Afternoon Report | ASX dips to near six month low

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 0.3pc lower

2. Helloworld lobs $353m bid

3. Australia won’t veto COP31 in Turkey

4. John Laws farewelled

5. Trump defends Saudi reception

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business News Afternoon Report
for Wednesday, the nineteenth of November. I'm Michael Thompson, and
every afternoon we've got the five stories that happened today
that you need to know about. Let's go with story
number one is about markets. The SMPA s X two
hundred closed down zero point three percent today to eighty
four hundred and forty eight points. That is its lowest
level in almost six months, and comes after yesterday's shoker

(00:26):
that saw the boss slump almost two percent, wiping out
sixty billion dollars in value. There is still a lot
of anxiety around Nvidia's results, which will be reported tomorrow
morning our time, because of the flow on effects to
other tech stocks and what the chip maker's success or
otherwise tells us about the state of the AI boom. Locally,
those six of the eleven sectors lost ground today. The

(00:49):
banks were all off A and Z worst of the bunch,
down two percent. Commonwealth Bank and Westpac were both off
more than one percent. The price of gold climb. It's
trading around forty thousand and seventy US dollars an ounce,
which of course helped the local gold miners, Northern Star
was up nearly three percent, Evolution Mining was up two percent.

(01:11):
Woodside and Santos both had a pretty good day that
was helped by rising oil prices, with the US and
Europe moving to limit Rush's ability to fund its war
in Ukraine through its oil supplies. There are a couple
of big movers on the market today, Webjet, which I'll
get to in a moment, and Drone Shield, which tumbled
nineteen percent today. The chief executive of the US Operations resigned,

(01:33):
effective immediately after three years in the job. Drone Shield
share price is now down more than fifty percent in
just the last month. On to story number two. Now
and Holloworld has launched a three hundred and fifty three
million dollar takeover bid for online travel agent Webjet, which
is a move that would significantly expand its digital presence

(01:56):
if approved. Hello World, which already owned seventeen percent of Webjet,
has offered ninety cents a share and been granted due
diligence the office cent. Webjets stock up seventeen percent today.
The bid beats an earlier eighty cent proposal from BGH
and Ariadne, which together holds seventeen point eight percent of

(02:17):
the company analys SAA counteroffer is possible. Webjets performance has
weakened this year in contrast to some stronger signals from quantas,
from virgin and from Flight Center. Story number three. Prime
Minister Anthony Albernizi says Australia will not oppose Turkey if
it wins the bid to host next year's COP thirty
one climate summit, warning that a prolonged standoff could undermine

(02:39):
Pacific unity on climate action. Australia and Turkey have both
been bidding since twenty twenty two, and earlier this week
Albanzi ruled out a joint hosting model, saying that UN
rules don't allow it, but he has now signaled a
somewhat softer stance, saying that Pacific nations were concerned a
deadlock could weaken their collective push for stronger climate commitments.

(03:00):
Albaneze says that if Turkey has chosen, Australia wouldn't seek
to veto the decision, but would ensure that the Pacific
benefited from that outcome, and he also said that he
expects Turkey wouldn't veto Australia if Australia was chosen we
haven't withdrawn though from the race, and if no consensus
decision is reached at COP thirty in Brazil, the event
will instead be held in Germany by default, which Germany

(03:23):
doesn't actually want. Story number four, legendary broadcast to John
Laws has been farewell today at a state funeral in
Sydney which attracted Australia's political and cultural establishment from both
sides of politics. There was former PM John Howard, former
New South Wales Premier Nick Griner, current Premier Chris Mins.
Swimming great Dawn Fraser was there, as was businessman Lindsey Fox.

(03:46):
Actor Russell Crowe gave the eulogy and John Laws's famous
golden microphone was positioned alongside the coffin in Saint Andrew's Cathedral.
Barnaby Joyce was there, so to singer Marsha Hines, TV
host Richard Wilkins and country singer John Williamson, who performed
True Blue was quite the sendoff for the radio presenter
who died earlier this month aged ninety. And finally, story

(04:10):
number five, President Donald Trump has defended Saudi Crown Prince
Muhammed bin Salman over the killing of journalist Jamal Kashoji
saying things happen and insisting the Crown Prince quote knew
nothing about it, despite US intelligence assessing otherwise. Muhammad received
an elaborate welcome at the White House on his first

(04:31):
visit to Washington since the twenty eighteen killing. The US
President scolded a reporter for raising the issue, calling it
a terrible question. The visitor is expected to include major
defense and investment discussions, including the potential sale of F
thirty five fighter jets to Saudi Arabia, though human rights
groups and Kashoji's widow have criticized the reception at the

(04:54):
White House as shameful. That's it for the afternoon report
for Wednesday, the nineteenth of November. Makes sure you following
the podcast, and please head along to Fearangreed dot com
dot au to sign up for our free daily newsletter.
I'll put a link in today's show notes as well
by Michael Thompson. Have a good int.