Rate hike on the way; McDonald’s to revamp 44,000 stores; secret to a happy relationship
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Welcome to Fear and Greed, business news you can use today. Get ready for higher loan repayments with the Reserve Bank set to lift interest rates tomorrow. Manufacturing in Australia needs 91,000 new workers over the next decade and we reveal the secret to a happy relationship. Plus, traditionally the weakest month on the ASX is September and this year's vintage is particularly poor. And McDonald's are set to revamp its global network of 44,000 stores. It is Monday the 28th of September 2026. I'm Michael Thompson and good morning Sean Aylmer. Morning, Michael. Who would have thought we would have
been relationship counsellors on a Monday morning?
How will the Reserve Bank’s upcoming rate hike affect loan repayments?
I love the fact that it is just us looking at data and what the data tells us as opposed
to us actually
providing. Yeah, but we're not really providing much real relationship insight, but you never know. We'll get to that a little bit later. The main story this morning, Sean, the Reserve Bank is set to lift the benchmark interest rate this week, which will send the cost of mortgages, credit cards and business loan debt higher. There is almost unanimous agreement now that the central bank will increase rates for the fourth time this year. And there's even more interest in what it says after the decision, which will shed light on whether there'll be another rate hike in November or December. A 25 basis point hike tomorrow will add around $110 to monthly repayments on, say, a $700,000 loan. So it's not insignificant.
It isn't. And if you think we've had four of those, what's that, $440 more every month? That's starting, you know, you're adding petrol costs and things like that. It's starting to get quite expensive. Any increase would come at a time when the economy is slowing, though the latest consumer spending numbers suggest that households aren't finding it quite as tough as we in the media like to make out. Having said that, there is no doubt some discretionary retailers are struggling in the KMD Browns have all outlined pretty tough trading conditions. The housing market is slowing, we know that. That will further hit consumer sentiment. Over the weekend, the preliminary clearance rate across the nation fell to a 10-week low.
It's about 50% for the last seven days or so. That means when the final numbers come in... many more houses won't be sold than were sold at auctions last week. Now, admittedly, it was AFL grand final weekend and the AFL states did worst. Melbourne came in at 48%, Adelaide just 39%. Sydney was relatively busy. Its preliminary clearance rate came in at just under 54%.
The Reserve Bank, Sean, won't have to wait long to find out if it's rate high because you are so confidently predicting whether it is in fact a good decision because this week there is data out on inflation, household spending and the building sector as well. Perfect time to mention fear and greed the week ahead with NAB coming up after the show today. Sort of a new partnership with NAB. National Australia Bank, joined in the studio by Sally Auld, Chief Economist, who goes into all of this. And it is a fantastic chat. We'll talk a little bit more about it later on, but it's coming up after the show. But it is a very data-heavy week. And on top of that, you've got the ongoing uncertainty around the war in Europe in terms of Ukraine, the Middle East as well,
which they continue to elevate oil prices. It'll be interesting to see how the dust settles following the United Nations General Assembly, the meetings as well between US President Donald Trump and China's Xi Jinping. There's just a lot of components all kind of adding
into this. Yeah, totally. It's interesting that meeting between Trump and Xi Jinping. I'm not sure that anything came out of it. I mean, it was there for three days. Lots of pomp, lots of photo opportunities. Do you think there was much resolution of tensions over things like agreeing on AI or agreeing on rare earth, that type of thing? No. The two leaders will meet again in China in November and then Miami in December. Maybe, maybe get somewhere in those
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