That's all for the blog today, but never fear, we'll be back bright and early tomorrow.
Thanks for your company today — there's plenty coming up overnight with the Federal Reserve's interest rates decision and then in our time zone tomorrow, US President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping to meet in South Korea, bringing trade talks to a head.
Locally, Woolworths will hold its AGM and Coles will deliver its quarterly sales update.
I'll be back with you in the morning.
There were some pretty big swings in either direction for individual stocks this session.
The worst performers were:
And the best performers, which managed to buck the trend on a down day:
The shares market loves cheap money, and the news that borrowing costs are now highly unlikely to get cheaper next week dragged stocks further into the red mid-session.
Despite global markets rising, the ASX 200 opened with modest losses and closed 1% down after a bigger-than-expected inflation spike threw cold water on expectations of a Melbourne Cup Day rate cut.
Market heavy-weight CSL was a major drag on the broader index again, after a shocker of a day yesterday, leaving healthcare as the worst performing sector of the session.
Hi, jumping into the blog to let you know tonight's The Business will answer all your questions about exactly what the shock September quarter CPI means for interest rates.
First up, reporter David Taylor will pull apart the upside surprise. And I'm not exaggerating by calling it a surprise because on Monday night RBA Governor Michele Bullock said a 0.9 per cent increase for core inflation in the September quarter would be a "material miss". Today we learned that figure came in 1.0 per cent higher.
I'll also have a feature interview with NAB's Chief Economist Sally Auld who told me:
The message from today's numbers is that it is going to require a little bit of patience on the part of mortgage holders just to give the Reserve Bank a good chance to get comfortable, and a bit more confident in terms of some of the underlying drivers of inflation.
If you simply can't wait till the show, I'm sharing the interview with you a little earlier than usual now.
But do make sure you tune in via ABC iView, ABC News at 8.45pm or after the late news on ABC TV because Global Affairs Editor Laura Tingle has a special report from Malaysia's Kuala Lumpur after the ASEAN summit.
Fresh from interviewing Singapore Prime Minister, Laura has this week sat down with Malaysia's Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
A few more economists changing their RBA cash rate forecasts in light of the upside surprise on inflation.
Goldman Sachs economist now see no more cuts, leaving the cash rate at 3.6%, after previously forecasting November and February cuts.
Uranium producer Boss Energy's share price has surged by 19% after the company reported record uranium production from its wholly owned Honeymoon project in South Australia in the September quarter.
Honeymoon operation recorded a production of 385,910lbs of U3O8 at a C1 cash cost of $34/lbs, according to Boss.
"As a result, we are well on track to meet FY26 guidance of 1.6Mlbs," managing director Matthew Dusci said.
The company also told its shareholders that it finished the quarter "with no debt and $212.4 million of liquid assets, a decrease of $11.9 million from the June quarter".
A few comments coming through about whether the next move from the RBA could be up.
The consensus seems to be, not anytime soon.
Ben Udy, lead economist for Oxford Economics Australia, said the sharp rise in inflation had delivered "the knockout blow" to any remaining hope of a November rate cut, but did not think it was anything to panic about.
"The strength in today's inflation data is largely temporary," Mr Udy said.
"At the same time we expect the deterioration in the labour market to persist, forcing the bank to cut rates toward neutral.
"We've pencilled in two rate cuts in the first half of 2026."
BDO chief economist Anders Magnusson agreed there was "no need to panic".
He said the jump in CPI was largely due to fiscal policy on the energy supply side of the economy, not due to an overheated demand side, so there was "no need for a knee jerk cash rate increase".
"Rather, this release reinforces that the current restrictive monetary policy setting is appropriate," he said.
"The RBA will likely hold the cash rate steady at the current restrictive setting in November to keep downward pressure on inflation.
"Looking ahead, there is only room for one or two cuts before the policy setting returns to neutral.
"The RBA is likely to hold onto these until the economy shows it really needs them — which is unlikely to be this year."
You can read more from business reporter Gareth Hutchens:
Unemployed Australians are more than 2.5 times more likely to be victims of identity theft, a study has found.
Fraud intelligence firm GBG examined Australian Bureau of Statistics data to identify which groups were more frequently targeted by scammers.
Unemployed people had a "victimisation rate" of 3.5%, followed by people with a disability (1.8%) and those aged 45-54 (1.6%).
"The data shows that unemployed Australians and those with disabilities face significantly higher risks, requiring targeted support and protections," said GBG Managing Director of Identity Fraud, Gus Tomlinson.
Shock inflation figures have led CBA economists to update their interest rate forecasts, to no more interest rate cuts this cycle.
"Given the material upside surprise to the Q3 25 CPI, and the broad‑based nature of pricing pressures, we now expect the RBA to remain on hold from here," the CBA Economics note reads.
Previously we expected one last rate cut in February 2026 to bring the cash rate back closer to neutral."
CBA says it now expects the Reserve Bank to remain on hold at 3.6% 'for a prolonged period'.
It's down to higher inflation and the cyclical upswing in demand, driven largely by consumption and housing.
"The economic backdrop for the RBA shifted over the third quarter. There is no doubt the cyclical upswing has occurred larger and faster than expected. The consumer has been at the heart of this, as we have been flagging based on observing our internally generated CBA data," it says.
CBA says it would take a big move in the unemployment rate, 'together with more moderate inflation prints, to bring the RBA back to the cutting table.'
The decommissioning of large-scale renewable energy projects has become an increasing topic of conversation in regional communities across Australia, according to the Renewable Energy Alliance (RE-Alliance).
RE-Alliance said the newly released Decommissioning Security Framework — by the Clean Energy Council (CEC) and Queensland Renewable Energy Council (QREC) — was an important step towards clarity for regional communities.
National director Andrew Bray said RE-Alliance had been advocating to the industry and state and federal governments to provide rules to build stronger public confidence in renewables retirement.
"We recommended that industry develop a consistent and industry-wide Financial Assurance Framework for decommissioning to help increase public confidence and the CEC and QREC's Decommissioning Security Framework is a good start," he said.
"We are pleased to see a big focus on transparency.
"We urged industry peak bodies to increase the transparency of decommissioning clauses and commitments in agreements to assist farmers and communities to understand what to expect when a project needs decommissioning — and this clearly steps out a process to do this."
RE-Alliance added that regional communities had been asking for clarity on how projects were decommissioned and who was financially responsible for removing infrastructure and restoring the land to its original state.