3m agoThu 4 Sep 2025 at 10:02pm

What’s going on with oil?

Crude oil prices slipped -1% overnight, and there’s a few reasons why.

They’re at two-week lows after last week’s surprise data that US inventories were higher than expected, and expectations that OPEC+ producers will increase output targets at a meeting this weekend.

The futures markets for both Brent crude and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fell, suggesting more to come.

US Energy Information Administration data said firms added 2.4 million barrels of crude into storage during the week ended August 29.

Separately, eight members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allies like Russia in OPEC+ will consider further increases to production in October at a meeting on Sunday, two sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters.

A potential OPEC+ production hike would send a strong signal that regaining market share takes priority over price support/.

OPEC+ has already agreed to raise output targets by about 2.2 million barrels per day from April to September, in addition to a 300,000-barrel per day quota increase for the United Arab Emirates.

13m agoThu 4 Sep 2025 at 9:52pm

From trading desk millionaire to inequality crusader, Gary’s Economics goes global

London School of Economics student turned multi-millionaire former Citi trader turned economics crusader, Gary Stevenson is one interesting guy.

The YouTuber and the author of ‘The Trading Game’ grew up in a poor neighbourhood in East London and warns that the global elite — the top 0.1 per cent — are currently winning every fight on tax and the direction of policy and the economy.

“They are accumulating wealth at an unbelievably rapid pace and it’s squeezing everybody else out.

“It’s pushing up the prices of things like, most obviously, housing, but not just housing, you look at stocks, stock markets all over the world, you look at the gold price, you look at land prices.”

Stevenson is worried the process is already so well advanced that reversing it is an urgent mission.

“If you do not take care of protecting your middle-class wealth, you will lose it, and then you will look like Brazil, you will look like India.

“You will look like a country where a tiny elite lives an incredibly luxurious life, and all the new working-class people struggle to pay the bills. And it’s happening here in the UK.”

A great read from my colleagues David Taylor and business editor Michael Janda.

40m agoThu 4 Sep 2025 at 9:25pm

Market snapshot

ASX 200 futures: +1.2% to 8,874 points

Australian dollar: 0.4% at 65.18 US cents

Dow Jones: +0.7% to 45,621 points

S&P 500: +0.8% to 6,502 points

Nasdaq: +1% to 21,707 points

FTSE: +0.4% to 9,216 points

EuroStoxx: +0.6% to 550 points

Spot gold: -0.9% to $US3,602/ounce

Brent crude: -1% to $US66.86/barrel

Iron ore: +1.2% to $US104.53 a tonne

Bitcoin: -0.7% to $US169,433

Prices current around 7:30am AEDT.

Live updates on the major ASX indices:

1h agoThu 4 Sep 2025 at 9:01pmGood morning!

Hello, I’m Daniel Ziffer from the ABC business team and I’ll be taking you through the morning on our business, finance and economics blog.

Overnight, Wall Street indices were leaping, the S&P 500 resting at a new high.

The blue-chip Dow Jones of 30 mega-companies like Boeing and Visa was +0.7% to 45,621 points.

The broader S&P 500 that covers 500 of the largest listed companies in the US +0.8% to 6,502 points, a new record close.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq was +1% to 21,707 points.

I keep tapping the screen to check the number, but our market is set to roar, with the ASX 200 futures index tipping a lift of +1.1% to 8,874 points.

There’s lots to get to, all of it news, analysis and information and none of it financial advice.

Let’s get started!

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