Local market reacts to Reserve Bank of Australia's rate decision

The Australian dollar had an up-and-down day on the back of the Reserve Bank of Australia's move to keep interest rates on hold.

Transcript

00:00Well, the market odds of a rate cut today were not zero yesterday, but 18 per cent.

00:07So a few punters were tearing up their betting slips this afternoon and buying dollars.

00:11However, the Aussie fell because the words around today's inaction raised the odds of

00:17a cut in May.

00:18Also, the ABS reported retail sales for February this morning came in slightly below expectations.

00:24For the year to February, retail trade rose 3.6 per cent.

00:28But what this graph tells you is that it's entirely due to rising prices and population.

00:33We're each buying no more stuff than we were five years ago.

00:37As for house prices, that fall of half a per cent between October and January is now history.

00:42The national median is back at a new record high.

00:46So in the matter of improving housing affordability, that was it.

00:51As a multiple of average weekly earnings, the national median house price is not quite

00:55back to the 2022 record high of 14.6 times because wages have been rising.

01:01But it's not far off, 14.2, well over double the average of the whole 20th century.

01:08The US share market recovered a bit last night, but investors are cats on a hot tin roof awaiting

01:13Donald Trump's big tariff reveal tomorrow.

01:16US CEO confidence has suffered its second biggest fall in history, second to the GFC.

01:21And as you can see from the chart, the emotions of American bosses tend to be correlated with

01:27national GDP.

01:28The local market popped up nearly 1 per cent, with the big miners and banks attracting buyers.

01:33And gold has gone above $5,000 Australian for the first time ever, with safe havens

01:39looking more appealing every day.

01:41Also, oil jumped 3.5 per cent after a thought bubbled out of President Trump that he might

01:46curtail shipments of Russian crude.

01:50And that's finance.