And that's a wrap for Thursday's ABC News business blog.
It's been a bit of a rollercoaster on the ASX 200 today.
We'll bring you more company, finance and markets news bright and early tomorrow.
Have a lovely evening.
And that's a wrap for Thursday's ABC News business blog.
It's been a bit of a rollercoaster on the ASX 200 today.
We'll bring you more company, finance and markets news bright and early tomorrow.
Have a lovely evening.
The Australian market closed lower on Thursday after opening well in the green, extending the losses in the previous three sessions, following the mixed cues from Wall Street overnight.
The benchmark ASX 200 fell 0.5%, to close at 7,749.
Gold miners lifted the bourse on stronger gold prices, with Westgold Resources recording the biggest gains, up 8.9%.
Other gold producers to lead the gains were Capricorn Metals, Bellevue Gold and Regis Resources.
Coal stocks fell on weak Asian import data.
Yancoal Australia closed 12.9%, after also announcing the company's shares were going ex-dividend for its interim dividend for FY2025.
Other coal stocks leading the declines were Whitehaven Coal, New Hope Corp and Coronado Global Resources.
Poultry-giant Inghams also announced its shares were going ex-dividend, landing the company on the list of worst declines.
In corporate news, shares in Silk Logistics plunged 23.5% after the competition watchdog raised concerns over stevedore DP World's takeover bid.
Sector-wise, only tech finished in the green:
Consumer staples was the worst-performing sectors, followed by consumer discretionary and financial.
Corelogic's released its auction market preview for the week.
2,343 capital city homes are scheduled for auction this week, up 49% on last week when 1,572 auctions were held, but 17.3% lower than the same week last year.
In Melbourne there are 984 homes due to go under the hammer this week, which is double the volume seen last week (486) when auction numbers dropped due to the Labour Day long weekend.
However, Corelogic notes the number of homes taken to auction in Melbourne over the same week last year was much higher (1,483).
Auctions have traditionally been a popular way of selling properties in Melbourne and Sydney, compared to in smaller cities where private sales often dominate.
Property owners in Melbourne have been more reluctant to risk selling at auction, due to softer home values compared to other capitals.
There are currently around 2,130 homes scheduled to go under the hammer across the combined capitals next week.
The combined capital city clearance rate came in at 62.3% last week, down from 62.6% over the previous week and 68.0% this time last year.
NAB's had a look at APRA’s latest quarterly ADI property exposure statistics.
Head of markets economics at NAB Tapas Strickland says early housing arrears largely sustained their improvement in the December quarter.
'Housing arrears' is basically a missed, overdue or late mortgage repayment. 'Early' basically means payments fewer than 90 days overdue.
Strickland says data on early arrears in quarter 3 improved, and that has been largely sustained in quarter 4.
Importantly the improvement in early housing arrears is now being reflected in the more widely followed 90 day plus category.
The data overall highlight the ongoing resilience of the Australian household sector to the rise in interest rates seen over the past few years.
"We expect arrears rates to continue their stabilisation and trend lower.
A turn positive in real income growth, recent and prospective interest rate cuts, and a tight labour market are all factors.
Separate RBA data also continues to show elevated excess principal repayments."
Strickland notes offset account balances now represent 11.4% of total credit limits, up from 10.6% in 2023 and well up on the 8.3% rate it was prior to the pandemic in December 2019.
"The trend higher in offset account balances is an encouraging sign from a household resilience perspective given the flexibility of liquidity, though the trend rise also likely reflects tax effective investment strategies," Strickland notes.
Insurers have received 44,000 claims following ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, according to the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA).
"While claims types differ from region to region, pre-event concerns about large numbers of severe wind damage claims have not been realised," the ICA says.
Instead, insurers are receiving flood claims and many more thousands of customers across the path of the event making claims related to storm-driven water damage and food spoilage due to power outages.
The ICA says insurers are on the ground in Coffs Harbour, Lismore, Ballina and Tweed Heads in New South Wales, and across Redlands, Hervey Bay, Logan, Brisbane and the Gold Coast in Queensland.
"Claims made by policyholders across New South Wales and Queensland are being prioritised by insurers with additional claims consultants stood up and interstate builders sourced."
The ICA says it's too early to say what the total damage bill of TC Alfred will be.
The last cyclone to cause significant damage in Australia, Tropical Cyclone Jasper (2023), cost $409 million from around 10,500 claims.
The ICA says it's too early to say how much insurance premiums will rise as a result of TC Alfred.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has put insurers on notice, warning that those who don't process claims quickly or play hardball with policyholders, will be pursued by regulators.
Former Woolworths boss Brad Banducci has been appointed as the new CEO of major Australian entertainment company TEG.
The current chief executive Geoff Jones will be the new chair of the company.
"In this new role, I am following both a personal passion for live events and a strong belief in the increasing importance of live experiences in general," Mr Banducci said.
Mr Banducci left Woolworths in September last year, after ABC's Four Corners aired footage of the CEO walking out of an interview, as part of its documentary on allegations of price gouging by the major supermarkets, Woolworths and its rival Coles.
Mr Banducci will start his new role on 31 March 2025.
The Commonwealth Bank has published its Household Spending Insights (HSI) index, showing a 0.2% fall in February, after a revised 0.1% fall in January.
The bank says the strength the index recorded in late 2024 was driven by promotional activity and the consumer environment remains subdued.
Five of the categories recorded falls in February, one was flat and six recorded gains. The categories that recorded gains in January were driven by essential spending categories, while discretionary categories led the falls.
"We now have two months of data for 2025 and the data suggests the pulse of consumer spending remains subdued after a lift in Q4 24," CBA said.
"Upcoming March data will show the impacts of Cyclone Alfred with parts of Queensland and northern NSW heavily impacted by the disaster.
"We continue to expect it will take further interest rate relief to lift consumer spending growth higher from here.
"We expect the RBA to cut interest rates again in May after Q1 25 inflation data confirms inflation is tracking towards the RBA’s 2‑3% inflation target."
This morning Foreign Affairs Minister Penny Wong was asked about the possibility of the USA applying a tariff on Australian red meat exports.
"Australian beef is a great product, Australian beef enters the United States market under a free trade agreement that's been in place for a very long time, as a friend and ally we want to continue to see that free trade agreement honoured," Ms Wong told Sunrise this morning.
Since Australia was not granted an exemption from the US President Donald Trump's steel and aluminium tariffs, questions are being about the other goods the US may target in the future, which includes an unspecified tariff applied to some agricultural goods from around the world starting on April 2.
Australian beef exporters have enjoyed a good couple of years in the US market.
Drought has driven the US cattle herd to its lowest level since 1951 - and that's led the world's largest consumer and producer of beef to curtail its own exports over that period.
Meanwhile, the United States Department of Agriculture reported in February that "Monthly imports from Australia reached over 131 million pounds (59,420,600 kilograms) an increase of nearly 69 per cent over last year and the largest monthly shipment from the country since 2015".
This chart, courtesy of Episode3, shows how exposed to the US market each state is - with Tasmania and South Australia topping the list:
A march report from Meat and Livestock Australia is upbeat about the export forecasts for Australian cattle producers, with some caveats.
"A continued reduction in the United States’ herd, with varying forecasts of a rebuild, will sustain US demand for Australian lean beef and preserve access to high value markets. Additionally, a projected decline in Brazilian slaughter may reduce competition in commodity-focused markets."
"Demand for imported lean trim is likely to remain very strong and potentially strengthen further, while demand for other imported beef is likely to rise more moderately as the destock eases.
"Of course, this assumes that other conditions remain static. Disease, geopolitics, exchange rates and supply chain disruptions are ongoing risks."
One of those risks has just escalated.
Here's a bit more analysis on stock movements today from Reuters:
Australian coal mining stocks are down as Asia's seaborne imports of metallurgical coal drop to the lowest in three years in February on lower demand from major fossil fuel consumers China and India
The Newcastle coal index, a commonly used benchmark, fell 2.5% on March 10.
Yancoal is down 12.2%, leading the declines on the ASX 200.
Whitehaven Coal fall is down 5.5%.
Coal-focused Coronado Global Resources slide 4.2%.
The slump comes despite weakening of fossil fuel regulations in the US and increased pushback on net zero goals around the world.
Meanwhile, gold stocks have been on the rise as investors continue to flock to safe haven gold as uncertainty remains around the US tariffs policies, while cooler-than-expected U.S. inflation kept Fed rate cut bets intact.
Bellevue Gold is leading the gains, up more than 6%.
Evolution Mining is up 3.8%, while larger Northern Star Resources is up 1.7%.
After making modest gains, the ASX 200 is up just 0.10 points shortly after midday AEDT to 7,786.
It's a mixed bag on the ASX 200, in terms of who is leading the gains and declines.
Bellevue Gold is up about 6%, while Yancoal is down 11.9%.
Yancoal's fall has been largely driven by the coal miner's shares going ex-dividend this morning for its final dividend for FY 2024.
After all but one sectors opening in the red, the tables have turned. Eight of 11 sectors are now in the green.
Nine shares are trading 0.3% higher after announcing acting CEO Matt Stanton is now its permanent boss.
We'll bring you more on stock movements shortly.