Metricon is the country’s largest residential home builder, and credits itself as ‘”Australia’s most trusted choice”. According to an ABC report, Metricon has terminated dozens of fixed-price contracts and asked customers to sign new contracts for substantially more. The major homebuilder has also stopped paying some agents’ commission fees, without explanation. Metricon is the only builder to appear on the NSW watchdog’s complaints register this year.
Worth underscoring its important to read the small print in construction contracts, at a time when building failures are rising, thanks to the profitless boom created by poor policy and low interest rates.
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The Fed lifted rates again on Wednesday to a 22-year high, and pretty much repeated the statement from last month. But there is an expectation of higher rates for longer, and that inflation would be above target for the next couple of years.
The market reacted as expected, given the hike was well signaled, but lifted the probability of another hike this year a little, but that will be determined by incoming data. The Fed meets again late September.
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Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants.
If you are buying your home in Sydney’s contentious market, you do not need to stand alone. This is the time you need to have Edwin from Ribbon Property Consultants standing along side you.
Buying property, is both challenging and adversarial. The vendor has a professional on their side.
Emotions run high – price discovery and price transparency are hard to find – then there is the wasted time and financial investment you make.
Edwin understands your needs. So why not engage a licensed professional to stand alongside you. With RPC you know you have: experience, knowledge, and master negotiators, looking after your best interest.
Shoot Ribbon an email on info@ribbonproperty.com.au & use promo code: DFA-WTW/MARTIN to receive your 10% DISCOUNT OFFER.
The Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.8 per cent in the June 2023 quarter and 6.0 per cent annually, according to the latest data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
CPI inflation slowed in the June quarter, with the quarterly rise being the lowest since September 2021. While prices continued to rise for most goods and services, there were some offsetting price falls this quarter including for domestic holiday travel and accommodation and automotive fuel.
This means Australia’s inflation rate eased more than expected in the three months through June, reflecting global trends and bolstering the case for the Reserve Bank to pause again at next week’s policy meeting.
The result was the second consecutive decline in the pace and the RBA currently expects inflation will return to the top of its 2-3% target by mid-2025.
The easing in prices will be welcomed by Governor Philip Lowe, who has put the central bank in data-dependent mode after raising interest rates 12 times over the past 15 months. Expectations that the result will allow the RBA to stand pat on Tuesday saw the Australian dollar extend losses and the yield on policy-sensitive three-year bonds fall, while stocks rose.
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants.
If you are buying your home in Sydney’s contentious market, you do not need to stand alone. This is the time you need to have Edwin from Ribbon Property Consultants standing along side you.
Buying property, is both challenging and adversarial. The vendor has a professional on their side.
Emotions run high – price discovery and price transparency are hard to find – then there is the wasted time and financial investment you make.
Edwin understands your needs. So why not engage a licensed professional to stand alongside you. With RPC you know you have: experience, knowledge, and master negotiators, looking after your best interest.
Shoot Ribbon an email on info@ribbonproperty.com.au & use promo code: DFA-WTW/MARTIN to receive your 10% DISCOUNT OFFER.
This is an edited version of my latest live stream which was an important live discussion with Robbie Barwick from the Australian Citizens Party as we discuss the upcoming censorship bill relating to Social Media, the attempts by Banks to strangle communities and abolish cash, and the risks emerging from Central Bank Digital Currencies and other measures designed to remove hard earned societal freedoms. And we may also stray into international politics and global agendas too!
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
Wall Street closed out another week with a quiet Friday on US markers as stocks found some stability after sliding the day before.
The S&P 500 edged up by less than 0.1 per cent, to 4,536.34 to cap its eighth winning week in the last 10. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added less than 0.1 per cent, to 35,227.69.
The blue-chip index was lifted by gains of more than 1% each in Procter & Gamble (NYSE:PG) and Chevron (NYSE:CVX) . It is now up over 6% in 2023, compared to the S&P 500’s 18% rise.
To be sure, the 18.1 per cent jump for the S&P 500 this year also has critics saying the rally has come too far, too fast. The risk of recession remains because inflation and interest rates remain high.
In Australia, The RBA does not expect inflation to return to the upper end of its 2 per cent to 3 per cent target band until mid-2025.
ASX company profits are on track to contract in the 2024 financial year for the first time since the pandemic, casting a dim light on the forthcoming earnings season which investors and strategists warn will translate to weaker returns for shares. Soaring wage bills, the rising cost of borrowing, and high energy costs are eroding profit margins and offsetting the bullish performance of Australia’s jobs market and robust house price growth.
http://www.martinnorth.com/
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
My latest Friday afternoon chat with Journalist Tarric Brooker goes deep into the economic substructure of the economy, where we see people pulling in two directions at the same time – Burnout Economics!
Australian employment surpassed expectations in June and the jobless rate held at a lower revised rate, underlining the labor market’s resilience to rapid interest-rate increases.
The jobless rate remained at 3.5%, having hovered in a range of 3.4%-3.7% since June last year, Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed Thursday. The economy added 32,600 roles from a month prior, more than double estimates, and employment has now risen in nine out of the past 12 months.
The data increases pressure on the Reserve Bank to resume raising rates, with money market bets implying a better-than 50% chance of a hike to 4.35% at its Aug. 1 meeting. The Australian dollar extended earlier gains, rising to 68.25 US cents. Three-year bond yields jumped 12 basis points, heading for their largest one-day increase since July 7.
http://www.martinnorth.com/
Go to the Walk The World Universe at https://walktheworld.com.au/
Today’s post is brought to you by Ribbon Property Consultants.
If you are buying your home in Sydney’s contentious market, you do not need to stand alone. This is the time you need to have Edwin from Ribbon Property Consultants standing along side you.
Buying property, is both challenging and adversarial. The vendor has a professional on their side.
Emotions run high – price discovery and price transparency are hard to find – then there is the wasted time and financial investment you make.
Edwin understands your needs. So why not engage a licensed professional to stand alongside you. With RPC you know you have: experience, knowledge, and master negotiators, looking after your best interest.
Shoot Ribbon an email on info@ribbonproperty.com.au & use promo code: DFA-WTW/MARTIN to receive your 10% DISCOUNT OFFER.
The Australian Government has released an exposure draft of the Communications Legislation Amendment (Combatting Misinformation and Disinformation) Bill 2023.
This is an attempt to curtail free speech and allow greater Government control over what we think and say – very 1984, as I discuss with Robbie Barwick from the Citizen’s Party.
