1. Why are US stocks up again?

The story is simple — the stock market has sold off expecting bad company news created by the dual threats of rising interest rates and recession but so far US companies are reporting better than expected. Overnight, CNBC says “Goldman Sachs rose more than 2% to boost the Dow after strong trading results helped the investment bank beat expectations for earnings and revenue. That report continued a strong stretch of bank earnings, including beats from Bank of America and Bank of New York Mellon on Monday, and the financial sector as a whole outperformed on Tuesday.” It looks like a bear market rally that could only turn into a bull market rally when inflation has nice, big drop.

2. When PMs say sorry it’s looks bad

Queensland Premier was a master at apologising for mistakes and banana-benders copped it but in the UK “sorry” could spell the end for the country’s new leader Liz Truss, if this CNBC story is on the money. “Just six weeks into U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss’ tenure and the political future of yet another Conservative leader looks to be in jeopardy,” writes Sam Meredith. “Truss on Monday said she was sorry for mistakes made by her government and accepted responsibility for “going too far and too fast” with her contentious “trickle-down” economics approach.”

3. Budget to get softy-feely

The SMH’s Shane Wright says: “Next week’s federal budget will devote a section to wellbeing, including how it will be measured and what parts of society will be tracked over time to determine if government policy is working.”

Treasurer Jim Chalmers will look at education standards, the quality of health services and the state of the environment as a starting point for the nation’s first “wellbeing” budget.

4. Bosses are being warned — the unions are coming

The Albanese Government is set to introduce  multi-employer bargaining. The AFR’s Phil Coorey reveals that “the “Secure Jobs, Better Pay Bill” includes the introduction of multi-employer bargaining, the abolition of the construction industry watchdog the Australian Building and Construction Commission, changes to the Better Off Overall test to try to make the enterprise bargaining system workable, and measures to help close the gender pay gap.” The Coronavirus has already changed so many workplaces with the arrival of the work-from-home trend, but being a boss is about to change even more!

5. Does Magellan have a ratings problem?

The Australian reports that “ratings house Zenith has placed about 20 Magellan Financial Group asset management products under review, citing “material” personnel changes and dealing another blow to the investment firm.” Further, “as part of the sweeping changes, Magellan co-founder Chris Mackay is moving away from an oversight role of Magellan’s global equities strategy, which will continue to be managed by Arvid Streimann and Nikki Thomas.”

These changes could be good for the company and its returns but a ratings business, such as Zenith, needs to assess changes and work out whether they will be pluses or negatives.