Markets Overview
- Australia’s ASX 200 – 7185.55, -2%
- Aussie 10-Year Yield – 1.49%, Unch
- Brent Crude – $79.28, +1.2%
- U.S. 2-Year Treasury Yield – 0.26%, -1.2 bps
- Dow Jones – 34326.46, +1.4%
- Nasdaq Composite – 14566.70, +0.8%
- S&P 500 – 4357.04, +1.1%
- Spot Gold – $1760.98, +0.2%
Economic Events
- 11:00 a.m.: Australia Sept. Melbourne Institute Inflation
Australian home prices rose again in September, albeit at a slower pace than earlier this year, in a further sign that the red-hot property market is losing steam.
Residential property values in the country climbed 1.5% in September, about half the rate seen at this year’s peak in March, according to CoreLogic Inc.data released Friday. Still, the market is up 20.3% over the past year, with the annual growth rate tracking at the fastest since the year to June 1989.
Rapid growth in house prices this year has kept first-time homebuyers out of the market, and Tim Lawless, research director at CoreLogic, said the slowdown in growth was due to a lack of affordability.
“With housing values rising substantially faster than household incomes, raising a deposit has become more challenging for most cohorts of the market, especially first home buyers,” Lawless said in a statement. Prices in Australia have risen at more than 10 times the pace of wages, raising a major barrier to entry for first-home buyers and fueling momentum for macroprudential measures to contain credit growth and keep a lid on financial risk. The International Monetary Fund last week called for lending curbs to tame red-hot prices, citing financial stability concerns.
Existing owners upgrading their houses or even upsizing haven’t been hamstrung in the same way, because they had already built up equity as prices surged, Lawless said. The number of owner-occupier first home buyer loans fell 20.5% between January and July, he said.
Other News
A Turkish man reported missing in a forest ended up joining the search operation for himself, according to a mind-bending new report. Beyhan Mutlu, 50, who lives in the northwestern Bursa province, was believed to be missing Tuesday after he wandered away drunk in the forest from his group of friends, the Daily Sabah reported. With search efforts underway, Mutlu ended up joining a group of volunteers who were helping authorities look for him, the outlet reported. But when the volunteers began shouting his name, Mutlu became confused and asked whom they were trying to locate, Turkish channel news channel NTV reported. “I am here,” he reportedly told them. Once police learned the man joined his own search party, they gave him a ride home, the outlets reported.
