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.
ASC finishes higher
PM and Press Club
Airport strikes
Cyclone hits Rio
Trump wants Putin meet
Welcome to the Fear and Green Business News Afternoon Report for Friday, the twenty fourth of January twenty twenty five. I'm Sean Aylmer. Every afternoon, we've got the five stories that happened today that you need to know about. Story number one. The SMPASX two hundred rose almost half a percent today to close at eighty four hundred and nine points. It was up just over one percent for the week. It was a retailers doing best today. Premier Investment, which yes they got approval to sell most of its brands to Meyer, jumped more than six percent. West Farmers rose more than three percent and was easily the best of the large caps that came after an upgrade from Investment Bent, Goldman, Sacks, and Harvey Norman rose around two and a half percent. The energy stocks were among the worst performers, with Woodside down two percent more than all bit of a lacklustered day ahead of the long weekend. The banks were mixed, the big miners were flat to positive, and Telstra was down to touch. Story number two. Anthony Alberizi spoke at the National Press Club today, expanding on a number of subjects, not the least being Donald Trump. When asked about the US president's decision to again exit the Paris Climate Agreement, Miss Albernesi said Australia won't follow The decision in the US provides an opportunity for Australia, he said, and could boost job prospects in the transition to renewable energy industries. The Prime Minister agreed to holding election debates before the next pole do in before the middle of May. Missra Alberzi said there'll be no referendums if Labour's re elected, and he defended the party's record on anti Semitism. He said the government has made the right decisions in responses to the October seven Hamas terror attacks on Israel, including calling out hate crimes and antisemitism at home and Miss Albernesi said he believes the worst of the international economic challenges are behind Australia, but he recognizes things are still hard for average families around the country. Star at number three. More than one thousand ground handlers are striking at key airports across the country today, threatening to delay flights ahead of long weekend. The Transport Workers Union said workers stop work for four hours at Sydney Melbourne Brisbane Airports this morning as part of a year long dispute with major airport contract at Donata over pay and conditions. A Quantas spokesman said it had contingency plans in place. Danata only services Quantus's international fights, not the domestic ones. The TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine said Donata was one of the main recipients of Quantus's cost cutting ground handling contracts after the airline illegally retrenched eighteen hundred workers. The TWU had struck an in principal deal with Danata last month, involving an eleven percent pay rise over two years, averting strike action over Christmas. However, the union said that the deal was ultimately not what was promised when they saw the details. A Danata spokeswoman said it was deeply disappointed that the Transport Workers Union had chosen to withdraw from the in principal agreement. Stronumer four Rio Tinto has warned that first quarter iron ore shipments from Western Australia's Pilbri region will be lower than expected after a cyclone dropped a month's worth of rain in just twenty four hours and flooded its port infrastructure. A railcar dumper that offloads iron ore from trains to port operations has been put out of action for a month after tropical Cyclone Sean in undated Kratha with two hundred and seventy four millimeters of rain earlier in the week. The miner warned that the closure would affect its first quarter iron ore output, but reiterated its full year guidance of shipping between three twenty three million and three thirty eight million tons is unchanged and story number five. US President Donald Trump wants to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin as soon as possible to secure an end to the war with Ukraine. He's also expressed a desire to work towards cutting nuclear arms. In the run up to his November five election victory, Trump declared many times that he would have a deal in place between Ukraine and Russia on his first day in office, if not before. His advisors now concede the war will take months to resolve. Trump told the World Economic Forum in Davos fire video link that he's unsure that the US should be spending anything on NATO, and he pledged precious outdi Arabia and other oil producing countries to bring down the cost of oil, saying it would drive down inflation. Meanwhile, a federal judge in the US has temporarily blocked Donald Trump's administration from implementing the Republican President's executive order kurtailing the right of automatic birthright citizenship in the United States, calling it blatantly unconstitutional. That's it for the Afternoon Report for Friday, the twenty fourth of January twenty twenty five. Make sure you hit follow on the podcast. We'll be back tomorrow morning with a weekend edition of Fear and Read Business News. I'm Sean Elmer. I'm enjoy your weekend