In recent months, media coverage surrounding the impact of AI on the labour force has increasingly featured anecdotes of companies across multiple industries scaling back hiring for entry-level positions, as they attempt to utilise AI to fill these roles. For the most part, the evidence of this shift has been largely contained to personal accounts
Iron ore is always crazy, but it has been outdoing itself in recent weeks. Is that the top? In the short term, we’re still waiting for new yawnulus so maybe, maybe not. It is at the level that will drag in Indian exports, so in the slightly less than short term, yes. Chinese steel output
Japan has been a key security ally of the United States for seven decades and a vital partner in US efforts to counter an increasingly assertive China. Still, the Trump administration has ignored this historical relationship and extracted its ‘pound of flesh’ from Japan on trade, as reported by the Australian Financial Review’s Jessica Sier.
The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has delivered two 25 bp reductions in the official cash rate. As illustrated below by Justin Fabo from Antipodean Macro, the rate cuts have resulted in a cumulative decline of 34 bps in the weighted-average interest rate on all existing housing loans in Australia since the peak in January 2025.
Everything is awesome for stock markets as Wall Street pushed through more record highs as earnings surprised to the upside for everyone, except Tesla! The Japan-US trade deal buoyed spirits even if the details actually outweigh the headline 15% tariff rate, but its making the Trumpists happy as they pivot towards similar bullying against the
DXY is getting belted again as trade deals flow in. They don’t look great to me, but must be less severe than the market expected. AUD scorched to a new high. The big short is working wonders. Lead boots jumped. Gold is skeptical of DXY. Oil is where it should be. Lol, copper. Could copper
Jobs and Skills Australia (JSA) has expressed concern that the nation’s universities are not producing graduates who have the skills that employers need. JSA commissioner Barney Glover says the organisation’s research has found that this is problem with engineering and IT graduates in particular. He notes that employers consider that up to 90% of graduates
A better mood on Asian share markets today bolstered by the new US-Japan “deal” which sent Japanese stocks more than 2% higher but has resulted in pushback from US car makers due to the details surrounding metal tariffs. Watch out for a possible reversal later tonight on Twitter! The BOJ will have its hands full
New Zealand experienced one of the world’s largest house price increases during the pandemic, only for prices to then crash back to pre-pandemic levels over subsequent years. The following chart from Justin Fabo from Antipodean Macro illustrates the enormous boom and bust of New Zealand’s housing market. The upside is that housing affordability in New
The Market Ear says the latter. Real economic headwind Goldman sees tariffs as a real economic headwind—not just a headline risk. Higher prices may drag on real incomes, stalling consumption and growth. Add slowing hiring and trade data, and the stage is set for policy shifts and weaker GDP. But there is always a silver