1h agoMon 2 Mar 2026 at 11:54pmMarket snapshotASX 200 futures: -0.5% to 9,151 pointsAustralian dollar: +0.2% to 71.08 US centsS&P 500: Flat at 6,881 pointsNasdaq: +0.4% to 22,748 pointsFTSE: -1.2% to  10,780 pointsEuroStoxx: -2.1% to 636 pointsSpot gold: +0.3% to $US5,342/ounceBrent crude: +7.1% to $US78.07/barrelIron ore: +0.8% to $US99.10/tonneBitcoin: -0.8% to $US68,900

Price current around 10:50am AEDT

Live updates on the major ASX indices:

5m agoTue 3 Mar 2026 at 1:00am

Current Account Deficit widens

Australia’s current account balance fell by $2.8 billion in December quarter 2025 to a deficit of $21.1 billion, according to ABS data.

“The current account balance recorded its second consecutive fall, as the net primary income deficit widened by $2.5 billion,” ABS head of international statistics, Jonathon Khoo said.

The wider primary income deficit was due to a $1.6 billion rise in primary income paid to overseas investors, driven by stronger dividends paid by Australian firms.

6m agoTue 3 Mar 2026 at 1:00am

Qantas gender pay gap ‘isn’t the progress we want to see’

One of the interesting features of the WGEA gender pay gap data is that employers can include statements that explain what they’re doing to close it.

Qantas has always had a high gender pay gap because highly-paid roles (pilots, engineering) are dominated by men and generally done full-time.

Less well-paid roles such as flight attendants and administrative ground staff are dominated by women, some of whom work part-time.

Here’s HR boss Catherine Walsh in the ’employer statement’ about the on-going gap:

“Our gender pay gap for FY24 was 35.7 per cent for median total remuneration, up from 32.4 per cent the previous year. This isn’t the progress we want to see.”

She goes on to say the gap was expected to get worse, due to the impact of broad agreements that cover employees in different parts of the business.

“78 per cent of our people are paid according to enterprise agreements, which standardise pay regardless of gender. For corporate employees not covered by agreements, the like-for-like pay gap is 1.2 per cent — no change from last year. The widening this year was predominantly driven by backdated earnings from earlier reporting periods, including Cabin Crew and engineering enterprise agreement finalisation, and delayed Executive bonus payments.”

Larges bonuses to executives – men make up 59.3% of senior roles – have skewed the numbers. Sure to make the workerbees feel happy.

Qantas is at least doing the slow-but-important work of increasing the number of women who are pilots and work in engineering. (This is a global issue, not confined to Qantas).

Women will make up 20% of new starters at its engineering academy this year and last year a quarter of the people hired from its pilot academy were women.

You can read the statement here or look at the WGEA data at the link below.

16m agoTue 3 Mar 2026 at 12:50am

Building approvals fall

The total number of dwellings approved fell 7.2% in January to 14,564, according to the ABS.

‘The drop in total dwellings approved was driven by a 24.5% fall in private dwellings excluding houses,” ABS head of construction statistics, Daniel Rossi said.

“This is the second consecutive fall in private dwellings excluding houses, following a 30.7% drop in December.”

21m agoTue 3 Mar 2026 at 12:45am

Update

Hi Samuel,
In an earlier post today:
Inflation likely to remain above target as demand outstrips supply: RBA governor
So where is all this demand coming from?
Regards, Gil

– Gil B

Great question Gil. According to speeches made by RBA governor Michele Bullock, demand comes from both private and public sectors, for example, private consumption, investment, and government spending. Ms Bullock talked extensively about demand in the post policy meeting media conference. Here’s the link for you.

21m agoTue 3 Mar 2026 at 12:45am

Travel stocks tumble

Travel shares tumbled on Monday, shedding $US22.6 billion as escalating conflict between the US, Israel and Iran disrupted flights worldwide, closed key Middle Eastern hubs and sent oil prices surging.

Analysts warn of weeks of disruption.

The UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization told countries they “have the responsibility to ensure the safety and security of air transport operations, facilities and passengers”.

Reporting with Reuters

25m agoTue 3 Mar 2026 at 12:41amMacquarie Group evacuating people from Middle East

Macquarie Group CEO Shemara Wikramanayake says the company has been getting it staff out of the Middle East following hostilities there.

Speaking at a business summit in Sydney she said they did have people all over the Middle East and it was their number one priority.

“We’ve been getting people out overland via Saudi Arabia and Oman,” she said.

She said if hostilities increased, they would have to make some decisions.

“We’re going to have to decide what to do,” she said.

“Our big customers are very calm and are used to dealing with this.

“The big concern is how long this persists. We could see knock on impacts.”

31m agoTue 3 Mar 2026 at 12:35am

CommBank CEO says boosting growth is essential

CommBank CEO Matt Comyn has told a summit of business leaders in Sydney that Australia should aspire to a have a higher level of economic growth and it should have a “three in front of it, not a two”.

“It has to be about productivity,” he said.

“We’re seeing inflationary forces. We’ve got to get inflation back into the target band.”

He said if growth wasn’t driven by productivity gains the only lever available was redistributing wealth.

“This is the most pressing issue in terms of economic policy and reform,” he said.

“It worries me, it should worry everyone.”

39m agoTue 3 Mar 2026 at 12:27am

Qantas fuel hedging ‘pretty good’

Qantas Airways CEO Vanessa Hudson says the airline had “pretty good” fuel hedging in place but the spike in oil prices amid the conflict between the US, Israel and Iran was significant for the aviation industry.

“We’ve got pretty good hedging in place, but these are pretty significant impacts on aviation and we’re just continuing to watch how it all unfolds,” she said at the Australian Financial Review’s business summit.

This is crucial information for air travellers concerned about hikes in the cost airfares.

47m agoTue 3 Mar 2026 at 12:18am

Qantas says it’s responding to events in Iran

Qantas CEO Vanessa Hudson has told a business summit in Sydney the airline is working hard with its codeshare partner Emirates after widespread disruption to aviation because of conflict in Iran.

“We’re going to do everything we can to support our customers,” she said.

Hudson said the airline was also in contact with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade about any requirements and was tyring to support its own staff in the region.

“We stand ready to support wherever we can,” she said.

She said their Perth hub meant they could get customers to Europe and London as those flights go around the Middle East.

But she said the bigger question was how long the uncertainty from the Iran and Middle East conflict would last.

“We’ve seen the fuel price spark. That’s brent and refiners margin which all flows through to substantial cost for airlines,” she said.

“We’ve got good hedging in place – we’ve got some protection there – these are pretty significant impacts on aviation.”

1h agoTue 3 Mar 2026 at 12:04amTop and bottom movers at open

Magellan Financial has surged more than 28 per cent in the first hour of trade after completing a $130 million institutional placement.

Iperionx (+6%) and Light & Wonder (+3.9%) were also among the best performers.

On the way down, Neuren (-6%), Capstone Copper (-5.2%) and Remelius Resources (-4.6%) were leading the losses.

(LSEG)1h agoMon 2 Mar 2026 at 11:50pmDeal with energy costs and corporate tax rate: BHP chair

BHP chair Ross McEwan says Australia should lower its corporate tax rate below 30% and reduce energy prices if it wants to be globally competitive.

Speaking at the AFR Business Summit in Sydney, he said Australia’s corporate tax rate was the 5th highest in the OECD.

“If you’re trying to attract capital into Australia that [figure] has to be competitive,” he said.

“If you want manufacturing and data centres and those new exciting things you cannot have one of the higher energy prices in the world.”

He said gas had also disappeared from the energy debate, even though it could deal with power demand peaks.

“Businesses have to compete hard to get our product into a global marketplace.”

He’s also weighed in on the impact of Trump and tariffs on the sector.

“I think its been different for business, I’m not sure it’s been better or worse,” he said.

“It’s put a different dynamic in the marketplace.”

1h agoMon 2 Mar 2026 at 11:41pmBHP says trade routes largely unaffected by Iran conflict

BHP chair Ross McEwan has given an insight into how big businesses are dealing with the conflict in Iran.

Speaking at a Business Summit in Sydney the chair said the first priority for the company was the security of its staff operating in the area.

“Secondly you look at the impact on your business. We run scenarios on this across many situations, the Middle East being one of those,” he said.

Mr McEwan said the majority of their products went to Asia and were unaffected by the conflict.

“Those trade routes are okay,” he said.

But, McEwan said, there would be some impacts on some trade routes.

“You’ve got to think how to get your product to market and satisfy customer demand,” he said.

1h agoMon 2 Mar 2026 at 11:12pmASX opens down

The ASX 200 index has opened lower, down 26 points or 0.3% to 9,174, by 10:10am AEDT.

1h agoMon 2 Mar 2026 at 11:06pmNew investment is ‘central business challenge’: Swan

Former treasurer Wayne Swan, speaking at a Business Summit in Sydney today, says an increase in business investment is “the central business challenge of our age”.

Speaking on a panel that includes former PM Malcolm Turnbull, Mr Swan said new investment was crucial.

“We’ve got capacity constraints, we need a new level of business investment which will drive some of these new technologies,” he said.

He also gave an insight into what current Treasurer Jim Chalmers may be considering as he prepares the May federal budget.

“We’ve got inflationary pressure on rates, we need a stronger pipeline. That’s where the treasurer will be focusing when he brings down his budget.”

2h agoMon 2 Mar 2026 at 10:55pm

‘Coordinator-general’ needed to get big projects done: Turnbull

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, speaking at the AFR Business Summit today, has pointed out Queensland’s success in getting big projects approved using a so-called “coordinator-general”.

He is speaking on a panel that includes Jenny Johnson, CEO of Franklin Templeton, former Labor treasurer Wayne Swan and Robin Khuda, founder and CEO of AirTrunk.

The former PM’s remark was in response to discussions on the panel about the difficulties of regulation when it comes to getting big projects approved. So far it’s canvassed topics ranging from AI to data centres and solar panel farms.

“This officer has the ability to intervene to take over the role, authority of any minister and basically get it done. That’s why for years Queensland has been able to get projects approved much more quickly than other states,” Mr Turnbull said.

2h agoMon 2 Mar 2026 at 10:52pm’Every meeting is live’: Bullock doesn’t rule out a March rate hikeRBA Governor Michele Bullock speaking at the AFR Business Summit (ABC News: John Gunn)

The Reserve Bank has indicated it will place greater weight on quarterly inflation data when determining its interest rate decisions.

The Board next meets on March 16-17, but first-quarter inflation data will not be released until late April.

Governor Michele Bullock said the bank would not necessarily wait for the quarterly figures before making a move.

“Every meeting is live,” she said.

“If you go back to COVID, when inflation was shooting above 7%, we weren’t waiting for quarterly meetings then, we were moving much more quickly.

“Then you recall, when the markets expected us to move in July last year, and we didn’t, that caused a lot of angst as well.

“And now they’re settled on the fact that we only go every quarter.

“I would dissuade them from thinking that. I’m not making a prediction about March [meeting], but it will be a live meeting.

“We have inflation at 3.8% headline and we have unemployment at 4.1%, tight. The board will be actively looking at whether or not it needs to move more quickly.” 

2h agoMon 2 Mar 2026 at 10:26pmHow ‘patient’ can RBA be in taming inflation?

When asked whether there was a risk that the RBA was being “too patient” to bring down inflation, given headline inflation is at 3.8% and unemployment rate is at 4.1%, Michele Bullock says the board’s strategy is to bring inflation down in a reasonable timeframe while preserving the gains in employment.

“When I was talking about being patient, I think I was using it in two ways,” Ms Bullock explained.

“One is, there’s always a thirst in the Australian public for understanding what is happening to interest rates next. In one sense, what I was saying to people, ‘Look, just be patient while the board sifts through the information, and then we will be able to decide what to do.

“I notice even with the events in the Middle East now, the focus in Australia is on what does this mean for interest rates and house prices.

“But I also mean that we want to be patient in bring inflation down, but also it’s critical the board is really focused on inflation expectations. We’ve been able to achieve this because inflation expectations have been anchored.

“If we see that they are not, then interest rates are going to have to respond.”

2h agoMon 2 Mar 2026 at 10:23pmIran threatens strikes on ships in Strait of Hormuz

The Strait of Hormuz is closed, according to a commander in Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, and vessels trying to pass through will be targeted by the regime.

The strait is vital to global trade, with about a fifth of global oil and gas supplies passing through. Analysts warn of a spike in energy prices, as the narrow strait could be a chokehold on global supply.

2h agoMon 2 Mar 2026 at 10:10pmQatar shuts world’s largest LNG plant

Iranian drone attacks on QatarEnergy’s liquified natural gas facilities have halted production from the world’s largest gas producer.

Gas prices surged at the announcement, with UK natural gas prices jumping over 40%.

Qatar is one of the world’s largest gas exporters, with all shipments passing through the Strait of Hormuz, which is now an active chokepoint in the Middle East conflict, straining global supply.