Afternoon Report | Energy slumps

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 closes flat

2. PM's plan to fight anti-semitism

3. ANZ's second strike

4. Housing market profitability soars

5. Warner Bros prefer Netflix

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business News Afternoon Report
for Thursday, the eighteenth of December twenty twenty five. Oh,
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. The SMPA SEX two hundred
closed pretty much flat today, up just three points or
zero point zero four percent, to eighty five hundred and

(00:25):
eighty eight points. The energy sector slumped a couple of
reasons for that. First, oil had been sitting at five
year lows on renewed hopes of an end to the
Ukraine conflict, but a spike in geopolitical tensions has seen
the price of crude rise by two percent. Woodside was
sold off down two point two percent, but that was
also on news that CEO Meg O'Neil is leaving to

(00:47):
take on the chief executive role at Global Giant BP. Elsewhere,
local techtocs struggled today after a bit of a tough
night on Wall Street. Tech giant Oracle was sold off
five percent after a report that US fund managed Blue
Owl won't back a ten billion US dollar deal to
build a data center in Michigan. Which then fueled concerns

(01:08):
over the outlook for the AI boom. Locally, shipbuilder Hostel
was one of the best performers on the bors today,
up more than five percent after signing a one billion
dollar contract with the Australian Army to build eighteen landing
craft vessels in Western Australia onto story number two now
and Prime Minister Anthony Albernezi has announced a five point
plan to fight anti Semitism, including a crackdown on hate

(01:32):
preachers and those who promote violence in the aftermath of
the Bondeo Beach terror attack. There'll also be a task
force led by David Gonsky designed to improve Holocaust and
anti Semitism teaching in the national education system. Meanwhile, three
more funerals have been held today for victims of the shooting,
including a service for ten year old Matilda, the youngest

(01:55):
to be killed in the attack. New South Wales Premier
Chris Min's red a poem called to Matilda before a
funeral procession down Oxford Street in Sydney's Eastern Suburbs, with
Labour Front bencher Tanya Pliversk and Governor General Sam Mostyn
among the hundreds of mourners. Story number three. A and Z'
shareholders have delivered a second strike against the bank's remuneration report,

(02:17):
with Chairman Paul O'Sullivan signaling more executive pay could still
be clawed back. Thirty two point four percent of investors
voted against the pay report at the bank's AGM today,
venting frustration over A and Z's string of compliance failures
and a record two hundred and forty million dollar fine
that A and z received from Assek. O'Sullivan acknowledged the

(02:39):
protest and said that the board can make further adjustments
to executive pay where appropriate. He defended the board's action
so far, saying it had already stripped thirty two million
dollars in bonuses from current and former executives, including former
chief executive Shane Elliott, who's now taking legal action over
that decision. A and zed Is is now the first

(03:00):
major bank since Westpac in twenty nineteen to receive a
second strike on remuneration. Story number four. Profitability in Australia's
housing market has hit its highest level in more than
twenty years. Catality's latest Pain and Gain report shows ninety
five point five percent of residential property sellers made a
profit in the September quarter that is the strongest result

(03:23):
since two thousand and five. The median gain from resale
hit a new record of three hundred and thirty five
thousand dollars, which was driven by rising home prices after
three interest rate cuts. This year. Brisbane led the Capital
cities for profitability, with almost every resale delivering a gain
and a median profit of four hundred and forty four

(03:44):
thousand dollars. Adelaide and Perth followed closely behind. Houses continued
to outperform units, while Regional Australia is still more profitable
than the combined Capital cities. And finally, story number five,
Warner Brothers Discovery has urged shareholders to rejected a hostile
takeover bid from Paramount, insisting that a proposed deal with

(04:05):
Netflix remains the better option. In a letter to investors,
Warner described Paramounts all cash offer as illusory, raising concerns
about how the bid would be funded, questioning the credibility
of the equity backing it. Paramount's proposal to buy the
whole Warner Brothers business values the company at about seventy
eight billion US dollars, but Warner Brothers says Netflix's plan

(04:27):
to buy its studios and the Hbomac streaming platform offers
greater certainty and less risk, saying it's backed by a
company with a market cap above four hundred billion US
dollars with an investment grade balance sheet. The Netflix deal
is valued at roughly seventy two billion US dollars compared
to the seventy eight billion of the Paramount offer. Paramount

(04:49):
claims that its offer delivers better value and would face
fewer regulatory hurdles. The company, though, can still raise its
bid before its offer expires in early January. And that's
it for the Afternoon Report for Thursday, the eighteenth of December.
Make sure you're following the podcast and head along to
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free daily newsletter by Michael Thompson. Enjoy your evening