Samsung has just launched its latest wave of Galaxy Z Flip 4 and Galaxy Z Fold 4 phones, committing strongly to the flexible design.
If you held off on buying the Galaxy Z Flip 4’s predecessor or you’re looking to upgrade to the latest model, this new device offers a larger battery and a camera that promises to perform better in lower-lit conditions.
While the new Galaxy Z Fold 4 phone doesn’t differ too dramatically when compared to its predecessor, Samsung has built in the same camera system as the Galaxy S22 and Galaxy S22+ models for a superior photography experience.
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Samsung fans can pre-order the Galaxy Z Flip 4 and the Galaxy Z Fold 4 from today ahead of the September 2 release date. It pays to be an early bird too because all pre-orders (other than through Woolworths Mobile) will secure a free memory upgrade. This means the 256GB model will be upgraded to the 512GB model, for example.
Here are some of the most popular plans for the Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 4 5G 512GB:
And here are some of the most popular plans for the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip 4 5G 256GB:
Both the Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Galaxy Z Flip 4 phones are available on plans from Telstra, Optus, Vodafone, and Woolworths Mobile and are available on 24-month or 36-month repayment plans.
Depending on who your provider is, the offers get even sweeter when you pre-order. The deals are as follows:
Telstra: You’ll get a newly announced Galaxy Watch 5 for free, valued at up to $649.
Optus: You’ll get a bonus Galaxy Tab A8, valued at $529.
Vodafone: You’ll get up to an extra $700 trade-in credit PLUS a bonus Samsung Trio Wireless Charger.
Woolworths Mobile: You can save $350 on the 256GB Galaxy Z Fold 4, or $550 on the 512GB mode. For existing customers upgrading to a Z Fold 4 plan, you’ll secure yourself a bonus $100 Wish gift card.
Buying direct, as usual, seems to come with the most perks. By purchasing directly through Samsung, you will receive a $150 instant credit toward a Galaxy Tablet, Watch, or Buds, 50% off Samsung Care+ and can score 25% off eligible cases.
Christie Graham is Digital Content Editor atWhistle OutAustralia’s mobile and internet comparison site.
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The Huawei Watch D is the latest flagship smart watch from the Chinese tech giant, and it’s further proof that the company is more than capable of competing with the likes of Samsung and Apple in the highly competitive wearable market.
The cutting-edge blood pressure monitoring feature uses a built-in airbag to make it as accurate as possible, and other standout features like 70+ workout modes and ECG and skin temperature monitoring make the Watch D a true contender if you’re in the market for a new premium smart watch.
First impressions and setup
Compared to other smart watches in Huawei’s current portfolio, you can tell straight away that this is its best model. The packaging and the overall unboxing experience feels premium and (dare I say it) almost ‘Apple-like’.
The device is surprisingly weighty at 41 grams and feels nice and solid on your wrist. It’s also pretty and features just two non-intrusive buttons on the face’s right-hand side.
The Watch D puts a lot of focus on the device’s setup. This is partly to optimize comfort, but it also ensures that the blood pressure monitor performs as accurately as possible.
Two butterfly clasp straps are included in the box to tailor the watch to your wrist, as well as an innovative foldable ‘ruler’ to measure your wrist with. The straps are made from a rubber-like material, while the rectangular watch face is made from glass within a durable aluminum case. It feels premium and very well put together.
I reviewed the Huawei Watch GT back in March 2019 and commented then on how simple it was to set up. It’s a good thing that, other than some minor upgrades to the app over the last three years, Huawei’s user experience remains pretty much the same. Pairing to the watch takes just a couple of minutes via the HUAWEI Health app, and once complete, your device will appear on your phone and allow you to update things like the watch face with ease.
All your data can also be viewed through the app, and it goes without saying that the more you wear it, the more you can find out about your fitness and lifestyle. After approximately three weeks of wearing the Watch D, I was fascinated to see how closely my fitness was being tracked – from the dozens of times I tested my blood pressure to the amount of REM sleep I was getting.
Performance
The Huawei Watch D runs smoothly, and the 1.64-inch, 456×280-pixel AMOLED screen is one of the most responsive I’ve tested.
I’ve already touched on a handful of things the watch can do, but things like the HUAWEI TruSeen 5.0+ heart rate monitoring technology make this one of the most accurate smart watches on the market.
The ECG app packs a high-performance ECG sensor module, which provides single-lead ECG measurements, real-time analysis, and sinus rhythm, atrial fibrillation, and premature atrial and ventricular beat reminders to stay informed and proactive about major heart health-related risks.
The handful of the 70+ workout modes I tried worked great and were familiar, too, given my time with the Watch GT (which I still use to this day). One thing to consider is that the fabric airbag built into the strap can get sweaty after a particularly heavy workout. This could prove to be a smelly problem over time. Built-in GPS allows you to track your runs without needing your smartphone nearby.
The HUAWEI TruSleep 2.0 app works excellently. It identifies key sleep states, including deep sleep, light sleep, rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, naps, and wake-up times, with sleep quality scores and personalized advice on how to get the best possible night’s rest. I found myself checking this every day, so I could try and improve my rest time the next night.
Other key features like stress and SpO2 monitoring also worked well. Importantly, all the key information was displayed well in the HUAWEI Health app.
There are also handy features like the ability to do a daily health check-in and share your results with family members via the app. This could be particularly useful for older users who might want to share their health information.
The battery can run for an outstanding seven days between charges, which is a great selling point ahead of the likes of the Apple Watch.
One flu I did have during my time with the Watch D was that it seemed to disconnect randomly from my iPhone 11, although I suspect it might not have this issue with an Android device, particularly a Huawei one.
Sadly, you can’t do things like respond to messages via the device (which is a feature that I know a lot of Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch users don’t even use due to the small screen size). It also lacks features like web browsing, which, again, isn’t for everyone.
verdict
The Huawei Watch D is well-equipped and has some of the best (and most) features I’ve ever seen in a smart watch. Devices like this one have now reached the point where they’re genuinely able to change lifestyles and even save lives.
The elephant in the room here is the price, which I’ve purposely not mentioned until now. The Watch D currently has an RRP of $749. Pricewise, this puts the watch right next to the flagships from Samsung and Apple.
The question is – will Huawei be able to do enough to sway potential buyers towards the Watch D? If it were me, I’d be seriously tempted…
Australian shares have started the day higher, tracking gains on Wall Street.
Key points:
The ASX 200 has lost 5 per cent since the year began
On Friday, the Dow Jones index rose 1.3 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 1.7 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite added 2.1 per cent
Meanwhile, the pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.2 per cent
The ASX 200 was up 35 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 7,067, at 10:16am AEST.
At the same time, the Australian dollar was flat, at 71.17 US cents.
Shares of JB Hi-Fi rose 0.2 per cent, to $45.61, after the electronics retailer reported a 7.7 per cent jump in annual earnings, to $544.9 million, as higher store traffic driven by the easing of COVID-19 restrictions complemented continued growth in online you go out.
The company was one of the beneficiaries of the pandemic as work-from-home mandates meant higher demand for electronics.
With easing of COVID-19 restrictions, the company was able to reopen all of its stores in the latter half of the financial year, while online sales over the year registered a 52.8 per cent jump.
This helped it increase the company’s full-year dividend payout to $3.16 a share, up from $2.87 in the prior financial year.
The company noted that the cost of doing business in Australia was higher, in-line with higher inflation in the country, while reporting higher sales in Australia and its The Good Guys brand for July.
Meanwhile, automotive classified company Carsales posted $510 million of adjusted revenue, which was a 16 per cent improvement.
The business said its fully franked final dividend would be 24.5 cents per share.
Shares of Carsales jumped 3.3 per cent, to $22.36.
Wall Street indices close up
On Friday, global equity markets rose, while US Treasury yields fell, as investors tempered their expectations of the scale of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate raising cycle as falling oil prices helped cool inflation.
Market sentiment has been buoyed by US Labor Department data last week showing a slowdown in consumer and producer prices in July after a series of interest rate hikes by the Fed.
“With inflation now backing off, all the managers who stayed in cash and didn’t believe we could move off the June lows are now being forced back into the market,” said Thomas Hayes, chairman at Great Hill Capital.
The MSCI world equity index, which tracks shares in 50 countries, was up 1.1 per cent. The pan-European STOXX 600 index gained 0.2 per cent.
US Treasury yields were down as traders weighed a likely moderation of the Fed’s monetary policy stance.
Benchmark 10-year note yields dipped to 2.8 per cent, after reaching 2.9 per cent on Thursday, the highest point since July 22.
“With inflation coming down, consumer confidence is going to be coming back, and employment is still strong. You could see a situation where the market has stabilized and the economic numbers continue to slow based on the lag effect of the Fed tightening that has already happened,” Mr Hayes added.
All three main Wall Street indices ended higher, making it the fourth straight week of gains, driven by stocks in technology, healthcare, communication services, consumer discretionary and financials.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.3 per cent, to 33,761, while the S&P 500 gained 1.7 per cent, to 4,280, and the Nasdaq Composite added 2.1 per cent, to 13,047.
Oil prices dipped around 2 per cent on expectations that supply disruptions in the US Gulf of Mexico would be short-term, while recession fears clouded the demand outlook.
Brent crude fell slightly by 09:56am AEST, trading at $US97.80 a barrel.
He saves others from danger as superhero Spider-Man. Now Tom Holland has decided to save himself – by deleting his social media apps from his phone.
“I find Instagram and Twitter to be over-stimulating, to be overwhelming. I get caught up and I spiral when I read things about me online and ultimately it’s very detrimental to my mental state. So I decided to take a step back and delete the app,” he said.
Holland, 26, who has a combined Twitter and Instagram following of nearly seven million, made the announcement in a video posted online to support the Stem4 charity which promotes positive mental health for teenagers.
Making clear it was only a floating reappearance on Instagram, he wrote: “Hello and goodbye… I have been taking a break from social media for my mental health, but felt compelled to come on here to talk about Stem4… Please take the time to watch my video and, should you feel inclined to share it with anyone who it may resonate with, it would be greatly appreciated.”
Zendaya and Tom Holland as Spiderman in Spider-Man: No Way Home. Credit: matt kennedy/AP
The Londoner, who is dating Spider-Man co-star Zendaya, 25, was inundated with messages of support including one from pop star Justin Bieber, 28, who wrote: “Love you man.”
My Family star Robert Lindsay, 72, also announced he was quitting Twitter yesterday – under orders from his son.
The father-of-three tweeted: “After a long conversation with my son I’ve decided to leave Twitter alone as he feels it’s affecting my daily life, thoughts and imaginings.
“He’s right, of course, and I need to detox from the stresses of social media.”
He added: ‘I’ve allowed the many distractions of a problematic world which we all care about so much from allowing me the freedom I need to fulfill my career.”
The actor, who found fame in the 1970s comedy Citizen Smith, has two sons, but it is unclear which one he was referring to.
Controversial neurosurgeon Charlie Teo has been performing thousands of dollars worth of surgery in Spain while under strict conditions on him operating in Australia.
One Australian family has paid $90,000 to fly their 20-year-old son to a Spanish hospital to have Dr Teo remove a tumor from his back.
Dr Teo was one of Australia’s most high-profile brain surgeons, and had been often referred to by patients as a “miracle worker” before he was placed under strict conditions by the NSW medical regulator last year because of concerns his practice was a risk to the public.
The conditions require Dr Teo to gain written approval from an approved neurosurgeon before he performs certain operations in Australia.
Those conditions do not extend beyond Australia, however, and it has emerged that Dr Teo has assisted in at least three surgeries in the last year in hospitals in Madrid and Alicante in Spain.
He has also been present at operations in South Africa.
Charlie Teo (left) performed surgery on Billy Baldwin in Madrid earlier this year, after strict conditions were placed under him in Australia. Credit: Supplied
Dr Teo, alongside other neurosurgeons operated on Billy Baldwin at the Hospital Universitario Fundacion Jimenez Diax in July this year, at the cost of $70,000.
Dr Teo had removed a brain tumor from Mr Baldwin when he was five-years-old.
His father Alasdair Baldwin said he had always had “complete faith” in Dr Teo.
“It’s just appalling that nowadays, in the so-called lucky country, you can’t choose your own surgeon because of a vendetta against him,” Mr Baldwin told Nine Radio last week.
“There’s a lot of other families in the same boat that aren’t as fortunate as us that can redraw money from their house.
Billy said: “There is not one human being I have more faith in than Dr Teo”.
“That’s our guy,” he said.
Charlie Teo was placed under strict conditions by the NSW medical regulator last year over concerns to public safety. Sam Ruttin Credit: News Corp Australia
The Medical Council of NSW is understood to be considering contacting Spanish authorities to alert them to the restrictions on the surgeon’s registration.
In August last year, the regulator said Dr Teo would be required to show he had explained the risks associated with any procedure to the patient and obtained informed financial consent, after it emerged patients were crowdsourcing in excess of $120,000 for operations.
At the time, Dr Teo said he accepted the council’s rulings.
“I feel extremely privileged to have helped more than 11,000 patients both here and overseas over the last 35 years in their journeys with all types of brain tumors,” he said last year.
An Australian tourist has made international headlines and was labeled a “barbarian” after he was arrested for riding through a UNESCO world heritage site in Italy.
The male tourist, aged 33, was charged with “unauthorized access” by police after he drove a moped for almost two kilometers through the ancient ruins of Pompeii in the country’s south.
Italian police allege the Aussie man rode through the world-famous archaeological park via a service gate following the entry of cars from construction companies.
An Australian tourist was captured on CCTV scooting through Pompeii. Supplied Credit: NCA NewsWire
Security and guards apprehended the man before any damage was done to the 2000 year old site following a series of CCTV footage.
“The route taken is a dirt road outside the ancient city walls, used by site vehicles for excavation works,” the park said in a statement.
“It is safe, restored, and not accessible to the public. So there was no danger for either visitors or for the archaeological heritage at any point.”
The man claimed he was unaware he drove through the ancient site – which was destroyed in 79AD following a volcanic eruption.
The UNESCO world heritage site does not allow tourist vehicles to drive through.
No parts of the ancient city were accessed or damaged by the tourist, however Italian media has slammed the man, labeling him as a “barbarian”.
This story was first published in The Conversation.
There’s nothing like the fresh eggs from your own hens, the more than 400,000 Australians who keep backyard chooks will tell you.
Unfortunately, it’s often not just freshness and flavor that set their eggs apart from those in the shops.
For more Food related news and videos check out Food >>
Our newly published research found backyard hens’ eggs contain, on average, more than 40 times the lead levels of commercially produced eggs.
Almost one in two hens in our Sydney study had significant lead levels in their blood.
Similarly, about half the eggs analyzed contained lead at levels that may pose a health concern for consumers.
Even low levels of lead exposure are considered harmful to human health, including among other effects, cardiovascular disease and decreased IQ and kidney function.
Chickens in an Australian backyard. File image. Credit: Thurtell/Getty Images
Indeed, the World Health Organization has stated there is no safe level of lead exposure.
So how do you know whether this is a likely problem in the eggs you’re getting from backyard hens? It depends on lead levels in your soil, which vary across our cities.
We mapped the areas of high and low risk for hens and their eggs in our biggest cities – Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane – and present these maps here.
Our research details lead poisoning of backyard chickens and explains what this means for urban gardening and food production.
In older homes close to city centers, contaminated soils can greatly increase people’s exposure to lead through eating eggs from backyard hens.
What did the study find?
Most lead gets into the hens as they scratch in the dirt and peck food from the ground.
We assessed trace metal contamination in backyard chickens and their eggs from garden soils across 55 Sydney homes. We also explored other possible sources of contamination such as animal drinking water and chicken feed.
Our data confirmed what we had anticipated from our analysis of more than 25,000 garden samples from Australia gardens collected via the VegeSafe program. Lead is the contaminant of most concern.
The amount of lead in the soil was significantly associated with lead concentrations in chicken blood and eggs. We found potential contamination from drinking water and commercial feed supplies in some samples but it is not a significant source of exposure.
Unlike for humans, there are no guidelines for blood lead levels for chickens or other birds.
Levels of lead risk for backyard chickens across Sydney. Dark green dots indicate areas with safe lead levels. Light green and yellow dots are areas over the safe lead level. Orange and red dots indicate areas with high levels. Credit: Max M. Gillings, Mark Patrick Taylor/ The Conversation
Veterinary assessments and research indicate levels of 20 micrograms per deciliter (µg/dL) or more may harm their health.
Our analysis of 69 backyard chickens across the 55 participants’ homes showed 45 per cent had blood lead levels above 20µg/dL.
We analyzed eggs from the same birds. There are no food standards for trace metals in eggs in Australia or globally.
However, in the 19th Australian Total Diet Study, lead levels were less than 5µg/kg in a small sample of shop-bought eggs.
The average level of lead in eggs from the backyard chickens in our study was 301µg/kg. By comparison, it was 7.2µg/kg in the nine commercial free-range eggs we analyzed.
Map of Brisbane showing levels of lead risk for backyard chickens. Dark green dots indicate areas with safe lead levels. Light green and yellow dots are areas over the safe lead level. Orange and red dots indicate areas with high levels. Credit: Max M. Gillings, Mark Patrick Taylor/ The Conversation
International research indicates that eating one egg a day with a lead level of less than 100μg/kg would result in an estimated blood lead increase of less than 1μg/dL in children.
That’s around the level found in Australian children not living in areas affected by lead mines or smelters. The level of concern used in Australia for investigating exposure sources is 5µg/dL.
Some 51 per cent of the eggs we analyzed exceeded the 100µg/kg “food safety” threshold. To keep egg lead below 100μg/kg, our modeling of the relationship between lead in soil, chickens and eggs showed soil lead needs to be under 117mg/kg. This is much lower than the Australian residential guideline for soils of 300mg/kg.
To protect chicken health and keep their blood lead below 20µg/kg, soil concentrations need to be under 166mg/kg. Again, this is much lower than the guideline.
How did we map the risks across cities?
We used our garden soil trace metal database (more than 7,000 homes and 25,000 samples) to map the locations in Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne most at risk from high lead values.
Deeper analysis of the data showed older homes were much more likely to have high lead levels across soils, chickens and their eggs.
This finding matches other studies that found older homes are most at risk of legacy contamination from the former use of lead-based paints, leaded petrol and lead pipes.
Map of Melbourne showing levels of lead risk for backyard chickens. Dark green dots indicate areas with safe lead levels. Light green and yellow dots are areas over the safe lead level. Orange and red dots indicate areas with high levels. Credit: Max M. Gillings, Mark Patrick Taylor/ The Conversation
What can backyard producers do about it?
These findings will come as a shock to many people who have turned to backyard food production.
It has been on the rise over the past decade, spurred on recently by soaring grocery prices.
People are turning to home-grown produce for other reasons, too.
They want to know where their food came from, enjoy the security of producing food with no added chemicals, and feel the closer connection to nature.
While urban gardening is a hugely important activity and should be encouraged, previous studies of contamination of Australian home garden soils and trace metal uptake into plants show it needs to be undertaken with caution.
A productive red hen perches above three eggs in a backyard chicken coop. Similar Images: Credit: SimplyCreativePhotography/Getty Images
Contaminants have built up in soils over the many years of our cities’ history. These legacy contaminants can enter our food chain via vegetables, honey bees and chickens.
Urban gardening exposure risks have typically focused on vegetables and fruits.
Limited attention has been paid to backyard chickens. The challenge of sampling and finding participants meant many previous studies have been smaller and have not always analyzed all possible exposure routes.
Mapping the risks of contamination in soils enables backyard gardeners and chicken keepers to consider what the findings may mean for them.
Particularly in older, inner-city locations, it would be prudent to get their soils tested.
People can do this at VegeSafe or through a commercial laboratory. Soils identified as a problem can be replaced and chickens kept to areas of known clean soil.
This article was co-authored by: Mark Patrick Taylor, Chief Environmental Scientist, EPA Victoria; Honorary Professor, Macquarie University; Dorrit E Jacob – Professor, Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University and Vladimir Strezov – Professor, School of Natural Sciences, Macquarie University
Police called to remove wild turkey from apartment.
Police called to remove wild turkey from apartment.
Google Duo and Google Meet have been merged for nearly a week now. Google Duo has been renamed as ‘Google Meet’ and the Google Meet app has been renamed as ‘Google Meet (Original)’. Furthermore, the original Google Meet app now has a green icon to help users distinguish it.
Initial speculations say that Google is trying to merge its professional and personal video calling apps into one. Google has also suggested using the new Meet app for a better combined video call and meeting experience. However, it is still quite confusing for many users.
The new Meet app carries the best features of both apps. The 2022.07.23 beta version of the new Google Duo app first hinted that some exciting features might be coming to the app. Earlier this year in February, the live-sharing feature was introduced on Google Duo as a Samsung device exclusive.
But now in August, the merged app is receiving the same feature as users can now enjoy videos, songs, or games together in lengthy meeting sessions.
Google Meet users can now stream YouTube, Spotify, and play games, here’s how
Google Meet users can now stream videos from YouTube, songs from Spotify, manage tasks using GQueues, and play games like Heads Up!, UNO! Mobile, and Kahoot! during a meeting. This new feature can have two to five participants involved in any shared activity.
How to use these all new features
To stream YouTube, Spotify, play games, or use any other newly added features, users have to follow the steps mentioned below:
Update the Meet app to the latest version.
Go to the three dots menu.
Go to the Activities tabs (where the Q&A and Poll options are available).
From that point, they can start any desired shared activity just by selecting the option. Icons of all the available shared activities will be shown. For example, users have to press the UNO! Mobile icon if they want to start the game.
However, it should be mentioned that Spotify is currently only allowing its Premium users to use this group session feature, which is also the same for Samsung device users. The group session feature is quite similar to Apple’s SharePlay, although SharePlay doesn’t allow users to stream from either YouTube or Spotify.
SharePlay currently supports a large number of apps, like Apple TV+, TikTok, Disney+, Hulu, HBO Max, NBA, Twitch, TikTok, MasterClass, ESPN+, Paramount+, Pluto TV, Apple Fitness+, and Apple Music. The new Google Meet is also expected to spread its domain of supported apps in the future.
Speaking about the future of the new Meet app, Google stated:
“We will continue to invest in bringing more features to Google Meet to help people to connect, collaborate and share experiences on any device, at home, at school and at work.”
Features like scheduled recurring meetings, virtual backgrounds, and in-meeting chats have also come to the new Meet app. The new update will be available to all mobile and tablet devices by the end of August. Later on, Google is expected to bring this change to other platforms as well.
Australian fast-food chain Domino’s is losing ground on the local share market, as the global brand exits the country that made pizza famous.
The company that has the Australian franchise rights to Domino’s fell 6 per cent on the ASX on Friday, to $69.31.
ASX-listed Domino’s Pizza Enterprises not only runs the brand in Australia and New Zealand, but also in Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Japan, Germany, Luxembourg, Denmark and Taiwan, with a total of more than 3,100 stores.
The fall came after news broke that the global brand is exiting Italy, seven years after it opened its first store there.
While the Italian and Australian arms are not connected, some investors appear to have taken fright from the brand’s struggles internationally.
The rise of delivery services — such as Deliveroo, Just Eat and Glovo — took away any advantage the American company thought it would have in Italy, according to a report to investors in 2021 by its Italian franchise holder ePizza SpA.
In Australia, the same pressures are hitting the takeaway sector too.
Domino’s Pizza has more than 18,500 stores worldwide in at least 90 countries. Most are run as franchises, including in Australia.
Energy gains but ASX falls
The energy sector was the leading light on the Australian share market today, after oil prices climbed back above $US100 a barrel overnight, with the benchmark Brent crude oil futures contract sitting just below that mark at 4:50pm AEST.
Woodside Energy Group led the gains on the ASX 200, with a 3.7 per cent rise.
Beach Energy (+3.1 per cent) and Viva Energy (+2.6 per cent) also had strong sessions.
Coal miners New Hope (+3.5 per cent) and Whitehaven (+2.5 per cent) also jumped on board the energy bandwagon.
However, while rising energy costs are good for producers, they are bad for most of the rest of the economy and may also put pressure on interest rates to keep rising at a fast pace.
That saw the ASX 200 and All Ordinaries indices both fall 0.5 per cent, to 7,033 and 7,289 points respectively.
Industrials — many of which are exposed to rising energy costs — were the worst-performing sector, down 2 per cent.
Consumer cyclicals — generally very exposed to rising interest rates that reduce household spending — fell 1.2 per cent.
The worst-performing companies on the ASX 200 were Lake Resources (-13.5 per cent), Novonix (-8.6 per cent), Telix Pharmaceuticals (-7.7 per cent), Arena REIT No 1 (-6.7 per cent) and Nanosonics (- 6.4 per cent).
IAG returns to profit
Profit reporting season continued in Australia today.
Major results out today included insurer IAG.
It announced its net profit is up to $347 million. That comes after it lost more than $400 million the previous financial year.
Its profitability is up despite its overall revenue actually down $548 million overall on the previous financial year to $18.34 billion.
The insurer said its growth “predominantly reflected rate increases to offset inflationary pressures in the supply chain and natural perils.”
It said its insurance margins were 7.4 per cent below expectations after it had to pay out a large amount of premiums for natural disasters.
This year has seen enormous amounts of claims linked to the east coast floods and storms. IAG itself was hit by more than $1 billion.
IAG gained 1.1 per cent, to $4.66.
It is paying a dividend of 5 cents per share, down from last year’s 13-cent payout.
Investors not buying the inflation ‘Kool Aid’
The ASX traded down after Wall Street had mixed results overnight.
In the US, the Dow Jones closed flat, the S&P500 ended down 0.1 per cent, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq was off 0.6 per cent.
Wall Street surged the previous day when US markets rose after the world’s biggest economy released its latest inflation data.
The data showed price hikes were starting to ease, which might soften concerns about another big rate hike of up to 0.75 per cent next month.
However, San Francisco Fed president Mary Daly said it was too early to “declare victory” on inflation, despite the better figures.
Ms Daly also said a 0.5 per cent rate hike in September was currently her “baseline”, and jobs and worker data that would be out soon also needed to be taken into consideration.
Oil up as people switch from costly gas
US 10-year Treasury yields have risen slightly, in an indication that markets, too, are still betting on rate hikes.
City Index analyst Tony Sycamore said it looked like investors will still betting on the rate US hike to be as high as 0.75 per cent.
“The interest rate market is clearly not drinking the same post-inflation Kool Aid that the equity market has slugged on,” he said.
“Financial markets initially reacted positively to [US inflation] data that showed inflation in the US is moderating, but gains [were] then whittled away on concerns the market may have overreacted,” ANZ also noted.
Meanwhile, oil is up again.
“Oil prices continue to increase [as] hopes of stronger demand strengthened,” ANZ noted.
“The International Energy Agency [IEA] lifted its consumption estimate by 380 [thousand barrels per day]saying soaring gas prices amid strong demand for electricity is driving utilities to switch to oil.”
The US dollar dropped back to its post-CPI lows overnight, before paring back some losses.
“[The Australian dollar against the US dollar] briefly edged up towards 0.7150, thanks to a weaker $US and higher oil prices,” ANZ noted.
“Risks to [the Australian dollar] are still to the downside in our view.
“While market expectations for rate hikes [by the Reserve Bank of Australia] have come off in recent months, market pricing still shows a peak in the cash rate well above 3 per cent.”
The Australian dollar ended the day at 71.18 US cents by 5pm AEST.
Popular video game engine Unity has had a lot of bad press over the last year, the result of things like large-scale layoffs and some really terrible comments from its CEO. Today the trend continues, as it was recently announced that the company has signed a new multi-million dollar, three-year deal with a technology company that will see it become the “preferred real-time 3D platform” provider for the US government and its various defense agencies and militaries.
Unity is a widely used video game engine that is often cited as being lightweight, easy to work with, and flexible, allowing indie devs and large studios to create games that can scale across multiple platforms, like Xbox, PC, and Switch. The engine powers numerous gameslike Among Us, V Rising, Call of Duty Mobile, and Cuphead. But this flexibility and power have also attracted the attention of folks outside of the game industry, including companies that help build simulations and other systems for the US government and military.
As announced earlier this weekUnity is parenting with CACI International on what the company calls an “exciting” three-year, multi-million dollar deal that will help it become the “preferred real-time 3D platform for future systems design and simulation programs across the US Government.”
If you, like most folks reading this, don’t know what CACI is, here’s how the company describes itself on its own website:
CACI is a $6 billion company whose mission and enterprise technology and expertise play a vital role in our national security, safeguarding our troops, and enabling our government to deliver cost-effective and high-quality support for all Americans.
This sounds a lot like Unity is once again cutting deals to help the US government and military in developing technology that could aid soldiers and the country’s ability to fight wars overseas. And while some might not mind working on such tech, as we saw last year, many staff members at Unity did indeed have an issue with how the company was handling these deals. There were reports that some employees were working on parts of the engine that would benefit Unity’s government and military contracts, yet the devs had no idea.
Kotaku has contacted Unity about this latest contract and how it plans to keep its game engine devs separate from or informed about its military and government contract work with CACI.
