Financial markets now certain the RBA will hike interest rates in 2026

Financial markets are now pricing in a 100% chance the Reserve Bank will hike rates in 2026, in what would be a blow to mortgage holders but may take some steam out of an overheating property market.The latest forecasts represent a turnaround from just two weeks ago, when traders were factoring in an even chance that the next RBA move would be a cut by its May meeting.It comes as data showed inflation is now moving in the wrong direction, alongside this week’s national accounts and household spending figures which showed the economy is accelerating into the new year.Adam Donaldson, the head of interest rates strategy at the Commonwealth Bank, said “the market has come to the conclusion that the Reserve bank won’t be cutting rates any further”.“Basically, from February onwards, the market is starting to price some risk that rates will go up

UK first-time buyers in best position to snap up property in a decade, data shows

Buyers attempting to get on to the property ladder in the UK have received a lift, after figures from Halifax showed they are in the best position to snap up a home in a decade.Britain’s biggest mortgage lender said that the average price of a UK property hit a record high of £299,892 in November, after a marginal month-on-month rise.However, Halifax said when property prices were compared with average incomes, affordability was at its strongest since late 2015.The lender added that taking into account higher interest rates – the average two-year fixed mortgage rate is 4.85%, according to Moneyfacts – mortgage costs as a share of incomewere at their lowest level in about three years

Home Office admits facial recognition tech issue with black and Asian subjects

Ministers are facing calls for stronger safeguards on the use of facial recognition technology after the Home Office admitted it is more likely to incorrectly identify black and Asian people than their white counterparts on some settings.Following the latest testing conducted by the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) of the technology’s application within the police national database, the Home Office said it was “more likely to incorrectly include some demographic groups in its search results”.Police and crime commissioners said publication of the NPL’s finding “sheds light on a concerning inbuilt bias” and urged caution over plans for a national expansion.The findings were released on Thursday, hours after Sarah Jones, the policing minister, had described the technology as the “biggest breakthrough since DNA matching”.Facial recognition technology scans people’s faces and then cross-references the images against watchlists of known or wanted criminals

Another Cloudflare outage takes down websites including LinkedIn and Zoom

A host of websites including LinkedIn, Zoom and Downdetector went offline on Friday morning after fresh problems at Cloudflare – the company’s second outage in less than a month.Cloudflare said the outage came after it adjusted its firewall to protect customers from a widespread software vulnerability revealed earlier this week, and was not an attack. Earlier, it noted a separate issue reported with its application programming interfaces.The issue lasted for half an hour and was resolved shortly after 9am GMT, it said. This follows a far larger Cloudflare outage in mid-November that hit sites such as X, OpenAI and Spotify as well as multiplayer games such as League of Legends

Steve Smith on top again after he resumes Ashes rivalry with Jofra Archer | Geoff Lemon

Jofra Archer versus Steve Smith in 2019 is already Ashes folklore. The atmosphere at Lord’s that afternoon was charged in all senses, a huge slab of cloud bringing darkness to the day. Fresh from a match-winning World Cup final, Archer marked his Test debut with what was then the fastest spell recorded for England. Smith was in the middle of a Bradman-hued streak of 774 runs in seven innings. All that could pause him was a short-pitched attack of building ferocity, one that finally dropped Smith with a bouncer to the neck

Wayward England pace attack fumble their golden chance to strike with new ball | Simon Burnton

Jofra Archer’s first ball zinged towards Jake Weatherald and screamed just past the bat. His second arrowed into his pads, knocking him off his feet, and after a review the umpire raised his finger.Forty-five overs later, Australia were all out for not many. But that was Perth, a bowling performance that started with a statement of intent from England’s premier fast bowler and a lead followed by his teammates.Archer’s first ball of this Test pitched outside leg stump and flew harmlessly behind Travis Head