Afternoon Report | CBA hits 7 month low; Lib showdown underway

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. CBA hits 7 month low

2. ARN’s huge advertising warning

3. Libs net zero showdown underway

4. ASIO warns of sabotage threat
5. Bridge collapse in China

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business News Afternoon Report
for Wednesday, the twelfth of November. I'm Michaele Thompson, and
every afternoon we've got the five big stories that happen
today that you need to know about. Let's go with
story number one. Let's take a look at markets first.
The SMPA SEX two hundred finished the day off a
touchdown zero point two percent today to eighty seven hundred

(00:24):
and ninety nine point five points. Normally I would round
that up, but that would take it to eight eight
hundred points, and that feels like a milestone that we
just didn't quite get to today. Stronger commodity prices help
the local miners. The price of iron ore rows one percent,
which was helped along by expectations of more stimulus in
China to help the economy. That boosted our big miners.

(00:45):
Rio Tinto was up two point three percent, BHP up
zero point six percent, a good day for the gold
miners two and copper as well. Lithium is worth a
mention on its own because Mineral Resources was the best
performer on the balls today, up nine point point two
percent after selling a steak in its lithium business to
a South Korean company. Liontown Resources was the next best,

(01:07):
up six percent after its own deal. The price of
crude oil climbed overnight, which saw our energy giants gain ground.
Woodside was up one point four percent, Santos up one
point seven percent. At the other end of the market, though,
the tech stocks tracking app Life three sixty tumbled more
than thirteen percent today after a trading update yesterday showed

(01:30):
lower than expected user growth numbers, and Commonwealth Bank followed
up yesterday's six point six percent dip with another sell off,
down another three point one percent to hit a seven
month low. On to story number two and a bit
of corporate news around today, Australian Vintage, which owned mcgwigan,
Tempest two and nepentthe Wines, said it expects first half

(01:53):
sales would be flat, but is forecasting full years sales
growth of between five and seven percent. Aristocrat Leisure Shares fell,
posting a nine percent rise in net profit to one
point six billion dollars after its interactive gaming division including
Neo Games, missed expectations. Flight Center rose after managing director
Graham Turner said second half earnings are expected to drive

(02:14):
growth following a strong start to the year, and arn
Media tumbled after warning full year earnings will be about
twenty six percent below last year due to a sharp
downturn in the Australian advertising market. Story number three a
big one coming out of Canbro. The Federal Liberal Party
is inching closer to dumping its commitment to net zero,

(02:36):
with a marathon party room meeting still underway. Media is
reporting the party room is split sixty forty right now
in favor of axing the net zero policy. Liberal leader
Susan Lee is in favor of retaining the commitment to
net zero by twenty fifty, but her deputy Ted O'Brien
has reportedly dropped his support along with a growing number
of other MPs. This has been a long simmering issue

(02:59):
for the position, really since the election back in May,
with the National Party against it and a growing number
of Conservative Liberals pushing to dump it. Andrew Hasty, who
quit the Liberal front bench over the issue, has reportedly
told the party room that if the coalition wins the
next election, it should repeal Labour's carbon target legislation and
if that has resisted, should have a double dissolution election.

(03:23):
Angus Taylor, who took the net zero policy to the
cop summit in Glasgow in twenty twenty one when he
was Energy Minister mind you, has also called for it
now to be dumped. The meeting is well into its
fifth hour, nearly into its sixth now it may have
some time still to go. We'll have a lot more
on this one tomorrow morning. Story number four. Australia's spy

(03:45):
chief has warned that foreign state backed hackers are now
capable of carrying out large scale sabotage on critical infrastructure,
including power grids, telecommunications networks and airports. AZIO Director General
Mike Burgess told a forum in Melbourne that the threat
of high impact sabotage is no longer theoretical, he said,

(04:06):
quote we're there now, he said. Chinese groups such as
salt Typhoon and vault Typhoon have been scanning and probing
Australian networks, using sophisticated tools to map systems and maintain
hidden access now. Burgess said that such access could allow
hostile actors to quote turn off the power during a

(04:27):
heat wave, or pollute our drinking water. He urged Astralding
businesses and boards to take cybersecurity far more seriously. And finally,
story number five, extraordinary scenes out of China, where a
newly opened seven hundred and fifty eight meter long bridge
has collapsed into a river in Sechuan Province. There were
no casualties reported because the bridge was actually closed a

(04:50):
day earlier after cracks were detected following heavy landslides that
were triggered by unstable mountain terrain. If you haven't seen
the video of this, you can check it out on
any news site. It shows a huge chunk of the
bridge basically just plunging into the river below after the
ground just pretty much gives way beneath it. The collapse
comes amid growing safety concerns about China's massive infrastructure expansion

(05:14):
following a series of fatal bridge and road failures in
recent years. That's it for the afternoon report for Wednesday,
the twelfth of November. Make sure you hit follow on
the podcast and head along to Fearandgreed dot com dot
au to sign up for our free daily newsletter. I'll
put a link in today's show notes as well. The
daily newsletter comes out every morning by six am and

(05:35):
it is a terrific cheat sheet for basically the business
news of the day, so you get to work ready
and a little bit ahead of your colleagues. Are Michael
Thompson Enjoy your evening