Afternoon Report | Stellar week for ASX

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 up

2. Baby Bunting soars

3. PM faces criticism from US

4. CBA boss hits back

5. Trump downplays US/Russia summit

Find out more: https://fearandgreed.com.au/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business News Afternoon Report
for Friday, the fifteenth of August twenty twenty five. Oh
Michael Thompson. Every afternoon, we've got the five stories that
happened today that you need to know about. Let's go
story number one. A stellar week really on the local
share market. Every single day this week has seen a
new record set, and this afternoon there was a record

(00:23):
closing high of eighty nine hundred and thirty nine points.
That's up zero point seven percent today and one point
five percent for the week. Financials worthy strongest today. All
of the Big four climbed, even Comwealth Bank up zero
point six percent after losing ground for the last couple
of days. Westpac had another cracker of a day, up
another two point one percent after its soared yesterday off

(00:45):
the back of its earnings results. Outside of the bank's
ampoll climbed seven point seven percent. Investors like the deal
to buy EG Groups service stations for one point one
billion dollars. I told you about that one yesterday and
hearing implanned group. Cochlear rose one percent on the back
of its turnings results. Story number two is kind of
linked to story number one, shares in baby Bunting rocketed

(01:07):
more than forty percent today after a bumper earnings result,
sparking hopes that the three years share price slide might
finally be over. The baby goods retailer has really got
on the offensive, unveiling plans to double its store network
and chase a significant market across Australia and New Zealand.
The market is worth six point three billion dollars. The

(01:27):
goal is pretty straightforward, win more of parents spending on
everything from prams and car seats to clothes and toys
and nappies, and try and hold its ground against discount
department stores, but also against Amazon and eBay. It's branching
out beyond retail and newly created media arm as tipped
to deliver up to two percent of revenue, while same
day delivery via Uber is apparently proving popular with new

(01:51):
parents who want their baby purchases immediately and certainly aren't
going to drive to the shops to get it onto.
Story number three now, Anthony Albanezi is brushing off criticism
from Washington over his decision to recognize a Palestinian state,
even after US Ambassador to Israel, like Huckabee revealed quote
disgust and disappointment inside the Trump administration. The Prime Minister

(02:13):
says Huckabee represents the US in Israel, not Australia, and
that his job is to put Australia's interests first. He
told ABC Radio that Australians were horrified by the October
seven her mass attacks, but also by the tens of
thousands of deaths in Gaza, the starvation and the cues
for food and water. He said, and this is a
quote that provokes, not surprisingly a human reaction. He argues,

(02:35):
recognition is about momentum towards a two state solution and
follows similar moves by other countries, including France and Canada
and the UK. He also warned the media to be
wary of Hermas propaganda after conflicting statements emerged over the
last twenty four hours from the group about Australia's decision.
Story number four. Commonwealth Bank boss Matt Common has fired

(02:57):
back at a productivity commission proposed to slug the country's
biggest companies with a new tax, warning it could hurt
the very firms that keep the economy humming. Ahead of
next week's economic roundtable in Canberra, Matt Common has told
The Financial Review that the idea of a five percent
corporate cash flow tax on about five hundred large companies
would punish the most productive businesses and the biggest taxpayers.

(03:21):
The money would be used to fund a company tax
cut to twenty percent for small and medium sized businesses.
Common argument is essentially that big business matters. He points
out that the top twenty corporate taxpayers kicking fifty billion
dollars of the nation's one hundred and forty billion dollar
company tax take, and that workers at large firms are
more productive. The banks, miners and big retailers don't just

(03:42):
employ huge numbers of Australians, they pay a disproportionate share
of the tax bill. What all this means is that
next week's roundtable is going to be very interesting. Indeed,
story number five, speaking of important summits, these stages set
in Anchorage in Alaska for tomorrow's meeting between US President
Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss hopefully

(04:05):
ending the conflict in Ukraine. But Donald Trump is doing
his best to temper expectations. He's told reporters today that
quote this meeting sets up the second meeting. It's like
a chess game. That follow up meeting with Ukraine's Vladimir
Zelenski at the table is where quote, the give and
take would happen. He went on to say, and again
I quote, I don't want to use the word divvy

(04:28):
things up, but to a certain extent it's not a
bad term. He did, however, warn that there was a
one in four chance that the talks could fail, triggering
severe consequences. That's it for the afternoon report for Friday,
the fifteenth of August twenty twenty five. Make sure you
follow on the podcast and we'll be back tomorrow morning
with the weekend edition of Fear and Breed. I'm Michael Thompson.
Enjoy your evening.