Grant, are those, fair to say, some of the big pressures that we're seeing on that market?

Yeah, good morning, Gough.

Yeah, I mean, that's really taken the headlines over the last month and sort of weighed on the Aussie market a little bit.

You know, those interest rates, the oil prices we're all aware of have really started to just sort of subdue the market.

So, you know, across the whole curve, interest rates have arrived in Australia.

So you've got the front end, RBA lifted cash rates two weeks ago.

That's four rate rises for the year.

How much is China part of that story? I mean, they've traditionally been a big customer for those ores, right?

Grant, what are the Aussie results telling us at the moment? And if, I suppose if we're thinking about the big stories as well with the bond market and oil, why are they not throwing any, any shade over them?

Uh, yeah.

That's a good question.

I mean, I think, you know, what we saw out of results seasons was that was largely status quo.

Things kind of persisted as we expected.

Investors were a little r- concerned around the early signs of a, of a softening economy, and that largely didn't play out.

You know, to those bigger themes, you know, we're not really seeing that impact, um, in the Aussie market at the moment.

Have there been any sort of surprises that you've seen out of that season?

The healthcare and sort of consumer staples, they've sort of been lagging for the last few months, I suppose, but we're picking up a little bit there on the Aussie market?

Yeah, so healthcare's probably been pretty slack for a year or two now.

and globally it started to pick up.

In Australia, we've seen some really good quality blue chip names that have been quite hammered.

They've come back to a level that's been really cheap, so that's attracted some value buying.

Consumer staples, they've been pretty flat, but that's taken off, and that's more a reflection, I think, of a bit of a cautious outlook coming in, a defensive stance from investors, just as people start to sort of have a little bit of concern around whether the Australian economy is starting to slow a little bit you know, growth is sort of projected to pull back a little bit.

Lots of headlines about, you know, people sitting on bigger homes and not downsizing, auction rates and so on, yeah?

Yeah, that's certainly attracted a lot of attention.

The healthcare and sort of consumer staples, they've sort of been lagging for the last few months, I suppose, but we're picking up a little bit there on the Aussie market?

Yeah, so healthcare's probably been pretty slack for a year or two now.

and globally it started to pick up.

In Australia, we've seen some really good quality blue chip names that have been quite hammered and have come back to a level that's been really cheap, so that's attracted some value buying.

Consumer staples, you know, they've been pretty flat, but that's taken off, and that's more a reflection, I think, of a bit of a cautious outlook coming in, a defensive stance from investors, just as people start to sort of have a little bit of concern around whether the Australian economy is starting to slow a little bit you know, growth is sort of projected to pull back a little bit.

Lots of headlines about, you know, people sitting on bigger homes and not downsizing, auction rates and so on, yeah?

Yeah, that's certainly attracted a lot of attention.

Part of that is the Reserve Bank having lifted rates three times there, and there's a 50-50 chance of another one coming in.

Why are they doing so well in this economy?

Yeah, so the miners have been on a bit of a tear since late last year.

You know, big miners like BHP is up 35% this year and Rio Tinto is up 25%.

And really it's been around the strength of commodities.

So, you know, the two big key commodities for the top end of the index in Australia are iron ore and copper.

So iron ore, when we came into the year, we were expecting to trade down to sort of US $90 a tonne.

It's traded more towards 110.

What was their reporting like in May?