Australians reselling their properties made record profits in the September quarter — according to CoreLogic.

The property data firm’s latest ‘Pain & Gain’ report crunched the numbers on 95,000 resales over June to September.

It found the median profit made was $295,000, which is the highest since the series began back in the mid-90s.

Total gains from resales came in just under $34 billion for the quarter.

CoreLogic’s head of research Eliza Owen said it was down to growth in home values (up 0.8% in the quarter nationally) and “reasonably strong” housing demand.

Of course it isn’t all rosy for those selling up — among those who made a loss, the median was $40,000.

But just 5 per cent properties resold at a loss, the lowest level since 2008.

Combined losses came in at $270 million.

“A decline in home values is only a problem for sellers if they have issues servicing home loan repayments, or are in some other circumstance where they need to sell,” Ms Owen said.

“Otherwise, homeowners can simply hold their properties back from the market until such time there is stronger buyer demand.

“That being said, there are still clearly pockets of pain where home sellers need to offload their property in spite of weak market conditions, or values remaining substantially below previous record highs.”

So you have heard that the ABC is getting a new boss. What do we know about him?

Here is a great analysis from Chief Business Correspondent Ian Verrender about the ABC’s incoming managing director Hugh Marks.

As Ian writes, Hugh Marks’s ascension to the top of the media pile was not via the traditional route. Now he has one of Australia’s toughest assignments.

Click the link below to read the analysis.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has released a report into a BHP train crash in WA’s Pilbara region earlier this year.

The report found sleep issues brought on by multiple spider bites contributed to the crash.

BHP has enacted fatigue management measures and made changes to its alert systems off the back of the incident.

Read more from Charlie Mills.

US stocks retreated on Tuesday and the Dow dropped for a ninth straight session, as investors exercised caution ahead of the Federal Reserve’s last policy announcement of the year after economic data indicated consumer spending remained solid.

US retail sales increased more than expected in November, buoyed in part by an acceleration in motor vehicle purchases, consistent with strong underlying momentum in a resilient economy.

Investors were largely focused on the Fed’s policy announcement on Wednesday, almost completely pricing in an interest rate cut of 25 basis points.

Of particular attention will be the Fed’s summary of economic projections (SEP), which may indicate how aggressive the US central bank will be in cutting rates in 2025.

The Fed may slow its easing in an economy that appears to have solid momentum and sticky inflation, and as the incoming Trump administration is expected to impose policies to stimulate growth and potentially reignite rising prices.

“This is just kind of standard fare for a pre-Fed day market where you have just a little bit of uncertainty, people are not sure how to position ahead of the SEP and ahead of Powell,” said Jason Ware, chief investment officer at Albion Financial Group in Salt Lake City, Utah.

“Everyone knows we’re getting 25 bps … what Powell is going to say at the press conference, what the SEP is going to tellus, those things people are not quite sure of so you have a little bit of jitters ahead of that.”

While the Nasdaq hit a record high on Monday and the S&P 500 is up nearly 27% on the year, the Dow has struggled recently and suffered its ninth straight daily decline, its longest losing streak since February 1978.

This is the news we’ve been covering over the last few weeks and last night Qantas agreed to pay $120 million in compensation to 1,820 ground crew workers it illegally sacked during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The final payout figure will be capped at about 12 months’ pay for affected workers and will go towards compensating them economic loss, hurt and suffering.

A compensation fund will be set up in 2025 and will be administered by the Maurice Blackburn law firm.

Today, TWU National Secretary Michael Kaine is hosting a press conference at 9am AEDT and we will bring you more on this as it happens.

Here is a good article from Luke Cooper about this case.

Good morning and welcome to our Wednesday’s markets live blog, where we’ll bring you the latest price action and news on the ASX and beyond.

A tumble on Wall Street overnight sets the tone for local market action today.

The Dow Jones index dropped 0.8 per cent, the S&P 500 lost 0.6 per cent and the Nasdaq Composite down 0.5 per cent.

ASX futures were down 16 points or 0.2 per cent to 8,308 at 7:30am AEDT.

At the same time, the Australian dollar was down 0.6 per cent to 63.34 US cents.

Brent crude oil was down 0.8 per cent, trading at $US73.29 a barrel.

Spot gold dropped 0.2 per cent to $US2,646.21.

Iron ore was down 0.5% to $US104.50 a tonne.