ASX lags rivals; home prices surge; why cats meow louder at men

ASX lags rivals; home prices surge; why cats meow louder at men

News in brief

National home values across the country rose by one per cent during November, the third consecutive month of strong growth. The mid-sized capitals outperformed with Perth up 2.4 per cent, while Sydney came in at 0.5 per cent and Melbourne at 0.3 per cent, according to Cotality. All other capital cities were up at least one per cent.

 

The Australian Tax Office will crack down on high-income professionals and tradies who pursue aggressive tax evasion strategies by splitting income with their spouses and children.

 

The federal government’s help-to-buy scheme kicks off this week, whereby first home buyers can share equity in their homes with the government, so as to purchase a property sooner.

 

The federal budget deficit has widened to $32.9 billion in the financial year to October, up from the $10 billion deficit recorded for the full 2025 financial year. But the deficit is $7 billion better than the Treasury had forecast, according to the Department of Finance.

 

Researchers have found that cats meow more frequently when greeting male caregivers, probably because men don’t listen as well.

Fear-o-meter

The Australian Tax Office crackdown on “excessive” income splitting by people who use trusts, companies and partnerships to divert income to family members has the potential to capture thousands of taxpayers.

 

The ATO has issued updated guidance that spell out exactly what it will allow when it applies the anti-avoidance measures to so-called professional service income.

 

That captures not just doctors, lawyers, architects and IT professionals, but all professionals and skilled tradespersons, including electricians, builders and plumbers.

 

Worth noting: the ATO won’t “backdate” its compliance push and that if taxpayers “made a genuine attempt to move their arrangement into low risk” by June 30, 2027, it would be unlikely to take compliance actions.

 

You have been warned.

Fear & Greed Q+A today

A massive week ahead for the economy, including the September quarter GDP data on Wednesday:

"We're looking for a quarterly increase of 0.7 per cent for GDP growth, which would bring the annual increase to around about 2.2-2.3 per cent. And in a way that doesn't sound great, but that would be the fastest rate of economic growth in about three years.

 

We've got through that downturn. This is important to remember: where were we? Where the hell have we come from? In 2024, GDP growth was sub one per cent. That's why we were all feeling miserable. The economy was weak, we weren't spending, interest rates were too high, cost of living pressures. Many of those things have either receded or completely ended. And so the economy is growing again. And that's a beautiful thing."

With one month to go before the end of the year, the local share market sits at the bottom of the league tables when it comes to performance, with the S&P/ASX200 up just five per cent in the first 11 months of 2025. That compares to more than 20 per cent in Canada and Japan, 16 per cent in Britain and Germany, 12-14 per cent for the major indices in the US and China, and about 11 per cent for Europe. One of the main reasons for the underperformance is that the Australian market is overweight banks and financials, and the major lenders, particularly Commonwealth Bank, have underperformed this year. Also, Australia’s biggest miners are iron ore producers – not really a forward-looking commodity. Globally, the best performing sectors globally have been tech and new economy businesses.

Greed-o-meter

Market	% since Jan 1
Hong Kong	27.9
Canada	22.5
Japan	21.9
Britain	16.7
Germany	16
US (Nasdaq)	15.3
China (Shanghai)	14.1
US (S&P 500)	12.3
Europe	11.4
Australia (ASX 200)	5.6

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Here's how the local sharemarket stacks up against others around the world since the start of this year.

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Source: Market indices, reported in The Australian