You may be wondering: why the Australian dollar is so weak (and you’re getting a terrible exchange rate overseas).

The short answer is that the world’s most important currency (the US greenback) has been incredibly strong lately!

This chart shows the US Dollar Index rising to about 108.5 points, its highest level since November 2022.

The benchmark index is currently up 0.1%.

We’ll bring you more soon.

This from David Taylor’s piece yesterday:

“The problem with the Australian dollar appears to be that there was a real wobble in the Chinese currency into New Year’s Eve,” InTouch Capital Markets senior FX analyst Sean Callow said.

“Particularly the version of the Chinese currency traded outside mainland China.

“It fell sharply and broke a key level and that seems to have spilled over to [weakness in] the Aussie dollar.

“The Yuan is really finishing the year on a very weak note under a lot of pressure.”

Just minutes ago the AUD briefly touched 61.85 US cents and is now at 61.88 US cents.

The last time it was this low was on 7 April 2020 when it also hit 61.85 US cents.

That was during the early days of the pandemic, when global markets were in panic mode.

You can read more about the dollar’s woes in this piece by ABC’s David Taylor.

When Mark and Candace D’Souza put their investment property in Sydney up for sale, they thought they’d get more than $800,000.

“Only one person turned up at the auction, and the property got passed in,” Mark told the ABC.

But they’d just hit a mortgage cliff on the apartment’s repayments, and their investment wasn’t stacking up.

“We finally were able to sell at $790,000 and settled in early December.”

This story highlights why, after years of staggering gains, property prices are now dropping nationally.

You can listen to Mark and Candace’s story here.

Thanks for the query, David.

We just got this note from Capital:

The AUD/USD has slipped below 62 cents and to a new two-year low, with Chinese President Xi’s New Years address pointed to as the latest catalyst for a weaker Aussie Dollar.

The AUD/USD remains primarily a proxy for China’s economic malaise and the absence of sufficient policy support to jump start economic activity. A firmer US Dollar also remains a significant part of the equation due to the US economy’s world beating performance and the expected impact of Trump tax cuts and tariffs on growth, inflation and monetary policy.

This reporting from Reuters:

Here are the five best-performing ASX All Ordinaries shares in terms of capital growth for 2024.

1 . Mesoblast Ltd (ASX: MSB)

ASX All Ordinaries biotech share Mesoblast shot the lights out in 2024, rising a staggering 900% to close at $3.10 apiece on  December 31.

Mesoblast is a clinical-stage biotech that develops allogeneic cellular medicines for complex diseases.

2. Zip Co Ltd   (ASX: ZIP)

Zip was easily one of the greatest comeback stories of the year in 2024. The ASX All Ordinaries financial share soared 352.5% higher to close at $2.96 on Tuesday.

The buy now, pay later company has inspired new confidence among investors after abandoning plans for global expansion to instead focus on profitability.

3. Appen Ltd (ASX: APX)

ASX All Ords tech share Appen ripped 319.1% higher in 2024 to close at $2.64 on Tuesday.

Appen is benefitting from the rising artificial intelligence (AI) investment megatrend.

4. IperionX Ltd (ASX: IPX)

This ASX All Ordinaries materials share soared 295.68% to finish the year at $5.50 per share.

IperionX’s mission is to be a leading developer of sustainable critical mineral and material supply chains in the US to help facilitate the transition to a circular, low-carbon global economy.

5. Nuix Limited (ASX: NXL) 

The Nuix share price rocketed 232.63% higher in 2024 to close at $6.32 per share on December 31.

Nuix provides specialised software for analysing large data sets.

Blackwattle Investment Partners rates Nuix shares “the best exposure to the AI thematic on the ASX”.

The All Ords rose by 7.55% in 2024 with a total gross return, including dividends, of 11.44%.

This was a slight outperformance of the overall benchmark index ASX 200, which also registered 7.49% gains in the whole year and the same total gross return.

CoreLogic’s data shows Australia’s property market went backwards at a national level in December, recording the first decline in almost two years with a dip of 0.1%.

Separate data from REA Group also shows this decline happens, with its data showing an even bigger dip in December of 0.17%.

“The report found that national home prices were down by 0.17% in December yet remained 4.73% higher year-on-year, as all capital cities except Perth and Hobart recorded a decline,” REA Group’s data noted.

So what will happen to property prices in 2025?

“It really does set the scene for a soft start to 2025,” CoreLogic’s chief economist Tim Lawless said.

“The broad theme of the housing market is values are slowing down.”

You can watch more about property prices in this special edition of ABC’s The Business which delves into the market.

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Australia’s housing market is in a downturn for the first time in almost two years after the average national price of a property sold dipped slightly in December.

The data from CoreLogic shows the median value of property sold in the last month of 2024 was just shy of $815,000 after a price drop of 0.1 per cent.

Yet there’s a lot of divergence between cities and regions. You can read all of the data in this article.

Do you have a story about real estate agents that have sold or rented your property? Or are you a first home buyer that can’t get into the market?

You can confidentially email me on terzon.emilia@abc.net.au

Good morning!

The Australian share market is set to open lower this morning, after Wall Street did the same. Yet numbers show the US markets made massive gains in 2024, with the S&P 500 rising almost 25% in a year.

We’ll be here with you all day on this first day back for markets in the new year. Any stocks or issues you’d like investigated today? Email me on terzon.emilia@abc.net.au