Q+A

wesfarmers released its full-year results yesterday, and while bunnings and kmart are still booming, the conglomerate is facing a familiar retail challenge: labour, energy, transport and supply-chain costs are rising, while australian households remain under pressure.

michael thompson speaks with wesfarmers chief financial officer anthony gianotti about how the owner of bunnings, kmart and officeworks is using productivity gains and artificial intelligence to keep prices down.

they discuss the early results from ai shopping assistants, what wesfarmers is seeing from consumers, the advantage of kmart’s anko brand and why officeworks is being reshaped around technology.

find out more: https://fearandgreed.com.au/

see omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

bitcoin has rallied sharply, but buying it and hoping the price rises is only one way to approach crypto. investors can buy and hold, earn staking rewards or move into riskier territory through leveraged trading.

in the second instalment of fear & greed's monthly series with coinbase, sean aylmer speaks with hassan ahmed, country director for singapore at coinbase, about how newcomers should approach crypto. 

they discuss the importance of position sizing, how staking and leverage work, whether bitcoin is becoming less volatile, and the emerging prospect of ai agents trading on an investor’s behalf.

coinbase is a supporter of fear & greed. this is general information only, and you should seek advice tailored to your circumstances before making investment decisions.

find out more: https://fearandgreed.com.au/

see omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

australia needs more housing, but property group stockland says higher interest rates are already starting to slow demand - just as the country remains hundreds of thousands of homes short.

sean aylmer speaks with stockland managing director and ceo tarun gupta about what's holding back new housing supply, why land lease communities are booming, what its shopping centres are revealing about consumers, and why stockland is making a bigger push into data centres.

find out more: https://fearandgreed.com.au/

see omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

evolution mining has delivered a record profit of almost $1.5 billion as soaring gold and copper prices combine with higher production and cost control to generate a surge in cash.

sean aylmer speaks with evolution mining managing director and ceo lawrie conway about why the miner is returning more of that cash to shareholders rather than chasing acquisitions, the growing importance of copper, the role of automation and ai in mining, and why conway believes australia's gold sector still needs more consolidation.

find out more: https://fearandgreed.com.au/

see omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

the unemployment rate has risen to 4.5 per cent, hours worked are falling and wages growth is easing. so is it time for the rba to rethink its view that australia's labour market is still tight?

michael thompson is joined by economist stephen koukoulas for the week ahead, looking at what the latest jobs numbers mean for interest rates and what to expect from this week's inflation figures.

they also preview business investment and household spending data, and ask whether australians should be told exactly how each member of the rba's monetary policy board votes on interest rates.
join our free daily newsletter here.

find out more: https://fearandgreed.com.au/

see omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

atlassian is one of australia’s great business success stories. mike cannon-brookes and scott farquhar built a software giant that at one point was worth more than $115 billion. but behind the extraordinary growth, their friendship and business partnership was coming under increasing strain.

sean aylmer speaks with business journalist john stensholt, co-author with perry williams of the new book tech bros, about the inside story of atlassian, the founders’ “year of not talking”, the role billions of dollars played in changing their relationship, and why partnerships between two highly driven founders can be so difficult to sustain.

tech bros is available now.

find out more: https://fearandgreed.com.au/

see omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

after three years of selling assets, strengthening its balance sheet and reshaping its portfolio, mirvac says it is ready for its next phase.

managing director and ceo campbell hanan talks to sean aylmer about where the property giant sees its next opportunities, why it’s reducing its exposure to office property and investing more in industrial and living sectors, and the outlook for residential property.

campbell also explains why investor appetite for housing has fallen, why mirvac isn’t chasing the data centre boom, and whether the old rule that falling interest rates are good for property companies still holds.

find out more: https://fearandgreed.com.au/

see omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

bhp has delivered a strong year of earnings and cash generation, but one of the biggest changes is happening inside the business itself: copper has overtaken iron ore to account for more than half of earnings.

sean aylmer speaks with bhp chief financial officer vandita pant about the company’s plans to grow copper production, why iron ore remains central to the business, the long-term bet on potash and the outlook for metallurgical coal. they also discuss how bhp is thinking about capital allocation in an increasingly volatile world.

find out more: https://fearandgreed.com.au/

see omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

qbe has spent years trying to become a less volatile, more predictable insurer. but that's no easy task when the risks it covers - from natural catastrophes to cyber attacks - keep changing.

sean aylmer speaks with qbe insurance group ceo andrew horton about the strategy behind the global insurer's growth, why cyber has become a half-billion-dollar premium business for qbe, how ai could help both cyber attackers and defenders, and what he's hearing from businesses around the world about the risks they face.

find out more: https://fearandgreed.com.au/

see omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

the rba may have finally reached the end of its rate-hiking cycle, with signs that higher interest rates are starting to bite across the economy.

michael thompson is joined by economist stephen koukoulas for the week ahead, looking at why rates could now stay on hold for the next year, whether falling house prices are being overblown, and what could turn a housing downturn into a credit crunch.

they also preview the upcoming wages and jobs data, including stephen's forecasts for wage growth and unemployment, and explain why australia's productivity problem is much harder to measure than it might seem.

join our free daily newsletter here.

find out more: https://fearandgreed.com.au/

see omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.