NAB Morning Call

Thursday 5th November 2026

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Phil and NAB’s Ray Attrill, unpack a dramatic risk-on session across global financial markets following a decisive Democratic sweep in the US midterm elections. With the prospect of less in the way of military action in the Middle east crude dipped below US$94 a barrel for the first time since late September. This, combined with the US Treasury’s quarterly refunding announcement tweaking issuance guidance, fueled a powerful rally in sovereign debt that sent US 10-year Treasury yields down 7 basis points and French 10-year yields tumbling 18 basis points. Global equity markets surged in response, whilst the US dollar weakened, lifting the Australian dollar back above 70.2 US cents. Domestically, while stronger-than-expected Australian household spending data for September (+0.6%) highlighted ongoing consumer resilience ahead of a speech from RBA Assistant Governor Andrew Hauser, across the Tasman, New Zealand’s labour market surprised on the downside, with Q3 employment contracting 0.1% and the jobless rate rising to 5.7%, significantly paring back market expectations for an aggressive RBNZ rate hike in December.
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Wednesday 4th November 2026

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NAB’s Taylor Nugent assesses the fallout from the Reserve Bank of Australia’s Melbourne Cup Day decision, where the Board delivered a widely anticipated 25-basis-point increase to lift the cash rate to 4.85%. Despite the rate rise, domestic bond yields and the Australian dollar both declined—with the Aussie dipping back below 70 US cents—as markets seized on a dovish 6–3 split vote and a subtle softening in the RBA’s forward guidance, reinforcing NAB’s view that the central bank’s tightening cycle is now done and dusted. On Wall Street, tech equities mounted a modest recovery following recent steep losses, led by a bounce in semiconductor makers like Nvidia and AMD, though Apple slipped 1.8% despite beating quarterly revenue estimates. Meanwhile, oil prices dropped further—with Brent sliding toward US$103 a barrel—and US JOLTS data pointed to renewed labour mobility with a pickup in job openings and quits. Across the Pacific, all eyes now turn to the counting of the US midterm elections as polls close across the East Coast, with markets alert to the prospect of divided government in Washington.
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Tuesday 3rd November 2026

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Phil and NAB’s Rodrigo Catril analyse a sharp drop in oil prices after reports surfaced that US President Trump is pursuing diplomatic de-escalation over Iran. That’s spurred a broader risk-on tone across financial markets, driving sovereign bond yields lower and boosting European and broad US equities, even as technology stocks lagged on persistent AI capex caution and pre-earnings nerves ahead of Apple’s results. Domestically, the spotlight turns to today’s Melbourne Cup Day RBA meeting, where markets widely anticipate a 25-basis-point cash rate increase following last week’s sticky Q3 trimmed mean inflation print, even as building approvals data highlights mounting headwinds across the residential construction sector. Meanwhile, political focus intensifies around the US midterm elections, with polling pointing to an altered legislative landscape in Washington.
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Monday 2nd November 2026

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Phil talks to NAB’s Sally Auld about Friday’s tech rout and tomorrow’s Melbourne Cup rate rise from the RBA. Ahead of the decision, new data from Cotality shows capital city dwelling values fell 1.4% in October—accelerating across previously heated property markets like Brisbane and Perth as cyclical rate pressures intersect with federal property tax reforms. Globally, markets digest the Bank of Japan’s hawkish pause, softer official Chinese manufacturing PMIs, widening French sovereign bond spreads, and the looming risk of the upcoming US midterms alongside central bank rate decisions from the Bank of England and the Riksbank.
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Friday 30th October 2026

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Phil speaks with Paul Mortimer-Lee, Research Fellow at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) and former Bank of England forecasting head, to examine the deepening fiscal strain across Europe and determine whether France or the UK is in a more dangerous position. Paul argues that France is caught in a structural spending trap—with government outlays at an eye-watering 57% of GDP and political fragmentation making deficit reduction nearly impossible—leaving markets to rely on the moral hazard of an eventual European Central Bank intervention, even if its untested Transmission Protection Instrument (TPI) faces legal and political hurdles. By contrast, while the UK’s Autumn Budget deferred meaningful consolidation via a "flotilla of small measures" amid rising debt-servicing costs and overambitious welfare dependency, London’s independent currency and floating exchange rate mean market discipline bites faster, whereas France lacks an exchange rate valve to offset its competitiveness gap against the rest of Europe. With Germany’s constitutional debt brake hampering broader continental growth and bond markets demanding higher risk premiums, Paul reckons that French 10-year yields could surge another 100 basis points and provoke banking contagion before European policymakers reluctantly to step in. But beyond that, does this point to an instability that the Euro - or the ECB – can’t survive?
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