Afternoon Report | ASX climbs as Iran hostilities ease
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How did the ASX respond to easing Iran hostilities?
Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business News Afternoon Report for Monday the 29th of June 2026. I'm Michael Thompson and every afternoon we've got the five stories that happened today that you need to know about. Let's get going. Story number one, the S&P ASX 200 climbed 0.7% today to 8,823 points. Eight of the 11 sectors finished higher in the second last trading day of the financial year. The market was... pretty much buoyed after reports that the United States and Iran had agreed to halt recent hostilities and resume talks in Qatar later this week. Oil steadied below $72 a barrel, helping calm concerns about inflation and global energy supplies. Locally, it was technology, though, that led the gains.
WiseTech Global jumped more than 7% today.
What recent polling trends indicate about Pauline Hanson's support?
Xero rose 4.5%. Life360 surged almost 12%. Neuron Pharmaceuticals, soared 36% today after its Rett syndrome treatment moved a step closer to approval in Europe. Banks and miners also finished higher, though utility stocks were off today. On to story number two, support for One Nation and the Coalition has fallen in two new opinion polls suggesting Pauline Hanson's National Press Club address earlier this month may have failed to win over voters. News poll in The Australian showed Labor's primary vote rising to 33% while One Nation slipped to 29% and the Coalition fell to a record low of 17%. A separate Redbridge poll in the Financial Review painted a pretty similar picture and with Labor holding a commanding lead over both One Nation and the Coalition on a two-party preferred basis.
The polling also showed Anthony Albanese improving his personal approval ratings, while opposition leader Angus Taylor recorded his lowest approval rating yet.
What did Stephen Lowy reveal about antisemitism in Australia?
Pauline Hanson's personal popularity also slipped, with her net favorability falling 10 points in the Redbridge survey. Story number three today, businessman Stephen Lowy has told the Anti-Semitism Royal Commission that his family has endured decades of threats and abuse, calling for stronger laws to force social media companies to remove hateful content. The former Westfield executive said that his family's security team reviewed more than 15,000 threatening online posts over the past year and identifying 200 people of concern and referring multiple cases to police and counter-terrorism authorities. Giving evidence on the first day of the commission's latest set of hearings, Lowy said that online hate was increasingly translating into real-world violence.
He called for hefty penalties for social media companies that failed to remove that anti-Semitic material and Along with dedicated police units focused on protecting Jewish Australians, Lowy also warned that Australia needed to do more to respond to growing anti-Semitism following the October 7 attacks in Israel. Story number four today, Australia has confirmed a fourth case of the H5N1 bird flu in a migratory seabird, increasing concerns that the virus may soon establish itself in local wildlife through Three infected birds have now been found in Western Australia, one in South Australia, with testing continuing on another suspected case near Esperance. Australia had been the last continent free of the strain which has devastated bird and mammal populations overseas.
What are the implications of the fourth bird flu case in Australia?
Experts have repeatedly warned that if the virus spreads through native wildlife, it could have catastrophic consequences, particularly for seabirds and penguin colonies. And finally, story number five, Europe's record-breaking early summer heat wave may already have claimed more than 1,300 lives, according to the World Health Organization. Extreme temperatures have swept across much of the continent, with records broken in Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic as the heat moved east. France alone has reported around 1,000 more deaths than expected since last week, many involving people aged over 65. World Health Organization Chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has described heat stress as a silent killer, warning that Europe's homes, schools and workplaces were not built to cope with such prolonged extreme temperatures.
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Chapters
5 chapters
1
How did the ASX respond to easing Iran hostilities?
0:03–0:51
2
What recent polling trends indicate about Pauline Hanson's support?
0:51–1:53
3
What did Stephen Lowy reveal about antisemitism in Australia?
1:53–3:27
4
What are the implications of the fourth bird flu case in Australia?
3:27–4:38
5
How has the heatwave in Europe affected public health?
4:38–5:21