29 March 2024
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5 Things you need to know today

Switzer Daily
8 August 2022

1. Aussies flying out exceed tourists in
Overseas travel is rebounding big time but the problem is that it looks like one-way traffic out of Australia. Incoming travellers to Australia are currently 80% lower than Aussies jetting to overseas destinations, despite sky-high airfares and a lack of seats on planes. The Australian Bureau of Statistics says 231,480 short-term tourists came here in May but 420,110 Aussies went the other way. Also, our current political problem with Beijing is no plus for getting the 1.4 million Chinese tourists, who used to come each year before the pandemic, back to our shores.

2. US job creation goes berserk
Local stocks are expected to start the week down and you can blame great job numbers in the US for the negativity. The Yanks expected to create 258,000 jobs in July, in an economy where the stats said America was in recession. But instead, 528,000 jobs were created, which means the statistics can’t be trusted. And because the US economy looks stronger than was expected, that means interest rates in the States might have to go higher and faster. And that’s not good news for stock prices.

3. US inflation concerns
Still on the US and its stock market faces another big data moment this week — the latest inflation number. The June inflation reading saw a huge 9.1% number show up that forced the US central bank to raise interest rates by 0.75%. But US President Biden, who faces mid-term elections in exactly three months’ time, said inflation was on the way down. The July Consumer Price Inflation is released on Wednesday US time, so our stock market will react on Thursday. A lower number than 9.1% will be a plus for stocks but it might have to be significantly lower to keep stock prices rising.

4. Wheat exporters expand fleet with ferries to cater demand
With an increasing bottleneck in Australia’s wheat exports, some of the country’s biggest terminals are allowing for companies such as CBH Group, GrainCorp and Viterra to find new ways to cater the significant global demand for the grain exacerbated by the Ukraine war.

“A flurry of operators has entered the Australian market to provide additional export capacity. One way involves trans-shipment companies using lighter vessels to ferry grain from shallow ports onto larger ships waiting out at sea. Another way has mobile ship-loaders using fleets of trucks to deposit grain on vessels, bypassing permanent loading facilities run by bulk operators,” the AFR reports.

According to data from Australian Crop Forecasters, the share of bulk grain exports shipped by non-bulk handling companies has jumped to 18% so far in the 2021-22 season from just 2% three years earlier.

5. ASX to slip as reporting season takes hold
ASX futures were down 11 points or 0.16% to 6903 earlier this morning, with the AUD -0.9% to 69.11 US cents.

On Wall St: Dow +0.2% S&P 500 -0.2% Nasdaq -0.5%.

In Europe: Stoxx 50 -0.8% FTSE -0.1% CAC -0.6% DAX -0.7%.

Spot gold -0.9% to $US1775.50 an ounce in New York.

10-year yield: US 2.83% Australia 3.08%.

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