Economic and market news
In Australia, economic and markets commentary this week looked at the Federal Government’s white paper on employment. The debate focused on whether the measures to drive down the level of full employment could be successful, particularly in the context of the Federal Government’s reforms to industrial relations laws which have the effect of decreasing flexibility in the labour market and potentially reducing productivity.
In overseas economic news, The United States central bank kept official interest rates on hold at their 22-year high. The Federal Reserve Bank Chair also signalled that the rate setting committee still expects to make one further rate rise this year. This would push the range for official US interest rates to between 5.5 per cent and 5.75 per cent.
The Bank of England also paused in its rate rises, although this was by a narrow margin of votes on the policy committee, and gave out similar ‘remaining high’ signals.
Australian indices
ASX 200: Fell again this week (2.20 per cent), to close at 7196.6 points on Tuesday.
All Ordinaries: Also fell (2.12 per cent), closing at 7395.0 points on Tuesday.
Government Bonds
Government Bond Yields (Source: Bloomberg)
|
NAME |
COUPON |
PRICE |
YIELD |
1 DAY |
1 MONTH |
1 YEAR |
|
GTAUD2Y:GOV Australia Bond 2 Year Yield |
0.25
|
92.21 |
4.07% |
+5 |
+19 |
+58 |
|
GTAUD5Y:GOV Australia Bond 5 Year Yield |
2.75 |
93.74 |
4.11% |
+7 |
+20 |
+29 |
|
GTAUD10Y:GOV Australia Bond 10 Year Yield |
3.00 |
88.63 |
4.40% |
+9 |
+24 |
+41 |
|
GTAUD15Y:GOV Australia Bond 15 Year Yield |
3.25 |
84.65 |
4.62% |
+10 |
+22 |
+49 |
Reserve Bank of Australia (Source:RBA)
|
RBA CASH RATE TARGET (RBATCTR:IND) CURRENT (per cent) |
MOST RECENT DECISION (percentage points) |
MOST RECENT CHANGE (percentage points) |
1 YEAR PRIOR (per cent) |
|
4.10 |
No change (5 September 2023) |
+0.25 (6 June 2023) |
2.35 |
Currencies (source:RBA)
As at the close on 26 September, the AUD/USD was little changed over this week, down 0.26 per cent, to 0.6414. The AUD/RMB also fell only slightly, down 0.09 per cent in the period, closing at 4.6886 on Tuesday.
Commodities
There was discussion this week about the ongoing strength in commodities markets, in particular iron ore, despite the weakness in the Chinese economy. It was highlighted that although China’s property market is weak, the country is a center for electric vehicle production, and other infrastructure and renewable energy technology, which is supporting demand across of a range of metals, minerals, and steel production.
Venture Capital
ENA Respiratory
Stoic investee ENA Respiratory shared that it is collaborating with Exploristics to use the innovative simulation software KerusCloud to help design its Phase 2b seasonal prophylaxis study.
Jayride
Stoic investee Jayride’s new travel agents' portal was featured in Travel Gossip.
Morse Micro
Stoic investee Morse Micro was the communications category winners in the 2023 IDEA Awards. This award recognizes the transformative product design and functionality in manufacturing that Morse Micro is bringing to the market.
In addition, Vice President of Business Development Kevin Daly and Director of Standards David Halasz talked to The Signal Podcast about how Wi-Fi HaLow empowers low power, low bandwidth internetconnections at the sub-1 GHz spectrum, which allows more efficient signal penetration.
Whiterabbit.ai
Stoic investee Whiterabbit.ai has won the 2023 AI TechAward with its WRDensity product, which uses AI to help detect breast cancer at its earliest stages.
Property
Auction clearance rates reportedly lifted to 74.4 per cent across Sydney at the weekend, the highest preliminary results since August. This was said to be a sign that demand is keeping up with an increase in homes being listed for sale. The latest data from CoreLogic, show a 72 per cent success rate nationwide, the highest in four weeks.
