Images from The Motley Fool and ABC
By Situation Theatre 30/03/2020
Aussies at a loss as to how they’ll pay next week’s food and rent are breathing a sigh of relief with the news that iron ore is forecast to be the nation’s first commodity to hit $100 billion in export earnings in a year.
The former Fortescue Metals CEO, Neville Power, who the PM tapped to lead COVID-19 Co-ordination Commission because of course he did, has calmed the jangled nerves of the nation’s unemployed with the news that amidst the coronavirus-invoked global economic slowdown, the iron ore price is pretty strong.
In a jubilant morning address to the nation Mr Power said “There’s good news and there’s bad news. This coronavirus pandemic means millions of you will lose your jobs. On a more positive note, the good news is, ASX-200 miners BHP Group Ltd and Fortescue Metals Group Ltd are among those set to benefit from the crisis. So…every cloud. You’re still thinking about the bad news aren’t you.”
While the many hundreds of thousands of suddenly out-of-work Australians lining the streets outside Centrelink office around the country had been worried because the price of the precious metal has been extremely volatile in recent days, veering between $2430 and $2560 an ounce, they have taken some solace from Mr Power’s soothing words that this sort of price is a marked increase from mid-January, when it was trading at only $2175 an ounce.
