Wed 16 Sep 2026 at 4:58pmWed 16 Sep 2026 at 4:58pm
Until tomorrow
That’s it from us today. Thanks for joining us.
We’ll be back early tomorrow morning, when we can expect to hear more about Labor’s long-awaited overhaul of the immigration system, and see which industries (and companies) it will impact the most.
Until then, take care of yourselves.
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Wed 16 Sep 2026 at 4:48pmWed 16 Sep 2026 at 4:48pm
Best and worst performers
The best performers on the ASX200 today were Pantoro Gold (up 24 cents, +9.3%, to $2.82) and Codan Limited (up $3.42, +7.51%, to $48.94).
The worst performers were Life360 (down $1.12, -5.46%, to $19.4) and 4DMedical (down 20 cents, -5.35%, to $3.54).
Wed 16 Sep 2026 at 4:33pmWed 16 Sep 2026 at 4:33pm
AI giant Anthropic signs agreement for $32b Queensland data centre
AI giant Anthropic has signed its first deal in Australia to use a $32 billion data centre hub on Queensland’s Western Downs.
The Western Downs Digital Park is set to be the largest facility of its kind in the country, with a power draw comparable to 1.5 million average Australian households.
Anthropic aims to be able to start using the centre in 2027, despite the development application only being filed with the local council last month.
Read more of the story here:
Wed 16 Sep 2026 at 4:31pmWed 16 Sep 2026 at 4:31pm
UK inflation picks up to 3.1pc in August, from 2.9pc in July
Reuters news:
British inflation accelerated to 3.1% in August from 2.9% in July, official figures showed on Wednesday, a day before the Bank of England is expected to announce that it is keeping interest rates on hold.
Economists polled by Reuters had mostly expected that consumer price inflation would speed up to an annual rate of 3.1% due to a renewed climb in energy prices caused by the resumption of conflict in the Gulf.
The BoE predicted in July that annual inflation would stand at 2.8% in August.
Wed 16 Sep 2026 at 4:23pmWed 16 Sep 2026 at 4:23pm
ASX closes 0.28pc higher
Trading has finished for the day, and the S&P/ASX200 has gained 24 points (+0.28%) to close on 8,696.50 points.
According to the ASX the index has lost 2.41%for the last five trading days, but it is virtually unchanged year-to-date.
Wed 16 Sep 2026 at 4:10pmWed 16 Sep 2026 at 4:10pm
Oil prices and market volatility
Westpac’s Justin Smirk and Luka Belobrajdic say they expect Brent crude oil to average US$90/barrel for the rest of 2026 as Middle East tensions remain unresolved and Chinese demand continues to recover.
“We continue to expect volatility, with key differences between the US and Iran remaining unresolved while supply and demand fundamentals will increasingly reassert themselves as key drivers of prices over coming months,” they say.
“Notably, inventories remain very low.
“EIA statistics suggest total OECD inventories in August are 121 million barrels below levels recorded prior to the start of the conflict in February. The need to rebuild these depleted reserves is expected to support demand going forward.
“China is also likely to become a more important source of demand, with lower Chinese imports having been a key buffer against the global supply shock, although this support is unlikely to persist.”
Wed 16 Sep 2026 at 3:28pmWed 16 Sep 2026 at 3:28pm
Labor to crack down on international students bringing family members to Australia
The ABC’s Jane Norman is reporting that international students would effectively be banned from bringing family members to Australia under a long-awaited overhaul of the immigration system, to be unveiled by Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke tomorrow.
“While international student numbers are expected to be left untouched, the ABC has been told they will effectively lose the ability to bring their families to Australia under the crackdown.
“Last financial year, 337,427 student visas were granted and of those, 45,991 were secondary applicants, classed as dependents or family.”
Read more of the story here:
Wed 16 Sep 2026 at 3:11pmWed 16 Sep 2026 at 3:11pm
ASX up 0.23pc
We’re into the last hour of trading for the day and Australia’s stock market is currently 19.9 points higher (+0.23%) on this morning’s open.
Wed 16 Sep 2026 at 2:34pmWed 16 Sep 2026 at 2:34pm
ABC Business Daily podcast
Today’s episode of ABC Business Daily is live.
Thailand’s massive car manufacturing industry has seen the country nicknamed the “Detroit of Asia.” But China’s electric vehicle boom is shaking up the Thai automotive sector, with Chinese brands dominating the EV market and local manufacturers pushing for tariffs to protects themselves as vehicle production falls.
Meanwhile in Australia, the economics of going electric are shifting again as oil prices come under renewed pressure and EV sales climb.
Carrington Clarke and ABC Business Reporter Lin Lin explain how consumer behaviour and government policy turned Thailand’s car market upside down, and unpack what we can learn from it in Australia.
Wed 16 Sep 2026 at 2:12pmWed 16 Sep 2026 at 2:12pm
Tourism jobs decline by 1,200 in the June quarter
The Bureau of Statistics has released its latest quarterly tourism jobs data today.
In the last 12 months, some of the sub-industries have seen job increases, or declines, like this:
Accommodation jobs: up 20,500 jobs, to 136,600 (+17.7%)Casinos and other gambling services: down 300 jobs, to 1,500 jobs (-16.7%)Clubs, pubs, taverns and bars: up 100 jobs, to 43,800 jobs (+0.2%)Cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services: up 600 jobs, to 211,700 (+0.2%)
Wed 16 Sep 2026 at 1:38pmWed 16 Sep 2026 at 1:38pm
NSW’s renewable energy rollout is running almost $1b under budget
ICYMI.
In 2020, the NSW Coalition government outlined a plan for a once-in-a-generation undertaking.
To power Australia’s most populous state with renewable energy instead of coal, regional areas would be transformed into power stations.
But almost six years on, delivering the infrastructure is taking longer than planned and the state is racing to meet its own targets.
The agency responsible for the rollout, EnergyCo, has spent almost $1 billion less than budgeted over the past two years.
Wed 16 Sep 2026 at 1:08pmWed 16 Sep 2026 at 1:08pm
The economic inevitability
Gareth’s latest article hits close to home. As a baby boomer I often look at today’s headlines and wonder ‘where did it all go wrong’? We had major improvements to our lives during the 70s , 80s , 90s , (Medicare , Wage improvements , Housing , Employment opportunities , spring to mind) and then we became part of ‘globalism’. We began to be dictated to by overseas boardrooms and into the 2000s this trend accelerated dramatically. We are one of the few countries capable of being totally self sufficient and instead of embracing that we’ve given it all away.
– Phillip
Thanks Phillip,
One of the interesting things about Goodhart’s observations was about the “inevitability” of the decline in real wages and equality, in places like the UK, that would naturally occur as the world’s economies globalised. Did policymakers know at the time that that was going to be an inevitable consequence of their decisions? I don’t remember hearing them.
Wed 16 Sep 2026 at 12:38pmWed 16 Sep 2026 at 12:38pm
Bathla collapse: the case for a public developer?
Greens senator Barbara Pocock says Bathla’s collapse highlights why Australia needs a public housing developer.
She says Bathla owes over $3.4 billion to around 3,000 creditors, including subcontractors and suppliers, with 14,000 homes in the pipeline, including more than 2,500 half-built apartments.
She says people’s life savings are on the line, and the people left high and dry “have no home and no money while they wait for a lengthy investigation by ASIC,” which isn’t good enough.
“Bathla was meant to be one of Australia’s largest developers of so-called ‘affordable housing’. Instead thousands of homebuyers risk losing everything,” she says.
She’s circulated a press release that makes the argument that housing is a human right, and the federal government ought to take more responsibility for housing.
“The government must get back into the business of building homes directly. Housing is a human right, just like healthcare and education. It should not simply be left to the private market,” she said.
“The Greens want to see a public housing developer to ensure people’s right to good-quality homes ahead of developer profits.
“We know this plan is possible, because it’s what the government did after World War Two. In 1945, the government directly built 26 percent of all homes nationally.”
Wed 16 Sep 2026 at 12:08pmWed 16 Sep 2026 at 12:08pm
ASX practically flat at midday
We’re now in the third hour of the trading day, and the Australian share market is not doing terribly well.
After opening around 0.3% higher, the ASX 200 has since erased nearly all of its initial gains.
In fact, it briefly dipped into negative territory a couple of times! You could say it’s struggling for direction, or dead flat…
The ASX 200 has wiped out almost all of its opening gains. (Google)
Wed 16 Sep 2026 at 11:05amWed 16 Sep 2026 at 11:05am
Brisbane property resales data — typo amended
In the table for property resale loss / gain, the Brisbane figures are 1.7% loss and 99.8% gain. The other cities all add up to 100 but not Brisbane?
Something seems askew.
– Moomy
One eagle-eyed reader correctly pointed out there was a typo in our previous post titled: ‘National resale profits down but Brisbane property still leads with $525,000 median gain’.
We’ve updated the table to show that 99.8% of Brisbane properties were resold at a profit, while 0.2% made a loss,according to new data from Cotality.
For your convenience, here is the amended table:
Proportion of property resales that made a loss or gain. (Cotality)
Wed 16 Sep 2026 at 10:52amWed 16 Sep 2026 at 10:52am
Mining, tech and healthcare are today’s worst performing ASX stocks
Around 114 out of 200 stocks are trading lower today, so that’s most of them down.
Many of today’s worst performers on the ASX are mining, technology and healthcare stocks.
Companies like Life360 (-6.2%), Telix Pharmaceuticals (-5.2%) and Capricorn Metals (-3.1%) are recording some of the sharpest falls to their share price this morning.
Around 57pc of stocks on the ASX 200 have fallen today. (LSEG)
Wed 16 Sep 2026 at 10:42amWed 16 Sep 2026 at 10:42am
Market snapshot ASX 200: +0.2% to 8,688 points (live data below)
Australian dollar: -0.1% to 71.25 US centsWall Street: Dow Jones (-0.6%), S&P 500 (-0.5%), Nasdaq Composite (-0.8%)Europe: Stoxx 600 (-0.3%), DAX (-0.2%), FTSE (-0.4%) Asia: KOSPI (+0.3%), Nikkei (-0.1%)Spot gold: -0.2% to $US4,282/ounce
Oil (Brent futures): -0.9% to $US107.78/barrelOil (WTI futures): -0.9% to $US104.87/barrelIron ore: flat at $US96.60/tonneBitcoin: -0.1% to $US75,81410-year bond yields: US 4.99%, Australia 5.37%
Prices current at around 10:40am AEST