1h agoTue 2 Sep 2025 at 6:55amMarket snapshot<\/p>\n
Prices current around 4:55pm AEST<\/p>\n
Live updates on the major ASX indices:<\/b><\/p>\n
57m agoTue 2 Sep 2025 at 7:06am<\/p>\n
Good night and good luck<\/p>\n
Big day for Aussie economics nerds, with the National Accounts out tomorrow.<\/p>\n
There’s economic growth (GDP), data on profits, wages, household savings, and so much more to look forward to.<\/p>\n
I can’t wait!<\/p>\n
Loading1h agoTue 2 Sep 2025 at 6:52amAustralian shares close 0.3% lower<\/p>\n
The benchmark ASX 200 index has finished down 0.3% at 8,901 points<\/b>.<\/p>\n
Discretionary and non-discretionary consumer stocks, real estate and healthcare led the decline<\/b>, while the market heavyweight financial and mining sectors gained<\/b> to stop the index posting a much heftier slide.<\/p>\n
Just 60 companies out of the top 200 gained, while 133 fell.<\/p>\n
Leading the declines were Bapcor, Reece and Pilbara Minerals<\/b>.<\/p>\n
![\"ASX](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/lcimg-d8356b4d-4848-4d2e-8c26-9ce773b1c694.png\")
ASX 200 top 10 losers (LSEG)<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Polynovo, NRW Holdings and Clarity Pharmaceuticals<\/b> toped the gains.<\/p>\n
![\"ASX](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/lcimg-a02cac9c-1377-49a6-abb2-5e1115fe415b.png\")
ASX 200 top 10 gainers (LSEG)<\/p>\n
Chinese markets<\/b> were generally lower, while the Nikkei<\/b> edged up.<\/p>\n
The Australian dollar<\/b> was fairly stead around 65.39 US cents<\/b> by 4:50pm AEST.<\/p>\n
1h agoTue 2 Sep 2025 at 6:26am<\/p>\n
Queen Vic market redevelopment attracts controversy \u2026 over open-air carpark<\/p>\n
I can understand the concerns about the affordability, or lack thereof, of the new apartments, or any effects on the old market buildings.<\/p>\n
But to want to protect this:<\/p>\n
![\"Current](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/lcimg-ab34bacb-0233-45c4-9a74-44373d01131d.png\")
Current open air carpark at Queen Victoria Markets (ABC News: Norman Hermant)<\/p>\n
From this:<\/p>\n
![\"Plans](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/lcimg-d5fad065-6dd5-476e-8b04-0a594d3254e4.png\")
Plans for Queen Victoria Market redevelopment (City of Melbourne)<\/p>\n
That I don’t quite get.<\/p>\n
Is this a case of extreme NIMBYism or are there genuine problems with replacing a carpark taking up prime central Melbourne real estate with a public park?<\/p>\n
Can any Melburnians please enlighten me?<\/p>\n
1h agoTue 2 Sep 2025 at 6:09am<\/p>\n
Lock them into using a certain currency<\/p>\n
\nReading the \u2018stablecoin\u2019 article from Rabobank that Gareth referred to has one very telling statement in it. \u2018The US could pressure Saudi Arabia , Kuwait and other like energy producing nations to insist on payment in US backed stablecoins so everyone will need to hold them.\u2019The USA then controls energy supplies throughout most of the world if that happens ! Won\u2019t be able to disagree with the nation that then decides if the lights stay on.<\/p>\n
– Phillip<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Bingo.<\/p>\n
If there’s a risk of the US dollar losing its power as the world’s reserve currency, why not shift to stablecoin and force countries to trade in that, to maintain its power?<\/p>\n
That’s how the game is always played.<\/p>\n
Think of how Harry Dexter White helped to cement the US dollar at the centre of the post-war Bretton Woods system, at the expense of Keynes’s idea of using Bancor<\/a> as a new supranational currency.<\/p>\n
Or think of how the CFA Franc<\/a>\u00a0still ties 14 African countries to France’s treasury, which restricts their sovereignty.<\/p>\n
It’s an old trick.<\/p>\n
2h agoTue 2 Sep 2025 at 6:03amGold hits record high above $US3,500, analyst believes it could run even further<\/p>\n
Gold hit a record high of $US3,508.50 an ounce today<\/b>, but has since edged back to $US3,493 (around 4:00pm AEST).<\/p>\n
But Swissquote Bank senior analyst Ipek Ozkardeskaya<\/b> believes the precious metal, along with silver, can trade higher still.<\/p>\n
\n“In metals, gold hit a fresh all-time high above $US3,500 per ounce in Asia, surpassing its April peak,” she notes.<\/p>\n
“The rally reflects a softer [US] dollar but also strong central-bank and institutional demand as investors rotate out of US Treasuries.<\/p>\n
“The share of US Treasuries held by foreign central banks has been declining for over a decade, but that shift into gold accelerated this year amid US debt concerns, ratings downgrades, trade tensions and geopolitical risks. Central banks’ gold allocations even surpassed their US Treasury holdings this year.<\/p>\n
“Meanwhile, Indian pension funds are seeking approval to invest in gold ETFs, hinting at strong demand despite record price.<\/p>\n
“Silver also surged to its highest level since 2011. Both metals have further room to run. Yet, with the gold\u2013silver ratio still above its long-term range of 60\u201380, silver may have greater upside potential.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
2h agoTue 2 Sep 2025 at 5:40am<\/p>\n
Dark mode<\/p>\n
Hi Rob, our techies will be glad you noticed the new functionality, they were very proud of finally being able to get it done.<\/p>\n
2h agoTue 2 Sep 2025 at 5:32am<\/p>\n
A follow up<\/p>\n
\nYeah it\u2019s strange to think with all the technology changes you refer to , we might as well revert to the original decision maker and toss a coin ! 50\/50 chance of being right is probably better than trying to decide if Trump Is right or wrong based on in depth analysis.<\/p>\n
– Phillip<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
You’re probably right.<\/p>\n
There are so many complicating factors when trying to analyse what’s happening over there, and one of them is that the rapid pace of change is causing so much chaos.<\/p>\n
You can get a sense of what I mean when reading Rabobank’s recent article on stablecoins<\/a>.<\/p>\n
This was the summary at the top of the paper:<\/p>\n
\n
- The post-WW2 and Cold War global architecture is crumbling; systemic geopolitical and geoeconomic instability is rising; so are risks of geo-financial instability as fiscal deficits grow, public debt rises, and hopes for rate cuts meet sticky inflation.<\/li>\n
- Against this backdrop, stablecoins may play a pivotal role \u2013 though ironically they are likely to create further instability before cementing an alternative.\u00a0\u00a0<\/li>\n
- This report will explain what stablecoins are; why people may want to use them; why the US government certainly wants us to use them; and the hypothetical geopolitical and market implications of their roll out.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Note that second dot-point:<\/p>\n
“Against this backdrop, stablecoins may play a pivotal role \u2013 though ironically they are likely to create further instability before cementing an alternative<\/b>.”<\/p>\n
So I guess if you can see a coherent strategy at play, and you know that that strategy will create more chaos and instability in the short-term, then you won’t be surprised by the instability you’re seeing.<\/p>\n
However, the ‘risky’ part is extremely risky.<\/p>\n
How is Trump achieving such rapid change? By declaring himself all powerful, by pouring thousands of ICE agents onto the streets to terrorise American citizens and non-citizens alike, by letting oligarchs have their way with peoples’ personal data, and much more.<\/p>\n
Those are the things Mr Picton didn’t mention.<\/p>\n
2h agoTue 2 Sep 2025 at 5:16am<\/p>\n
Westpac forecasts June quarter GDP of 0.4pc<\/p>\n
Westpac’s economics team<\/b> has released its final forecast for tomorrow’s June quarter GDP figure.<\/p>\n
They’ve left their forecast unchanged at 0.4%<\/b> quarter-on-quarter.<\/p>\n
That means our updated listed looks like this:<\/p>\n
\n
- Citi: 0.5%<\/li>\n
- ANZ: 0.4%<\/li>\n
- CBA: 0.5%<\/li>\n
- RBC: 0.5%<\/li>\n
- Westpac: 0.4%<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
2h agoTue 2 Sep 2025 at 5:07am<\/p>\n
The dirigiste-in-chief<\/p>\n
\nG\u2019day Gareth. Always look forward to your weekend articles . Your review of Ben Picton\u2019s comments last weekend had , for me , one really surprising element. He described current economic planning in the USA as \u201ccoherent – albeit risky.\u201d Almost every other commentator describes Trump\u2019s economic planning as \u201cincoherent and incredibly risky \u201c Is there possibly a changing view amongst some analysts do you think?<\/p>\n
– Phillip<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Hi Phillip,<\/p>\n
This is what Ben Picton had to say in one of his pieces:<\/p>\n
\nGiven that Trump is only six months into his second term and has already executed on most of the major planks of the MAGA economic program, it is clear that the economy is being re-made at an astonishing rate, and the commentariat is clearly struggling to keep up. Long term free market evangelists over at the Financial Times are now describing Trump as the \u2018Dirigiste-in chief\u2019, which of course he is.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
So, without wanting to put words in Mr Picton’s mouth, I took that to mean that he believes he can see a coherent shape to Trump’s economic policies while many others still only see incoherence.<\/p>\n
![\"Michael](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/lcimg-4b155f50-d1aa-4dad-99fe-239e1f9416e7.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Gareth](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/lcimg-f36b83a2-46d0-4bf4-8c37-dc028268654e.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/lcimg-9cc6be62-1420-4d4e-a450-774607bd380a.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"Emily](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/lcimg-2c7f5d81-0f96-4177-81be-b0745bb578d9.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/lcimg-0aaf10af-3905-41bb-a28d-bd47feefe23d.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/lcimg-74444ac4-979d-4cc0-80fa-94e4496a84ae.png\")
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