00:02Well, the good news is that Australia's jobs market is still solid, with unemployment steady
00:06at 4.3%, while an extra 18,000 lucky workers found work last month.
00:12But the bad news is the jobs market is expected to get a little bit weaker in the year ahead,
00:16as the higher price of petrol and other inputs means more businesses will have to make tough
00:21choices, like sacking employees to cut costs.
00:24Now, off the back of those job numbers, the odds of the Reserve Bank lifting interest
00:28rates next month have risen from 64% to 73%.
00:32From the RBA's point of view, fewer people in work means less spending power.
00:36And a rate hike to inflict economic pain is really the only thing it can do to try and
00:41bring inflation back under control.
00:43So the idea of higher borrowing costs from next month knocked the ASX back a little, with
00:48big gains in local tech stocks failing to offset sharp falls in the shares of the major banks.
00:54But overseas, totally different story.
00:56Judging from the huge gains across some of these stock markets, you'd think the war is
01:00already over.
01:01Wall Street's main index, the S&P 500, has not only clawed back all its losses since the
01:06Iran war, it's now at a record high.
01:09And America's tech index, the NASDAQ, is higher than it's ever been.
01:12This is being driven by big bets on tech and AI stocks, which people are expecting to do
01:18well, even if the war drags on longer than expected.
01:21In commodities, the price of gold has rebounded above US$4,800 an ounce, while oil prices are
01:28still below US$100 a barrel.
01:30So more signs that markets are betting the war will somehow end soon.
01:34And finally, the Aussie dollar has risen to US$71.8, which is the highest it's been against
01:40the greenback since the middle of 2022.
01:42And that's finance.
01:44And that's finance.
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