Digital Finance Analytics (DFA) Blog

There was always going to be a question about the Fed’s December decision, would they react to the latest data, or position ahead of the Trump 2.0 policy set coming in 2025? Well, it looks like both were in the minds of the Monetary Policy committee, as Federal Reserve officials lowered their benchmark interest rate … Continue reading "Dollar Taking No Prisoners As Fed’s Hawkish Cut Spooked Markets!"

Total budget revenue is cumulatively higher by about $380 billion over five years compared with Treasury’s forecasts on the eve of the May 2022 election. Yet, at a time when revenue is booming and the economy is operating around full capacity, the deficit in underlying terms is forecast to be $26.9 billion (1 per cent … Continue reading "Wanted Adults In The Budget Room, As Deficits Roar And Games Are Played!"

This is an edit of a live discussion with Economist Leith van Onselen, Co-founder of MacroBusiness, and Chief Economist at Nucleus Wealth. We will pick apart the latest housing disasters, and why things have gone so pear shaped, but also what could be done (with political will) to sort this mess out! It is NOT … Continue reading "DFA Live HD Replay: The Great Housing Bust, And What Can Be Done About It: With Leith van Onselen"

As we count down to the end of the year, Edwin and I discuss the idea that Government wants to keep property prices ever higher, look at a disaster of a building survey as a warning for those who trust vendor surveys, and spot areas where prices are well down from 2017 levels, despite all … Continue reading "Its Edwin’s Monday Evening Property Rant!"

We deep dive on the thorny question of household finances and the proportion of disposable income going to pay the rent or mortgage, using data from our core market model. We find that conditions are quite severe in many parts of the country, but it is not uniformly spread. Which households are most under the … Continue reading "Household Money Worries? – You Are Not Alone!"

This is our weekly market update, where we start in the US, cross to Europe and Asia and end in Australia, covering commodities and crypto along the way. MSCI’s global equity gauge fell on Friday while bond yields climbed as investors waited for clues about the future path for interest rates and Europe’s STOXX 600 … Continue reading "Markets: Are You Confused Yet? You Should Be!"

Core Logic released their annual Best of the Best report, and they say that while at first glance, the Australian housing market was surprisingly resilient through 2024, it can be characterised as having stronger conditions ‘out of the gate’, which slowed over the course of the year under waning demand, rising levels of advertised supply … Continue reading "Property Winners And Losers…"

Australia’s unemployment rate unexpectedly fell in November as the nation’s golden streak of hiring gains extended, underscoring the resilience of the labor market to elevated interest rates and prompting traders to pare back bets of a February cut. As Alex Joiner from IFM noted “Solid employment Growth in November and a tick down in the … Continue reading "Early Rate Cut Hopes Dashed By Strong Australian Jobs Data!"

You can smell an election coming soon as Australia’s housing minister has declared that the Anthony Albanese government doesn’t want house prices to fall – despite them being very unaffordable for the young. Clare O’Neil made the admission on Triple J’s youth-orientated Hack program recently, when she was hit with a barrage of questions about … Continue reading "Revealed: The Politics Of Housing And The Intergenerational War!"

The Reserve Bank left its cash rate at 4.35% on Tuesday in a widely anticipated decision, marking more than a year at that level. The rate-setting board said “some of the upside risks to inflation appear to have eased” and scrapped a longstanding line that it wasn’t ruling anything in or out on policy.Australia’s central … Continue reading "The RBA’s “Wild Ride”, While Rates Remain On Hold…"