Afternoon Report | Economy grows, ASX up

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. Market climbs on GDP data

2. Bad news for First Guardian Master Fund investors

3. Bruce Lehrmann loses appeal

4. SME activity picks up

5. MH370 search to resume

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business News Afternoon Report
for Wednesday, the third of December. I'm Michael Thompson, and
every afternoon we have the five big stories you need
to know about. Let's go with story number one. The
S and PA SEX two hundred climbed slightly today, up
zero point two percent to eighty five hundred and ninety
five points. It was a lot higher than that earlier
in the day after third quarter GDP data showed the

(00:25):
economy grew by zero point four percent in the three
months to September, less than economists we're expecting, which dits
bark a little bit of hope that the RBA could
in fact still cut interest rates next year, or at
least not increase them, which saw the ASEX jump by
as much as zero point five percent before easing. Eight
of the eleven sectors gained ground today, led by the

(00:46):
real estate companies. Stockland was up one point four percent,
Westfield owner Center Group climbed one percent. A mixed bag
really for the banks, A and zed Westpac and nabral
Higher Commonwealth Bank underperformed. Same for the big miners, BHP
and Rio Tinto were both up, but Fortescu was down.
The big issue for these miners was Brazilian giant Valet,

(01:07):
which cut its forecast for the output of iron ore
next year with lower demand and greater supply coming out
of Africa. And why is that global? Worth a mention
today up four and a half percent after its investor day.
Really bit of an outlier in the tech sector, where
there were big losses for other companies like Block, Megaport
and Life three sixty on destorying number two now and

(01:30):
investors in the collapsed First Guardian Master Fund are unlikely
to get their four hundred and forty six million dollars
back in full, but liquidators do expect to recover enough
money to repay its lenders. FTI Consulting has recovered just
one point six million dollars so far from the failed fund.
That one point six million includes the sale of a
Lamborghini allegedly bought with investor money, which sold for three

(01:54):
hundred and thirty six thousand dollars. The liquidator says the
fund doesn't even have enough money at this stage to
pay their own fees, which are expected to reach five
million dollars. They've now asked ASEK for emergency government funding
normally reserved for assetless companies. Creditors who loaned money to
First Guardian are expected to be repaid, but investors who

(02:14):
put millions of dollars into the fund are being warned
to expect the worst. It increases the pressure on the
platforms that hosted First Guardian products to compensate those investors.
Story number three. Bruce Lherman has lost his appeal against
last year's defamation ruling that found, on the balance of
probabilities that he raped Brittany Higgins in Parliament House in

(02:38):
twenty nineteen. Lherman had originally sued Network ten and journalist
Lisa Wilkinson for defamation over broadcasts in which the allegations
of rape were made. That legal bid was rejected last
year by Justice Michael Lee, and Lherman then appealed that decision,
arguing there wasn't enough evidence to justify the original finding
by Justice Lee and that he was denied proceed drel fairness.

(03:01):
The Full Federal Court today dismissed that appeal and ordered
him to pay legal costs, but the ruling today went
even further than the original judgment, saying Lerman wasn't reckless
about consent, but instead was aware that Higgins did not
consent and proceeded anyway. Lherman maintained that he had no
sexual contact with Higgins and may now seek a High

(03:22):
Court review of the decision. His criminal trial was abandoned
in twenty twenty two due to DURA misconduct, and charges
were later dropped over concerns for Higgins's mental health. Story
number four. Australia's small and medium sized businesses have had
their strongest half years since twenty twenty three. Manufacturing and
financial services led the way with six percent growth, while

(03:45):
property services rose five percent. Productivity and profitability improved even
as employment stayed flat. According to accounting software group MIOB
and its latest SME Performance Indicator, manufacturing recorded its longest
run of monthly growth since twenty twenty three, helped by
renewed investment in advanced manufacturing and lower missions technologies. SME

(04:06):
activity is still slightly below pre pandemic levels, but NOOB
says the gap is narrowing and confidence is stabilizing. And finally,
story number five, the search for flight MH three P
seventy is set to resume later this month, more than
a decade after the Malaysian Airlines Boeing Triple seven disappeared.
The aircraft was carrying two hundred and twenty seven passengers,

(04:29):
including seven Australian citizens and residents, and twelve crew when
it went missing en route from Kowala Lumpur to Beijing
in twenty fourteen. Malaysia's Transport Ministry says a marine robotics
company will recommence a seabed search in the Southern Indian
Ocean on December thirty. That search had been suspended back
in April this year because of poor weather. Dozens of

(04:51):
pieces of debris have washed up on shores in the
Indian Ocean over the last decade, but exactly what happened
to the aircraft and where it ended up still remain
a mystery. That's it for the afternoon Report for Wednesday,
the third of December. Make sure you're following the podcast,
and please head along to Fearangreed dot com dot au
to sign up for our free daily news that I'll
put a link in today's show notes as well. I'm

(05:13):
Mike Thompson. Have a good evening,