Afternoon Report | ASX climbs almost 1pc

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.

1. ASX up 0.9pc

2. Budget deficit

3. Optus crisis deepens

4. Albanese at UK Labour conference

5. US church attack

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business News Afternoon Report
for Monday, the twenty ninth of September twenty twenty five.
I'm Michael Thompson, and every afternoon we've got the five
stories that happened today that you need to know about.
So let's go story number one. The S and p
ASX two hundred surged almost one percent today, is closing
at eight hundred and sixty three points. Nine of the

(00:26):
eleven sectors recorded gains today leading the way, with the
banks Comwealth Bank was up two point two percent, Westpac
two percent, and A and Z one point seven percent.
That is all ahead of the RBA's interest rate decision
tomorrow afternoon. The Central Bank, of course widely tipped to
leave the official cash rate on hold. But healthcare also

(00:46):
rebounded after a shocker on Friday when the US slapped
to one hundred percent tariff on pharmaceutical exports to the country.
CSL climbed two and a half percent higher, Tilix Pharmaceuticals
up one point four percent. A good day is well
today for the gold miners. Evolution Mining was up four
point four percent, Neumont up four percent. Why the price

(01:08):
of gold just seems to keep on going. It hit
yet another high, passing three thousand, eight hundred US dollars
for the first time. The best performer, though on the
balls today was Drone Shield, which is the drone technology company.
It is a relative newcomer to the top two hundred
stocks on the ASX, but it searched almost eighteen percent today.

(01:29):
It is tied to ongoing geopolitical trouble and more need
for drone defenses in Europe. At the other end of
the market, the big miners slumped somewhat on the back
of weaker iron ore prices due to sluggish demand for
steel in China under story number two. Now and the
Albanese government has delivered its first budget deficit despite a
surge in personal income tax collections and records superannuation Returns

(01:54):
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says stronger employment and wages growth lifted
income tax to three hundred and thirty eight billion dollars,
but government spending climbed to a record seven hundred and
twenty seven billion dollars, pushing the deficit to just under
ten billion. That was significantly smaller, though than previously expected,
but of course it's still given the opposition something to target,

(02:14):
Shadow Treasurer Ted O'Brien saying charmers won the lotto and
went on a spending spree. We'll have more on this
one tomorrow. Story number three. Optus has been unable to
explain why emergency calls failed for the second time in
less than two weeks, with some not diverted to rival
carriers as required the outage. This new one centered on

(02:37):
Woollongong south of Sydney, prevented twelve Triple O calls getting
through yesterday, while NBNCo also suffered a separate failure in Wa.
The Australian Communications and Media Authority has launched an investigation,
with Treasurer Jim Chalmers calling it a shocking failure. Pressure
is growing on opt to CEO Stephen Rue, though the

(02:57):
owner of Optus, Singhtel, is still backing him. To continue.
Story number four, Anthony Aberzi has used a keynote speech
at the UK Labor Party conference to back British Prime
Minister so Kiir Starmer and denounce the low politics of
fear and resentment. Starmer hailed Albanesi as quote an inspiration

(03:18):
to the left and his key partner against right wing populism.
Albanesi told the audience at Liverpool in the UK that
unity of labor is the hope of the world now.
This was the final engagement of the Prime Minister's UK visit,
which also saw him meet the King, hold talks at
ten Downing Street and meet a bunch of other leaders,

(03:38):
including the Canadian and Icelandic Prime ministers. He is not
coming home just yet, though, first a visit to Abu
Dhabi and finally story number five. At least four people
have been killed and eight injured after an ex marine
drove a pickup truck into a Mormon church in Michigan,
opened fire, and set the building ablaze. Hundreds of worship

(04:00):
were inside at the time. The attacker, a forty year
old identified as Thomas Jacob Sandford, was shot dead by
police minutes later. The FBI is leading the investigation, calling
it an act of targeted violence, while President Donald Trump
said the epidemic of violence in our country must end immediately.
That's it for the Afternoon Report for Monday, the twenty

(04:21):
ninth of September twenty twenty five. Make sure you hit
follow on the podcast and we'll be back tomorrow morning
with the Tuesday edition of fear and greed. A Michael Thompson.
Enjoy your evening,