Economy

The survey from National Australia Bank (OTC:NABZY) (NAB) showed its index of business conditions held at +7 in October. The more volatile confidence index climbed 7 points to +5, the highest reading since early 2023.Sales showed a 1 point rise to a strong +13 in the month, while profitability was steady at +5 and employment intentions dipped 2 points to +3.”Confidence spiked in the month after an extended period of below average reads,” said Gareth Spence, NAB’s head of Australian economics. “While it’s just one month this is an encouraging sign alongside a tentative improvement in forward orders.”The improvement came as a separate survey of consumer confidence from Westpac showed a second month of strong gains in November, partly on hopes for lower borrowing costs.The Reserve Bank of Australia has held interest rates steady at 4.35% for a full year and financial markets are confident the next move will be down, albeit not for a few months yet.Measures of cost pressures in the NAB survey suggested inflation was slowly easing with growth in input costs slowing to a quarterly pace of 0.9%, from 1.3% in September. Growth in labour costs eased to 1.4%, from 1.9%, and product prices to 0.5%, from 0.6%.”The survey, like other price indicators, continues to suggest an ongoing gradual easing in inflation pressure, but also that there is still some way to go in the moderation,” Spence said. The official measure of consumer price inflation slowed sharply to 2.8% in the September quarter, though much of that was due to temporary government rebates on electricity bills. More

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said growth in hospital activity had far outstripped increases in staffing over the last year, suggesting new workers were being put to good use – even if this had not yet made a big dent in treatment waiting lists.Restoring the National Health Service is one of the five missions of Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government, elected in a landslide in July.Last month finance minister Rachel Reeves announced sharp increases in tax, spending and borrowing to repair public services, which a vast majority of Britons say are in a poor state.”While undoubtedly positive news, we should remember that NHS productivity is still below where it was pre-pandemic and will require a further period of improvement before the post-pandemic productivity hit is fully unwound,” Olly Harvey-Rich, research economist at the IFS.”Nonetheless, this is a welcome development, particularly as the NHS heads into winter.”The IFS said the number of consultants in NHS England had grown by 3.6% in January to July 2024 compared with a year previously, and there were 6.4% more nurses and health visitors too. But growth in services was much stronger, with elective admissions up by 10.3% and outpatient appointments rising 9.2%.Overall public sector productivity, dominated by healthcare and education, last year stood around 3% below its level of 1997, according to official data.Earlier this year, NHS England cited several factors for the drop in productivity, including: strikes, temporary staffing costs, changing needs of patients and past real-terms cuts to healthcare investment that had harmed the resilience of the NHS. More

The Westpac-Melbourne Institute index of consumer sentiment rose 5.3% in November from October, when it jumped 6.2%. The index reading of 94.6 showed pessimists still outnumbered optimists, but by a narrowing margin.Indeed, readings for future finances and the economic outlook broke above the 100 mark for the first time since the pandemic. “Consumers are seeing some further easing in the pressure on family finances, are no longer concerned about the risk of further interest rate rises and are becoming more confident about the economic outlook,” said Westpac Senior Economist Matthew Hassan.The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) again left its interest rates unchanged at 4.35% this month and financial markets are confident the next move will be down, albeit not until next year.Hassan did caution that survey responses took a turn for the worse after Republican Donald Trump’s won the U.S. presidential election. It was unclear whether this would last.Otherwise, the survey was broadly firmer as the share of consumers expecting mortgage rates to drop in the future climbed to the highest since 2016.That was reflected in the survey’s measure of family finances compared to a year ago which surged 6.8%, while finances for the next 12 months rose 4.4%.The index measuring the economic outlook for the next 12 months jumped 8.7%. The outlook for the next five years rose 6.5% as fears of rate hikes eased.The “time to buy a major household item” added 3.2% in November, boding well for retailers ahead of the Christmas shopping period.The time to buy a dwelling index jumped 11.3%, while respondents were also less worried about losing their jobs. More

The Beverly Hills, California-based company is benefiting from high prices of concert tickets, even as some customers are spending cautiously amid high interest rates.”We wrapped up our most active summer concert season ever, our show pipeline has never been bigger, and brand sponsorships are accelerating,” CEO Michael Rapino said.The U.S. Department of Justice and more than two dozen states in May sued to break up Live Nation, arguing that the big concert promoter and its Ticketmaster unit illegally inflated concert ticket prices and hurt artists.Live Nation reported profit per share of $1.66, beating analysts’ average estimate of $1.59, according to data compiled by LSEG. Revenue declined about 6% to $7.65 billion for the quarter ended Sept. 30, missing estimates of $7.75 billion. The company reported its first decline in revenue since 2021.Operating expenses for the quarter fell to $5.78 billion from $6.30 billion a year earlier.The company’s concert business comprising merchandise sales and the production of live music events generated $6.58 billion, making up the bulk of its overall revenue, followed by $693.7 million from ticketing. More

A look at the day ahead in Asian markets. The Trump trade carried Wall Street to fresh records on Monday but election-week momentum faded in holiday thinned markets that don’t leave Asia much to cue off aside from disappointment in China’s stimulus proposals.Except, perhaps, in the cryptosphere, where Donald Trump’s sweeping win over Democratic candidate Vice President Kamala Harris kept activity lively, thanks to the president-elect’s pre-election bitcoin cheerleading.The largest digital currency soared above $85,000 for the first time, carrying associated shares along with it. Treasury markets, being closed for the U.S. Veterans Day holiday, offered no signals.Fed funds futures however showed traders see a 65% chance that the Fed will follow last week’s quarter point cut with another at its Dec. 17-18 meeting, even as easing expectations for next year were dialed back.The three main U.S. indexes climbed further into uncharted territory in early trading, although the benchmark S&P 500 had difficulty holding above the 6,000 threshold that it first traded above on Friday.     The stock market loves the Trump proposals for tax cuts and deregulation, especially the Russell 2000 small cap index, which rose about 1.5% to within 1% of the record high from November 2021. Bonds have been less enamored of Trump’s promise to impose import tariffs that many economists see as likely to raise inflation and kick off retaliation from trade partners.The 30-year Treasury yield hit its highest since the end of May last week after the election, while the yield on the 10-year note rose to its highest since early July and the two-year hit its highest since late July. The dollar was still buoyed by higher yields, rising against the yuan to its highest since early August at 7.2332 yuan. Dollar/yen rose 0.7% to 153.78.Several stocks that gained following the election continued their upward trajectory. Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA) jumped almost 8% after touching $1 trillion in market value on Friday for the first time since 2022. Elon Musk, Tesla’s billionaire CEO, has close ties to Trump and his companies look positioned to benefit under the new administration. U.S. listed cryptocurrency stocks surged, with crypto exchange Coinbase Global (NASDAQ:COIN) jumping more than 20% and iShares Bitcoin Trust up more than 13%. Crypto miner Riot Platforms (NASDAQ:RIOT) surged 17%, while MicroStrategy, one of bitcoin’s biggest corporate backers, gained 28%.Beijing’s proposed 10 trillion yuan ($1.4 trillion) package to shore up local government financing, announced late on Friday, did not offer a direct boost to its flagging economy. Thus investor disappointment overshadowed the record run Wall Street closed out with last week. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed down 1% on Monday after Hong Kong’s Hang Seng sank 1.45%. Chinese blue chips rose 0.66% higher after an early fall and Tokyo’s Nikkei ended 0.08% higher.Here are key developments that could provide more direction to markets on Tuesday:- India CPI (Oct)- India Industrial output (Sept)- South Korea Unemployment (Oct) More

(Reuters) -Chipotle Mexican Grill on Monday named interim boss Scott Boatwright as permanent CEO of the burrito chain in a widely expected move, months after Brian Niccol exited the role to take the top job at Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX).Boatwright, who has been at Chipotle (NYSE:CMG) since 2017, takes the helm as restaurants across the United States battle weak consumer demand in the face of higher menu prices.In a surprise announcement in August, Starbucks named Niccol as its new CEO, leaving Chipotle under Boatwright, who has vowed to push the burrito chain to be a “global lifestyle brand” and expand to 7,000 restaurants in North America.A veteran in the restaurant industry, Boatwright spent 18 years with Arby’s Restaurant Group (LON:RTN) before joining Chipotle in 2017.He was named CEO following “a thorough and rigorous external search process,” Chipotle said in a statement on Monday.Boatwright worked closely with Niccol to also steer the company out of a crisis following a severe E. coli and salmonella outbreak in 2015.”Boatwright was by far the most logical choice given his instrumental role in leading Chipotle’s efforts to improve operations, integrate new technology, reduce employee turnover, and bolster customer satisfaction,” said Sharon Zackfia, analyst at William Blair.His appointment as CEO comes amid a slew of changes to the top brass at Chipotle following Niccol’s exit. In August, Chipotle also accelerated the appointment of Adam Rymer as its chief financial officer, and named Rymer’s predecessor Jack Hartung as chief strategy officer.Hartung was originally set to retire in March next year after a little over two decades as the company’s CFO. Rymer has been at Chipotle for 15 years, last serving as vice president of finance. “Boatwright as CEO should build confidence among investors in Chipotle’s management,” said Jim Sanderson, analyst at Northcoast Research. Chipotle’s stock lost $6 billion in market value immediately after Niccol’s departure. Since then, shares have risen about 14%. More

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TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s service-sector sentiment worsened and bankruptcy cases rose in October, data showed on Monday, casting doubt on the central bank’s view the country was on track to meet its 2% inflation target driven by robust domestic demand.The findings align with concerns voiced by some Bank of Japan (BOJ) board members at last month’s policy meeting that intensifying labour shortages could constrain growth, rather than lead to higher wages.”There’s a risk Japan’s economic growth will slow if labour supply constraints force firms to shrink operations by withdrawing from low-profit businesses,” one member was quoted as saying in a summary of opinions released on Monday.An index measuring sentiment among service-sector firms like taxi drivers and restaurants stood at 47.5 in October, down 0.3 point from the previous month to mark the second straight month of declines, the government’s “economy watchers” showed.A gauge of firms’ sentiment on the economic outlook also fell 1.4 points to 48.3, worsening for the second month and highlighting the fragility of Japan’s recovery.”Corporate sentiment remained strong for quite a long time but seems to be worsening somewhat, which is a concern,” said Nobuyasu Atago, chief economist at Rakuten Securities Economic Research Institute.”It raises some questions as to whether rising wages will boost consumption and lift service-sector sentiment, as the BOJ predicts,” he said.The “economy watchers” survey is closely watched by markets as a leading indicator of household spending and the broader economy, due to the polled firms’ proximity to consumers.Corporate bankruptcy cases are also creeping up as rising raw material costs and labour shortages squeeze profits particularly for small and medium-sized firms.The number of companies that went bankrupt hit 925 in October, the second largest this year following 1,016 cases in May and up 17.1% from year-before levels, a survey by private think tank Teikoku Databank showed on Monday.Of the total, a record 287 cases were caused by trouble hiring staff, the survey showed, a sign some firms were struggling to earn enough profits to pay higher wages.The BOJ exited a radical stimulus programme in March and raised its short-term policy rate to 0.25% in July.BOJ Governor Kazuo Ueda has said the central bank will continue to raise rates if robust domestic demand, backed by higher wages, keep inflation sustainably around its 2% target. More