Afternoon Report | Rate cut hopes

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 high

2. Pointsbet battle

3. Alcoa pain

4. Santos disappoints

5. Trump travails

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business News Afternoon Report
for Thursday, the seventeenth, July twenty twenty five. I'm sure, alma,
every afternoon, we've got the five stories that happened today
that you need to know about. Story number one, the
ASX two hundred hit another record closing high, up nearly
one percent to eighty six hundred and thirty nine points.
That came on the back of labor force data which

(00:24):
shows the unemployment rate crept up to four point three
percent last month. Bad years maybe, but it really does
up the chance of an interstrate cut next month. And
that's what investors like the banks and interstrate sensitive stocks
did best. Commwealth Bank, A and ZED, Westpac and Goodman
Group all jump more than one percent. Transurban and Zero
were both up two percent, while computer share finished three
percent higher. The gold stocks and retailers tended to underperform.

(00:49):
Sorry number two. The sparring in the gaming industry continues,
with ASX listed Better making an unsolicited all script takeover
bid for points Bet. Its offer proposed three point eighty
one Better shares for every one points bet share, valuing
the deal at a dollar three points. Bett said it's
reviewing the proposal and will release a target statement in

(01:12):
due course, including a formal recommendation from the board. Now
points Bett already has another bit on the table from
Japanese entertainment giant Mixy. It offers dollar twenty per share
in cash, which is a long way or very different
to dollar three in script. We'll see how that one
plays out. Storry number three US and ASX listed metals

(01:32):
producer Alcoa said it's been hit with a one hundred
and fifteen million US dollar tariff cost on its imports
of aluminium to the US from Canadian smelters. The tariffs
were set at twenty five percent from March twelve and
then increased to fifty percent on June four. Al Coal
warns it expects another ninety million US hit from tariffs
in the September quarter. Al co said it redirected some

(01:55):
Canadian produced aluminium to customers outside the US to mitigate
additional tarot costs. It said it's second quarter underlying earning
cells sharply, mostly due to lower alumina and aluminium prices
and higher tariff costs. Our cos share price on the
ASX is down nearly ten percent in the past week
straight number four in corporate news, Oil and gas group

(02:15):
Santos has increased production volumes in the second quarter, driven
by strong output in Western Australia that offset flooded impacts
in the Cooper basin. The better than expected results is
timely given Santos is under take over offer from a
Middle Eastern consortium and AASX listed car group fell after
an It announced that long serving chief executive Cameron McIntyre

(02:36):
would step down. He'll be replaced by chief financial officer
William Elliott. Finally, Stratum five. Donald Trump has asked Republican
politicians if he should fire the FED chair, Jerome Powell,
and also taken a swipe at his own base for
pushing what he calls the Jeffrey Epstein hoax. Starting with
Jerome Powell, Trump asked Republican members of Congress during an

(02:56):
Oval Office meeting if he should remove the FED chair.
Apparently they supported the idea, though Trump later said he
wasn't planning on doing anything unless there is fraud involved,
which is possible. That's according to Trump, there is no
evidence of any fraud whatsoever. Senior benkers have rallied behind
the FEED chair, supporting his independence Trump dislikes Powell for
not cutting interest rates onto Epstein. He's the disgraced financier

(03:20):
and child sex offender who took his own life from
prison in twenty nineteen and was an acquaintance of Donald Trump.
Many Republicans supporters of Trump want details of lists of
Epstein's friends and details of his death to be released.
Trump had promised he'd do that. Now he's changed his mind.
He accused his past supporters it's how he put it,
of pushing the Jeffrey Epstein hoax. The problem for Trump

(03:42):
is that many in his base don't think it's a hoax.
That's it for the Afternoon Report for Thursday, the seventeenth
of July twenty twenty five. Make sure he hit follow
on the podcast. We will be back tomorrow morning with
a Friday edition of Fewing Green Business News. I'm Sean Elmer.
Enjoy your evening