ASX hits ‘air pocket’ as stocks dive
Jonathan Barrett
Australian shares are down sharply this morning, after a Nvidia-fuelled global rebound gave way to enduring concerns that a stock market bubble has engulfed Wall Street.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 fell 2% to 8,383 points in early trading, erasing more than $50bn in value from the index.
The ASX took its lead from the US where equities suffered an “ugly reversal”, according to IG analysts, erasing the relief rally that had been sparked by strong profits reported by the world’s biggest company, chip maker Nvidia.
IG said the reversal was caused in part by Nvidia’s results “failing to quell unease about stretched tech valuations”.
While the Australian share market is very different to that of the US, it has been pulled and pushed around by Wall Street. There is some overlap, with the fortunes of Australian uranium companies, for example, tied to the potential energy usage of the AI-fuelled tech sector.
Morningstar market strategist Lochlan Halloway described the pullback as an “air pocket”:
In the last few months, global equities have started to look stretched, and particularly in Australia, where we enjoyed AI-like returns without an obvious fundamental driver.
Our bull market was built on shaky foundations, and climbing down from such heights is probably sensible.
The value of bitcoin fell again overnight, and is now down 20% in a month to trade around the $US88,000 mark. It is seen as a “risk asset” that has suffered from souring market sentiment.
Key events
Patrick Commins
APRA mulls lending limits as home loans surge
There’s growing speculation the regulator is preparing to place limits on higher risk home lending, amid a surge in investor borrowing.
The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s latest report on risks in the financial system found that “while overall housing lending standards remain sound”, it was “seeing some signs of a pick-up in higher risk lending, particularly high debt-to-income borrowing by investors”.
While APRA has not made any official statements of intent, it has been working with banks over recent months to ensure they are ready and able to throttle lending in certain areas if directed to.
Lending to landlords by value grew by nearly 19% in the year to September, its fastest pace in a decade, and accounted for two in every five home loans from July to September.
The chief executive of the country’s biggest bank, CBA’s Mat Comyn, told a parliamentary committee hearing this week that he was worried that housing credit was growing too swiftly, and foreshadowed a potential intervention by the banking regulator.
Greens senator Barbara Pocock has written to the head of APRA urging him to “pull the handbrake” on investor lending.
APRA last intervened to slow lending in late 2014.
Maria Kovacic attacks Labor’s economic record in NSW
NSW senator Maria Kovacic has released a statement, thanking Mark Speakman for his leadership, calling him a “a decent and principled man” while also congratulating Kellie Sloane.
Kovacic said:
Under Labor, NSW is going backwards. Recent ABS data shows that the NSW economy is growing slower than any other state or territory and is well behind national growth.
While Chris Minns and his ministers spend their time cutting ribbons on Coalition projects, his government presents no vision or plan that the people of NSW can look towards with hope and aspiration. NSW deserves better.
Sloane defends photo of her eating caviar on a yacht
Sloane was also asked about the photo that has resurfaced of her eating caviar on a yacht.
In her original caption, Sloane wrote: “Eating caviar – Russian style – off the back of my hand on board”. She hashtagged the picture #ghost #australiansuperyatchs and #luxury.
Sloane said:
I don’t think I need to rebrand from one picture a decade ago at the Sydney Boat Show. I was chuffed of the opportunity to tour that boat. If that’s the worst they can come off with, I think it’s a good start.
Sloane says taking the leadership has “been a harmonious ascension, which is I’m very lucky.”
Asked if she was considering a cabinet reshuffle, she said:
The problem I’m going to have is we have so much talent in the party. I’ll be spoilt for choice. So, yeah, I’ll be having those conversations with colleagues over the coming week probably.
She said if former leader Mark Speakman wants a position he will have one.
Kellie Sloane says she doesn’t believe in gender quotas ‘at the moment’
Sloane was also asked if she believed in gender quotas. She paused before answering:
I need to think about that one. I have wavered back and forth. I … Not at the moment.
Not at the moment in NSW but I’m open to those conversations with colleagues.
I mean, I certainly want to see more women in our federal party. I love to see more women in our state party. I hope that when they see a female-female leadership team, which wasn’t [about] gender but just happened, that will inspire more women to enter politics. That’s my hope.
Asked what voters were expected to think when about the Coalition having two positions on net zero, she says:
I like to stop talking about those two words and be focused on the here and now and the pain for families in NSW. We – we have had a consistent position on net zero since 2016 as a Coalition.
I believe we can work through the nuts and bolts of policies that will drive practical outcomes, reduce the expenses for families in NSW and we will all, you know, come to a happy conclusion around that.
Sloane says she wants ‘to be a chippy or a cementer’s best friend’
Asked how she will be different from former leader Mark Speakman, she said:
I bring my own personal style to leadership. I’ll be consultive, I’ll try to remain myself, be authentic, listen to people. We’ve got to do a better job of telling our story and reminding the people of NSW what we stand for.
She said she is pro-housing and wants to make sure everyone in NSW, including essential workers and families, can buy a home.
“I want to be a chippy or a cementer’s best friend.”
Sloane has started her speech, talking about how her team is young and full of women:
We have one of the youngest parliamentary teams and I don’t count myself amongst them but we do have six colleagues under the age of 40 and they bring unique perspectives as well.
Almost half of our team are women. We could do with some more but we have rich experience, we have ideas, and we have energy, and we are ready to serve the people of NSW and provide a really positive ambitious vision for our state.
She also talked about how she is not a career politician:
I’m a country-raised, public school-educated working mum who has built a career listening to people telling their stories and advocating for them.
She says she has worked as a CEO for a not-for-profit and as a journalist.
Kellie Sloan says Liberals ‘ready for the fight’ at next election
Kellie Sloan is up in NSW, she has started by thanking former leader Mark Speakman and her colleagues for electing her.
The next election is just over 15 months away. I don’t underestimate the challenge ahead of us, but I am ready for the fight and, as a team, we are ready for the fight. This has been an uninspiring Labor government and we are committed to a positive, to bold and ambitious vision for NSW and NSW deserves that.
I won’t be doing this by myself. I’m doing it on the shoulders of one of the most impressive parliamentary teams in the country.
Chris Minns calls Kellie Sloane a ‘lovely person’, wishing her the best in opposition
NSW premier Chris Minns sent his well wishes to Kellie Sloane after she became the new opposition leader, adding his praise for Mark Speakman’s tenure over the Liberal party.
He said during a media briefing earlier:
Kellie Sloane is a really lovely person and I wish her the very best for the job. Obviously I am in competition with her, but it is a real honour to lead a political party, so hats off to her, it is an achievement for her.
I also want to pay tribute to Mark Speakman, one of the gentleman of politics in Australia, someone that I genuinely believe believes in public service. He handled himself with class in the last 24 hours.
Minns went on to urge the parties to work together and find “common ground” to advance the state’s interests:
The truth of the matter is we both have a responsibility to work together, if we can. There’s got to be some common ground between political parties. There is plenty of time for us to trade political barbs in the future. But if there’s things we can work on today to better New South Wales that has got to be our focus.
Penry Buckley
Who is Kellie Sloane, the new NSW Liberal leader?
The former television journalist, chosen unopposed as the Liberal leader on Friday morning, has a reputation for being a good performer and the government has taken notice.
The Sydney Morning Herald analysed parliamentary speeches by the premier, Chris Minns, since March 2023 and found “the member for Vaucluse” was among his most common phrases, uttered more frequently than “public transport”. In 18 different speeches, 44 times, Minns took aim: anticipating future battles at the dispatch box and on the campaign trail.
Now Kellie Sloane is leader, Minns has one clear line of attack: her relative inexperience in politics.
Mark Speakman himself, during Thursday’s last-ditch attempt to head off the challenge, pointedly referred to her as a terrific “first-term” MP.
But in a job where cut-through communication skills are career-defining, Sloane’s CV points to potential.
Read more here:
Lisa Cox
Bob Brown says Labor nature bills ‘an insult to the environmental conscience of Australians’
Celebrated environmentalist and former Australian Greens leader Bob Brown has told a Senate committee the Albanese government’s proposed nature reforms are “an insult to the environmental conscience of Australians”.
Appearing before an inquiry examining the bills late on Thursday, Brown urged the Senate to reject the bills unless they were substantially improved and said the fact the environment minister had no power to consider harm caused by climate change was analogous to a treasurer being given no power over taxes:
This legislation is an insult to the environmental conscience of Australians and the body politic, which is charged with looking after the interests of Australia, should throw it out.
The fact that the minister for the environment is prevented from taking action on the biggest threat to the environment, which is climate change, is analogous to a treasurer having no power over taxes.
And I say that must be taken seriously, because that’s how the situation is.
Brown also criticised the government’s failure to close a loophole that effectively exempts logging covered by regional forest agreements from national nature laws:
The embedding in this legislation of the regional forest agreements, which we know have been the biggest cause of destruction of the habitat of so many rare and endangered creatures in Australia, is an affront to the rights of Australians in the future.
Sussan Ley thanks Mark Speakman and says Sloane will do ‘outstanding job’
Sussan Ley, the opposition leader, just spoke briefly about the NSW Liberal leadership spill.
She thanked Mark Speakman for his leadership and said it would now be important for the NSW party to “go about their business” in the lead-up to the next election:
I want to thank Mark Speakman for his leadership of the New South Wales Liberals and say that Kellie Sloane will do an outstanding job with the team there.
It is important that state Liberal parties go about their business as they do every day of the week. It is important for us and it’s important for me as the federal liberal leader to talk to Australians about our serious, compelling, credible policy alternatives in the lead-up to the next election.
ASX hits ‘air pocket’ as stocks dive
Jonathan Barrett
Australian shares are down sharply this morning, after a Nvidia-fuelled global rebound gave way to enduring concerns that a stock market bubble has engulfed Wall Street.
The benchmark S&P/ASX 200 fell 2% to 8,383 points in early trading, erasing more than $50bn in value from the index.
The ASX took its lead from the US where equities suffered an “ugly reversal”, according to IG analysts, erasing the relief rally that had been sparked by strong profits reported by the world’s biggest company, chip maker Nvidia.
IG said the reversal was caused in part by Nvidia’s results “failing to quell unease about stretched tech valuations”.
While the Australian share market is very different to that of the US, it has been pulled and pushed around by Wall Street. There is some overlap, with the fortunes of Australian uranium companies, for example, tied to the potential energy usage of the AI-fuelled tech sector.
Morningstar market strategist Lochlan Halloway described the pullback as an “air pocket”:
In the last few months, global equities have started to look stretched, and particularly in Australia, where we enjoyed AI-like returns without an obvious fundamental driver.
Our bull market was built on shaky foundations, and climbing down from such heights is probably sensible.
The value of bitcoin fell again overnight, and is now down 20% in a month to trade around the $US88,000 mark. It is seen as a “risk asset” that has suffered from souring market sentiment.
Lisa Cox
Major environment groups urge government MPs to improve nature bills
Some of Australia’s biggest environment groups have written to all government MPs and senators urging changes to Labor’s proposed nature bills, which they say “do not protect nature” in their current form.
The two-page statement from groups including the Australian Conservation Foundation, the Wilderness Society and legal firm Environmental Justice Australia, sent late Thursday, says “reform at any cost is not the answer”. The groups said “given the stated positions of political parties on nature protection, it is clear that a deal between Labor and the Coalition will not advance nature protections and could make things considerably worse”.
It comes as the government chases a deal with either the Coalition or the Greens to pass its proposed reforms in the Senate in the final parliamentary sitting week for the year next week.
The changes the groups have proposed include:
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Removing excessive discretionary powers granted to the environment minister
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Making the proposed environment protection agency the default decision-maker for development proposals, with the environment minister only permitted to intervene in “exceptional circumstances”
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Closing native forest logging loopholes and scrapping a “risky” proposal for a restoration contributions fund for developers or significantly tightening when and how this option can be used
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Delivering a promised standard on First Nations engagement and reversing attempts to shorten community consultation periods
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Building consideration of climate change into the laws and not delegating decisions under the federal water trigger to the states
They said:
We call on the Labor government to substantially improve the bills and negotiate in good faith with members of the Senate that care about nature and a vibrant, healthy Australia.
Sloane thanks colleagues for ‘faith and trust’ they have placed in her
Penry Buckley
Kellie Sloane just gave a brief statement to media after she was named leader of the NSW Liberal party in an uncontested vote.
She said:
What a day. A few moments ago, a united Liberal party room endorsed me as the new leader and it’s an incredible honour, and a huge responsibility, one I don’t take lightly. I’m ready to work for New South Wales and I thank my colleagues for the faith and the trust that they’ve placed in me today. I’ve got a whole lot more to say at a news conference in a couple of hours.
And just like that, it’s over. After yesterday’s drawn-out spill, this morning has passed quickly and quietly.
The Liberal party room meeting started at 9am but media weren’t let into the opposition’s parliamentary offices until just before the announcement at 9.10am made by Liberal whips Adam Crouch and Chris Rath.
Journalists, photographers and camera operators and their equipment milled about awkwardly in a small elevator lobby.
Sloane, who is holding a press conference later this morning, did not take questions.
Instead, after her brief speech, Sloane and upper house member Natalie Ward, who has remained deputy leader, walked down the corridor to the opposition leader’s office recently vacated by Mark Speakman.
Kellie Sloane new leader of NSW Liberals
Anne Davies
Kellie Sloane, the NSW Liberals’ health spokesperson, has been appointed as leader of the opposition. She was given unanimous support to take the top job..
The 52 year-old former journalist replaces Mark Speakman, who led the party since the March 2023 election.
Speakman resigned on Thursday after pressure from his colleagues concerned about the party’s ability to cut through, particularly after the damage inflicted on the Liberal brand by the infighting in Canberra.
Sloane, a moderate, is expected to stick with the party’s recent decision to continue to support a net zero by 2050 target.
Greens maintain loss of Cop31 an ‘embarrassment’ for Australia
The Greens leader, Larissa Waters, said Australia’s move to drop its bid to host next year’s Cop31 climate summit in Adelaide is “an embarrassment”.
Waters said the notion that there will be a pre-Cop event in the Pacific – part of the Albanese government’s hopes to elevate Pacific voices – was a “consolation prize”. But she said the loss of the climate event was a “missed opportunity” for Australia to hone its environmental message, and a boon for the government’s support for fossil fuel projects such as the extension of the North West Shelf gas plant.
She told RN Breakfast this morning of the Albanese government:
I think they wanted to avoid the scrutiny.
Of the fact that they, within two weeks of re-winning government, approved the biggest gas plant in the southern hemisphere that would have more emissions than all of our coal-fired power stations put together over 10 years, an absolute carbon bomb. The fact that they’ve ticked off on more than 30 other coal and gas projects since they took government, the fact that they’re currently trying to rewrite our environmental laws to fast-track coal and gas approval.
And the fact that there’s an algal bloom that’s driven by a marine heat wave that’s caused by climate change on the beaches of Adelaide.
