30 March 2024
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The Yomiuri Shimbun

5 things you need to know today

Switzer Daily
23 September 2021

Stock market fears subside

Stock market fears about the debts of China-based property group, Evergrande, creating a crash have subsided, for now. Our stock market rose yesterday on reports Evergrande would make interest payments on its $400 billion worth of loans, as the Bank of China increased the supply of money to hose down fears of the company’s collapse that could lead to financial markets crashing. Overnight, Wall Street was optimistic on the news, with the Dow Jones up strongly before the close. Let’s hope it lasts.

Ouch! That’s so hot!

The Reserve Bank is now starting to worry that surging household debt linked to booming property prices could hurt our financial system. Our central bank is starting to worry about how its low interest rates policy has caused Sydney home prices to rise by 26%, 20% in Brisbane and Melbourne 15.6%. However, the Bank isn’t planning to raise rates but it could force banks to lend less and say ‘no’ more often to borrowers!

China policy hits our coal

After hitting our exports of wine, seafood, barley and lately iron ore, reports say China is now going after our coal producers, again. China had decided to stop funding the building of coal-fired power stations in other countries, which it was thought would hurt our coal producers, which added $40 billion in exports to our economy last year. However, economist Saul Eslake says our coal goes to Japan, South Korea and India. This China action to stop funding coal-fired power stations is to improve the country’s green credentials ahead of the climate change conference in Glasgow in November.

The Dow is up 1% overnight 

The Dow Jones rose 333.48 or 1% to 34,258.32, the S&P 500 gained 41.45 or 0.95% to 4,395.64 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 150.45 or 1.02% to 14,896.85

National Gallery of Australia purchases $14 million sculpture 

With it's most expensive purchase yet, the National Gallery of Australia has acquired Australian artist Lindy Lee’s Ouroboros, which the Sydney Morning Herald has described as a '13 tonne, 4 metre-high torus of reflective recycled metal that will be installed in the gallery’s garden in 2024.'

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