ASX to rise ahead of historic wage growth figures

ASX to rise ahead of historic wage growth figures. Source: Getty

Good morning.

Here’s Yahoo Finance’s Wednesday morning wrap.

The ASX is expected to open higher, after experiencing their first glitch-free day of the week. The local bourse finished higher on Tuesday, as investor optimism soared on vaccine hopes.

In the US, Wall Street’s main indexes fell from record highs just a day earlier, after a spike in Covid-19 cases across the country and disappointing retail sales.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.51 per cent to 29,796.65, the S&P 500 lost 0.38 per cent to 3,613.09 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 0.21 per cent to 11,899.01 points.

Gladys breaks election promise: The Berejiklian government will sell its residual 49 per cent stake in the WestConnex motorway, and will consider selling the rights to lotteries duties, in a move contrary to her promises prior to the 2019 election.

The NSW premier had previously revealed she had said “no” to the future sales of state assets. Now however, Berejiklian believes circumstances have changed.

Election costs: Coronavirus could push the cost of the next federal election to upwards of $600 million, according to new figures from the Australian Electoral Commission.

The cost of running the Eden-Monaro by-election alone was estimated to be $4 million — twice the cost of the by-election pre-Covid.

Wage growth slumps again: Economists are predicting wage growth to have slowed to just 0.1 per cent over the September quarter when figures are released today - it’s lowest growth rate in history.

Overtime: The average employee was found to have worked seven weeks of unpaid overtime during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Australia Institute’s new report.

That equates to around 5.25 hours of unpaid work each week, or 273 hours per year.

Vaccines help stocks: The news about Pfizer and its 90 per cent effective vaccine for the coronavirus has sparked a surge in some share prices, while others that have been darlings of the market have sold off.

With vaccines tied so closely to stock market performance, here’s finance commentator, Peter Switzer’s, lesson.

Don’t believe what you hear: Property expert Michael Yardney doesn’t believe the property naysayers, and you shouldn’t either, he suggests.

Here’s a break down of all the rumours that have swirled around property prices in Australia, and the cold hard facts.

$100 vouchers: The NSW government has given every over-18 in the state $100 worth of vouchers to spend on dining and entertainment in Sydney as part of its 2020 Budget measures.

Here’s everything you need to know about them.

Stamp duty: Home buyers in NSW will now be allowed to opt out of paying stamp duty up front in exchange for paying a smaller annual land tax on new property transactions, as part of the state government’s 2020 Budget.

Here’s how it will work.

Have a great day.

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