Yahoo Finance ASX down, banks merge and 5 other things to start your day
Australia’s outlook has been downgraded and, should property owners be warned about climate risks?
ASX
The local share market is expected to sink at the open after US markets took a hammering over the weekend.
Bank concerns
UBS has sealed a deal to buy rival Swiss bank Credit Suisse to avoid further market-shaking turmoil in global banking, Swiss authorities said.
Swiss regulators were forced to step in and orchestrate a deal to prevent a crisis of confidence in Credit Suisse spilling over into the broader financial system.
Rate pain
The minutes from the Reserve Bank's last board meeting will offer some context for the most recent cash rate decision and, hopefully for borrowers, further signs the bank is preparing for a pause.
The central bank hiked interest rates by another 25 basis points in March, taking the official cash rate to 3.6 per cent.
Climate concerns
The Greens will keep pushing the federal government to stop opening new coal and gas mines in exchange for their support on a signature climate policy.
A proposed safeguards mechanism will be the main agenda item as parliament returns for the final sitting before the budget is handed down in May.
Housing
Speaking of climate change, the Productivity Commission has suggested that Australians seeking to buy a home or business should be given information about the climate risks relating to their new property.
The commission said Australia would have to prepare for some degree of further global warming on top of the 1.1C average temperature rise since the industrial revolution, regardless of the speed of global emissions abatement.
Looking forward
Australia's growth outlook remains muted as the war in Ukraine, sky-high inflation and the slowdown in China weigh on economies around the world, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Since November, the organisation revised Australia's 2023 growth projection down from 1.9 per cent to 1.8 per cent and from 1.6 per cent to 1.5 per cent in 2024.
Look who’s back
Former US president Donald Trump has posted to YouTube and Facebook, in a return to social media platforms that he was cut off from following the 2021 attack on Congress by his followers.
Trump shared a video that appeared to be from one of his previous election speeches.
"Sorry to keep you waiting. Complicated business," Trump said in the video, captioned "I'M BACK."
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