 1: I'll just story number two now and the federal and

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Speaker 1: South Australian governments will pony up two point four billion

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Speaker 1: dollars to upgrade the Wayala Steel Works in the hope

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Speaker 1: of luring a buyer and putting the facility back on

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Speaker 1: a sustainable path.

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Speaker 2: On Wednesday, the South Australian government called in the administrators

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Speaker 2: caught that took control. That was from billionaire Sanjeev Gupda.

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Speaker 2: Now the group owes tens, perhaps hundreds of millions of

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Speaker 2: dollars to the South Australian government. South Australia will scrap

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Speaker 2: its plans to build a green hydrogen plant at Wyala

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Speaker 2: and use the six hundred million dollars in savings to

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Speaker 2: contribute to the rescue deal. It was criticized for that decision. Yesterday,

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Speaker 2: the Federal government unveiled the one billion dollar Green Iron

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Speaker 2: Investment Fund, of which half of that will be available

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Speaker 2: to the new owner of the Wyaler plant to help

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Speaker 2: transition towards cleaner steel production. The most significant upgrade announced

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Speaker 2: will be the installation of an electric arc furnace to

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Speaker 2: replace the aging coal fired flast furnace.

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Speaker 1: Okay, story number three. Telstra is spending up big in

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Speaker 1: its mobile phone business, doing a deal with Ericson with

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Speaker 1: the goal of making its five G network faster, more efficient,

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Speaker 1: more reliable.

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Speaker 2: It will spend eight hundred million dollars upgrading its network

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Speaker 2: over the next four years. The bottom line in terms

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Speaker 2: of profit for Telstra was pretty good pre tax profit

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Speaker 2: of four point two five billion dollars for the six

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Speaker 2: months to the end of December. What's doing well is

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Speaker 2: its mobile business. It's also doing pretty good job cutting

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Speaker 2: costs nine percent of the workforce well, the workforce was

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Speaker 2: reduced by nine percent and the second half of last year,

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Speaker 2: Telstra announced an increase in its dividend that will keep

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Speaker 2: those million plus shareholders happy. Also a seven hundred and

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Speaker 2: fifty million dollars share buy back. Its share price was

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Speaker 2: up five and a half percentster very much is nowadays

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Speaker 2: a mobile business, but it's also able to push up

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Speaker 2: prices in that market because it has got such a

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Speaker 2: strong spot. Or if you've got the same price, you

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Speaker 2: may have reduction in data allowances. They call it shrinkflation.

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Speaker 2: That perhaps isn't keeping customers very heavy, But investors seem

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Speaker 2: to be happy with Telstra.

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Speaker 1: Story numberfore Jean, this is an interesting one market, Darling.

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Speaker 1: Wistech Global has gone into a surprise trading hold as

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Speaker 1: the company's directors consider undisclosed governance matters which do sound

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Speaker 1: a little bit dominant.

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Speaker 2: Richard White founded the company. He's been under pre since

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Speaker 2: last year over allegations about his relationships with several former

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Speaker 2: female employees, including the purchase of a seven million dollar

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Speaker 2: Melbourne waterfront property from four employee and former partner Christine Contos.

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Speaker 2: He was forced to resign. Richard White in October last

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Speaker 2: year that he does have a million dollar contract to

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Speaker 2: keep consulting to the company. He's also a massive shareholder

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Speaker 2: in it now. In November, Wistech said law firms had

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Speaker 2: cleared White of any serious wrongdoings, and last week nine

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Speaker 2: Media reported three more women had come forward with allegations

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Speaker 2: of inappropriate behavior against White. Untested at the moment, but yesterday.

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Speaker 2: It's just interesting that directors consider these undisclosed governance matters

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Speaker 2: they have to address.

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Speaker 1: All right, last one story number five. Apple will next

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Speaker 1: week introduce a new low end smartphone called the iPhone

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Speaker 1: sixteen E, priced at five hundred and ninety nine US dollars,

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Speaker 1: aiming to revive sales growth gost about nine hundred and

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Speaker 1: ninety nine dollars here in Australia. Apple's modernized the device

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Speaker 1: for a I'm moving the now antiquated home button, adding

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Speaker 1: a larger six point one inch screen face ID. It's

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Speaker 1: got a forty eight megapixel camera.

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Speaker 2: It's pretty cool. It'll also run the company's AI software,

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Speaker 2: Apple Intelligence. That's a big shift. It's the biggest change

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Speaker 2: in the history of Apple's lower end iPhone. It was

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Speaker 2: introduced as the SE back in twenty sixteen. The last

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Speaker 2: update was nearly three years ago. Now, as part of

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Speaker 2: this shift, the current iPhone SE and iPhone fourteen have

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Speaker 2: been discontinued and Apple is hoping to sell a bunch

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Speaker 2: of these cheaper iPhones.

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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, Thank you, Michael.

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Speaker 1: It is Friday, the twenty first of February twenty twenty five.

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Speaker 1: Remember to hit follow on the podcast, and if five

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Speaker 1: longer daily show called Fear and Greed wherever you listen

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Speaker 1: to podcasts. I'm Michael Thompson and that was the fast

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Speaker 1: five business news by Fear and Greed. Have a great day.