1. US stocks up ahead of CPI

Do some Wall Street players know something about tomorrow’s CPI inflation reading? All three market indexes are up strongly but they will fall hard tomorrow if the number is a bad one. Here’s one reason for the rise in stocks in New York overnight: “Today’s action is mostly a reflex bounce after last week’s poor performance,” said Yung-Yu Ma, BMO Wealth Management chief investment strategist. “There’s probably some cautious optimism ahead of tomorrow’s CPI report, but also some underlying concern. We can see that concern today in an up market for equities that actually has the VIX rising quite sharply.” (CNBC)

2. Elon Musk Booed

CNBC reports that “Tech billionaire Elon Musk was met with a mixture of boos and cheers from an audience at a Dave Chappelle comedy show Sunday night.” In a video shared on Twitter, the crowd can be heard jeering Musk, whose recent purchase of the social media platform has attracted criticism due to concerns about mass layoffs and looser content moderation. This intro would not have helped Musk: “Ladies and gentlemen, make some noise for the richest man in the world,” Chappelle tells the audience.” But you have to laugh at Chappelle’s observation: “It sounds like some of those people you fired are in the audience.”

3. Million-dollar loser suburbs

The AFR’s Nila Sweeney today has looked at some big losing suburbs with house prices on the slide. This is what she has found from CoreLogic data: “Vaucluse has overtaken Bellevue Hill as the country’s most expensive suburb this year after eight consecutive interest rate rises shifted the housing market from record-breaking pandemic gains to the sharpest-ever national price decline.” The CoreLogic’s Best of the Best report shows that “Bellevue Hill lost its top ranking this year after the median house price plummeted by $1.626 million or 19.1 per cent to $6.882 million over the past 12 months ended November 30, according to CoreLogic.” Meanwhile, house values also lost ground in Double Bay with the median plunging by $1.145 million or 18.8% to $4.944 million, while Bronte lost by $1.147 million or 19.7% to $4.668 million.

4. Gas producers to be fried

The AFR says gas producers will feel the heat if they overcharge if and when the Government’s price caps come to fruition. “Gas producers selling a molecule above the $12 per gigajoule price cap in the wholesale market could face penalties of $50 million or more, under proposed laws to force down gas and electricity prices,” Elouise Fowler reports. “The Albanese government wants to hand the maximum powers available to the consumer watchdog to enforce the Commonwealth’s proposed 12-month gas price cap, which applies only to uncontracted gas offered on the wholesale market from currently operational gas fields.” And if gas producers breach the threshold, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission can ask a court to levy the $50 million fine plus three times the dollar amount the firm made from circumventing the price cap!

5. Star execs to be sued!

The Australian tells us that ASIC will launch Federal Court proceedings against 11 current and former directors and officers of Star Entertainment Group – including former chair John O'Neill – for alleged breaches of their duties. “ASIC alleges Star’s board and executives ‘failed to give sufficient focus to the risk of money laundering and criminal associations’. Further, the Oz reports that “the corporate watchdog's case includes claims against members of the Star Board between 2017 to 2019 including Mr O'Neill, former chief executive Matt Bekier, Kathleen Lahey, Richard Sheppard, Gerard Bradley, Sally Pitkin, Benjamin Heap and Zlatko Todorcevski.” This will make many directors quiver in their boots if ASIC looks at other companies with underperforming businesses!