This is the Fear and Greed Afternoon Report – everything you need to know about what happened in the markets, economy and world of business today, in just a few minutes.
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Sean Aylmer: Welcome to the Fear & Greed Afternoon report for Monday the
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Sean Aylmer: 19th of June 2023. I’m Sean Aylmer. Every afternoon, we’ve
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Sean Aylmer: got the five stories that happened today that you need
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Sean Aylmer: to know about.
Story number one, the S& P/ ASX 200
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Sean Aylmer: finished up 0. 6% today to 7, 295 points. The
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Sean Aylmer: Star and Domino’s Pizza are the two worst performers this
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Sean Aylmer: financial year, but they were two of the best today,
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Sean Aylmer: up 4. 5% and 4% respectively.
On the flip side, it
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Sean Aylmer: was a tough day for the energy companies. With coal
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Sean Aylmer: prices lower, the banks were solid, the iron ore miners
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Sean Aylmer: weaker. Woolies had a good day, up 2. 5%, while Goodman
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Sean Aylmer: Grip, the industrial property giant, and toll road leader Transurban,
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Sean Aylmer: well, they both did pretty well also. The insurers, including
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Sean Aylmer: QBE and Suncorp, did well, while the tech stocks tended to
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Sean Aylmer: underperform.
Story number two, the federal government’s $ 10 billion housing fund has
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Sean Aylmer: been delayed yet again, this time for four months after
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Sean Aylmer: the Greens won a motion to postpone it. Green Senator
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Sean Aylmer: Sarah Hanson- Young moved an amendment to delay debate on
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Sean Aylmer: the housing bills until the middle of October. The amendment,
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Sean Aylmer: which passed after a vote, prevents the government from putting
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Sean Aylmer: the housing bills on the Senate program until October 16.
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Sean Aylmer: Now, the coalition is also opposed to the government’s housing
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Sean Aylmer: policy and voted with the Greens.
Plenty of other news
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Sean Aylmer: coming out of Parliament today with just a few days
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Sean Aylmer: left before the midwinter break. The bill to authorize the
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Sean Aylmer: voice referendum passed. A plan to stop junk food advertising
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Sean Aylmer: on TV and radio between 6: 00 AM and 9:
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Sean Aylmer: 30 PM will be introduced into Federal Parliament later this
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Sean Aylmer: week. There remains plenty of pressure on former liberal, now
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Sean Aylmer: independent, Senator David Van to leave Parliament after allegations of
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Sean Aylmer: inappropriate conduct by him. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his
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Sean Aylmer: government is in the process of improving workplace conduct standards
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Sean Aylmer: at Parliament House, but said, ” It just takes time to
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Sean Aylmer: get it right.”
Story number three, Macquarie Group has emerged
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Sean Aylmer: as the front- runner to buy a stake of up
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Sean Aylmer: to 50% in EnergyAustralia, the country’s third- biggest electricity and gas
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Sean Aylmer: supplier. The deal would be worth billions of dollars and
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Sean Aylmer: comes after EnergyAustralia’s parent, Hong Kong listed as CLP Group,
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Sean Aylmer: has been looking for partnerships for the coal power business
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Sean Aylmer: to help invest to transition it to low carbon energy.
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Sean Aylmer: That’s a big job. According to The Financial Review, while
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Sean Aylmer: CLP’s in discussions to finalize a deal with Macquarie, sources
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Sean Aylmer: close to those discussions said talks with other interested parties
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Sean Aylmer: are continuing. Such a deal would represent a major step
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Sean Aylmer: in Macquarie’s direct involvement in energy assets, especially in the
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Sean Aylmer: domestic market, where its involvement is pretty much limited to
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Sean Aylmer: just investing in battery storage. Any deal would ramp up
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Sean Aylmer: the restructuring taking place in Australia’s gas and electricity sector.
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Sean Aylmer: Origin is currently the subject of an $ 18 billion takeover
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Sean Aylmer: bid from North American buyer Brookfield. AGL is rethinking its
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Sean Aylmer: strategy after a failed merger plan last year, and an
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Sean Aylmer: overhaul of the board forced by activist shareholder and tech
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Sean Aylmer: billionaire, Mike Cannon- Brookes. So plenty going on in that
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Sean Aylmer: sector.
Story number four, embattled consulting group PwC has been
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Sean Aylmer: affected by a global hacking incident after a cyber breach
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Sean Aylmer: last week at MOVEit, a third- party platform designed to
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Sean Aylmer: transfer sensitive data between different companies. PwC uses the software
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Sean Aylmer: with only a limited number of client engagements, a spokesperson
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Sean Aylmer: for the company said. Initial investigations show that its own
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Sean Aylmer: IT network, that’s PwC’s network, hasn’t been compromised and that
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Sean Aylmer: the cyber attack on MOVEit had a limited impact on
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Sean Aylmer: PwC. Now, some clients have been contacted though. The Russia-
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Sean Aylmer: linked extortion group C10P has claimed responsibility for the MOVEit
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Sean Aylmer: hack, which affected a bunch of companies and institutions globally,
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Sean Aylmer: including British Airways, the US Department of Energy, Shell, consulting
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Sean Aylmer: firm EY, and Johns Hopkins University.
Finally, story number five,
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Sean Aylmer: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with China’s top
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Sean Aylmer: foreign policy official in Beijing today hoping to stabilize strained
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Sean Aylmer: ties between the world’s two largest economies. Blinken and Wang
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Sean Aylmer: Yi agreed to rebuild communication channels between the two. The
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Sean Aylmer: meeting comes after Blinken held a seven and a half
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Sean Aylmer: hour meeting with the Chinese foreign minister yesterday, which according
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Sean Aylmer: to Bloomberg both sides described as candid. There are hopes
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Sean Aylmer: Blinken will meet President Xi Jinping tonight. That exchange is
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Sean Aylmer: really the benchmark of success for the trip, especially after
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Sean Aylmer: the Chinese leader met with American billionaire Bill Gates in
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Sean Aylmer: Beijing last week.
That’s it for the Afternoon Report for Monday
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Sean Aylmer: the 19th of June 2023. Michael Thompson and I will
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Sean Aylmer: be back tomorrow morning with the Tuesday edition of Fear &
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Sean Aylmer: Greed. I’m Sean Aylmer, enjoy your evening.