The S&P/ASX 200 closed down 13.7 points, or 0.2 per cent, at 8585.20 as a sell-off in the energy sector on weaker oil prices was offset by a strong rally in mining stocks.
The All Ordinaries slipped 0.1 per cent.
Woodside Energy fell 2.4 per cent to $23.40 after Brent crude slid 2.7 per cent to settle at $US58.92 a barrel overnight.
Ampol was down 1.4 per cent to $32.12.
Santos fell 1.2 per cent to $6.04.
DroneShield tumbling 12.1 per cent to $2.47 following a rally of more than 20 per cent earlier in the week.
Northern Star and Catalyst Metals rose 3.8 per cent to $27.12 and 8.4 per cent to $7, respectively.
IGO jumped 11.6 per cent to $7.63.
Liontown Resources rose 11.8 per cent to $1.51 after JPMorgan upgraded both lithium stocks.
GrainCorp slumped 15.5 per cent to $7.09 after agreeing to sell its interest in GrainsConnect Canada at a loss of between $5 million and $10 million while warning of a weaker-than-expected east coast harvest.
Humm Group surged 10.6 per cent to 73¢ after Credit Corp lobbed a takeover bid for the fintech, offering a scheme of arrangement at 77¢ a share or an off-market takeover at 72¢.
Credit Corp fell 2.9 per cent to $13.54.
Sandfire Resources rose 1 per cent to $16.82 after the copper producer said an updated pre-feasibility study confirmed the development potential of its fully permitted Black Butte project in Montana.
PointsBet added 0.6 per cent to 90¢ after appointing Andrew Catterall as group chief executive, subject to gaming licensing and regulatory approvals.
US
US tech stocks fell on Wednesday, as news that Oracle has lost a key backer for a data centre project reignited investor concerns over soaring spending by artificial intelligence companies and the debt that is funding it.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.3 per cent by early afternoon in New York, with Oracle falling 5 per cent.
Oracle shares have now lost nearly half their value since they peaked in early September as the company finds itself at the centre of Wall Street’s growing unease over the vast debt being taken on to fund the build-out of AI infrastructure.
The Dow industrials surrendered early gains, dragged down by a slide in shares of Caterpillar.
Medline, a medical-supplies manufacturer and distributor, rose more than 20% in their trading debut Wednesday after the company raised $6.26 billion in the largest U.S. IPO since 2021.
Nvidia was down 3.4 per cent.
Alphabet dipped 2.6 per cent.
Broadcom was down 5.4 per cent.
Commodities
JPMorgan has upgraded its outlook for lithium, citing higher demand forecasts and widening near-term supply deficits that are expected to support higher prices.
Economy
UK borrowing costs are set to edge down next year, according to Wall Street forecasts, as the Bank of England’s rate cuts help ease worries over the sustainability of the public finances. ($FT)
Property prices in London have fallen at the fastest pace in nearly two years, as a steep decline in the cost of flats helped widen the gap between the UK capital and the rest of the country in the run-up to Rachel Reeves’ Budget. ($FT)
Investors are snapping up Venezuela’s defaulted debt in a bet that a potential end to Nicolás Maduro’s regime could unlock the once-distant prospect of repayment. ($FT)
Business
Warner Bros Discovery is planning to recommend to its shareholders as soon as Wednesday that they reject Paramount’s $108bn hostile bid, with the Hollywood group sceptical that Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison will backstop the deal. ($FT)
JPMorgan Chase has withdrawn almost $350bn in cash from its account at the Federal Reserve since 2023 and ploughed much of it into US government debt, as the bank tries to defend itself against rate cuts that threaten to erode its profits. ($FT)
Global companies are seeking private equity partners in China to take on their local operations as they grapple with an increasingly competitive local market, a sluggish economy and volatile US-China relations. ($FT)
Currencies
ANZ analysts say the Australian dollar has paused its recent rally, trading in the low- to mid-US66¢ range, with further downside constrained by broad US dollar weakness.
Deal Flow
Amazon is in talks to invest more than $10bn in OpenAI and sell it more chips and computing power, in the latest investment deal tying the AI start-up to its infrastructure providers. ($FT)
Trade Republic has become Germany’s most valuable start-up after investors including Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund agreed to back the fintech at a €12.5bn valuation. ($FT)
Diageo has agreed to sell its stake in its Kenyan business to Japan’s Asahi in a deal worth $2.3bn, as the struggling drinks group looks to reduce its debt load through divestments. ($FT)
Andersen Group, the tax and consulting firm started by alumni of Enron’s collapsed accounting firm Arthur Andersen, is set to make its market debut on Wednesday after raising $176mn in an initial public offering. ($FT)
Waymo, the Alphabet-owned self-driving car company, is in talks with investors for a funding round that would value the company at more than $100bn as it gears up to deploy in more big cities. ($FT)
Private equity-owned medical supply group Medline Industries is weighing an offering of up to $7bn in an upsized share sale on Tuesday, in a signal of investor interest in one of the biggest listings this year. ($FT)
Independent Research
ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence drops 2pts to 81.5; plunges to its lowest for over a year since August 2024. (RM)
Business Confidence in the Mining industry has soared in the last six months during discussions, and eventually the signing, of critical mineral and rare earths deals between the Australian and US Governments worth billions of dollars in October 2025. (RM)
Telecommunications industry is Australia’s second most distrusted and Optus is the most distrusted brand in the country. (RM)
Life360 tumbled 5.6 per cent to close at a five-month low of $32.71.
WiseTech, Xero and NextDC were all off between 2 per cent and 3 per cent.
Santos and Woodside dropped about 2 per cent to close at $6.11 and $23.99, respectively.
Vicinity Centres and Scentre Group finished down about 1 per cent at $2.51 and $4.13, respectively.
JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman eased to $93.03 and $7.01, respectively.
Westpac down 1.1 per cent to $38.48.
ANZ 0.4 per cent to $36.11.
National Australia Bank added 0.1 per cent at $42.24.
Commonwealth Bank closed flat at $155.13.
Qantas rallied 2.9 per cent to $10.09.
DroneShield went up 22.2 per cent to $2.81 after the defence company secured a $49.6 million contract to supply a military customer.
REA Group fell 1.7 per cent to $185.8 on news that Google will display real estate ads.
Crypto
The UK financial regulator has published proposals to regulate for the first time many areas of the crypto market, including rules for listing digital assets, restrictions on insider trading and capital requirements for the fast-growing sector.
Commodities
Brent fell as much as 1% to trade at $59.96 deepening a loss for the year.
West Texas Intermediate crude was trading at $US56.52 a barrel, or 0.5 per cent.
Economy
Markets are suggesting a one-in-four chance of an Australian rate rise in February, and expect 38 basis points of tightening by Christmas next year.
Earlier falls in U.S. Treasury yields reverse, with yields trading steady in midday European trade ahead of key labor market data.
Gilt yields rise after flash U.K. purchasing managers’ surveys for December came in better than expected.
The 10-year German Bund yield falls after Germany’s weaker-than-expected flash estimate purchasing managers index.
Business
ANZ asked law firm Allens to investigate one of the bank’s directors, former senior bureaucrat Jane Halton, after receiving complaints that she had made a derogatory remark about a senior employee and a consultant while they were on a board education trip in the United States last year. ($AFR)
AustralianSuper chief investment officer Mark Delaney will depart the $400 billion pension giant after more than 20 years, a period in which he helped transform the fund, and its predecessor Superannuation Trust of Australia, into the country’s biggest asset manager and a global investment powerhouse. ($AFR)
Star Entertainment chief executive Steve McCann will step down from his position as the new owners of the struggling casino operator take control and attempt to turn around its finances. ($AFR)
Rio Tinto says it will spend hundreds of millions of dollars preparing the way for the development of the country’s next major iron ore mine, a project it hopes will underpin the next generation of its Pilbara operations. ($AFR)
Mining companies are holding close to $180 billion worth of infrastructure assets and will increasingly sell stakes in power stations, pipelines and desalination plants as a way of bolstering cash flows, say industry analysts. ($AFR)
Monzo chief executive TS Anil was asked to step down by the fintech’s board amid concerns over the pace of its international expansion and his long-term commitment to the business after a potential stock market listing. ($FT)
PayPal has applied to become a bank in the US, the latest fintech seeking to capitalise on the Trump administration’s more permissive approach to financial industry oversight. ($FT)
Deal Flow
The NSW government and its private capital partners at Ausgrid are gearing up to launch an auction of its smart metering business in a deal that could spell a blockbuster payday for the $25 billion-plus poles-and-wires giant. ($AFR)
KTEK Systems, a supplier of airframes for combat drones to defence manufacturers in the US, European Union and Israel, is eyeing a 2026 ASX listing after finalising its $2.5 million convertible note seed round. ($AFR)
Westgold Resources has acquired a 19.9 per cent stake in Alicanto Minerals, a listed junior that on Monday struck a deal to buy WA’s Mt Henry gold mine from the bigger player’s sale of non-core assets. ($AFR)
Insight’s funds, led by its London-based head of secured finance, Shaheer Guirguis, have committed to providing up to $100 million in wholesale funding to Midkey. ($AFR)
Shell chief executive Wael Sawan and his top lieutenant quashed an internal proposal to buy rival BP this year, after which the company’s head of mergers and acquisitions left the business. ($FT)
The Canadian government has greenlit the $60bn Anglo Teck mega-merger, clearing a key hurdle for the companies to form one of the world’s largest copper producers as demand for the industrial metal surges. ($FT)
Kimmeridge has submitted a $6bn offer to buy Ascent Resources, the gas driller at the centre of a legal dispute in which a Middle Eastern sovereign wealth fund accused a US private equity group of self-dealing. ($FT)
Independent Research
Household sentiment has fallen 9 per cent in December, as the recent uptick in inflation puts it back on the radar of cost of living conscious consumers.
Opinion
Payden & Rygel portfolio manager Eric Souders says global bond markets are entering a markedly bifurcated phase, with the US Federal Reserve easing while other major central banks lean toward further tightening.
And we’re back, the intern deleted all the spreadsheets used to model this newsletter so they had to spend the week trying to fix it.
Markets
AUS
S&P/ASX 200 index advanced 105.30 points, or 1.2 per cent, to 8697.30.
Newmont rose 5.7 per cent to $150.06.
Genesis Minerals 7.6 per cent to $6.90.
Evolution Mining 4.2 per cent to $12.76.
Westpac rose 1.4 per cent to $38.80.
National Australia Bank 1.8 per cent to $42.13.
Commonwealth Bank by 2.1 per cent to $155.96.
ANZ rose 1.2 per cent to $35.81 as former boss Shayne Elliott sues the bank after it stripped him of $13.5 million in bonuses last month.
Austal fell 3 per cent to $6.26 after Treasurer Jim Chalmers approved Hanwha’s bid to increase its holding in the shipbuilder from 9.9 per cent to 19.9 per cent, but set out strict conditions.
Scentre Group firmed 1 per cent to $4.20 after bringing in a new Dexus-managed fund as a joint venture partner for a further 25 per cent stake in Brisbane’s Westfield Chermside, at $683 million.
4DMedical jumped 8.8 per cent to $2.22 after securing $30.2 million in funding via an underwriting agreement with Bell Potter Securities to ensure the exercise of all its listed options.
BMC Minerals jumped 25 per cent to $2.50 on its first day of trading on the ASX after the company completed a heavily oversubscribed initial public offering at $2 per share.
US
US tech stocks slumped on Friday as a sharp decline in Broadcom’s shares following the chipmaker’s earnings reignited investors’ nervousness about high valuations in companies linked to the artificial intelligence boom. ($FT)
Oracle shares suffered a steep sell-off a day ago after the database company failed to meet analysts’ estimates of revenue growth. ($FT)
Nvidia lost 3.3 per cent.
Palantir fell 2.1 per cent.
10yr US government bonds, rose 0.04 percentage points to 4.18 per cent as investors continued to digest the language from Wednesday’s Fed meeting.
Crypto
Five cryptocurrency firms received preliminary approval to perform certain banking functions from a US regulator on Friday, marking the latest step in the White House‘s embrace of what was once viewed as a risky, fringe industry.
Commodities
Iran has brought in fresh petrol price increases, as US sanctions force the oil-rich country to import refined fuel. ($FT)
Silver prices have punched through $60 per ounce for the first time amid a historic rally driven by a scarcity of supply and a surge in demand from investors. ($FT)
Economy
More than 9mn US student loan holders have missed at least one payment this year, as delinquencies in the $1.7tn market soar following the end of the Biden administration’s post-pandemic payments holiday. ($FT)
Australia will book A$20 billion ($13.3 billion) in savings in Wednesday’s mid-year budget update as the government works to offset rising spending pressures, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said. ($BBG)
Trump’s AI Bet Clouded by Unemployment and Inflation Fears as voters are becoming increasingly skeptical about its promise and more worried by its perils. ($BBG)
China’s loan growth disappointed in November with muted overall credit expansion, underlining anemic borrowing by households and businesses is still a concern weighing on the economy. ($BBG)
Business
Volkswagen will stop manufacturing vehicles at its site in Dresden after Tuesday, marking the first time in the carmaker’s 88-year history that it will close production in Germany. ($FT)
Hedge funds and trading firms are piling into physical commodities markets in search of new sources of returns, despite lacking the decades of experience and information accumulated by established players such as Trafigura and Vitol. ($FT)
Lending by private credit firms in emerging markets has surged to record levels this year, even as cracks begin to appear in the US sector after years of rapid growth. ($FT)
JPMorgan Chase is facing the ire of some of the world’s biggest investors over the bank’s role in a complex multibillion-dollar refinancing at Patrick Drahi’s telecoms group Altice USA that threatens them with heavy losses. ($FT)
Australia will ban supermarket price gouging from July 1 under a new law the government says would protect shoppers from excessive grocery prices charged by major retailers. ($BBG)
Currencies
Options traders expect the euro’s rally to get fresh impetus next week with the European Central Bank’s meeting expected to underscore its policy divergence with the Federal Reserve. ($BBG)
Politics
The Republican chair of the US House of Representatives’ China committee has questioned the information on which the White House based its recent decision to allow Nvidia to export advanced chips to China. ($FT)
The EU plans a crackdown on “very dangerous” products sold on online platforms including China’s Shein and Alibaba, its justice commissioner has said, admitting “we need to do better” to protect European consumers. ($FT)
Cryptocurrency giant Tether has made a €1.1bn all-cash offer to acquire Italian football club Juventus, in a bid underscoring the burgeoning ambitions and newfound riches of the stablecoin provider. ($FT)
Coca-Cola’s proposed sale of Costa Coffee is at risk of collapse and the soft drinks giant is holding last-ditch talks with private equity firm TDR Capital this weekend in an attempt to salvage it. ($FT)
BNP Paribas said it has begun exclusive talks with Holmarcom Group to potentially sell its stake in Moroccan subsidiary BMCI. ($WSJ)
Australia’s treasurer has signed off on South Korean conglomerate Hanwha’s bid to increase its stake in Australian shipbuilder Austal, saying the deal will be subject to strict conditions. ($WSJ)
Keppel REIT is increasing its stake in one of Singapore’s premium office towers in a deal valued at more than US$700 million, adding to its portfolio of prime commercial assets in Asian business districts. ($WSJ)
Sumitomo Corp. will invest 200 billion yen ($1.3 billion) on several Indian renewable power projects, to take advantage of rapid growth in demand from major industrial users. ($BBG)
Independent Research
Dividend yields across the ASX are likely to stay subdued as expectations for medium-term rate cuts continue to draw capital into equities, compressing returns, according to Morningstar’s latest Australian Dividend Outlook.
Deutsche Bank AG, Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other Wall Street banks are forecasting that the US dollar will resume its slide next year as the Federal Reserve keeps nudging down interest rates. ($BBG)
Opinion
Can bitcoin bonds fund economic development? ($FT)
Will OpenAI’s $1bn deal with Disney boost video app Sora? ($FT)
Australia’s social media ban carries health warning for Big Tech investors ($FT)
Is there an AI bubble and will it pop next year? ($FT)
UBS says sentiment across the resources sector is upbeat but disciplined, as elevated gold prices and a stabilising lithium outlook drive an uptick in exploration, capex and medium-term growth planning.
S&P/ASX 200 Index fell 12.4 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 8622.2 at the closing bell as nine of the 11 sectors finished in the red.
The All Ordinaries fell by a similar amount.
Ainsworth Game Technology last traded at around $1. The poker machine maker said on Monday that it expected to post $21.5 million in underlying pre-tax profit for 2025, down from $23.2 million a year earlier, after a sharp second-half slowdown led by its North American business.\
National Storage REIT climbed 2.2 per cent to $2.79 as it agreed to a $4 billion takeover by a Brookfield-GIC consortium that will see investors receive $2.86 cash per stapled security.
DigiCo Infrastructure REIT dipped 1.1 per cent to $2.50 after it named Michael Juniper as its new chief executive, effective immediately. He will also serve as managing director of digital infrastructure at HMC Capital.
TechnologyOne edged up 0.4 per cent to $28.85 after the company backed confidence in chief financial officer Cale Bennett to shareholders, who was employed by scandal-ridden Corporate Travel Management between 2019 and 2023, including as global CFO.
Bond investors are not so sure about the market’s dramatic pivot in interest rate expectations from rate cuts to rate hikes within just a few days.
US
Investors rushed to snap up shares of artificial-intelligence chip maker Moore Threads, betting that Beijing’s push to end reliance on foreign technology could help create a homegrown Nvidia. ($WSJ)
Paramount Skydance rallies as it bids for Warner Brothers, against Netflix
Confluent jumps after report that IBM nears $11 billion buyout deal
Oppenheimer sets Street-high 8,100 S&P 500 target for 2026
Economy
Economists predict Reserve Bank of Australia governor Michele Bullock will take a more hardline and inflation-wary approach to interest rates, dashing hopes of Christmas relief for mortgage payers ahead of the bank’s final meeting of the year. ($AFR)
China’s year-to-date trade surplus in goods has surpassed $1tn for the first time, as exports boom despite US President Donald Trump’s tariff war. ($FT)
Business
Deutsche Bank is seeking to increase the pay of its supervisory board chair by more than 40 per cent, despite Alexander Wynaendts already being the highest-paid chair of Germany’s blue-chip Dax companies. ($FT)
Anglo American has abandoned plans to award its top executives multimillion-pound bonuses if its planned $50bn merger with Teck Resources goes through, after shareholders objected to the proposal. ($FT)
Currencies
The Australian dollar is trading Monday afternoon at 0.6645 and at this point it looks like closing in on its 11th daily gain in 12, a feat not achieved for quite a few years. A confident AUD dollar looks forward to this Tuesday’s RBA meeting which is expected to strike a slightly more hawkish tone, a Fed rate cut on Wednesday night and local jobs data on Thursday.\
AUD/USD posted a 1.5% gain last week, putting it atop the G20 leadership boards. The pair cleared a number of resistance points in the 0.6620-30 area late last week that could have been expected to at least temporarily thwart it. A range of AUD-crosses are also hitting new highs.
AUD/EUR finally broke above its painfully narrow 0.55-0.57 range late last week hitting 6-month highs just above 0.57.
AUD/JPY pushed through onto the 103.0 handle at 17-month highs. These gains come despite a relatively hawkish BoJ Gov. Ueda, convincing markets that a Dec. BoJ rate hike is very likely.
AUD/NZD is holding above 1.14 and was modestly higher last week. It trades at 1.1485 Monday afternoon. November’s hawkish RBNZ cut may have been the last in their cycle giving a solid boost to the Kiwi, but an even larger reappraisal of RBA expectations is playing out this side of the Tasman, keeping the cross relatively elevated.
Sterling falls 0.1% to $1.3328 after hitting a six-week high of $1.3385 on Thursday, LSEG data show.
The euro rises 0.2% to 0.8745 pounds after reaching a five-week low of 0.8719 on Thursday.
Politics
Sir Keir Starmer is set to host Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his French and German counterparts as European powers seek to rally support for Kyiv at a time of growing US pressure to agree a peace deal with Russia. ($FT)
Donald Trump said Netflix’s “very big market share” in streaming video could pose a problem as it seeks regulatory approval for its blockbuster $83bn deal to acquire Warner Bros. ($FT)
Donald Trump hits the road next week to sell his economic agenda as Americans are increasingly blaming him for what the data shows is a worsening affordability crisis. ($FT)
The Federal Reserve is set to cut interest rates next week despite deep divisions among its officials on the direction of the US economy, according to leading academic economists. ($FT)
Hungary’s budget gap continued to widen in November after Fitch Ratings cut the outlook on Hungary’s second-lowest investment grade on Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s pre-election spending. ($BBG)
Regulators in Washington have rolled back rules put in place after the 2008 financial crisis that limited how much risk banks can take in corporate lending and fueled the boom in the multitrillion-dollar private credit industry. ($WSJ)
Deal Flow
L’Oréal will double its stake in dermatology company Galderma as the world’s biggest beauty group increases its interest in the aesthetic injectables specialist to 20 per cent. ($FT)
Airwallex plots Silicon Valley expansion after securing $8bn valuation. ($FT)
Aktor Group’s joint-venture with Greece’s state gas supplier Depa Commercial SA is looking to secure additional supplies of liquefied natural gas from the US. ($BBG)
Opinion
The recent equity rally could stall after the Federal Reserve’s expected rate cut as investors move to take profits, according to strategists at JPMorgan Chase & Co. ($BBG)
The S&P/ASX 200 index closed 23.2 points higher, or 0.3 per cent, at 8618.4 in a choppy session, despite an increasing probability of higher borrowing costs in the coming months.
BetMakers advanced 5.7 per cent to 18.5¢ as it signed an exclusive five-year agreement with Betfair to provide technology for the launch of premium wagering brand CrownBet.
Vulcan Energy Resources tumbled 33 per cent to $4.1 after raising €398 million ($710 million) in shares at $4 to finance a renewable energy project.
Regis Healthcare fell 3.9 per cent to $7.64 on news it agreed to sell its Ayr and Home Hill aged care homes in Queensland to not-for-profit provider Ozcare.
Due to a surge in copper prices:
BHP soared 3.7 per cent to $44.55, the highest level since October 2024, bringing this year’s gains to 13 per cent.
Rio Tinto soared to a record high of $140.12, having rallied 19 per cent this year.
US
Meta jumped 4% after reports that it would slash budgets for its Metaverse initiative by as much as 30%.
The S&P 500 edged up by 0.1% and is just 0.5% below its all-time high, continuing a relatively calm run following weeks of sharp swings.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was up 408.40 points (0.86%) today, reaching 47882.90, as investors focused on growing expectations for a Federal Reserve interest rate cut.
Crypto
Linea and Ethereum Mainnet upgrade simultaneously for the first time with updates that enhance onboarding, security, and overall performance on Linea. (s)
Economy
October household spending indicator: 1.3%mth, 5.6%yr. (ABS)
ADP data shows private employment dropped last month, following a unclear BLS September report amid ongoing government shutdown obscuring economic visibility.
Private employers in the US shed 32,000 jobs in November, according to unofficial data that has gained a more prominent role since the record government shutdown delayed the release of official figures. ($FT)
Soft retail sales, declining consumer confidence, and another subdued manufacturing survey reinforced the case for monetary easing, boosting rate-sensitive sectors like homebuilders, transports, chemicals, and consumer stocks.
Yields on Japan’s benchmark government bonds rose to their highest level since 2007 as investors fretted over Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s spending plans and braced themselves for an interest rate increase. ($FT)
Bond investors have told the US Treasury they are concerned about Kevin Hassett’s potential appointment as Federal Reserve chair, worrying he will cut interest rates aggressively to please President Donald Trump. ($FT)
Business
Meta has poached top Apple design executive Alan Dye, in a blow to the iPhone maker as the social media group steps up its efforts to sell wearable artificial intelligence-powered devices. ($FT)
Rio Tinto will raise up to $15.1 billion in asset sales and cut spending on decarbonisation by $6 billion under chief executive Simon Trott’s plan to make the miner “stronger, sharper and simpler”. ($AFR)
OpenAI has agreed to acquire Neptune, a startup that provides tools that help companies track their AI model training, the ChatGPT maker said on Wednesday. (TR)
Australia’s Fortescue said that it would cooperate with a subsidiary of China Baowu, the world’s largest steelmaker, to explore new green technology for accelerating decarbonisation in the hard-to-abate steel industry. (TR)
Hedge fund QVG Capital appears to have successfully bet against two of the Australian sharemarket’s more controversial companies – DroneShield and Corporate Travel Management. ($AFR)
Cambricon Technologies Corp. plans to more than triple its production of AI chips in 2026, aiming to wrest market share from Huawei Technologies Co. in China and fill a void left by Nvidia Corp.’s forced exit. ($BBG)
ING Groep NV has created a new unit for private markets deals labeling the business as a “key growth” area within its wholesale banking division. ($BBG)
ANZ Group Holdings Ltd. Chair Paul O’Sullivan shouldn’t be re-elected, the Australian Shareholders’ Association said in a recommendation that heightens the stakes at the bank’s upcoming annual general meeting. ($BBG)
Currencies
The U.S. dollar was soft on Thursday after lacklustre economic data cemented the case for a rate cut from the Federal Reserve next week, providing relief to the yen and pushing the euro to its highest level in nearly seven weeks. (TR)
Politics
Brussels is planning a new antitrust investigation into Meta over the rollout of artificial intelligence features within WhatsApp, in the EU’s latest challenge to Big Tech. ($FT)
President Donald Trump proposed drastic cuts to fuel efficiency standards for US vehicles, in another salvo against electric cars set to benefit the auto and oil industries. ($FT)
Australia’s internet regulator said a teen social media ban would be the first domino to fall in a global push to rein in Big Tech, as Meta’s Instagram, Facebook and Threads began locking out hundreds of thousands of accounts ahead of a deadline next week. (TR)
Deal Flow
Private credit group Blue Owl and its employees spent $200mn in recent days to buy stock in the firm and two of its publicly traded vehicles, after their shares slid following a failed merger of two of its funds. ($FT)
Mineral explorer and developer Andean Silver has launched a $30 million capital raising to fund its drilling efforts at the Cerro Bayo silver-gold mine in southern Chile. ($AFR)
Phil Zhou, an executive financial adviser at Shaw and Partners, has made the switch to Morgan Stanley Wealth Management in a significant loss for the business. ($AFR)
Vulcan Energy Resources had Morgan Stanley and Canaccord Genuity open books for a $1.1 billion equity raising on Wednesday morning. ($AFR)
US-focused critical minerals tearaway Locksley Resources went cap in hand to fund managers on Thursday, seeking to raise up to $15 million via an institutional placement. ($AFR)
BGH Capital bets on $200m childcare business, defying sector jitters. ($AFR)
Quadrant Private Equity has owned MotorOne for almost 10 years, slotting it into a continuation fund in 2022. Now, Brisbane’s Alvia Private Capital is betting on a little-known auto parts business, The Automotive Group, to ride the same thematic. ($AFR)
ARN Media trims stake in Southern Cross Media; Barrenjoey on trade. ($AFR)
Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Co., one of the region’s most prolific private credit players with a $20 billion portfolio, said its bets were holding up well and batted away concerns over structural issues within the sector. ($BBG)
Independent Research
JP Morgan release their 2026 Market Outlook with the title, “Promise and Pressure // Investing in the new frontier of AI, fragmentation and inflation”. (s)
Opinion
HSBC has pulled forward its forecasts of a rate hike by the Reserve Bank due to high inflation. It is now tipping the start of the tightening cycle in the September quarter of 2026, from early 2027 in a previous forecast.
The S&P/ASX 200 was up 15.5 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 8595.2 at the closing bell after initially spiking as much as 0.5 per cent on news the economy had expanded at just 0.4 per cent in three months through September, which was below market consensus.
Vicinity was up 0.8 per cent to $2.48.
Westfield parent Scentre 1 per cent to $4.19.
Stockland by 1.4 per cent to $5.93.
4DMedical surged 16 per cent to $1.92 as it expanded its distribution agreement with Philips.
Vulcan Energy Resources was in a trading halt after it secured a €2.2 billion ($3.93 billion) financing package to fully fund construction of its phase one Lionheart lithium and renewable energy project. Shares last traded at $6.13.
Transurban gained 0.5 per cent to $15.02 after it said it would pay an interim distribution of 34¢ apiece for the six months to December 31.
WiseTech jumped 4.5 per cent to $72.58 after the software company detailed its new pricing model at its investor day.
US
Stocks edged higher Wednesday, with the the Dow industrials adding to early gains and the Nasdaq composite lagging behind.
Oracle CDSs hit their highest since March 2009.
CrowdStrike issued a Q3 beat-and-raise on accelerating adoption of its AI-driven Falcon platform (BBG)
American Eagle issued a Q3 beat-and-raise as recent high-profile campaigns with Sydney Sweeney and Travis Kelce boost demand (CNBC)
Crypto
Bitcoin climbed back above $93,000 on Wednesday in a broad crypto-market rebound, recovering part of the steep losses that triggered nearly half a billion dollars in liquidations on Monday.
Economy
Domestic demand was strong, accelerating as Australia’s economic upswing broadened to include business investment and the construction sector, while new public demand resumed its climb after going sideways over the past two quarters. However, the pickup in housing construction and business investment was a little than originally expected. (WIQ)
The Australian economy grew by 0.4%qtr in the September quarter. This increase and revisions to previous activity estimates left year-ended growth at 2.1% – the strongest since the September quarter 2023. (pdf)
An acute global shortage of memory chips is forcing artificial intelligence and consumer-electronics companies to fight for dwindling supplies, as prices soar for the unglamorous but essential components that allow devices to store data. (TH)
The U.S. holiday shopping season kicked off to record online sales. But underlying signs of economic fragility signal a pullback in spending could be looming. (TH)
U.S. shoppers spent $14.25 billion on Cyber Monday, pushing total online sales over the Thanksgiving weekend to $44.2 billion, according to an Adobe Analytics report, as consumers lapped up offers on everything from gadgets to household essentials. (TH)
Money markets are now fully priced for a rate hike next year and have nearly priced out any chance of a further cut after a deep dive in the third-quarter GDP report showed the economy expanded at the fastest annual pace in two years in the September quarter.
Bond traders ascribe just a 2 per cent chance of a rate cut between now and February.
China’s services activity expanded at the weakest pace in five months, a private survey showed, adding more evidence of sluggish consumer demand that’s putting further pressure on a slowing economy.
Australia’s central bank is closely monitoring inflation pressures and is ready to act in the event they show signs of regaining strength, Governor Michele Bullock said Wednesday, a hint that officials may yet have to pivot back toward tightening. ($BBG)
Swiss inflation unexpectedly stalled in November and an underlying measure slowed to a four-year low, a setback for central bank officials just days before their final interest-rate decision of 2025. ($BBG)
Business
Airbus lowered its commercial aircraft delivery target to around 790 aircraft for 2025 on Wednesday due to a supplier quality issue impacting fuselage panels on its A320 family of jets. (TH)
Netflix’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery’s studios and streaming unit is expected to reduce streaming costs for consumers by bundling Netflix and HBO Max, according to two people familiar with the proposal. (TH)
Nvidia’s agreement with ChatGPT parent OpenAI to invest up to $100 billion in the startup is still not finalized, the chipmaker’s chief financial officer Colette Kress said on Tuesday at the UBS Global Technology and AI Conference in Arizona. (TH)
HSBC has appointed the former KPMG partner Brendan Nelson as its new chair after a chaotic search process that left the job vacant for several weeks. ($FT)
Shares in a US cryptocurrency miner backed by Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump shed a third of its value on Tuesday as early investors cashed out en masse at the end of a lock-up period. ($FT)
UK pension funds are cutting back their exposure to US equities, amid concerns over the market’s growing concentration in a small number of tech stocks and the risk of a bubble in the AI sector. ($FT)
Companies’ rapid embrace of artificial intelligence tools to write software is driving demand for systems to ensure the code these tools produce is not riddled with bugs and security flaws. ($FT)
Currencies
The $A peaked at US65.86¢, a level last seen in late October. The policy-sensitive three-year bond yields hit a 10-month high of 3.99 per cent, and the 10-year climbed to 4.65 per cent, the highest since mid-January.
Politics
Google’s YouTube said it will obey Australia’s world-leading ban on social media accounts for children under 16, a capitulation which means all the most popular platforms with young users have agreed to comply after campaigning against the law. (TH)
Michael and Susan Dell have pledged $6.25bn to help fund so-called Trump Accounts, the children’s investment accounts announced earlier this year, in the latest effort by billionaires to support the US president’s programmes. ($FT)
ANZ chief executive Nuno Matos has been appointed as chairman of the Australian Banking Association council, replacing National Australia Bank’s Andrew Irvine.
ING CEO Melanie Evans was also re-appointed as deputy chair at the ABA’s annual general meeting in Melbourne on Wednesday.
The EU has agreed to a full ban on imports of Russian gas almost four years after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. ($FT)
Deal Flow
Anthropic has tapped law firm Wilson Sonsini to begin work on one of the largest initial public offerings ever, which could come as soon as 2026, as the artificial intelligence start-up races OpenAI to the public market. ($FT)
South Korea has substantially increased its headroom for foreign exchange bond issuance as Seoul prepares to fund a $350bn investment pledge to the US under its trade deal with Washington. ($FT)
Vulcan Energy has secured a $2.56bn financing package to build Europe’s largest lithium production project that is expected to generate enough material for about half a million electric vehicle batteries a year. ($FT)
Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund is set to offload a significant chunk of its stake in Sainsbury’s, in a share sale that will end a run of nearly two decades as the largest shareholder in the UK supermarket chain. ($FT)
Independent Research
Michael Burry Is (Once Again) Going To Try And Short Tesla. (ZH)
Based solely on Black Friday sales data, the holiday shopping season may be decent despite poor consumer sentiment. (RIA)
Opinion
Fidelity International portfolio manager Amit Goel says Indian equities remain resilient despite 2025 headwinds from a domestic slowdown and US policy moves.
The S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.2 per cent, or by 14.5 points to 8579.7 at the closing bell, reversing some of Monday’s 0.6 per cent fall that was disrupted by an outage on the ASX. The All Ordinaries added 0.1 per cent.
Collins Foods fell 3.5 per cent to $11.20 as analysts said that the largest operator of KFC in Australia’s upgraded outlook was too conservative after it posted a record first-half revenue of $750.3 million.
Market operator ASX fell 1.4 per cent to $57.36 after Morningstar downgraded the company following another operational failure at the exchange on Monday.
Air New Zealand fell 1.5 per cent to 51¢ as it lifted group capacity 4.4 per cent in October from a year earlier, as new Airbus A321 aircraft boosted short-haul flying.
EVT Limited rose 1.7 per cent to $14.02 after completing its acquisition of Pro-invest Hotels’ third-party management business, clearing the final conditions and officially launching EVT Connect Hospitality.
DroneShield tumbled 4.3 per cent to $1.88, continuing a volatile run for the company which has lost 55 per cent in the past month after its boss sold $50 million worth of shares.
US
U.S. stock futures and international equities markets started the week lower and bond yields rose as investors shifted away from risky assets.
Nasdaq composite added 0.6%, boosted by Intel and other chip makers.
S&P 500 rose 0.2%.
Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 185 points, or 0.4%.
Crypto
Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino and market analysts pushed back against S&P Global’s downgraded rating of USDt’s ability to maintain its US dollar peg, saying that the ratings agency did not account for all of Tether’s assets and revenues. (s)
Bitcoin slid more than 7 per cent to below $US85,000, declining 33 per cent in just eight weeks. Crypto stocks were also sold off in New York with Coinbase and MARA Holdings down at least 2 per cent each.
Other
Strong demand for Japanese government bonds helped to steady Asian markets on Tuesday, a day after hawkish comments from the central bank governor sparked a global sell-off. ($FT)
Economy
Eurozone inflation unexpectedly rose to 2.2 per cent in November, surpassing the European Central Bank’s 2 per cent target for the third month in a row as services prices continued to creep up. ($FT)
European manufacturers are increasing their investment in Chinese factories, despite growing anxiety among the continent’s political leaders about industrial dependence on the world’s exporting superpower. ($FT)
Global growth is holding up better than expected as an artificial intelligence investment boom helps offset some of the shock from U.S. tariff hikes, the OECD said on Tuesday, nudging up its outlook for some major economies. (TR)
Business
OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman has declared a “code red” over the need to improve ChatGPT, as rivals Google and Anthropic narrow its early lead in the race to develop artificial intelligence. ($FT)
Private equity group EQT is considering charging institutional investors more to put money into its deals, as an influx of money from wealthy individuals makes it less reliant on funds from traditional backers. ($FT)
Apple’s vice-president of artificial intelligence will be replaced by a top Microsoft executive as the iPhone maker struggles to recover from a slow start in the race to harness advanced AI. ($FT)
Blackstone, Apollo and KKR have agreed to participate in a Bank of England stress test of how the fast-growing private credit market would fare in a major crisis, according to people briefed on the matter. ($FT)
Wind turbine maker Vestas will double production capacity at its onshore blade factory in Poland to address increasing demand across Europe, hiring more than 300 workers, the Danish company said in a statement late on Monday. (TR)
Politics
Richard Hughes has resigned as chair of the Office for Budget Responsibility, after the UK fiscal watchdog accidentally leaked its analysis of Rachel Reeves’ Budget before the chancellor delivered it. ($FT)
Deal Flow
Exxon Mobil has approached the Iraqi oil ministry to express its interest in buying Russian firm Lukoil’s majority stake in the giant West Qurna 2 oilfield, five Iraqi official sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. (TR)
Warner Bros Discovery has received a second round of bids, including a mostly cash offer from Netflix in an auction that could conclude in the coming days or weeks, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters on Monday. (TR)
Goldman Sachs is acquiring Innovator Capital Management, the $28B+ in AUM ETF firm behind the defined-outcome products that have quietly become the retirement world’s favorite comfort food.
Nvidia has invested $2 billion in chip design software maker Synopsys as part of an expanded multi-year tie-up to jointly develop new tools for designing products across industries using its AI technology. (TR)
Independent Research
Leading economies will end their current rate-cutting cycles by the end of 2026, according to new OECD forecasts that suggest most major central banks have little scope for looser policy despite an expected slowdown in growth. ($FT)
New Roy Morgan research shows exceptionally high reach across the major platforms, with YouTube (95%), Snapchat (87%), Facebook (81%) and Instagram (78%) the most widely used among 14–15-year-olds. (RM, pdf)
ANZ-Roy Morgan Consumer Confidence drops 1.6pts to 85.5, despite ‘net buying sentiment’ reaching its highest level since March 2022 amid the growing Black Friday sales weekend (RM, pdf)
Westpac IQ have left their September quarter GDP nowcast unchanged at 0.8%qtr and 2.3% in year-ended terms. New public demand was as expected while the upside surprise to net exports was offset by a run down in public sector inventories. (WIQ)
The Australian Securities Exchange was hit by an outage to its announcements platform on Monday, the latest setback for the stock exchange operator that is already under scrutiny from regulators over its governance and ability to deliver market infrastructure. (TR)
US
Dell’s revenue slightly missed while EPS beat at $2.59 on other stronger margins. AI carried the quarter, with $5.6B in AI server shipments and 37% y/y growth in servers and networking easily outweighing softness in PC sales. Dell guided a strong Q4 with $31.5B in revenue and $3.50 EPS, driven by $9.4B in expected AI sales and a higher full year AI server outlook.
Burlington warm weather dragged traffic and muted comps after back to school, highlighting how fragile discretionary demand is even in off price. Trends improved as temperatures cooled, but the quarter reinforced the broader theme of weather volatility and cautious consumers.
Dicks delivered strong core comps and moved quickly to shut weak Foot Locker stores, highlighting the split between resilient higher income sports spending and softer lower income demand, while still guiding confidently into the holidays
Best Buy lifted its forecast after a tech upgrade wave boosted comps, highlighting how innovation can unlock spending even as shoppers stay selective heading into the holidays.
Abercrombie & Fitch surged as Hollister’s strength and sharper youth momentum carried the quarter while the namesake brand softened, underscoring a holiday theme of teen driven demand outpacing slowing legacy banners.
Shares of Strategy tumbled after the bitcoin champion launched a US dollar reserve to fund its dividends and warned that it could incur a $5.5bn loss if the price of the cryptocurrency does not rebound this year. ($FT)
Crypto
Bitcoin fell back below $90,000 on Monday, extending losses after its steepest monthly decline since the 2021 crypto crash, as renewed risk aversion drove investors out of stocks and digital assets. (TR)
Economy
Q3 construction work done came in softer, falling -0.7% q/q, but weakness was driven by the unwind of a mining related spike related to the ABS’ recognition of installed imported structures on a cash basis (whereas GDP is on an accruals basis). Outside of this, activity was solid, up 3.6%qtr and 3.0% in annual terms – strongest quarterly growth rate since 2017 (excl. COVID).
Q3 CAPEX soared to 6.4% beating expectations (0.5%). While this is mostly a data centre story, it adds to rebounding household consumption underscoring a broadening private sector recovery. CAPEX plans were also upgraded to show a 7% gain in real terms.
China’s tightening export controls are pushing European firms to explore new supply chain capacity outside of the world’s second-largest economy, a European lobbying group said on Monday, seeking cover from the U.S.-China trade war. (TR)
The year that started with a rate hike in Japan might just end with another after the clearest signal yet from Bank of Japan Governor Kazuo Ueda of a possible move soon, setting up the stage for a pivotal month for monetary policy divergence. (TR)
Australian home prices rose in November with large gains in several state capitals, amid a record level of housing unaffordability, property consultant Cotality said on Monday. (TR)
Wages paid by businesses grew at their fastest pace in almost two years and outstripped tepid growth in company profits, a further sign of high labour costs that could feed into inflation and fuel cost-of-living pressures the government is trying to contain. ($AFR)
U.S. manufacturing contracted for the ninth straight month in November, with factories facing slumping orders and higher prices for inputs as the drag from import tariffs persisted. (TR)
Business
Google’s Gemini is catching up to ChatGPT: Last week’s release of Gemini 3 has helped to boost both Alphabet’s stock and the chatbot’s usage, with monthly downloads now just below ChatGPT’s. Average minutes spent per visit has also increased, with Gemini users chatting for an industry leading ~7 minutes each time they visit the app or website.
Elon is bullish Google and Nvidia: In a recent podcast, Elon said Google has “laid the groundwork for an immense amount of value creation from an AI standpoint,” and adds that Nvidia is now an obvious winner. Elon also says that AI, robotics, and spaceflight companies will be the main value drivers in the future.
HP to Cut Up to 6,000 Jobs as AI Reshapes Operations: The Company said it will eliminate up to 10% of its workforce by 2028 as it leans on AI to streamline product development, internal processes and customer support. HP warned that rising memory-chip costs could pressure margins next year even as demand for AI-enabled PCs grow. It’s hard to differentiate what is real replacement from AI vs. “AI speak” masking a declining business.
Top consultancies have frozen starting salaries for the third consecutive year as artificial intelligence starts to reshape the industry, forcing firms to reconsider their traditional “pyramid” structure. ($FT)
Currencies
USD/JPY has unwound some of the sharp gains seen in recent months as chances of a BoJ hike at their December meeting firm (+19bp priced up from +5bp last week). MoF jawboning against excessive JPY weakness has also helped stabilise JPY. 2-year JGB yields pushed above 1% for the first time since 2008 today following a more confident BoJ Governor Ueda, signalling that December is live, despite constant pressure of late from the new government to keep rates steady.
AUD/JPY finished the week near YTD highs of 102.50, however broke below 101.80 today following Ueda’s comments keeping a Dec. hike on the table.
AUD/NZD was hanging around 1.15+ levels for the better part of last week, but came a cropper following the relatively hawkish RBNZ, signalling limited scope for further easing. The cross declined 1% and AUD/NZD starts the week trading nearer 1.1420. After a near 6 month uninterrupted run higher from 1.08-1.16, hard questions are being asked about the longer term outlook for this cross now that the RBNZ easing cycle appears to have drawn to a close.
AUD/EUR was modestly higher over the week supported by last week’s strong CPI and CAPEX data. AUD/EUR has been contained to a very well defined 0.55-0.57 range in the last 6 months and starts the week at 0.5635.
Politics
Ex-UK minister Tulip Siddiq receives two-year jail sentence in Bangladesh. ($FT)
Deal Flow
Databricks is set to raise $5B at a $134B valuation: The tech company’s latest funding round is designed to help employees sell shares, showing that the company is in no rush to IPO. Databricks also boosted their sales forecast to expectations of 55% growth this year, but noted it is operating at roughly breakeven.
Vimeo was officially acquired for $1.28B by Bending Spoons. EV/Net Income was 824.07x and EV/Revenue was 3.07x. Allen & Company advised on the sale.
Revolut, developer of a foreign exchange and money-transferring application, raised $3.0B of venture funding led by Coatue Management, Dragoneer Investment Group, Fidelity Management & Research, and Greenoaks Capital Partners at a pre-money valuation of $72.0B.
Italy’s billionaire Benetton family is combining its private capital business with a rival, as it embarks on an ambitious plan to triple its assets under management to €10bn in the next five years. ($FT)
After more than a month of due diligence, two major buyout firms have walked away from a proposal to acquire AUB Group, which would have valued the insurance broker and underwriter at more than $5 billion. ($AFR)
OpenAI has taken a stake in Thrive Holdings, a company set up by one of its biggest investors, in the latest of a series of circular deals that have enmeshed the $500bn start-up with its customers, suppliers and backers. ($FT)
Blackstone is nearing an acquisition of utility-parts maker MacLean Power Systems from Centerbridge Partners for $4B.
Mining giant Rio Tinto is seeking to divest its boron-producing US assets.
The S&P/ASX 200 index stumbled at the close to dip 3.2 points to 8614.1, taking the total gain for the week to 2.3 per cent. However, it was not enough for the index to fall 3 per cent for November – the worst month for equities since March.
Monash IVF was flat at 85¢ after the Victorian government imposed certain conditions on the registration of its clinics in that state following an embryo mix-up disclosed in June.
Qube fell 2.2 per cent to $4.86 as Morningstar said in a note that Macquarie’s $11.6 billion bid for Qube underscores the rapid decline of listed infrastructure on the ASX, reducing opportunities for individual investors.
Westpac slipped 0.8 per cent to $37.59 after its New Zealand arm was fined $NZ3.64 million ($3.19 million) for breaching lender-responsibility rules, with failures that left customers without legally required loan information and, in some cases, agreed interest-rate discounts.
US
A data centre fault halted activity on the CME for several hours on Friday, bringing futures trading to a standstill and fanning concerns over global markets’ heavy reliance on a single exchange. ($FT)
Malaysian glove maker Kossan’s 4Q performance is likely to be flattish on year, says CIMB Securities, expecting the industry’s operating landscape to remain challenging in the long term due to demand-supply imbalances.
MediaTek’s shares surge amid better AI application-specific integrated circuits visibility.
Crypto
Bitcoin bounced to $91,500, but a break above $98,000 and, ideally, consolidation over $100,000 is needed to invalidate the month-long downtrend from October’s $126,000 peak.
The Fear & Greed Index sits at 20/100 (extreme fear), up from 10 last week, signaling tentative improvement in investor sentiment.
Thanksgiving trading saw subdued activity; SKY outperformed with an 8.5% gain, while ZEC and TIA slid on continued sell pressure and negative sentiment.
Economy
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney has struck a deal for a new pipeline carrying a million barrels of oil a day to Canada’s west coast in a bid to pivot away from an over-reliance on the US economy. ($FT)
U.S. shoppers spent $8.6 billion online on Black Friday, an Adobe Analytics report showed, as more consumers turned to laptops and phones instead of braving brisk weather to snap up deals during the holiday shopping weekend. (TR)
China’s central bank reaffirmed its tough stance on virtual currencies on Saturday, warning of a resurgence in speculation and vowing to crack down on illegal activities involving stablecoins. (TR)
Home lending is expected to grow 6 per cent next year, shrugging off a regulatory crackdown on risky lending as three ambitious bank chief executives step up the competition with market leader Commonwealth Bank. ($AFR)
The Reserve Bank of Australia might water down its controversial proposal to impose a ban on credit card surcharge fees, which drew a backlash from business, and the regulator is also taking steps to appease the big banks’ concerns about interchange fees. ($AFR)
Investors are anticipating a “radical” shift away from long-term borrowing by the UK government, after it said it was considering selling more short-term Treasury bills. ($FT)
Business
Macquarie’s knee-jerk reaction to having to repay $321 million to investors who lost money in the collapse of the Shield Master Trust is still causing colossal issues for a long list of affected fund managers. ($AFR)
Infrastructure investors including BlackRock, Brookfield and Apollo are courting the leading oil and gas companies, sensing an opportunity as the sector grapples with lower prices and a lack of enthusiasm from public-market investors. ($FT)
Western banks have been the biggest beneficiaries of Hong Kong equity sales this year, shrugging off US-China tensions as dealmaking booms in Asia’s financial hub. ($FT)
OpenAI’s huge early lead in the race to dominate artificial intelligence is under the greatest pressure since ChatGPT’s launch, as rivals Google and Anthropic gain ground in the cutting-edge technology. ($FT)
China’s jewellery retailers are reeling from gold’s blistering rally and the reduction of a tax rebate as high prices have deterred buyers and led to hundreds of store closures in one of the world’s largest consumer markets for the metal. ($FT)
Currencies
Japan’s Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama said it is “clear” that volatile yen swings aren’t “moving based on fundamentals,” in the latest expression of the government’s frustration over the currency. ($BBG)
Politics
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney signed an agreement with Alberta’s premier on Thursday that rolls back certain climate rules to spur investment in energy production, while encouraging construction of a new oil pipeline to the West Coast. (TR)
The new head of the Bank for International Settlements has said reining in hedge funds’ ability to make highly leveraged bets in government bond markets should be a key priority for policymakers given rapidly increasing public debt levels. (TR)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has cast doubt on the latest US efforts to make a peace plan to end the war in Ukraine, but confirmed that a US delegation would travel to Moscow early next week. ($FT)
The chief executive of Italian bank Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena is under investigation for alleged market manipulation and obstruction of supervisory functions in connection with its takeover of rival Mediobanca. ($FT)
Donald Trump has said he will pardon the former president of Honduras Juan Orlando Hernández, who was convicted last year in the US of drug trafficking, ahead of a tense presidential election in the Central American country on Sunday. ($FT)
APRA’s pre-emptive limit on mortgage lending at a high Debt-to-Income ratio highlights that good lending practice should not be distorted by system-level controls. At the margin, the policy is slightly dovish for the interest rate outlook. (APRA)
Deal Flow
Deutsche Börse has launched a bid to buy private equity-backed fund platform Allfunds for €5.3bn, as the German exchange group seeks to expand. ($FT)
The owner of a major Chinese drone parts supplier has taken a stake in one of Russia’s leading drone companies, highlighting a deepening relationship between Moscow and Beijing’s military-industrial complexes. ($FT)
Naver bought Upbit, a crypto exchange, for $10.3 billion. ($BBG)
Ursa Major Technologies, a rocket-engine startup, raised $100 million. (article)
Gate Bioscience, a protein-elimination biotech, raised $65 million. (article)
Gridware, an electric-grid protection startup, raised $55 million. (article)
Numeric, an accounting automation startup, raised $51 million. (article)
Agentio, a creator-led advertising platform, raised $40 million. (article)
Independent Research
Westpac IQ revise their dairy price forecasts due to increased global production and the New Zealand Reserve Bank’s 25-point rate cut to 2.25%, signaling a likely end to the easing cycle with potential rate rises ahead. (WIQ)
Westpac IQ’s research show that private sector credit growth accelerated in recent months, with October data showing a robust 0.7%mth increase, exceeding their forecast and consensus expectations. (WIQ)
Opinion
Wall Street Predicts Rebound in Indian Markets After Tough Year. ($BBG)
The S&P/ASX 200 index rose 10.8 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 8617.3 by the close of trading after briefly falling into the red, in a lightly traded session ahead of the US Thanksgiving holiday. While most sectors traded in the black, the energy sector weighed on the bourse.
Reece gained 4 per cent to $12.73 as it announced an on-market share buyback of up to $35 million, following the completion of its $365 million off-market buyback in October.
NRW Holdings jumped 3.5 per cent to $5.30 after it upgraded its full-year guidance, forecasting revenue of about $4.1 billion and underlying earnings of $260 million to $265 million.
Megaport added 1.1 per cent to $14.39 as it completed its acquisition of Latitude.sh, a globally scalable compute-as-a-service platform.
The Lottery Corporation edged up 0.7 per cent to $45.46 as it appointed Wayne Pickup as chief executive to replace Sue van der Merwe.
DroneShield was the biggest laggard on the ASX 200 after it fell 7.8 per cent to $2 as investors looked to take profits following a 25 per cent jump in the previous five sessions.
US
U.S. indexes rose for a fourth consecutive session, extending a recovery from last week’s selloff. Rising expectations for an interest-rate cut next month and easing artificial-intelligence bubble fears have helped.
Nvidia shares gained 1.4% Wednesday, but remain sharply down from peaks earlier in the month.
Nasdaq’s International Securities Exchange proposed quadrupling the daily trading limit for options tied to BlackRock Inc.’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF as demand from investors increases. ($BBG)
Johnson & Johnson reached a $500 billion stock market valuation on Wednesday as investors keep raising their bets that the firm’s strategy to cope with eroding sales for its major psoriasis drug will pan out. ($BBG)
Crypto
Tether’s ability to maintain its peg to the US dollar has been called into question by S&P Global Ratings, which downgraded the stablecoin operator’s reserves to its lowest measure due to rising exposure to high-risk assets. ($FT)
Bitcoin has climbed above $US90,000 ($137,821) for the first time in almost a week, clawing back ground after a more than month-long selloff, as a broad rally in risk assets and easing volatility gave traders room to push higher. ($AFR)
Economy
The UK’s national energy system operator has warned of the risk of gas shortages within five years as the country becomes more reliant on imports of the fuel, raising questions over the government’s energy strategy. ($FT)
U.S. Weekly jobless claims provided more evidence that the labor market is stuck in neutral: Layoffs are subdued, but hiring is flagging too.
The country’s biggest banks face new restrictions on real estate lending as regulators pre-empt the risk that a sudden rise in interest rates or unemployment will collide with increasingly indebted families. ($AFR)
Confidence among businesses in the eurozone was broadly stable this month, pointing to modest growth in the 20-nation currency area that has so far weathered the impact of trade tariffs and political uncertainty. ($WSJ)
Japan’s primary dealers have requested more sales of two-, five- and 10-year government notes, as well as a decrease in issuance of super-long bonds, according to a Ministry of Finance briefing on Thursday. ($BBG)
U.S. Mortgage rates fell after three weeks of increases, giving prospective buyers some relief from price pressures. ($WSJ)
Business
Australia’s largest technology investors are brushing off concerns about a bubble forming in artificial intelligence stocks, with some funds using this month’s sell-off to top up their exposure to the sector. ($AFR)
The country’s largest pubs and clubs would be paid hundreds of thousands of dollars by Tabcorp under an ambitious strategy to turn around the bookmaking giant by enticing punters to gamble in venues. ($AFR)
Strong demand for Apple’s iPhone during China’s Singles’ Day shopping festival single-handedly drove growth in smartphone sales during the period, research firm Counterpoint said on Thursday. (TR)
Top Chinese companies are training their artificial intelligence models overseas to access Nvidia’s chips and bypass US efforts to prevent their development of the powerful technology. ($FT)
Politics
Australia is poised to overhaul its environment laws after the Greens agreed to back the centre-left Labor government’s legislation, paving the way for the bill to pass the Senate on Thursday, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. (TR)
Deal Flow
Sydney’s Betashares is in advanced talks to acquire a minority stake in Macropod, a stablecoin issuer that in September became the first-ever player to be approved by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission. ($AFR)
Chinese sports apparel company Anta Sports Products Ltd. is among firms exploring a potential takeover of Puma SE, according to people familiar with the matter. ($BBG)
Independent Research
According to Westpac IQ, Private capex surprised on the upside growing 6.4%qtr and 6.9%yr in the September quarter 2025. There was a broad-based lift in actual and expected capex as businesses respond to the firmer consumer and the fall in machinery prices. This suggest the economic upswing is broadening. (WIQ)
