Welcome to the weekend edition of The Fast five Business News by Fear and Greed. I'm Michael Thompson and Hello Sean Aylmer.

Welcome to the weekend edition of The Fast five Business News by Fear and Greed. I'm Michael Thompson and Hello Sean Aylmer.

Hi, Michael Sean.

Hi, Michael Sean.

On weekends it is very different to our weekday show. The weekdays are all about the Fast five, the top five business stories in five minutes. On the weekend, we still keep it to five minutes, but we are going to pick out the biggest business story of the week, the most remarkable business story, a sleeper story, one that's kind of flying under the radar a little bit, and then our favorite business ish story. Let's jump straight into the biggest one though. What was it for you this week?

On weekends it is very different to our weekday show. The weekdays are all about the Fast five, the top five business stories in five minutes. On the weekend, we still keep it to five minutes, but we are going to pick out the biggest business story of the week, the most remarkable business story, a sleeper story, one that's kind of flying under the radar a little bit, and then our favorite business ish story. Let's jump straight into the biggest one though. What was it for you this week?

Oh? The legislation the past this week thirty pieces of it thanks to a mega deal between the Government, the Greens and Independence David Pocock and Jackie Lamby those that grouping past twenty seven pieces of legislation. The Government and the coalition got together on some of the other stuff. What was it all about? Well, there were changes to the Reserve bang Boord, introduction of a Future Made in Australia legislation. That's a stack of money to help transition to net zero. There was changes in the housing market, hopefully to improve the housing crisis. The ban on under sixteen year olds using social media was introduced. Changes to migration laws fifthings weren't in it, extra tax on earnings from super accounts that didn't make it. They're also proposed electoral reforms that didn't make it. Very busy week, Michael.

Oh? The legislation the past this week thirty pieces of it thanks to a mega deal between the Government, the Greens and Independence David Pocock and Jackie Lamby those that grouping past twenty seven pieces of legislation. The Government and the coalition got together on some of the other stuff. What was it all about? Well, there were changes to the Reserve bang Boord, introduction of a Future Made in Australia legislation. That's a stack of money to help transition to net zero. There was changes in the housing market, hopefully to improve the housing crisis. The ban on under sixteen year olds using social media was introduced. Changes to migration laws fifthings weren't in it, extra tax on earnings from super accounts that didn't make it. They're also proposed electoral reforms that didn't make it. Very busy week, Michael.

Certainly was also a big week globally as well, Sean, because we had Donald Trump earlier in the week declaring that he had imposed a twenty five percent tariff on all products from Mexico and Canada on his first day in office. He hasn't even taken office yet. It's not for another kind of five or six weeks or so, ten percent as well on goods from China. This is all over kind of illicit drugs and issues like illegal immigration. It was a very very aggressive move and it scared investors. Markets fell, a few commodities fail, the US dollar surge surged. The shockwaves from this kind of did roll out around the world. China remarkably was the voice of reason here, saying that a trade war helps no one. The thing is, this might all just be political posturing, and look, it probably is, but it does suggest that hey, we are in for a fairly chaotic four years. Locally, the local markets were hit as well, but then they bounced back, and they bounce back really, really well, and we actually ended up having a number of records out. Another record high for the ASX two hundred, another record for Commonwealth Bank. Just a big week overall, global markets, local markets, investors, everywhere. Everyone's affected right now.

Certainly was also a big week globally as well, Sean, because we had Donald Trump earlier in the week declaring that he had imposed a twenty five percent tariff on all products from Mexico and Canada on his first day in office. He hasn't even taken office yet. It's not for another kind of five or six weeks or so, ten percent as well on goods from China. This is all over kind of illicit drugs and issues like illegal immigration. It was a very very aggressive move and it scared investors. Markets fell, a few commodities fail, the US dollar surge surged. The shockwaves from this kind of did roll out around the world. China remarkably was the voice of reason here, saying that a trade war helps no one. The thing is, this might all just be political posturing, and look, it probably is, but it does suggest that hey, we are in for a fairly chaotic four years. Locally, the local markets were hit as well, but then they bounced back, and they bounce back really, really well, and we actually ended up having a number of records out. Another record high for the ASX two hundred, another record for Commonwealth Bank. Just a big week overall, global markets, local markets, investors, everywhere. Everyone's affected right now.

Sean can't saying my most remarkable story when I'm going to anyway, it's the fact that superannuation. The amount of superannuation in the system is now four point one trillion dollars, up four percent during the September quarter. A couple of reasons for that. Superannuation guaranteed when from eleven to eleven and a half percent on July one, also strong market returns. What's pretty incredible though, of that for treating about twenty five percent a self managed super funds, people doing their own investing for retirement. Not sure whether that's a good or a bad things. This pot of money is going to keep growing. Eleven and a half percent of our wages each week goes into super mind you, two and a half million people retiring over the next decade, so some will come out quite remarkable. That pot of honey that is super.

Sean can't saying my most remarkable story when I'm going to anyway, it's the fact that superannuation. The amount of superannuation in the system is now four point one trillion dollars, up four percent during the September quarter. A couple of reasons for that. Superannuation guaranteed when from eleven to eleven and a half percent on July one, also strong market returns. What's pretty incredible though, of that for treating about twenty five percent a self managed super funds, people doing their own investing for retirement. Not sure whether that's a good or a bad things. This pot of money is going to keep growing. Eleven and a half percent of our wages each week goes into super mind you, two and a half million people retiring over the next decade, so some will come out quite remarkable. That pot of honey that is super.

It just isn't it. The other remarkable thing this week was we saw that we just really can't get inflation under control. It seems trimmed mean or the underlying inflation measure, which is the RBA's preferred rate, the one that they really look at when they're making their decisions about interest rates, et cetera, actually rose. It rose from three point two percent to three point five percent. These price pressures that we've been talking about now for so long are persisting. This is not getting better at this point. The headline inflation figure was perhaps a little bit misleading. If you just look at that, it's at two point one percent, and you go, yes, hey, this is great at the kind of the bottom of the RBA's target range. But when you take away the energy rebates and all these other things, the headline numbers will then kind of jump. The problem is for anyone with a home loan, is that the Reserve Banker is looking for sustained reductions in inflation, So we're talking kind of two quarters here. That means, unfortunately, it's pretty unlikely there'll be rate cuts until the middle of next year. Really at the earliest, which will be from a political perspective after the federal election, as well as another little element into the mix, doesn't it Sean?

It just isn't it. The other remarkable thing this week was we saw that we just really can't get inflation under control. It seems trimmed mean or the underlying inflation measure, which is the RBA's preferred rate, the one that they really look at when they're making their decisions about interest rates, et cetera, actually rose. It rose from three point two percent to three point five percent. These price pressures that we've been talking about now for so long are persisting. This is not getting better at this point. The headline inflation figure was perhaps a little bit misleading. If you just look at that, it's at two point one percent, and you go, yes, hey, this is great at the kind of the bottom of the RBA's target range. But when you take away the energy rebates and all these other things, the headline numbers will then kind of jump. The problem is for anyone with a home loan, is that the Reserve Banker is looking for sustained reductions in inflation, So we're talking kind of two quarters here. That means, unfortunately, it's pretty unlikely there'll be rate cuts until the middle of next year. Really at the earliest, which will be from a political perspective after the federal election, as well as another little element into the mix, doesn't it Sean?

Sure does, Michael. Now my sleeper story of the week, deals are back. We had the I mean you just mentioned inflation. We had all the legislation going through in Parliament. We had Donald Trump. Underneath all that, we had a bunch of deals. PE Group Pacific Equity Partners made a bid for SG Fleet Group for leasing company IAG, which already owns the RACV and NRMA. We're just going to buy the RACQ, the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland. We had an American real estate giant, Approprium Capital, bidding three hundred and seventy four million dollars for AV Jennings. AV Jennings is one of the oldest house builders in the country. All of a sudden, at the bottom end of the market, we're starting to see a bunch of deals. It's great to see.

Sure does, Michael. Now my sleeper story of the week, deals are back. We had the I mean you just mentioned inflation. We had all the legislation going through in Parliament. We had Donald Trump. Underneath all that, we had a bunch of deals. PE Group Pacific Equity Partners made a bid for SG Fleet Group for leasing company IAG, which already owns the RACV and NRMA. We're just going to buy the RACQ, the Royal Automobile Club of Queensland. We had an American real estate giant, Approprium Capital, bidding three hundred and seventy four million dollars for AV Jennings. AV Jennings is one of the oldest house builders in the country. All of a sudden, at the bottom end of the market, we're starting to see a bunch of deals. It's great to see.

Yeah, it certainly is. Can I nominate a favorite story? Sean and I suspect this will almost be our joint favorite story because we've talked a lot both on and off air this week about subc cables. It just seems to have fascinated us. Now, these are cables that are a long way below the ocean. They're on the ocean floor. They run between countries, between capital cities, all over the place. It is basically what allows information to move around the world, all right. And so there is one and a half million kilometers of these subsea data cables essentially criss crossing the ocean floors. And we had two big stories come out about them this week. Number one was that the tech giant Google backed Australia Connect which is a project that will build two new of these subsea cables between mainland capital cities and Christmas Island. So that is a big project that is going to help Australia maintain its connectivity with the rest of the world. Fantastic. You go to the other side of the world, right your head along way North and you've got a Chinese ship suspected of severing two critical Internet cables in the Baltic Sea. This speculation that this is an active sabotage that may have been orchestrated by Russia. This Chinese registered bulk carrier allegedly dragged its anchor along the seabed for more than one hundred and sixty kilometers, just severing cables, just anything that was in its path. The suggestion that China is potentially behind all of this, and the best part, of course, is the senior European investigator that told the Wall Street Journal it is extremely unlikely that the captain would not have noticed that his ship dropped and dragged a tanker, losing speed for hours and cutting cables on the way. It just shows the importance of these cables. Just an extraordinary story all round.

Yeah, it certainly is. Can I nominate a favorite story? Sean and I suspect this will almost be our joint favorite story because we've talked a lot both on and off air this week about subc cables. It just seems to have fascinated us. Now, these are cables that are a long way below the ocean. They're on the ocean floor. They run between countries, between capital cities, all over the place. It is basically what allows information to move around the world, all right. And so there is one and a half million kilometers of these subsea data cables essentially criss crossing the ocean floors. And we had two big stories come out about them this week. Number one was that the tech giant Google backed Australia Connect which is a project that will build two new of these subsea cables between mainland capital cities and Christmas Island. So that is a big project that is going to help Australia maintain its connectivity with the rest of the world. Fantastic. You go to the other side of the world, right your head along way North and you've got a Chinese ship suspected of severing two critical Internet cables in the Baltic Sea. This speculation that this is an active sabotage that may have been orchestrated by Russia. This Chinese registered bulk carrier allegedly dragged its anchor along the seabed for more than one hundred and sixty kilometers, just severing cables, just anything that was in its path. The suggestion that China is potentially behind all of this, and the best part, of course, is the senior European investigator that told the Wall Street Journal it is extremely unlikely that the captain would not have noticed that his ship dropped and dragged a tanker, losing speed for hours and cutting cables on the way. It just shows the importance of these cables. Just an extraordinary story all round.

Sean, sure is Michael all right?

Sean, sure is Michael all right?

There we go five minutes and pretty much everything you need to know in the world of business. Thank you very much. Surean, Thank you Michael, and make sure you're following the podcast, and please join us online on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X Michael Thompson And this is the Fast five Business News. Bright, you're a greet

There we go five minutes and pretty much everything you need to know in the world of business. Thank you very much. Surean, Thank you Michael, and make sure you're following the podcast, and please join us online on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook and X Michael Thompson And this is the Fast five Business News. Bright, you're a greet