Financial market investors are on tenterhooks, worried that the escalation in attacks in the Middle East could once again push oil prices sharply higher, triggering inflationary fears.

It comes after US President Donald Trump, within a 24-hour period, declared that the ceasefire was over and talks were a waste of time, and then said that Iran had called him and want to make a deal.

Yesterday, the US said it hit 90 targets in a second day of strikes on Iran, and several Gulf countries including Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar reported apparent Iranian attacks.

News of the outbreak of hostilities pushed Brent crude prices pushed higher, with oil trading close to $US80 a barrel.

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Greed-o-meter

The IMF has downgraded forecasts for global economic growth to 3 per cent for 2026, with Australia's own growth forecast lowered from 2 per cent to 1.9 per cent. But some countries fared worse than others in the IMF's projections.

Fear & Greed Q+A today

The economy might be slowing, but many of Australia's SMEs aren't putting their plans on hold. Sam explains why the end of the financial year is a good time for a business health check:

 

“Labour costs are still challenging. Energy, freight and supply costs are all still there. They're all still coming through.

 

The big challenge at the moment is really protecting profitability. In some cases businesses can pass costs on, in others they can't, so managing costs is critically important.

 

They're still making money, but they're trying to do more with what they have. Productivity is really important because they're trying to get a bigger return.

 

It's much harder than it used to be. You've got to work a lot harder today to get the same result.”

News in brief

Australian PM Anthony Albanese and Indian PM Narendra Modi yesterday signed an agreement allowing the export of uranium to India for peaceful purposes. They also signed a joint declaration strengthening bilateral defence co-operation.

Telstra said it had to carry out welfare checks on more than 630 people who tried to call Triple Zero but failed as a direct result of its nationwide network outage on Wednesday morning.

Chip maker Nvidia has agreed to invest $2.9 billion into Firmus Technologies, lifting the potential value of the Singapore based, Aussie company to about $15 billion.

ASIC has launched an investigation into how the big four accounting firms handle internal complaints, in an unusual intervention into the multibillion-dollar sector.

Nigel Farage, the leader of the Reform UK populist political party whom Pauline Hanson recently visited, resigned from his seat earlier in the week, over a failure to declare millions of pounds of cash and benefits from wealthy donors. He immediately said he would recontest the seat to seek a fresh mandate from voters. In response, the major parties boycotted the by-election, meaning Farage’s main rival for the constituency of Clacton, is comedian and serial candidate, Count Binface.

Fear-o-meter

A new survey reveals most Australians experience racism in the workplace but most organisations fail to treat it as a serious workplace safety issue, according to Australia's peak body for workplace health and safety.

The Australian Institute of Health and Safety 2026 member survey found two-thirds of respondents had either experienced or witnessed racism at work. About 44 per cent said racism is rarely or never recognised as a workplace health and safety issue in their organisation.

The AIHS has released a Position Statement: Understanding Racism as a Workplace Health and Safety Issue and warned employers, regulators and policymakers they must recognise the harm it can cause to workers' health, wellbeing and sense of safety.

AIHS Chair Celia Antonovsky said there was a troubling gap between what workers are experiencing and how Australian workplaces are responding.

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