Yahoo Finance ASX to start flat; Australia's $143bn budget deficit prediction
Good morning.
Here is Yahoo Finance’s Monday morning wrap:
ASX: Aussie investors can expect a flat start to the share market this week despite loosening of coronavirus restrictions across the states and territories.
The SPI 200 futures contract was up 3 points, or 0.06 per cent, to 5,405.0 at 0700 AEST on Monday.
Wall Street: The US stock market closed up higher last week after the number of US jobs lost in April (a whopping 20.5 million) was less than economists expected.
AUD: One Australian dollar buys 65.33 US cents at 0700 AEST, up from 65.23 US cents at Friday's close.
Remember the bushfire crisis? It was the first crisis to hit Australia before the coronavirus pandemic. Those communities still need to rebuild, and the federal government has pledged a further $650 million to help regional Aussies to recover from the fires.
The economy needs fixing. But in order to do that, the government shouldn’t look to fix the federal budget by raising taxes or cutting spending because that will make our economic recovery worse, Deloitte economist Chris Richardson has said. He also predicts the budget deficit in 2019-20 will be much, much worse ($143.1 billion) than the government’s initial forecasts ($5 billion surplus). Labor thinks Deloitte’s analysis is a ‘sober’ assessment.
Questionable workplace conduct: Have you ever been unethical at work? Your instinct might be to say no, but... Is that accurate? New research shows being unethical could even result in a higher paypacket. Here’s the story.
How will we come out of this crisis? Opposition leader Anthony Albanese will be giving a speech to the Labor caucus this morning, in which he’ll be pushing to take this one-in-a-political-lifetime opportunity for Australian economic reform. He’s asked Labor frontbenchers for ideas on recovery, some of which he’ll share in his speech. More here.
The NSW treasurer has proposed to freeze public sector wages that will affect frontline nurses and midwives. They’re not happy about it. Understandably.
“The middle of a pandemic is hardly the time to be asking frontline nurses and midwives to suck it up, show up for their shifts and do even more for less,” said NSW Nurses and Midwives' Association general secretary Brett Holmes.
“The government cannot deny the sacrifices of frontline workers, especially when more than half of the 144 NSW Health workers who have contracted COVID-19, acquired it while at work.”
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg was meant to present the 2020-21 budget tomorrow. But that’s been pushed back to October. Instead, he’ll deliver a statement on the outlook for the Australian budget. It most likely won’t look pretty.
What do Warren Buffett and Kim Kardashian have in common? Financial commentator Peter Switzer explains why you need to view the former like the latter if you want to get wealthy.
And if you’re a recipient of JobKeeper, the tax office has a warning for you. This is the phone call you need to be wary of.
–with AAP
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