It’s Tuesday the 29th of April 2025, and Australia's financial rating is under threat, a backflip from James Hardie, and local companies feel the tariff pain. Plus a pistachio craze sends supermarkets scrambling, and Donald Trump's meme coin booms.

Listen to today's episode 🎧 

News in brief

Labor says it will save $6.4bn over the next four years, and raise $760m through higher student visa fees, to pay for spending promises made during the election campaign, after a major ratings agency warned about Australia’s AAA rating.

In a backflip, James Hardie Industries says it will not ask to be exempted from ASX rules after its primary listing shifts to New York or try to delist itself from the local bourse without asking for shareholder approval.

Reports of local companies being disrupted by the US-China trade war are trickling out, with Flight Centre, pallet maker Brambles and Lynas Rare Earths downgrading their outlooks.

The big supermarkets, Woolworths and Coles, have been pressured into giving an update on pistachio nut supplies after the flavour became hot on the back of the Dubai chocolate trend hitting TikTok.

The value of Donald Trump’s meme coin soared more than 50 per cent in one session last week after the issuers of the cryptocurrency said the US president would have dinner with the top 220 holders next month.

Fear-o-meter

It is “confessions season” on the ASX and there are a growing number of companies telling investors that earnings and/or revenue might not be as good as forecast on the back of the US trade war.

Yesterday Lynas Rare Earths, Flight Centre and pallet maker Brambles all blamed global disruption for poorer than forecast earnings this half.

Confessions season occurs around now as companies head into the final couple of months of the financial year and get more certainty about how they have performed.

While the Trump trade war is likely to have its biggest impact next financial year and the one after, companies are already feeling the heat.

Get ready for a rush of not-so-good news from corporate Australia in coming weeks, which will put pressure on the the S&P/ASX200.

Who's talking today?

"For everyone being very upset about Trump and the United States... China started this. China put the tariffs on Australia, 220% on wine over the fact we had the audacity to call for an inquiry into COVID so that we wouldn't perhaps have another pandemic and we knew how to deal with it. And they put tariffs on us for geopolitical reasons.

 

And in some ways, Trump saw this as you can use tariffs as a weapon over immigration or fentanyl or whatever you like, free speech, because he saw Xi Jinping do it to Australia over an inquiry into COVID. So in some ways, China started this and Trump has escalated it."

Greed-o-meter

Crude oil has been holding steady around the $US67/barrel mark, and drivers have noticed the reprieve at the bowser. Petrol prices have been quite reasonable, even considering the school holidays and the Easter and Anzac Day long weekends. Here's the average unleaded price around our capital cities (with the cheapest and most expensive thrown in too):

Source: FuelPrice Australia

Can you help us out?

Sean Aylmer and Adam Lang from the Fear & Greed team are taking part in Royal Far West's Ride For Country Kids - a 380km ride through western NSW. The goal is to raise as much money as possible to improve life options for kids from rural communities.

Neither Sean or Adam are cyclists - so this is well outside their comfort zone (although they do seem to be taking to the lycra a little too keenly). 

If you can help raise a few dollars for the Fear & Greed team, it will be gratefully appreciated. You can donate here. And we'll be giving supporters a shout-out on the podcast too!

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