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Welcome to the Fearing Greed Business News afternoon report

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for Wednesday the 8th of May 2024, I'm Sean

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Aylmer. Every

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afternoon we've got the 5 stories that happen today that

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you need to know about. Story number

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1, the S&P ASX200 closed up just a touch today

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to 7,805 points, not too bad. Considering

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the 1.4% surge yesterday, industrials and

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tech stocks did best while the

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Consumer Discretionary Index was the weakest.

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Really, it was a bit of a lackluster

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day. Among the large caps, ANZ jumped after

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its underperformance yesterday. Santos was

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also up more than 1%. Worst

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of the large caps was Rio Tinto, which dropped 1.2%.

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In corporate news, Singapore's Olam Group has

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lifted its takeover offer for Nimoy Cotton

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for the second time in less than

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a week as it battles for control

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with Louis Dreyfus. Olam said it is

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willing to pay $0.70 a

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share for Nimoy, trumping a revised offer of

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$0.67 a share,

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lobbied by Louis Dreyfus just 24 hours

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earlier. The Olam offer is

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conditional on securing at least 50.1% of Nimoy's stock. Louis

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Dreyfus has a 17% or

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near 17% blocking stake, therefore Nimoy

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just wants 50.1%. Real

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Estate Portal Domain says group revenue jumped

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17% in the March

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quarter and flagged higher operating margins this year. Investors

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weren't impressed and domain's share price fell nearly 4%.

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Share number two, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese,

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today said China has admitted the Australian

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helicopter it fired flares in

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front of was in international

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waters. Australia has

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protested to Beijing that a Chinese

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fighter jet endangered an Australian Navy

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helicopter over the weekend with flares

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over international waters. Mr Albanese said

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wording used by Chinese authorities in

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communication with Australia, particularly by

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saying that the Chinese fighters

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were near Chinese airspace. It

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is confirmation that the Australian Defence Force

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personnel were both in international waters. and

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in international airspace and we're undertaking

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work on behalf of the international

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community enforcing UN sanctions against North

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Korea. The Chinese Foreign Ministry has

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accused the Australian Navy helicopter of

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flying within close range of Chinese

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airspace in a provocative move. Story

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number three, property sector leader Goodman Group

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has upgraded its earnings guidance for the

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second time this financial year, even though

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it said global demand for warehouse space

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is weakening in some markets like China.

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Goodman is an industrial property company, big

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in logistics and warehouses, digital infrastructure and

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the like. It owns, develops and manages

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property often with other big investors. Its

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share price did very well in the

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decade before COVID, soared in

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the COVID years, came off somewhat and

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then it's done even better. In fact,

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since late 2022, it's doubled its share

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price. Goodman manages many sites

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and has lifted its assets under management

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above $80 billion. It's still seeing rental

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growth and warehouse demand, but what investors

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like is its $50 billion push into

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data centers, which is benefiting from the

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growth of AI learning and cloud computing.

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40% of Goodman's $13

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billion of work in progress is

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now data centers. Chief Executive Officer Greg Goodman

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said China is weak due to overinvestment, but

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the company has enough going on to stay

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pretty busy for the next five years or

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so. Story number four,

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less than 2% of documents in

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the My Health Record system are

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being looked at by doctors with

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incomplete records, poor interoperability and clunky

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usability, hindering patient and clinical use

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of the $2 billion federal portal.

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That's according to a new Productivity

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Commission report. It says My Health

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Record was intended to be a

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central access point for patients most

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important health data, but it continues

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to be played by incomplete records

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and poor usability. According

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to the financial review, the report says there's

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an estimated $5.4 billion

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of benefits from getting the

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My Health Record working for

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clinicians and patients. There are

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now 23 million records with

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1.2 billion documents on the

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federal portal but the reports are only

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a fraction of being accessed by clinicians.

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Story number five, the federal government will spend $566 million over

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the next 10 years to

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map Australian resources both onshore and offshore.

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When making the announcement today, Prime Minister

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Anthony Albanese said he was surprised it

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hadn't already been done. The

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idea is that a complete map of

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Australia will provide information about where critical

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minerals are, what's under Australia's earth and

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waters. It could identify sites

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for carbon capture and storage projects and

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clean hydrogen projects. The funding means

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resourcing Australia's prosperity will be fully

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funded for the next 35 years. Mr

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Albanese said Australia's top geoscientists will

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be deployed to map Australia's resources.

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That's it for the afternoon report for Wednesday 8 May 2024.

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Michael Thompson and I will be back tomorrow

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morning with the Thursday edition of Fear and

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Greed Business News. I'm Sean Aylmer. Enjoy your

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evening.