It's Friday, the eighteenth of April twenty twenty five. Welcome to the Fast five Business News by Fear and Greed, where we give you the top five business stories you need to know in just five minutes. Are Michael Thompson and Good Morning, Sean Aylmer.

It's Friday, the eighteenth of April twenty twenty five. Welcome to the Fast five Business News by Fear and Greed, where we give you the top five business stories you need to know in just five minutes. Are Michael Thompson and Good Morning, Sean Aylmer.

Good morning, Michael, Sean.

Good morning, Michael, Sean.

It might be good Friday, but we still have five stories to get through. Let's get cracking with a story number one. The labor market rebounded strongly in March, but economists still believe the Reserve Bank will cut interest rates when it meets in May.

It might be good Friday, but we still have five stories to get through. Let's get cracking with a story number one. The labor market rebounded strongly in March, but economists still believe the Reserve Bank will cut interest rates when it meets in May.

After the election, thirty two thousand people found work last month, slightly fewer than expected, and the unemployment rates stayed at four point one percent now. It followed a surprising drop of fifty three thousand jobs in February. The best way to judge what professional investors think the labor force data means for interest rates is to check out bond markets. They've now priced in a twenty five basis point cut next month. That would be May twenty. In fact, they reckon there's about a twenty five percent chance of a fifty basis point cut. Wouldn't that be nice? Earlier this week minutes from Reserve Bank Board eating of two weeks ago said the Central Bank was focused on inflation, the labor market, and international events. On that basis, only a surprisingly high inflation figure at the end of this month is likely to stop a rate cut, economists, said Sean.

After the election, thirty two thousand people found work last month, slightly fewer than expected, and the unemployment rates stayed at four point one percent now. It followed a surprising drop of fifty three thousand jobs in February. The best way to judge what professional investors think the labor force data means for interest rates is to check out bond markets. They've now priced in a twenty five basis point cut next month. That would be May twenty. In fact, they reckon there's about a twenty five percent chance of a fifty basis point cut. Wouldn't that be nice? Earlier this week minutes from Reserve Bank Board eating of two weeks ago said the Central Bank was focused on inflation, the labor market, and international events. On that basis, only a surprisingly high inflation figure at the end of this month is likely to stop a rate cut, economists, said Sean.

Moving on to story number two, now local markets, it's all about gold right now.

Moving on to story number two, now local markets, it's all about gold right now.

Yeah, gold, gold, gold, gold goal now. While the ASX two hundred yesterday was fairly flat, the gold stocks continued to do well. That's because everyone is buying gold as a safe haven asset amid all the norm oil it hit. The precious metal hit a new high yesterday. It's training about fifty We talked about US dollars, but in nousy dolls, it's about fifty two to fifty three one hundred US dollars an ounce. That's a lot of money. Energy stocks did pretty well yesterday for the day ahead of Easter. There was plenty of corporate news around, headed up by BHP announcing it shipped weaker than expected volumes of iron ore over the past three months, in part due to whether Boss Mike Henry he had a bit to say about tariffs and things. He said China's ability to ramp up to mystic cons umption will determine whether the Trump Administration's tariffs will create a global economic downturn.

Yeah, gold, gold, gold, gold goal now. While the ASX two hundred yesterday was fairly flat, the gold stocks continued to do well. That's because everyone is buying gold as a safe haven asset amid all the norm oil it hit. The precious metal hit a new high yesterday. It's training about fifty We talked about US dollars, but in nousy dolls, it's about fifty two to fifty three one hundred US dollars an ounce. That's a lot of money. Energy stocks did pretty well yesterday for the day ahead of Easter. There was plenty of corporate news around, headed up by BHP announcing it shipped weaker than expected volumes of iron ore over the past three months, in part due to whether Boss Mike Henry he had a bit to say about tariffs and things. He said China's ability to ramp up to mystic cons umption will determine whether the Trump Administration's tariffs will create a global economic downturn.

Story number three. Transurban's newest Sydney toll road, west Connects, is becoming more popular with drivers, with average daily traffic jumping more than ten percent in the March quarter compared with a year earlier.

Story number three. Transurban's newest Sydney toll road, west Connects, is becoming more popular with drivers, with average daily traffic jumping more than ten percent in the March quarter compared with a year earlier.

Motorists can use west Connects to get to Sydney Airport after a new connecting free road, the Sydney Gateway, opened in September. The bad used for West Connects shareholders, at least it's some of the other toll roads in that city. Cross City Tunnel Eastern Distributor both experienced lower traffic volumes as a result of the success of West Connects. Overall traffic numbers increased in Sydney, they increased in Melbourne. That actually dropped slightly in Brisbane, with Transurban blaming the impact of cyclone, Alfred, Transurban's share price has risen sharply amid all the tariff turmoil. It's just a stock that provides constant returns of defensive stock. Having said that, it actually tumbled at the beginning of the year, so it's now trading about where it started twenty twenty five story.

Motorists can use west Connects to get to Sydney Airport after a new connecting free road, the Sydney Gateway, opened in September. The bad used for West Connects shareholders, at least it's some of the other toll roads in that city. Cross City Tunnel Eastern Distributor both experienced lower traffic volumes as a result of the success of West Connects. Overall traffic numbers increased in Sydney, they increased in Melbourne. That actually dropped slightly in Brisbane, with Transurban blaming the impact of cyclone, Alfred, Transurban's share price has risen sharply amid all the tariff turmoil. It's just a stock that provides constant returns of defensive stock. Having said that, it actually tumbled at the beginning of the year, so it's now trading about where it started twenty twenty five story.

Number four twenty one of the country's biggest investors are demanding that the ASX allowed local shareholders to say on whether James Hardy can move its primary share market listing to the United States. As fury grows over the building Materials giants fourteen billion dollar merger with American Group AASEC.

Number four twenty one of the country's biggest investors are demanding that the ASX allowed local shareholders to say on whether James Hardy can move its primary share market listing to the United States. As fury grows over the building Materials giants fourteen billion dollar merger with American Group AASEC.

They are not happy these shareholders. In a letter to AX chair David Clark and chief executive Helen loft House, the group of investors who control more than the trillion dollars in capital have also asked the market operator to review its listing rules that allow companies to issue large numbers of shares for takeovers without a shareholder vote. According to the Finn review, this is what James Hardy is doing, and it wants to make his primary listing on Wall Street, and local shareholders basically don't get a save. The letter says, and I acquired these issues create investment risk for shareholders invested in AX listed companies generally, and we would encourage the AX to have proper regard to the rights of long standing investors in these important decisions now. Signatories include Ossie Super unisuper aware, super Hester, early fundsmen and Fidelity Australia.

They are not happy these shareholders. In a letter to AX chair David Clark and chief executive Helen loft House, the group of investors who control more than the trillion dollars in capital have also asked the market operator to review its listing rules that allow companies to issue large numbers of shares for takeovers without a shareholder vote. According to the Finn review, this is what James Hardy is doing, and it wants to make his primary listing on Wall Street, and local shareholders basically don't get a save. The letter says, and I acquired these issues create investment risk for shareholders invested in AX listed companies generally, and we would encourage the AX to have proper regard to the rights of long standing investors in these important decisions now. Signatories include Ossie Super unisuper aware, super Hester, early fundsmen and Fidelity Australia.

Story number five Sean, we thought we'd chuck in some fun facts about East, So the stuff you probably don't think about, and indeed you may not actually need to know. But it is Easter.

Story number five Sean, we thought we'd chuck in some fun facts about East, So the stuff you probably don't think about, and indeed you may not actually need to know. But it is Easter.

Yeah that's true. Yeah, Christians, I mean, obviously Christians think about the resurrection of Christ, new beginnings. That's what most of the Eastern traditions reflect in Christianity. But all the other things which aren't Christians kind of reflect that as well. So eggs, chocolate, eggs symbol of fertility. The Easter bunny nothing to do with religion. The Easter bunny dates back to hundreds of years, beginning in pre Christian Germany. The hair was said to be the symbol of pagan goddess of spring and fertility that got into mintingguilled with Christianity, We've now got the Easter bunny. But again it's kind of that whole fertility thing going on the word Easter.

Yeah that's true. Yeah, Christians, I mean, obviously Christians think about the resurrection of Christ, new beginnings. That's what most of the Eastern traditions reflect in Christianity. But all the other things which aren't Christians kind of reflect that as well. So eggs, chocolate, eggs symbol of fertility. The Easter bunny nothing to do with religion. The Easter bunny dates back to hundreds of years, beginning in pre Christian Germany. The hair was said to be the symbol of pagan goddess of spring and fertility that got into mintingguilled with Christianity, We've now got the Easter bunny. But again it's kind of that whole fertility thing going on the word Easter.

Now.

Now.

According to scholars, Easter was named after the Anglo Saxon goddess o Estra. I'm going to say that wrong, Oe s Tre fertility goddess. Once again, saying sort of concept. The point is, even though most of the stuff we're talking about has nothing to do with Christianity, it is all about fertility. Yeah, Michael. The biggest Easter egg ever made five thousand pounds Alberta, Canada, most expensive nine million pounds sold at Christie's in London two thousand and seven. It was a faber Jay egg made by the man himself, Carl faber Jay, back in nine and o two.

According to scholars, Easter was named after the Anglo Saxon goddess o Estra. I'm going to say that wrong, Oe s Tre fertility goddess. Once again, saying sort of concept. The point is, even though most of the stuff we're talking about has nothing to do with Christianity, it is all about fertility. Yeah, Michael. The biggest Easter egg ever made five thousand pounds Alberta, Canada, most expensive nine million pounds sold at Christie's in London two thousand and seven. It was a faber Jay egg made by the man himself, Carl faber Jay, back in nine and o two.

Oh so you can't actually eat it, No, you cannot. That's disappointing. There we go to the top five business stories in five minutes. Thank you Sean, Thank you Michael. It's Friday, the eighteenth of April twenty twenty five. Remember to hit follow on the podcast. And if five minutes isn't enough, you're go to find our longer daily show called Fear and Greed where ever you listen to podcasts. I'm Michael Thompson and that was the past five business news by.

Oh so you can't actually eat it, No, you cannot. That's disappointing. There we go to the top five business stories in five minutes. Thank you Sean, Thank you Michael. It's Friday, the eighteenth of April twenty twenty five. Remember to hit follow on the podcast. And if five minutes isn't enough, you're go to find our longer daily show called Fear and Greed where ever you listen to podcasts. I'm Michael Thompson and that was the past five business news by.

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Have a great day.

Have a great day.