Michael Thompson

Wesfarmers yesterday held an investor day.

The parent company to Bunnings and Officeworks, Kmart and Target, Priceline Pharmacies, Lithium Mines.

It's quite the shopping list, isn't it?

provided a pretty upbeat outlook.

Focusing on the company's use of AI and the growth in its addressable market, boss Rob Scott said the company's in a strong position to withstand any consumer downturn.

It's those of us who are young at heart, Sean, which is not something that you would identify with because you are old at heart.

Yeah, and you can hear the full conversation coming up after the show as fear and greed Q&A for today.

It's a really good interview.

Well worth sticking around for that one.

Sean, rental yields in the housing market are back under the microscope as the outlook for capital growth or price appreciation is dented by the budget changes.

Currently, yields are at record lows, but with house prices faltering, yields are expected to rise.

This next one's pretty cool, I reckon.

Good news story, Michael.

Yeah.

It is, isn't it?

The largest expansion of Australia's power grid in decades has finally been completed, opening up a new 900 kilometre link between New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia that will soon make it easier to add wind and solar farms to the network before the closure of more coal-fired power plants.

The lack of enough high-voltage power lines to connect more renewable energy zones to major cities has become one of the biggest obstacles to expanding the clean energy rollout.

Yeah.

Turning to international news now, airline profits are expected to be cut in half this year because of the jet fuel shortage driven by the Middle East war.

According to the International Air Transport Association, the global airline industry is expected to make 23 billion US dollars this calendar year compared to 45 billion last year.