It’s Monday the 12th of May, and the US and China hold talks over tariffs, auction clearance rates stay buoyant and Tony Abbott endorses a Taylor-Price Liberal leadership team. Plus the price of wheat hits a five-year low, and a Cold War-era satellite returns to earth after more than five decades in orbit.

Listen to today's episode 🎧 

News in brief

It's been a huge few days in geopolitics: the US and China are holding talks over tariffs which both sides describe as promising, Vladimir Putin says Russia and Ukraine should meet to negotiate a 'lasting peace', and India and Pakistan have accused each other of violations after a ceasefire deal.

There were 1800 home auctions over the past week across the nation, the busiest since before Easter, and the preliminary clearance rate held above 70 per cent for the second week running.

Former PM Tony Abbott has endorsed Angus Taylor and Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price to become the next Liberal leadership team. Yesterday Price said she would be Taylor’s running mate, up against Sussan Ley when Liberal MPs return to Canberra tomorrow.

The price of wheat has fallen to a near five year low, as a bumper crop in the US puts more supply into the market. In fact prices are now back to more normal levels, seen before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Wheat is Australia’s biggest grain crop worth about $9 billion a year (that’s 28 million tonnes).

A Cold War-era spacecraft has come crashing down to Earth after being stuck in orbit for more than five decades. The spacecraft was launched in the spring of 1972 to study Venus, but due to a malfunction of the booster block, it remained in a high elliptical orbit of the Earth.

Fear-o-meter

Donald Trump diplomacy is being found out. The world doesn’t feel as safe as it was 12 months ago. With the US no longer reliable as the global cop, local skirmishes are more frightening than before.

In Europe, Russia’s Vladimir Putin has delayed answering a call from European leaders for a ceasefire, asking for “direct talks” with Ukraine later this week. Trump's boast he would end the war in his first days of power ring very hollow, but hopefully European leaders can force the Russian President to the table.

In central Asia, India and Pakistan are squaring off over Kashmir. After four days of hostilities, there was a ceasefire (which Trump took credit for) and within hours it was breached. Analysts say the situation is as fragile as it has been in decades.

Then there is the US-China tariff talks, coming days after the US-UK trade “deal”. That deal is in words only, with no substance. China has the economic might to stand up to the US. Donald Trump may say there’s a quick fix, but China’s Xi Jinping doesn’t need to kowtow to the US. There is a long way to go before any deal is done.

Who's talking today?

On meeting the advice needs of a huge wave of retiring Australians:

 

"We have a supply and demand issue. At a macro level, we have a wave of Australians entering the retirement phase, but we only have 16,000 financial advisors. We have 3.6 million Australians retiring in the next 10 years. And if we zoom in on a UniSuper perspective, we estimate one in six will be retiring and one in five will actually be reaching preservation age.

Now of that wave there's essentially three buckets. We've got the highly affluent high net wealth individuals who are being served very well. We've got the mass market who will be served with those low balances who will be served by social security. But there remains a group of Australians in the middle who are not being well served at all and we like to call this group the missing middle."

Greed-o-meter

Planning on heading overseas? Here's what the Aussie dollar is buying:

Source: Market Index

Business up top, cycling down below

For weeks now, this is how Sean Aylmer has been getting around the office. It's been quite reminiscent of the work-from-home zoom call days, when you could wear whatever you wanted on your lower half, and nobody would know. But we can all see you, Sean.

Later this week, Sean and Adam from the Fear & Greed team are taking part in Royal Far West's Ride For Country Kids - a 380km ride through western NSW. The purpose? Raise as much money as possible to improve life options for kids from rural communities.

Your support has been incredible, and the Fear & Greed team is making amazing headway on their fundraising goal.

If you can help raise a few dollars, 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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