“It's really only the housing sector that's showing any particular sign of strength.  Outside of that, the Reserve Bank acknowledged yesterday there's no sign of a pick-up outside the mining sector.  Consumer spending has been a little stronger in recent months, but it's hard to say that's been sustained.  The income growth is going to be low. And we're going to have a sort of budget that Joe Hockey has been warning that what's it may be like. So you just have got this small area of strength in the housing. It will, I think, a very bad thing if the rest of the economy were to be held hostage by the difficulties that people have..... finding in obtaining housing.”

 

Soul Eslake there.  Let's go to the markets.

 

And Wall Street ended the session higher after strong manufacturing data lifted confidence about the US economy. In London overnight, the FTSE put on 54. 

 

To commodity prices.

 

West Texas Crude is trading at 100 US dollars a barrel. Tapis is 111 US dollars a barrel. And gold, here it is, is trading at 1,279 US dollars an ounce.

 

To the currencies. 

 

The Australian dollar is buying 92.4 US cents, 67 Euro cents and 56 pence sterling.