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Welcome to the fear and grade business.

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Nice afternoon report for Thursday, the twenty

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eighth of March, Twenty Twenty Four or

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Michael Thompson every afternoon. We've got the

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five stories that happened today that you

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need to know about. so let's get

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going. Story number one was a day

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on local markets. The I A Six,

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two hundred today records with toppling it

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closed up one percent to seven thousand.

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Eight Hundred. Ninety Seven points out as

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a new high for market closed. There

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was also an intraday record broken at

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seven. Thousand Nine Hundred and one points.

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Every sector saw rises, and they were

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significant for many of them At the

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Chargers. Led by medals and mining and

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materials, real estate and resources also did

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well. It was slightly softer for financials

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and tic, which at a big wake

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already. mining giants were clearly the big

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winners for the day be as pay

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was At one point four percent Pilbara

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minerals was up two point one percent

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gold. Also had a solid day, nearly

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reaching a record of it's own goldmine.

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A new Aunt. Was up three

1:04

point three percent. As a result her

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in corporate specific news Rio Tinto revealed

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it paid six point two billion dollars

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in corporate tax in Australia last year

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at in royalties in the bill went

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up to about ten billion dollars in

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the past decade it's paid eighty one

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point seven billion dollars in taxes and

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royalties. On. The story: number

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two at retail turnover had I

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not point three percent bump in

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February with Taylor Swift sales responsible

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for a rise in clothing merchandise,

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accessories and food sales swift. these

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flocked to seven sold out concerts

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in Sydney and Melbourne and that

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has been attributed to a big

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boost in spending over the month

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by the Australian Bureau of Statistics

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and no shock New South Wales

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and Victoria had the biggest rises.

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But when you look pass the

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influence. of Taylor Swift, which is

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a one off event. It's not

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a hugely optimistic picture. The underlying

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retail turnover was up 0.1%, so

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spending is really stagnating. The

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official statistics bureau also released new job

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vacancy data today. It shows there were

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364,000 vacancies last month, down 24,000 from

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November, in the seventh quarterly

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drop in a row. Story

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number three, extending the lifespan of Origin's

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Aurarring Power Plant would cost from $120

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million to $150 million of taxpayer money.

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According to independent think tank Climate

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Energy Finance, New South Wales' biggest

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coal-fired power station is expected to

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close in August of next year,

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and the think tank reckons New

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South Wales has enough renewable energy

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sources to let it shut. Origin

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disagrees with the report saying its

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assumptions are incorrect. Other

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reports are concerned about customers being hit

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with price spikes if a closure goes

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ahead and are uncertain that the replacement

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energy sources would be sufficient to make

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up for the 20% of

3:00

the state's energy provided by Aurarring.

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Story number four, iron ore, coal and gas

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prices will slump by the end of the

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2020s with big ramifications

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for Australia's finances. This is according to

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a new Department of Industry, Resources and

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Sciences report for the March quarter. Australia's

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commodity exports are expected to dip 10% this

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financial year compared to last year. That is a

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decline to about $417 billion. But

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if you fast forward to the end

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of the decade, falling commodity prices will

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pull down earnings to $300 billion on these

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forecasts. That

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is a big difference and that means a whole lot

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of pressure on the budget and a changing economy. And

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finally, story number five, Amazon is

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splashing more cash on AI. It's

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pouring $2.75 billion into Anthropic. This

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brings its total investment into the

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AI startup to $4 billion. Anthropic

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builds AI tools that create text

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and analysis and advanced chatbots. It

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was... It's created by former members

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of OpenAI, which is the creator

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of chat GPT. It

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has a much bigger focus than some

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AI companies on promoting the safe and

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responsible development of the tech. Under the

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terms of the deal, Anthropic will use

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Amazon Web Services data centers and its

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computer chips. It has also partnered

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with Google. It is a sign of

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things that seems to come in the AI space. That's

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it for the afternoon report for Thursday, the 28th of

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March, 2024. I'm

4:28

Lang and I will be back tomorrow morning with the Friday

4:30

edition of Fear and Greed to kick off

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your long weekend. I'm Michael Thompson, enjoy your

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evening.