1. Stocks to slide ahead of Friday’s crucial Jobs Report

This Friday in the US brings the October unemployment number and there’s growing optimism that next week’s inflation reading in the States will show a noticeable drop in inflation. And so economists and big market players will want to see unemployment rising and jobs falling in the US. To get the good news of falling inflation, we need the bad news of a rising jobless rate. Economics is a dismal science!  CNBC says “Stocks fell on Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said inflation was still too high and therefore the central bank has further to go in raising interest rates.” This followed another 0.75% rise in the official interest rate. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 416 points, or 1.3%, eating away at its significant October rebound. The S&P 500 dropped 2% and the Nasdaq Composite was off by 2.8%.

2. Will climate crusader Mike Cannon-Brookes turn out our lights?

Mike Cannon-Brookes’ owns Grok Ventures and the AFR says he’s gained more powerful allies in his campaign to overhaul the board and ensure AGL, the country’s biggest coal power generator and CO2 emitter, goes on the fast-track to decarbonisation. But the chairman of AGL, Patricia McKenzie, says this would put pressure on greener alternative sources of power, which would push up our power bills and sometimes our lights would go out.

3. Sports fans are anti-gambling but pro-coal

As sponsors ponder supporting sporting teams as their stars revolt against being connected to certain products, a survey from Resolve Strategic showed 62% of fans want to ban gambling companies from sponsoring teams but only 27% were anti-coal and 38% opposed alcohol sponsorships.

4. China might kill its Zero Covid Policy

The SMH’s Steve Bartholomeusz reports that there is a wave of speculation that China’s harsh zero-COVID policies might be lifted and China’s financial markets loved hearing it. Social media said a committee had been formed by Beijing to develop plans for an exit from zero-COVID. On the speculation, the Hang Seng index closed up more than 5% and the Shanghai Composite jumped 2.6%. If this is true it would help both global growth and inflation.

5. House price falls could be bigger than expected

A sharp fall in new home loans has reinforced expectations of a property market slump as the Reserve Bank’s aggressive interest rate hikes crimp home loan affordability. The Australian reports that an 8.2% month-on-month drop in the total value of new loans for September came as a surprise to economists expecting a fall of around 3%. If people aren’t borrowing new loans they aren’t buying. Meanwhile, CoreLogic says the current house price fall of 6% in six months is the fastest since 1980, which was a recession year!