Crypto News: Consumer and business confidence heats up

Good morning, it's Amy in Melbourne with your Wednesday news download.

Today's must-reads:
• Green shoots of consumer, business optimism
• Domestic airfares surge
• New Zealand's whiskey distilleries take on the world

There are signs Australians are starting to feel more upbeat about the economy. A National Australia Bank survey showed consumer sentiment is up, while business confidence is at its highest level since early last year.

You've probably noticed the price of airfares going up — and so has the competition regulator. Tickets between Australia's major cities surged following the collapse of regional carrier Rex. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission said prices on one route almost doubled.

Rex Airlines Boeing 737 planes lay idle on the tarmac in July. Photographer: WILLIAM WEST/AFP

Former Australian Ambassador to the US, Arthur Sinodinos, says Canberra must adopt an "unsentimental" mindset in dealing with the new Trump administration. Sinodinos spoke exclusively to Bloomberg TV's Haidi Stroud-Watts on this week's Australia Ahead segment. Watch it here.

Investors are still trying to ascertain the exact dimensions of Trump's second-term economic policies, Nouriel Roubini told Bloomberg TV. Trump's return to the White Could could see "bond vigilantes" re-emerge if he follows through with his big spending plans, Roubini said.

New Zealand's concrete production has fallen to its lowest level in nine years. It highlights a construction slowdown in a sputtering economy.

A rally that drove stocks to a series of all-time highs has run out of steam, with Treasury yields soaring and the dollar hitting a two-year high ahead of key inflation data. Asian futures are set to open lower.

The world's largest multilateral development banks have set a new goal to raise $120 billion in annual climate finance for developing nations by the end of the decade. They made the announcement at the COP29 talks in Azerbaijan on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Trump's re-election doesn't have to throw the World Bank off course in meeting climate targets, President Ajay Banga said.

Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank Group, during a Bloomberg TV interview. Photographer: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg

China is better placed to weather tariffs than it was during the first Trump administration, Ivanhoe Mines Founder Robert Friedland told Bloomberg TV. President-elect Trump is meanwhile poised to pick two men to key posts with a history of criticizing China. Meanwhile, China plans to cut taxes for home purchases as the government dials up fiscal support, people familiar with the matter said.

One of Donald Trump's signature first-term achievements was to accelerate development of the Covid-19 vaccine, writes Bloomberg LP founder and majority owner Michael R. Bloomberg for our Opinion section. Giving anti-vaccine crusader Robert F. Kennedy Jr. a prominent role in the new administration would tarnish Trump's first-term legacy, Bloomberg says. Here's the latest on Trump's Cabinet picks.

From New York to Singapore, cryptocurrency traders are riding the dizzying rally. Crypto is in the grip of a market mania the likes of which it hasn't seen since 2021.

On the premiere episode of the Bloomberg Originals series Posthuman, Emily Chang explores what might happen when our alien creations surpass us. You can watch the episode here.

• 11:30 a.m. Quarterly wages data
• 12:30 p.m. Senator Simon Birmingham, Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister, addresses the National Press Club

New Zealand distillery owners are trying to establish themselves among the ranks of Japan, Taiwan, Australia and India with top-shelf new-world whiskey exports. "It's really important that we work together to build a reputation of quality, first and foremost, so that we're taken seriously on a global level," said Sarah Elsom, head distiller at Cardrona Distillery, about an hour's drive north of Queenstown.