1. Powell undermines stock market positivity

Yesterday the US Fed raised the official interest rate (the equivalent of our cash rate) by another 0.75%. That was expected but the comments from the Fed boss surprised the market as he maintained his need to keep raising rates aggressively to beat inflation. The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended Wednesday’s trading session 505 points lower (or 1.6%). The S&P 500 dropped 2.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite was off by 3.4%. US stocks had another bad day at the office on Thursday.

2. Husband hides $46.7 million lottery win

News.com.au reports a husband and father who won $46.7 million in a lottery but kept it a secret and he had the best excuse — he didn’t want his wife and child to become rich and lazy. He did donate 5 million yuan or $1 million out of the 219 million he won. By the way, he collected the money in a costume to avoid being identified in newspaper stories. His name was Li and I guess he must think there a lot of Li families with one child in a country of 1.4 billion that practised the one child policy from 1980 to 2016.

3. Will Perpetual be taken over?

Yesterday we learnt that a consortium of fund manager Regal and a private equity firm offered $30 a share for Perpetual as Perpetual was trying to buy into the Pendal Group. Since tabling a merger with Pendal in April, Perpetual shares have dropped as much as 32% from their pre-bid of $34.23 a share. Now the AFR reports that Regal and private equity team BPEA EQT are “expected to return with an improved offer for one of Australia’s oldest financial services companies, Perpetual, in an attempt to scupper its plans to buy Pendal Group.”

4. New UK PM but same problem

Despite a change in PM to Rishi Sunak, who will be seen as economically more responsible for financial markets than Liz Truss, the AFR tell us that “The Bank of England jacked up interest rates at the fastest pace since the 1980s, seeking to slam the brakes on stubbornly high inflation even as Britain faces what could be the longest-ever recessions.” The BOE raised rates by 0.75% to take the benchmark rate to 3% and that’s eight increases in a row! Experts are tipping a 30% fall in UK house prices, which could excite a lot of local London-lovers, who always wanted a bolt-hole in one of the greatest cities in the world.

5. Labor giving in on IR, temporarily

The Australian says: “Businesses would be able to ­negotiate with workers for six to 12 months before being roped into multi-employer bargaining by unions under confidential concessions being examined by Labor to try to win Senate support for its contentious industrial relations changes.” It’s not really a concession to business leaders but to former Wallaby, turned crossbench pollie, David Pocock for the ACT, whose vote is critical. The Australian reports that “he would consider the grace period proposal but warned the government that more changes were needed to win his support.” Pocock was a gutsy player and will be a force to be reckoned with in Parliament House.