Afternoon Report | ASX hits four week low

Published Dec 13, 2024, 5:41 AM

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. Westpac AGM

  2. Nuclear costings

  3. Airport strikes

  4. AMP invests in Bitcoin

  5. Bain bids for Insignia

Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business News Afternoon Report for Friday, the thirteenth of December twenty twenty four. I'm sure Aylmer Every afternoon We've got the five stories that happened today that you need to know about. Straightham why I'm The local share market fell to a four week low this morning after a week leading from Wall Street, before making up some ground to close down nearly half a percent to eighty two hundred and ninety six points. For the week, the market was off about two percent. The big miners led the way lower today, with fortesqu Metals Group, Rio Tinto, and BHP all down sharply. The banks were mixed, while the Energy index outperformed. A bit of corporate news around. Westpac held its annual general meeting, the last Route going CEO Peter King. At the meeting, Peter King said the bank is well positioned and knows that more needs to be done to tackle climate change. South thirty two the minor fell more than one percent despite receiving the backing of Western Australia's Environment Minister to extend the life of its Worsley Alumina project. GPT fell after it said it had acquired a fifty percent stake in the parent group. We're talking real estate investment trusts here for just under five hundred million dollars. And Peter Hollahan, the CEO of Resolute Mining, who was held hostage in Mali, is taking a leave of absence to the end of January. He certainly deserves it. We hope he's okay. Story number two. The Coalition claims its nuclear power plan will cost up to two hundred and sixty three billion dollars less than Labour's renewable plans over the next twenty five years, meaning cheaper power in the long run. Today opposition later, Peter Dunton released costings on his nuclear power option, which includes seven reactors. It was done by Frontier Economics and it estimates that the coalition's policy will deliver net zero emissions electricity by twenty fifty at a cost of three hundred and thirty one billion dollars. Under the coalition's model, renewable energy will still be the dominant source of power by twenty fifty, responsible for fifty four percent of generation in the national electricity mark, but nuclear power will provide thirty eight percent. The remainder will come from storage such as batteries and gas. According to a report in the Financial Review, under the government's policy, about ninety four percent of generation by twenty fifty would be renewable energy, with the rest to come from gas and storage. Labour's plans predict ninety percent of coal fired power will have exited the system by twenty thirty four. While coal will play no long term role on the coalition's plan either, it will need to stay operational for a few years beyond twenty thirty four, and to nuclear reactors are running to keep the electricity grid working. However, the coalition's plan will use less gas than Labour's policy a lot in that one sorry number. Three. Hundreds of Quantus engineers walked off the job this morning during one of the busiest times of the year, after long running wage negotiations between unions and the airline stalled. More than five hundred engineers across major Australian airports began walking out from three thirty am this morning, according to AAP, and they're set to strike until tomorrow morning. The union once a twenty five percent pay rise over three years. Quantas said the strike action has had little effect on Christmas flights, but did urge customers to give themselves extra time because of the crowds. Quantus said it's offering a competitive package including pay rises, upskilling and career progression. The strike comes after a six week pause in industrial action, during which the parties resolved to continue negotiations over a new enterprise agreement. Storry number four AMP has invested twenty seven million dollars in bitcoin, the first time a major superannuation fund has purchased the asset class. It is in a huge portion of the group's fifty seven billion dollars in funds under management, but it certainly has been a lucrative investment, with the purchase occurring when the cryptocurrency was around sixty five thousand US dollars a unit. Today it's closer to one hundred thousand US dollars a unit. Amp's chief investment officer and Shelley is quoted in the media as saying it's part of the group's diversification strategy. Some small self managed super funds hold cryptocurrenty, but not the big ones. Thus far, no other major supergroups come out saying they're about to enter that market. And Story number five Financial Services group. Insignia Financial today received a two point seven billion dollar takeover bid from private equity group Bane Capital that sent its share price up eight percent. Used to be known as IF Holdings, has a bunch of financial partners office superannuation products about two hundred and eighty eight billion dollars worth of funds under management. The bid is a third extent premium to the closing price on Wednesday, which was ahead of media reports of the bid. That's it for the afternoon report for Friday, the thirteenth of December twenty twenty four. Make sure you hit follow on the podcast. We'll be back to tomorrow morning with the weekend edition of the Fe'ering Greed Business News. I'm Suan Eelma. Enjoy your evening,

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