00:01Perhaps there's a small part of Donald Trump that wishes he had never started a war in
00:05the Middle East.
00:06Had it not been for the war, petrol prices in America would not have surged above four
00:11US dollars a gallon, the highest it's ever been just before a midterm election.
00:16And that own goal from the US president has also led to nasty side effects everywhere
00:20else, including here, where the average price of unleaded petrol has surged to $2.37 a litre,
00:27while diesel is sitting uncomfortably high at $2.87 per litre.
00:31If the war doesn't end soon, and these high prices become the new normal, it will make
00:36it much harder for the Reserve Bank to bring inflation down.
00:39Markets are now betting there's only a 34% chance the RBA may lift interest rates one
00:44last time.
00:45And a pretty high chance the bank might be forced to start cutting again by the end of
00:49next year, because of the growing risk that Australia's economic slowdown could turn into
00:54an ugly recession.
00:55And that's why the Aussie dollar continued its slide below 70 US cents, while the share
01:00market ended its day with a moderate fall.
01:03And news of David Jones being on the brink of collapse led to Meyer's share price jumping
01:077%, and Center Group, which owns the Westfield shopping malls, falling after it confirmed David
01:12Jones hasn't been paying rent for the last month.
01:15Meanwhile, the price of iron ore, gold and oil went up while copper fell.
01:19And while Japan's Nikkei is down sharply, Wall Street went up overnight.
01:23But when we look ahead, it looks like America's tech and AI stocks are going to have a bad
01:27day tomorrow.
01:28Some high profile Democrats have been calling for greater restrictions on new data centers
01:33being built.
01:34And now that the blue wave has taken control of Congress, it's seen as a potential risk
01:38for the AI boom slash bubble.
01:40And that's finance.
