Afternoon Report | ASX flat after rates warning

0:00Welcome to the Fear and Greed Business News afternoon report for Friday, the 18th of September, 2026, I'm Michael Thompson. And every afternoon we've got the five stories that happen today that you need to know about. Let's go story number one, the S&P ASX 200, close just one point lower today than the 8,731 points. That is 0.01% down. So I think we can pretty much call that flat, can't we? It was flat for the week too. The boss opened higher before losing ground throughout the day than recovered a bit in the last minute surge. An appearance by Reserve Bank Governor Michelle Bullock before a parliamentary committee today fueled quite a bit of speculation that the Reserve will hike rates at its next meeting with more action needed to get inflation under control. Trade is in our pricing in a 95% chance of another interest rate hike later this month. Commonwealth Bank was off 1% NAB was down nearly 2% today really on the back of the expectations

1:03of interest rate rises, providing a bit of balance though with a minus BHP was up 1.4% Rio Tinto nearly 1% higher. The gold mine is in particular had a cracker. Evolution mining was more than 4% northern start nearly 2.5% higher as was new month. The story number 2 now insurance giant IAG is dumping KPMG, a lot of acronyms there as its auditor ending a relationship that stretches back to the insurers ASX listing 26 years ago. IAG will now hold a competitive tender this financial year but says KPMG will not be invited to participate pointing to the length of its tenure. The decision comes in the wake of the whistleblower scandal at KPMG involving allegations that senior audit staff misused confidential client information to help win work. McQuarry and Lendleys have also walked away from KPMG. We've talked about that before. An independent review commissioned by the accounting firm this week found KPMG had taken

2:06an overly legalistic approach to the whistleblower and failed to properly manage conflicts of interest KPMG has accepted the recommendations of the report. The trouble property developer Bathler has secured another week of funding giving administrators more time to keep construction projects running. Administrator Teneo has raised $4.7 million from a group of Lenders to maintain critical operations including around 100 remaining staff. Without the cash Teneo had warned that those workers could be stood down and partially completed projects would be shut. The federal court has also granted an extension to the administration which is delaying the next creditors meeting. Bathler collapsed last month, owing around $3.4 billion to almost $3,000 creditors. Teneo says keeping projects moving still depends on securing more funding from Lenders. Story number 4 Anthropic says its AI model Claude is now helping to build the next version

3:11of itself. Claude is doing more than a quarter of the research and development work involved in building the next generation of the technology. The company has a platform that is completing most of those tasks end to end from a high level prompt although humans do remain in charge. Around 90% of Anthropic's research involves some form of collaboration with Claude. The numbers are pretty significant because Anthropic CEO Dario Armade has been among the AI industry leaders warning about the risks of increasingly powerful models. Anthropic says that AI helping to accelerate its own development could make the technology harder for humans to understand, harder for it to be controlled and they want other developers now to publish similar figures. Finally Story number 5 The Bank of Japan has lifted interest rates to their highest level in 31 years. The day after the US Fed lifted rates as a number of central banks now respond to these renewed inflation pressures.

4:12The Bank of Japan raised its policy rate from 1% to 1.25%. Its first increase in 3 months and signalled that more hikes could follow higher oil prices of course adding to inflation globally while Japan is also dealing with rising wages and businesses passing higher costs onto consumers. The move takes Japan another step away from the ultra low interest rates that defined its economy for decades. And that's it for the afternoon report for Friday the 18th of September. Make sure you're following the podcast head along to fearandgreet.com.au to sign up for our free daily newsletter and join us tomorrow morning for the Saturday edition of Fear and Greed. I'm Michael Thompson. Enjoy your evening. Shop the Sherwin Williams Fall Sale and get 35% off paints and stains September 15th through the 21st with prices starting at 2986. Whether you're refreshing your interior or exterior, we've got the colors to bring your vision to life and with delivery, getting everything to your door is easier than ever.

5:15Shop online to have it delivered or visit your neighborhood Sherwin Williams store. Click the banner to learn more. Retail sales only some explosions apply. See store for details delivered available on qualifying mortars.