Interest rates, inflation: Macquarie Bank to pass on full rate cut first
Australia's fifth biggest bank, Macquarie Bank, will pass on the May interest rate to its customers a week earlier than its competitors, citing cost of living pressures.
Macquarie has become the first major lender to cut variable interest rates just days after the Reserve Bank of Australia officially announced a rate reduction.
Variable mortgage rate customers will get the full 25 basis point rate cut passed on by the 23rd of May.
Macquarie Bank head of personal banking Ben Perham said it was important to pass on rate relief quickly during the current cost of living climate.
'We know homeowners across Australia are watching rate movements closely and that every dollar counts,' Mr Perham said.
'That's why we're reducing the time it takes for this rate cut to be effective from 10 days to three so our customers can feel the benefit of lower rates, and more money in their pockets at the end of each month, sooner.'
From May 23 home loan rates will start at 5.64 per cent and Macquarie will automatically drop if paying the minimum and also have a direct debit set up.
The changes come just days after the Reserve Bank of Australia slashed the official cash rate from 4.10 to 3.85 per cent in a widely predicted move.
Meeting for the second time under its new dual-board structure, the RBA cut the national cash rate by 25 basis points, but surprised everyone by saying they open to a super-sized 50 basis point rate cut.
'There was an argument and we did debate it (a 50 basis point cut) but it wasn't the strongest argument in the room,' RBA governor Michele Bullock said.
She stressed 'inflation hurts everyone', particularly those on lower incomes and renters.
Responding to a question from NewsWire on whether households could expect further relief, she acknowledged Australians had gone through a 'really rough few years', typied by sharp rises in everyday prices.
'I would say that bringing inflation down is the best thing we can do to help them, while keeping employment strong,' she said.
'At the moment we are on track to deliver that. I know you're doing it tough, but conditions are improving.'
All four of the major banks have announced they will also move on interest rates but it will take a week longer.
NAB confirmed it would decrease its standard variable home loan interest rate by 0.25 per cent, effective from Friday, May 30, with the 10-day delay in line with previous changes to interest rates in the wake of a cash rate change.
ANZ was quick to follow, also dropping its variable rate by 0.25 per cent, effective on May 30.
The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has moved in line with the other majors and will also drop variable interest rates on home loans by 0.25 per cent.
Westpac told customers it too would pass on the rate cut in full – to mortgage holders and savers, albeit a touch slower.
It was the only one of the major banks to make an announcement on savings rates.
From June 3, the bank will decrease its variable interest rates by 0.25 per cent for new and existing customers.
Speaking about the change, Westpac acting chief executive consumer, Carolyn McCann said it will give welcome relief to mortgage holders facing cost of living pressures.
'Our customers have shown remarkable resilience when it comes to managing their finances through a challenging economic period,' she said.
'However, we recognise things are still tough and every dollar counts in the family budget.'
From May 30, variable rates on Westpac Life accounts will decrease by 0.25 per cent, while new customers applying online for a Westpac eSaver account will also cop a 0.25 per cent interest rate cut.
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News.com.au
35 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Resources Top 5: Coal player fuels rare gains as silver and gold stocks roll out the drill rigs
Australian Pacific Coal heads our list today for sustained daily gains Inaugural diamond drilling at the Elizabeth Hill project in Western Australia's Pilbara region struck shallow, high-grade silver An 8100m drill program is underway across the Tin Can trend at the Newman project of Peregrine Gold Your standout resources stocks for Wednesday, June 11, 2025. Australian Pacific Coal (ASX:AQC) Australian Pacific Coal is making progress after resuming underground mining at the Dartbrook Coal Mine in the Hunter Valley of NSW earlier this year following a restart program in 2024. Shares lifted 21.88% to a daily high of 7.8c and closed at 7.1c. On June 2 the company advised that it is well on the way to meeting the final two Conditions Subsequent (CS) of a senior secured finance facility with Vitol Asia Pte Ltd for Dartbrook. One remaining CS requires the project to rail 20,000 tonnes of produced coal in a consecutive 30-day period. The Dartbrook JV recently commenced a washed coal railing, with further railings continuing whilst the wash plant nears completion of its recommissioning. The JV has contracts in-place to rail the required tonnage and remains focused on commencing exports of its high-quality thermal coal product in the near future once more steady-state production is reached. There is about 150,000 tonnes of ROM coal stockpiled. The other CS outstanding relates to the registration of the Trepang Lease with the NSW Land Registry Service, which is under way. AQC said the outstanding matters were largely administrative and it had no reason to believe that they would not be satisfied in due course. Located about 10km northwest of Muswellbrook, Dartbrook has access to world-class infrastructure, a skilled workforce and support industries utilised by major mining companies in the region. Vitol has expressed its continued support and commitment towards the project, as evidenced by the recent increase in funding it made available to the project of US$4.2 million on May 30, 2025. West Coast Silver (ASX:WCE) Increasing safe haven investment demand along with growing demand for industrial uses, including solar panels, has seen silver break the back of long-term resistance at US$35/oz and currently trading at around US$36.40 (~A$55.86). These factors are leading to increasing supply deficits and seeing interest in silver producers, developers and explorers steadily improve. Among them are West Coast Silver which hit a new 12-month high of 10.5c in morning trading before closing lower at 8.9c after inaugural diamond drilling at its Elizabeth Hill project in Western Australia's Pilbara region struck shallow, high-grade silver. Notable preliminary results from the first two diamond holes include 2m at 6951g/t silver from a down-hole depth of 27m in the first hole, 25WCDD001, and 12m at 153g/t silver from the surface in the second hole, 25WWCDD002. Anomalous lead, zinc and copper values were also returned from these holes, which were selected to test the potential for shallow, high-grade mineralisation. While the results are based on portable XRF readings and assays are awaited, they indicate that the drill program has achieved its objectives. Should a significant silver resource be defined, West Coast Silver could have a clear line to production given that Elizabeth Hill is an historical mine that only needed low-cost gravity separation to recover native silver. Systematic core logging is underway to improve the company's understanding of Elizabeth Hill while regional soil samples have been sent to the laboratory for assessment before being used to help define the next steps. 'We are extremely pleased with this exceptional start to our maiden drill program,' executive chairman Bruce Garlick said. 'To intersect high-grade silver from surface in our first two holes is a tremendous result and validates our belief in the near-surface potential at Elizabeth Hill. 'The grades seen in 25WCDD001 are particularly encouraging and point to a strong future for the project.' Elizabeth Hill is one of Australia's high-grade silver projects and has a proven history with 1.2Moz of silver produced from just 16,830t of ore at a head grade of 2,194g/t. This was obtained during 12 months of production before the mining operation ceased in 2000 due to low silver prices of around US$5/oz. Encouragingly for WCE, the previous operations had a simplistic processing technique with native silver recovered via low-cost gravity separation. Untapped potential remains in the ground with the deposit open at depth while a recent consolidation of the land package offers potential to discover more Elizabeth Hill style deposits. Through the consolidation of the surrounding land packages into a single contiguous 180km2 package, significant exploration and growth potential exists both near mine and regionally. This land package holds a significant portion of the Munni Munni fault system which is considered prospective for Elizabeth Hill look-a-like silver deposits. The project is on a mining lease in a Tier-1 mining jurisdiction and with a potential processing option at the nearby Radio Hill site. Peregrine Gold (ASX:PGD) Any Western Australian explorer with links to Mark Creasy attracts more attention than most others owing to the legendary prospector's high success rate. One such company is Peregrine Gold which has Creasy as its top backer while former Azure Minerals chairman Brian Thomas is also on board as non-executive chairman. Adding further to these credentials is technical director George Merhi, who has a history of success as exploration manager for the Creasy Group and Novo Resources, particularly in the Pilbara region. It is little wonder then that Peregrine was 14.29% higher at 16c after launching an 8100m drill program across the Tin Can trend at the Newman gold project in the Pilbara. After landing all necessary approvals, the aircore program is underway testing the extent of an open 1km-long gold and arsenic anomaly identified from geochemical sampling. This includes areas with 'subtle' chargeability anomalies identified through Induced Polarisation, which may indicate the presence of sulphide mineralisation. The 81-hole aircore program will average around 100m per hole with results expected in the next quarter. During the drilling Peregrine will test for extensions to the Tin Can West discovery, which previously returned 4m at 9g/t gold from 12m along with 8m at 8.33g/t from 56m, 8m at 6.53g/t from 48m, 4m at 11.35g/t from 28m and 4m at 10.82g/t from 32m. After wrapping up the Tin Can program, the company expects to begin initial aircore drilling at the Epithermal prospect, subject to a final review of survey results. 'We are excited to commence aircore drilling at Tin Can,' Peregrine's technical director George Merhi said. 'The team is eager to see what this round of drilling will discover as we have a compelling fertile target of substantial scale which has already generated high-grade gold mineralisation as evidenced by prior drilling results. 'Following the drilling at Tin Can we can look forward to commencing first phase aircore drilling at the Epithermal prospect.' The Newman gold project spans 1900km2, about 30km southwest of Newman. Asian Battery Metals (ASX:AZ9) Asian Battery Metals has enhanced its standing in Mongolia on confirming high-grade mineralisation at the Oval copper-nickel discovery with shares climbing 10.35% to a daily high of 3.2c before retreating to 2.7c. The Oval is one of 30 promising targets identified at the Yambat project, which covers 106.07km2 in the north-central part of Gobi-Altai Province. Previous drill hole OVD0213 ranked among the highest-grade intercepts drilled in recent years delivering grades of 6.08% copper and 3.19% nickel over 8.8m. And now, assays from phase 3 drilling have flagged a massive sulphide intercept in hole OVD034 which correlates well with previous results of 1.3m at 4.70% Cu, 3.65% Ni, 1.19g/t E3 (gold-platinum-palladium) and 0.12% cobalt from 79.6m. Hole OVD033 confirmed strong mineralisation down-dip from the phase 1 standout hole OVD0211 with 27.7m at 1.36% Cu, 0.86% Ni, 0.44 g/t E3 and 0.04% Co from 92.3m and 6.7m at 1.17% Cu and 0.96% Ni from 159.8m. Hole OVD032 intersected deeper, high-tenor sulphides, including 0.5m at 1.39% Cu, 1.91% Ni, 0.62g/t E3 and 0.07% Co from 293.7m. Asian Battery Metals (ASX:AZ9) said the results confirmed Oval as a new magmatic mafic intrusion related copper-nickel sulphide system in southwestern Mongolia. Visual logging of recent holes OVD036 and OVD0404 has indicated further strong intervals of massive sulphides, suggesting the system remains potentially open along strike and at depth. Additional assay results from these holes are expected in late June. The plan now is to start a ground-based EM survey later this month to guide follow-up drilling and test for deeper feeder zones. Ordell Minerals (ASX:ORD) (Up on no news) As drilling continues at the Barimaia gold project in the Murchison region of WA, Ordell Minerals is awaiting first results with bated breath, as are investors who sent shares up as much as 17.02% to 55c before closing at 49.5c. A multi-pronged, 5000m campaign is targeting extensions and new discoveries within the expanded 7km-long Barimaia Intrusion. First pass reverse circulation (RC) drilling is targeting discovery opportunities outlined by recent aircore drilling along strike from the 2.5km zone of mineralisation defined at the McNabs and McNabs East prospects. The company expects diamond drilling to start in the first half of June. Extensions to the host granodiorite intrusion identified by recent aircore drilling will also be systematically followed up in the second half of 2025. The flagship Barimaia project represents an advanced exploration project with significant historical drilling results. Ordell acquired an 80.3% interest in Barimaia from Genesis Minerals (ASX:GMD), which is now a major shareholder of Ordell with an 8% shareholding. Barimaia, which was never systematically explored due to Genesis' strategic focus on its assets in the Leonora region, is in a Tier-1 mining jurisdiction in proximity to several gold processing plants and adjacent to Ramelius Resources' Mt Magnet mill. Ordell's exploration at Barimaia is targeting new discoveries of a similar style to the Eridanus deposit, which forms part of Ramelius' Mt Magnet operations. Eridanus is ~6km northwest of Barimaia and hosts a resource of 21Mt at 1.7g/t Au for 1.2Moz of contained gold, with an additional +300,000oz already mined from the open pit.

News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
‘Our shabby little warehouse': Popular brewery faces demolition to make way for six-storey building
A popular brewery in Sydney's inner west could be demolished to make way for a new six-storey complex. Young Henrys has been in the heart of Newtown since 2012. It rose in popularity thanks to its Newtowner pale ale and Natural Lager. It was also where Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and now fiancee Jodie Haydon had their first date. Under a proposal made by Loucas Architects in May, who lodged a development application with the Inner West Council, the warehouse would be demolished and replaced with a new six storey building as well as ground-level retail and commercial spaces. The planned site would cost just short of $21m, adding 40 new residential apartments, with seven reserved for low income housing. In late May Loucas Architects lodged the developments, which has yet to be approved by the Inner West Council. Young Henrys co-founder Oscar McMahon told NewsWire the brewery would find a new home elsewhere but they are unsure where at this stage. He said the move was something that was a long time coming. 'This warehouse was built around 1979 and is the last little industrial complex in Newtown,' he said. 'Newtown is now a high density living area that attracts pretty high rent and house prices.' 'We've always had a good relationship with the owner and it has always been a down the track thing but now it makes the most sense as a way forward for the owners and we were open to it as we ran out of space,' he said. Despite the move Mr McMahon said Young Henry's made its name in Newtown and would look to try and find a solution that can keep them local. 'Young Henrys was born and bred in Newtown and we will do everything we can to always have a Newtown presence,' he said. 'The way we are looking at it, there are some great opportunities although there is sadness. 'We built a brand and business on this little patch of dirt and there'll always be something special and wonderful about this place. 'It's a shabby old warehouse complex, but it's our shabby old warehouse complex that we made our home.' Mr McMahon said due to the growing business demands, the brand has had to expand to productive facilities in Goulburn and Victoria, meaning there won't be any production hiccups. While the plans have not gone through the council just yet, Young Henrys will be looking to say goodbye to the place in a fitting way. 'We've got such a great relationship with many of our customers, so we look forward to many farewell beers that will be had over the coming 6 to 12 months,' Mr McMahon said. 'I also really look forward to taking people on a bit of a journey into the next integration of Young Henrys.' The proposal is open to community submissions until June 26. According to planning alerts, the project received mixed reviews. One said 'I support this application. 'Sydney is in the grip of a housing crisis, and medium-density housing near existing infrastructure is one of the fastest and most effective ways to address it. This proposal ticks all the right boxes, it's close to Newtown Station and within easy walking distance of shops along Enmore Road and King Street.'

News.com.au
an hour ago
- News.com.au
Closing Bell: ASX crawls to the finish after touching new intraday high, up just 0.06pc
ASX sets new intraday high at 8639 points before sliding to 8598 Normalising US-China relations undercut gold, rare earth and uranium stocks Despite all that, ASX 200 Resources index gains 0.67pc The ASX had a very strong start to the day, rocketing up almost 0.5% in the first hour of trade. Unfortunately, it was pretty much all downhill from there. While the Aussie market managed to keep momentum just long enough to stay in positive territory, the bourse is up just 4.9 points or 0.06%. That puts us 0.54% off the 52-week average high, a range we've been hovering around for about a week now. Looking at the sectors, real estate, energy and materials made the biggest moves. Info tech and healthcare both dragged. Neither the Banks index nor Gold index were shown much love today, both in the negative alongside the All Tech. The ASX 200 Resources index was more of a bright spot, lifting 0.67% despite some geopolitical headwinds for several commodities. US-China trade deal moves toward final approval While details are thin, as of about midday AEST Chinese and US officials have agreed to a trade war truce. Reuters reports the two countries have agreed on a framework to remove export restrictions and boost trade volumes after a torrid four-month saga of retaliatory tariffs and general mudslinging. "We have reached a framework to implement the Geneva consensus and the call between the two presidents," US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said. "The idea is we're going to go back and speak to President Trump and make sure he approves it. They're going to go back and speak to President Xi and make sure he approves it, and if that is approved, we will then implement the framework." While good news for the general health of the global economy, it's taken the wind out of ASX resource stock sails, particularly gold, rare earths and uranium miners and explorers. Many were angling to become the new strategic sources of energy and critical minerals outside of China, but that's looking less necessary now. ASX resources stocks in the dumps Taking a look at our rare earths stocks, Lynas Rare Earths (ASX:LYC) has slumped more than 7%, joined by several of its small cap cousins. Arafura (ASX:ARU) has also shed 7%, while Northern Minerals (ASX:NTU) is down 5.8%, Dateline Resources (ASX:DTR) 20% and Eclipse Metals (ASX:EPM) 12%. Gold stocks are faring a little better. Mid cap Perseus Mining (ASX:PRU) has slipped 5% after releasing a five year production outlook. Fellow midcap Ramelius Resources (ASX:RMS) is down just 1.9%. On the other hand, some small cap gold stocks are struggling. Iceni Gold (ASX:ICL) has shed 16%, Solstice Minerals (ASX:SLS) 7% and Gorilla Gold Mines (ASX:GG8) 11%. Uranium stocks are taking a little less heat, ironically. Paladin Energy (ASX:PDN) is down 3.2%, Boss Energy (ASX:BOE) 2% and Deep Yellow (ASX:DYL) 2.7%. Bannerman Energy (ASX:BMN) has slumped 9.5%, however, and Lotus Resources (ASX:LOT) has slipped 7%. Despite all that the materials sector is very much in the green today, up 0.63%, with plenty of resource companies making strong gains. Look no further than our Small Cap Leaders table for the day for examples… ASX SMALL CAP LEADERS Today's best performing small cap stocks: Security Name Last % Change Volume Market Cap RAN Range International 0.0015 50% 17142 $939,290 PLY Playside Studios 0.21 45% 2923235 $59,337,210 KGD Kula Gold Limited 0.01 43% 17524286 $6,448,776 REZ Resourc & En Grp Ltd 0.018 38% 898234 $8,731,309 SLA Solara Minerals 0.195 26% 694247 $8,987,648 AAU Antilles Gold Ltd 0.005 25% 605718 $9,245,471 CTN Catalina Resources 0.005 25% 27442520 $9,704,076 MEM Memphasys Ltd 0.005 25% 1850532 $7,934,392 OVT Ovanti Limited 0.0025 25% 1300174 $5,587,030 ROG Red Sky Energy. 0.005 25% 8341400 $21,688,909 OLY Olympio Metals Ltd 0.036 24% 25625 $2,553,952 HFR Highfield Res Ltd 0.155 24% 439824 $59,259,630 DAL Dalaroometalsltd 0.042 24% 2253388 $8,464,365 ATG Articore Group Ltd 0.225 22% 155114 $52,676,230 ADG Adelong Gold Limited 0.006 20% 802466 $10,343,383 ALY Alchemy Resource Ltd 0.006 20% 200000 $5,890,381 BLZ Blaze Minerals Ltd 0.003 20% 16939864 $3,917,370 GLL Galilee Energy Ltd 0.006 20% 200000 $3,535,964 ICG Inca Minerals Ltd 0.006 20% 3043331 $7,881,950 RDN Raiden Resources Ltd 0.006 20% 10880428 $17,254,457 TON Triton Min Ltd 0.006 20% 200000 $7,841,944 NSB Neuroscientific 0.067 20% 872198 $8,097,873 HTM High-Tech Metals Ltd 0.23 18% 137280 $10,763,210 SIO Simonds Grp Ltd 0.165 18% 69553 $50,386,903 CCM Cadoux Limited 0.035 17% 601741 $11,127,528 Making news… Blaze Minerals (ASX:BLZ) is turning heads after hitting gallium and rubidium mineralisation at its Ntungamo project in Uganda. While the mineralisation isn't particularly high grade in this first pass of drilling, the price of gallium has surged 23% since January last year, marking the critical mineral as a lucrative exploration target. BLZ's drilling also encountered scandium mineralisation, but no neodymium or praseodymium of any economic significance. Olympio Metals (ASX:OLY) has locked in a 38-hole drilling program at the Bousquet gold project after nabbing the necessary drilling approvals. The company is particularly interested in investigating the Paquin gold prospect, which has already offered up a promising drill result of 9m at 16.96 g/t gold. The project sits on the incredibly fertile Cadillac Break formation, home to gold resources exceeding 110Moz gold. ASX SMALL CAP LAGGARDS Today's worst performing small cap stocks: Security Name Last % Change Volume Market Cap DGR DGR Global Ltd 0.003 -40% 6327345 $5,218,480 FHS Freehill Mining Ltd. 0.005 -38% 5297011 $25,868,222 BMO Bastion Minerals 0.002 -33% 66886718 $2,710,883 PAB Patrys Limited 0.001 -33% 43052603 $3,086,171 SFG Seafarms Group Ltd 0.001 -33% 1880561 $7,254,899 G50 G50Corp Ltd 0.14 -26% 2354159 $30,513,555 RDS Redstone Resources 0.003 -25% 971324 $4,137,069 SP8 Streamplay Studio 0.007 -22% 2727401 $11,532,281 VPR Voltgroupltd 0.145 -22% 219023 $19,825,007 GAS State GAS Limited 0.019 -21% 631079 $9,422,421 W2V Way2Vatltd 0.006 -20% 600000 $10,596,436 CZN Corazon Ltd 0.002 -20% 550949 $2,961,431 MGU Magnum Mining & Exp 0.004 -20% 10853500 $5,608,254 MRD Mount Ridley Mines 0.002 -20% 292846 $1,946,223 SKK Stakk Limited 0.004 -20% 52435 $10,375,398 TYX Tyranna Res Ltd 0.004 -20% 1119997 $16,442,127 VRC Volt Resources Ltd 0.004 -20% 2771856 $23,423,890 FCT Firstwave Cloud Tech 0.013 -19% 911424 $27,416,299 RAS Ragusa Minerals Ltd 0.013 -19% 351938 $2,281,581 CKA Cokal Ltd 0.03 -17% 1590245 $38,842,163 ICE Icetana Limited 0.025 -17% 1569979 $13,144,280 ANR Anatara Ls Ltd 0.005 -17% 290750 $1,280,302 GGE Grand Gulf Energy 0.0025 -17% 1516666 $8,461,275 LIT Livium Ltd 0.01 -17% 13819883 $20,286,085 OLH Oldfields Holdings 0.02 -17% 347666 $5,113,419 G50 Corp's (ASX:G50) has also released a gallium-based announcement, although the market wasn't quite as impressed with the results as in BLZ's case. While G50's mineralogy study has confirmed the presence of gallium in three types of mineral samples at its Golconda gold-silver-zinc project, the content is fairly low, represented in just 38% of the host rock. The mineral type with the best gallium content of 55 parts per million accounts for just 7% of the rock content, meaning G50 will need to extract and concentrate the critical mineral before it can be sold on to off takers. Freehill Mining (ASX:FHS) has taken another step to expand its aggregate materials business in Chile, selecting a third site in the La Serena region. Investors seem unimpressed with the company's cash generating efforts, which are focused on providing construction materials to local customers to fund development of the Yerbas Buenas magnetite mine. A new resource estimate for the ICE copper-gold project wasn't enough to wow Bastion Minerals (ASX:BMO) shareholders. The new JORC estimate confirmed the volume of the historical estimate at 5.76Mt at 1.09% copper. Perhaps investors were hoping for a little more. Management says they've got plenty of reason to hope, as most exploration on the project has been concentrated around the ICE deposit. BMO reckons there's potential for more in 11 targets, which have had no follow up investigation as yet. TRADING HALTS IN CASE YOU MISSED IT St George Mining (ASX:SGQ) Araxá rare earths and niobium play in Brazil.