A guest post now by Senior Business Correspondent Peter Ryan:

As the federal government and economists debate ways to ease the housing crisis, the Reserve Bank is warning that falling interest rates could trigger a renewed real estate boom.

The concerns raised in the RBA’s Financial Stability Review caps a week of speculation about possible policy changes on negative gearing and capital gains tax discounts as ways to ease the housing crisis.

Listen to Peter’s full report here:

Thanks for your views — keep the comments coming. We’re expecting updates throughout the day on the ACCC supermarket report that dropped late last night. The prime minister is due to speak shortly and we will bring you any relevant updates here on the business blog

While metals have been flying high, the same cannot be said for the price of oil, which has slumped following fears of rising supply. While disruptions in Libya had been threatening supply for a few weeks, that looks like it’s easing which could see more oil flood back into the market in the coming days.

The market was also rattled by a report in The Financial Times that the world’s top crude exporter Saudi Arabia is considering going ahead with its planned production hikes in December and that it was ready to abandon its unofficial price target of $100 a barrel for crude. That was seen as a sign that the kingdom was resigned to a period of lower prices.

Brent crude is down 2.8%, to $US71.42 a barrel at 8:25am AEST. US West Texas Intermediate crude closed down 2.9% to $US67.67 a barrel.

While the numbers are still low, mortgage arrear rates are on the rise. But those numbers don’t tell the full story, as David Chau explains.

Yesterday we also saw the share market post strong gains, while the Reserve Bank unveiled the results of its Financial Stability Review. 

Catch up on David’s Finance Report here:

After four weeks of emergency talks, embattled casino operator Star Entertainment has announced it’s secured a lifeline.

Lenders will provide it with $200 million at a hefty interest rate of 13.5%, with an immediate $100 million to help the company address the massive cost blowout at its new Queen’s Wharf resort in Brisbane.

Star’s negotiations with the Queensland government to get a tax deferral have hit a stalemate with Queensland Premier Steven Miles saying he’ll only consider it if Star executives forego their large bonuses.

The company also revealed a statutory full-year loss of $1.69 billion.

Here’s some analysis from our Chief Business Correspondent Ian Verrender

There’s been lots of scrutiny of the two major supermarkets recently and late last night the ACCC released a report on Coles and Woolworths.

The competition watchdog’s supermarket report found customers don’t trust “sale price” claims at the grocers. (If you recall, earlier this week they launched legal action against Coles and Woolies over discount prices, in a separate case).

It also found Coles and Woolworths hold significant numbers of undeveloped supermarket sites, which could prevent competitors from building new stores.

Get up to speed with this article by Lucia Stein:

Good morning and welcome to the ABC’s markets blog.

The ASX looks set to rise on open this morning after some renewed optimism on Wall Street about AI and strong jobs data, with the Dow and Nasdaq closing +0.6% and the S&P +0.4%. The S&P reached a record closing high of 5745.

Metals prices have been soaring: Iron ore reached US$100 a tonne, copper surged back above US$10,000 a tonne and gold reached a record high (currently at US$2670/ounce), silver was as its highest since 2012 ($32 at 7am AEST).

That’s been largely attributed to the monetary policy easing measures announced in China this week and promises of more to come.