Retail Sales, Zurich and Pandas

Author

Pick & Scroll News
September 29, 2023

One Read, All Perspectives

Australian News

  • Total retail sales rose 0.2% in August vs 0.5 % in July and would have been worse had the Women’s FIFA World Cup not taken place.

  • Covid was the 3rd leading cause of death in Australia in 2022, the first time an infectious disease has been in the top 5 causes of death since 1970.

  • Job advertisements have fallen 9.4% since May, with Insurance and Financial Services the only industry with less jobs to fill than in Feb 2020.

  • China resumes Australian hay exports, which halved in a span of 2 years after Beijing failed to renew export licences.

  • Only 18% of the Australian Government’s total $33.4B Indigenous expenditure went directly into Indigenous spending.

  • Australia's top 10 universities all dropped places in the latest world university rankings, due to lower numbers of international students during the pandemic and the rising strength of universities in Asia.

  • The Qatar Civil Aviation Authority has asked the Australian Government to review its decision to block 28 flights a week.

  • ASIC has prosecuted 36 companies and extracted more than $700K in penalties against companies that failed to comply with financial reporting requirements.

Global News

  • Taiwan unveils first domestically built submarine.

  • Zurich has become one of Europe’s hottest housing markets, with prices surging past London and Paris as demand is being driven in part by hiring from companies including Google.

  • The CIA is building its own AI tool to rival with China.

  • London is seeing the largest price cuts for house prices in 5 years with the average discount for new homes coming in at 5% in London and across England.

  • All the pandas from US zoos are being returned to their homeland after loan agreements with the Chinese Wildlife Agency expire.

  • Argentina’s 125% inflation has pushed poverty levels to over 40%.

  • Oil prices are expected to soon rise above $US100 with the price of the international benchmark, Brent crude oil, gaining 30% since July.

Company News

  • NAB is the first of the big 4 banks to increase its interest rates on fixed rate home loans this month.

  • Tabcorp has been fined a $15,000 penalty for promoting gambling-inducing ads on its website.

  • Smiggle to expand overseas with 60 stores to be opened in the Middle East over the next few years.

  • Meta looks to launch digital assistants, smart glasses and AI chatbots to help bolster the metaverse.

  • Snapchat shuts down its augmented reality business.

  • ChatGPT users can now browse the internet.

  • Costco is seeing a rise in young people signing up for memberships.

  • Lululemon signs a digital apparel partnership with Peloton.

  • Toll road group Atlas Arteria's French motorway could be hit with a new annual $200M tax after the French government released its 2024 budget.

  • Binance just exited its Russian business by selling it to a recently launched crypto exchange, CommEx.

Other Picks

  • The resale upside of Nike Air Jordan 1s have fallen from 61% in 2020 to 4% in 2023.

  • Swiss glaciers lose 10% of their volume in the worst 2 years on record.

  • Michael Gambon, British actor who played Dumbledore, dies aged 82.

  • Australian alcohol-induced deaths were up by nearly 10% from 2021, and the death by suicide of middle-aged males saw a significant year-on-year increase.

This Week’s All Star Picks

  • Spotify’s new AI feature translates podcasts into other languages using the same voices as those in shows.

  • OpenAI is rolling out a version of ChatGPT that allows users to prompt by speech or uploading pictures.

  • Victorian Premier Dan Andrews resigns after 9 years.

  • Average pay rises in new agreements are up 4.7%.

  • AU supermarket food prices increased by 7.2% YoY, outpacing the 4.9% annual rate of inflation.

  • Shoppers are spending more on second hand clothing, with 45% of shoppers reportedly increasing their purchases of pre-loved goods over the past 2 years.

  • Melbourne housing market set to outperform Sydney over the next 2 years, with prices projected to rise by 12% in the year to June 2025, while Sydney is projected to grow by 10.3%.

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