1. Stocks set to fall on US political uncertainty

US stocks were lower on overnight — following recent market gains — as results of the midterm elections provided no clear answers about who would control Congress. Stocks are coming off three-straight days of gains into the election, where Wall Street was expecting Republicans to gain ground and block any future tax and spending plans but US voters have thrown Wall Street an uncertainty curve ball and stocks are down.

2. RBA gives rate worriers good and bad news

The good news is that the  Reserve Bank deputy governor Michele Bullock believes inflation may be about to peak but the bad news is that households and businesses hoping for financial relief will have to wait, with warnings interest rates will continue to rise and higher electricity and gas prices will keep hitting consumers into 2024. Financial markets expect the RBA to lift interest rates at their final meeting of the year next month and take the cash rate to a peak of 4% by September 2023.

3. Banks accused of ripping off slack savers

The advice for anyone trying to save is not to be complacent and go looking for the 12 or so banks from among the 90 on RateCity’s database that have passed on last week’s increase in the cash rate by the RBA of 0.25% to savers. And be aware that some rate rises to 3.5% on saving accounts only last for a number of months before reverting to a low 1.1%.

4. Blame game is a gas

As the Albanese Government considers price caps on coal and gas suppliers, the coal industry says it’s not their fault that electricity prices are so high. The SMH says “the Minerals Council of Australia, which counts coal miners such as Glencore, Whitehaven and BHP among its membership, on Wednesday rejected the suggestion that capping coal prices would lower energy bills, and blamed the price of gas for setting higher electricity costs.”

Minerals Council chief executive Tania Constable said coal’s share of the east coast generation mix was shrinking, while renewables such as wind, solar and hydro continued to grow. “Coal is not the problem here, and it is misleading to suggest otherwise,” she said. Excuse the pun but this battle about price caps is about to heat up.

5. Arise ‘Lord’ Elon Musk

Musk’s recently acquired Twitter has announced a new verification program that will be used to mark official accounts of companies, media outlets, brands, public figures and government agencies.

The SMH says “the move comes after owner Elon Musk previously said the existing blue tick would become a paid-for feature costing $US8 ($12.40) per month.

But this is at odds with something he once crusaded against. “The new official label, detailed on Twitter by employee Esther Crawford, was immediately panned by users as the exact same thing as the original blue tick, which Musk has complained is a ‘lords and peasants’ system,” Tim Biggs explained.

When Musk’s new system rolls out in the coming days, any user will be able to pay for the blue tick as part of the Twitter Blue subscription service. It will not require ID verification, but will be disabled if the user changes their Twitter name.