Latest updates on Key Economic Indicators

Australian Dollar: $0.7180 USD (down $0.0060 USD)

Iron Ore Oct Spot Price (SGX): $115.65 USD (up $2.85 USD)

Oil Price (WTI): $74.76 USD (up $0.43 USD)

Gold Price: $1,726.41 USD (down $7.22 USD

Copper Price (CME): $4.1770 USD (down $0.0695 USD)

Bit-coin: $41,164.13 (down 1.72% in last 24 hours)

Dow Jones: 34,390.72 (up 90.73 on yesterday's close)

All changes compared to 7am yesterday.

Supply chain failure : British army to start driving tankers as fuel crisis persist

Britain ordered soldiers on Wednesday to start driving fuel tankers to replenish empty pumps, as motorists remained mired in queues after nearly a week of shortages, despite Prime Minister Boris Johnson saying the situation was improving.

Britain has been gripped by a rush of panic buying that has left pumps dry across major cities, after oil companies warned they did not have enough tanker drivers to move petrol and diesel from refineries to filling stations.

Opponents blame the crisis on Boris's incompetence and his unyielding approach to Brexit, which has blocked hauliers from hiring drivers from the EU since Britain abandoned the common market this year.

London says the disruption is partly an unforeseen result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Business minister Kwasi Kwarteng said 150 soldiers would be driving tankers within a few days, and civilians would start shipments later on Wednesday using a government reserve fleet of around 80 vehicles.

"The last few days have been difficult, we've seen large queues. But I think the situation is stabilising, we're getting petrol into the forecourts. I think we're going to see our way through this," Kwarteng said.

QLD COVID spreads between double-dosed

Brisbane Times - Page Online : 30 September 2021 - Original article by Matt Dennien, Stuart Layt - PortMac.News Summary

Queensland has recorded one new locally-acquired COVID-19 case; the man in his 50s was fully vaccinated and has been identified as a close contact of an aviation trainer who recently had his second vaccine dose.

The case may be Queensland's first confirmed transmission of COVID-19 between two fully-vaccinated people.

Meanwhile, Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young warns that COVID-19 will be circulating widely in the community well before the end of 2021; she adds that while vaccinated people may become sick, they will have a much lower risk of hospitalisation and death.

ACT records 22 new COVID cases

The Canberra Times - Page Online : 30 September 2021 - Original article by Gerard Cockburn - PortMac.News Summary

The Australian Capital Territory's Chief Minister Andrew Barr has reiterated that residents should get tested for COVID-19 at the first sign of any symptoms.

Seven of the 22 new COVID-19 cases in the ACT were active in the community while they were infections.

Meanwhile, the ACT and federal governments will shortly release a joint statement on financial support for ACT businesses after the current lockdown ends.

The ACT is also expected to be the first jurisdiction to lose access to federal COVID-19 disaster payments, with 70% of the eligible population set to be fully vaccinated within weeks.

Tasmania doubles down on tough borders stance

The New Daily - Page Online : 30 September 2021 - Original article by Ethan James - PortMac.News Summary

The Tasmanian government will aim for 90% of residents aged 16+ to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by 1 December.

Premier Peter Gutwein says the state will not reopen its borders until all eligible residents have had the opportunity to be vaccinated.

He has also warned of a likely surge in COVID-19 cases if Tasmania were to abide by the 80 per cent vaccination rate outlined in the national plan.

Gutwein says there would be nearly 100 deaths in Tasmania within six months if the state reopened to travellers from South Wales and Victoria at 80%. This is based on modelling by the Doherty Institute.

National housing price growth tipped to ease to 7%

The Australian Financial Review - Page 28 : 30 September 2021 - Original article by Michael Bleby - PortMac.News Summary

Shane Oliver of AMP Capital says the prospect of macroprudential controls will weigh on the housing market in 2022.

Oliver says he had already anticipated house price growth of just 7% in 2022 before the Council of Financial Regulators signalled that intervention in the mortgage lending market is likely.

Oliver adds that his growth forecast may be revised up or down slightly, depending on the extent of the macroprudential measures.

Too many households deep in debt

The Australian Financial Review - Page 27 & 29 : 30 September 2021 - Original article by Nila Sweeney - PortMac.News Summary

Data from Digital Finance Analytics shows that 42% of Australian households were in mortgage stress in August.

The firm's modelling shows that this would rise to 47% if interest rate increased by 50 basis points. Meanwhile, some 51% of households with a mortgage have borrowed more than five times their earnings.

Martin North of Digital Finance Analytics says the prospect of macroprudential measures will not assist households that are already over-leveraged.

International passengers arrivals may face vax registration roadblock

The Guardian Australia - Page Online : 30 September 2021 - Original article by Ben Doherty - PortMac.News Summary

The federal government will begin issuing international COVID-19 vaccination certificates from 1 October.

However, the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade has advised that returned travellers who were vaccinated overseas will not be added to the Australian Immunisation Register unless they received the Pfizer, AstroZeneca, Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines.

The exclusion of other vaccines, including those developed in China and Russia, will also have implications for tourists and international students when Australia's borders eventually reopen.

Covid blasts $101bn hole in tourism

The Australian - Page 15 : 30 September 2021 - Original article by Lisa Allen - PortMac.News Summary

Data from Tourism Research Australia highlights the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the sector.

The figures show that the tourism industry lost $101.7bn between March 2020 and the end of June 2021.

The industry's revenue from international travellers fell by 94% over the period, while spending on overnight trips by domestic travellers fell by 36%.

However, regional Australia has enjoyed a surge in spending by domestic tourists, with a 15% increase in the June 2021 quarter.

Telcos must improve mobile coverage in the bush

The Guardian Australia - Page Online : 30 September 2021 - Original article by Katharine Murphy - PortMac.News Summary

Liberal MP Julian Lesser wants mobile phone providers to be covered by a universal service obligation for the first time.

At present only voice and broadband services are covered by a USO; however, Lesser contends that many Australians currently have inadequate mobile coverage, particularly in regional and rural areas.

At least 17 of his Coalition colleagues are said to support Lesser's proposed private members bill, which would also impose new customer service standards on telcos and increase the powers of the industry ombudsman.

Roaring Foxtel to address IPO talk

The Australian - Page 3 : 30 September 2021 - Original article by James Madden - PortMac.News Summary

Foxtel CEO Patrick Delany is tipped to respond to rumours about a potential IPO when the pay-TV group holds its annual strategy day on 30 September.

Foxtel's streaming video-on-demand products have been a major driver of its growth in recent years, and Angus Aitken of Aitken Murray Capital Partners, says these assets are "Scalable and capital-light".

He adds that they are the absolute opposite of what Foxtel used to be.

Foxtel has more than four million subscribers across its traditional pay-TV and SVOD operations.

CNN disables Facebook page in Australia

The Guardian Australia - Page Online : 30 September 2021 - Original article by Amanda Meade - PortMac.News Summary

US news network CNN has responded to a landmark High Court ruling by blocking access to its Facebook page to users in Australia.

The court recently ruled that news publishers are legally responsible for defamatory comments that are made on their Facebook pages.

CNN has stressed that it will continue to publish content on its own platforms in Australia, and says it is "Disappointed" that Facebook declined a request for assistance in disabling public comments attached to news articles that appear on the social media site.

YouTube blocks all anti-vaccine content

The Sydney Morning Herald - Page Online : 30 September 2021 - PortMac.News Summary

Video-sharing site YouTube has updated its terms of use to include a blanket ban on all content that features misinformation about any vaccine.

YouTube's misinformation policy had previously only applied to content regarding COVID-19 vaccines.

A spokesperson has also advised that YouTube will ban channels that are associated with some prominent anti-vaccine activists.

Price surge to back resources export boom

The Australian - Page 13 & 16 : 30 September 2021 - Original article by Lachlan Moffet Gray - PortMac.News Summary

The federal government's quarterly Resources and Energy Report shows that demand for commodities is expected to remain strong in fiscal 2022.

The report forecasts that the nation's minerals and energy exports will rise by 14% to a record $349bn in 2021-22.

This will eclipse the previous annual record of $310bn in 2020-21.

Australia is forecast to ship $132bn worth of iron ore in the current financial year, down from a record $153bn in 2020-21, following a sharp fall in the price of the steel input.

However, LNG export earnings are forecast to rise from $30bn to $56bn.

ASX 'Wall of worry' weighs on stocks

The Australian - Page 20 : 30 September 2021 - Original article by Rebecca Le May - PortMac.News Summary

The Australian sharemarket retreated on 29 September following a negative lead from Wall Street, with the S&P/ASX 200 shedding 1.08% to close at 7,196.7 points.

BHP was down 1.3% at $36.39, Woodside Petroleum finished 2.2% lower at $23.50 and the Commonwealth Bank fell 1.33% to $102.62.

However, gold miner St Barbara rose 6.69% to $1.35.