1. Aussie economy surges!

The Australian economy has surged in the December quarter, with a big bounce-back for growth. Our economy grew by a huge 3.1% in the December quarter of 2020, which beat expectations of a 2.5% lift. Strong quarterly  growth rates over the past two quarters are making up for the big 7% drop in GDP in the June quarter last year because of the Coronavirus and lockdowns that followed. The September quarter showed growth of 3.4%, making the six-month growth of the economy the biggest surge in economic activity since quarterly records have been kept in 1959! For the whole year, our economy contracted by 2.5% but you can blame that on the huge 7% drop in the June quarter, which was the worst since the Great Depression. This V-shaped bounce-back of our economy is one of the best in the world.

2. Rio Tinto Chair blasted from his job

The chairman of big miner Rio Tinto was blasted out of his job following the companies disregard for indigenous history. Early in 2020, Rio Tinto had to apologise for blowing up 46,000-year-old Aboriginal caves in Western Australia dating back to the last Ice Age.Artefacts found there included a 4,000 year old belt made from human hair! Then in September last year, shareholders successfully blasted three of the miner’s most senior executives, including the company’s CEO, out of their jobs. But as the SMH’s Elizabeth Knight reveals, those Aussie shareholders now have kicked the chairman, UK-based Simon Thompson, out of the company. Officially he resigned but his exit shows that big multinational companies and their often ego-inflated executives and directors are more accountable in the age of activist shareholders.

3. Rising interest rates on their way

US stocks again are down on concerns that rising interest rates are coming, and this won’t help the local market today. Wall Street struggled with rising interest rates in the bond market overnight, which is defying the goals of central banks, including our own Reserve Bank, to keep interest rates low to ensure economies continue to rebound out of the Coronavirus recession. However, the bond market players see the big economic growth rates and the success of the vaccination programs globally, and they’re thinking that a big economic boom is coming, so central banks will have to raise official interest rates faster than promised. The central banks won’t lie down and let rates rise but the question is: how long can they keep rates down? That’s why the stock market is getting a little nervous because rising interest rates make stocks less attractive. Tech stocks like Tesla and Facebook were down overnight in the US and the likes of Afterpay should get sold off today on our local market because when it comes to stocks we play follow the leader, which is Wall Street.

4. Qantas relaunches mystery flights

Qantas has announced a series of day trip flights in the coming months, relaunching the mystery flight concept that the airline last offered in the 1990s. 120 seats on a private Boeing 737 will be available to book from midday today, with economy tickets from Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne selling for $737.

5. Nasdaq down 2.7% as tech stocks drop

The Nasdaq fell 361.04 points or 2.70% on Wednesday as major tech stocks including Amazon, Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft dropped more than 2% and Netflix dropped almost 5%. The S&P 500 was also dragged down, falling 50.57 points or 1.31% to 3,819.72, along with the Dow Jones, which closed 121.43 points or 0.39% lower to 31,270.09.