It is Thursday the 29^th of May 2025, and benign inflation figures open the way for an interest rate cut, the federal Coalition is back together again, and Woodside gets the go-ahead for a major gas expansion. Plus Myer goes big on loyalty, and Elon Musk’s SpaceX has another crash.

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News in brief

Inflation is unlikely to prevent another interest rate cut in coming months, with the monthly CPI reading showing both headline and underlying inflation well within the Reserve Bank’s target band.

The Coalition is back together again, allowing Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley to announce her shadow Cabinet, which includes demotions for Angus Taylor and Jane Hume.

Federal Labor has approved Woodside Energy’s bid to extend the life of its North-West Shelf gas development until 2070, amid pressure from environmentalists over the project.

Myer is set to expand its loyalty program, introducing different tiers and eventually allowing members to spend outside the retailer’s own network. Myer One has 4.6m members that have used the card in the past 12 months – one of the largest loyalty programs in the world, and those customers spend three times more than non-members.

SpaceX’s Starship rocket suffered a leak, tumbled out of control in space and exploded during a test flight yesterday morning, in a third straight major setback for Elon Musk’s company.

Fear-o-meter

The best news out of the April monthly inflation figures is what they said about housing costs. Until the past two months, housing has contributed disproportionately to inflation. It still is – food, health and housing were three big inflationary items in yesterday Australian Bureau of Statistics data. But housing isn’t running anywhere near as hot as it was.

Rent inflation slowed to 5.0 per cent in the year to April, which was the lowest pace of price growth since February 2023, though it remains above pre-pandemic levels. The key reason for the slowdown was an increase in rental vacancy rates.

The cost of building a new home increased by just 1.2 per cent in the 12 months to April. That compares to the peak in mid-2022 of 22 per cent.

The answer remains more supply of housing, but the obvious benefit of lower immigration is helping a sector that desperately needs a hand.

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Who's talking today?

Dimensional Fund Advisors is a global giant, with around $1.3 trillion in assets under management. Sean Aylmer sat down with co-CEO Dave Butler during a brief visit to Australia for a chat about everything from his early basketball career (he was drafted by the Boston Celtics) to the value of getting good financial advice, and how he believes investors can tune out the noise of volatile markets.

"There's always noise. I think everybody likes to hear news and stories and information. We always like to also think about if you've got a speculative part of your portfolio and you've got an investment part. So probably 90-95% of your portfolio for most people is going to be investment and 5-10% is speculative. 

If you really feel you need to scratch that itch and need to do something about the noise and about the information of the day, do that in your speculative portfolio, but don't speculate with your investment portfolio. That's the one real key that we need to make sure investors understand."

Greed-o-meter

Myer One might have 4.6m members that have used the card in the past 12 months - but Australians clearly love their loyalty programs. Myer One doesn't even crack the top four in terms of member numbers.

Source: Finder.com.au

Just one week until our special event

Fear & Greed's Michael Thompson is launching his second novel, and we're having a special event to celebrate. Join us for the launch of All The Perfect Days, just a fortnight after its US release - along with the first-ever live recording of Fear & Greed's Weekend Edition.  

This is a free event on Thursday June 5 at Business Sydney - book your ticket here for a great evening. 

And if you can't make it, but would still like to support an Australian author, you can preorder the novel here. Though be warned - Michael may track you down and sign it.

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