Australia’s sharemarket finished in the green, although a hotter than anticipated inflation figure took the shine off a strong day of trading. ($TA)
Guzman y Gomez added 4.1 per cent to $22.87 as JPMorgan upgraded the fast food stock from “underweight” to “neutral”, citing reduced valuation pressure from a share price decline to its IPO level and a de-rating across the global quick service restaurant sector.
DroneShield rose 8.5 per cent to $2.17 in a second straight day of strong gains. The company reported a $5.2 million European military contract this week as chief executive Oleg Vornik calmed investors about dumping $50 million worth of shares this month.
Electro Optic Systems added 3.6 per cent to $4.61 even as the Federal Court handed down a $4 million penalty from the company admitting to breaching its continuous disclosure obligations.
National Storage REIT jumped 19.5 per cent to $2.70 after it received an unsolicited, non-binding takeover offer from a consortium of Brookfield Property Group and GIC Investments.
US
Stocks Hit Session Highs On Report Hassett Emerges As Trump’s Next Fed Chair Pick (ZH)
The largest American public health-care companies outperformed other industries in the third quarter, as higher new and specialty drug use, continued demand for weight-loss drugs and strong hospital visit trends boosted earnings. ($BBG)
Deere & Co.’s first outlook for the year ahead fell short of expectations as uncertainly continues to surround the timing for a recovery in the US farm economy. ($BBG)
U.S. stock index futures edged higher on Wednesday, as investors priced in a potential interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve in December and awaited economic data for greater clarity over the health of the world’s largest economy. (TR)
Crypto
Crypto-hoarding companies are ditching their holdings in a bid to prop up their sinking share prices, as the craze for “digital asset treasury” businesses unravels in the face of a $1tn cryptocurrency rout. ($FT)
Economy
China’s property market is bracing for a worsening crisis at state-backed China Vanke Co., as the builder struggles to convince investors it can avoid default in the months ahead without clearer signs of government support. ($BBG)
Residential construction picks up (+4.2%qtr), while non-residential (+3.7%qtr) and public infrastructure (+3.9%qtr) activity are showing signs of recovering.
Inflation has climbed to 3.8% in the year to October, from 3.6% the month before, as Jim Chalmers flagged he could announce further energy bill subsidies for households in the upcoming midyear budget. (RBA, $AFR)
Eurozone government bond yields could take some cues from the impact of Wednesday’s U.K. budget on U.K. government bonds, or gilts. “The U.K. budget should dominate the headlines”.
The Japanese economy may need the stimulus, but investors clearly have questions on whether capital markets and Tokyo can handle the additional spending and the conflicting dynamics between lawmakers and policymakers.
U.S. Treasury yields edge higher in Asian trade even as odds of a December interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve are growing.
French government bonds, or OATs, are expected to continue under-performing next year relative to the broader eurozone government bond yield spread complex.
Fastwave Medical, a promising U.S. Healthcare startup, is battling for survival as it’s largest shareholder is blocking every fundraising attempt they are attempting. ($WSJ)
The Reserve Bank of New Zealand lowered interest rates further on Wednesday in an effort to spur recovery in an economy that for now remains moribund, with unemployment at its highest level in nearly a decade. ($WSJ)
UK bonds and the pound whipsawed ahead of a UK government budget after key fiscal forecasts were published earlier than expected. ($BBG, report)
Business
Google has reasserted itself as a major AI competitor through its advanced Gemini 3 model, growing cloud business, and increasingly competitive custom AI chips (TPUs), dispelling earlier concerns that it was falling behind OpenAI and other rivals in the AI race. ($BBG)
Meta Platforms is in talks to use chips made by Google in its artificial-intelligence efforts, a step toward diversifying away from its reliance on Nvidia, according to people familiar with the matter. ($WSJ)
AirTrunk chief executive Robin Khuda says his $24 billion data centre business is trying to invest in water recycling in Australia but there has been little uptake from the utilities companies and the federal government to assist in the process. ($AFR)
Amazon Web Services is making a major push into government-focused artificial intelligence and supercomputing, announcing plans to build the first AI- and HPC-dedicated cloud infrastructure designed specifically for U.S. federal agencies, according to Amazon’s PR. (AMZN)
Politics
The Albanese government will need to cut 7000 public service jobs every year in order for the budget’s wage forecasts to add up, despite Labor ruling out job cuts, says economist Chris Richardson. ($AFR)
Taiwan unveiled a special sweeping $60 billion defence budget on Wednesday, accelerating the island’s military build up amid an increasingly aggressive China and growing calls from the United States to spend more on its own security. ($AFR)
Western Australia’s lucrative mining and agriculture sectors will be jeopardised by any overhaul to its GST distribution, according to west coast industry leaders who warned the controversial deal is even integral to the state’s AUKUS defence agreement. ($AFR)
Finance Minister Satsuki Katayama launched the “Office for Administrative Reform and Promotion of Efficiency,” which she said will work with the finance and internal affairs ministries to review measures such as government subsidies and special tax treatments for companies, according to The Japan Times. ($JPYT)
EU Approves €1.5BN Plan To Build Up Ukraine’s Military-Industrial Sector (AP)
Dozens of US companies have removed diversity criteria from executive pay this year amid a political backlash against DEI goals. ($FT)
Deal Flow
Foxconn Technology has secured approval to invest an additional $569 million in Wisconsin to build artificial-intelligence infrastructure, amid surging demand for AI servers from U.S. customers. ($WSJ)
Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund raised about $253 million by trimming its stake in a Mecca-based property developer that’s become the kingdom’s best-performing equity listing this year. ($BBG)
Independent Research
The new Monthly CPI printed broadly as Westpac IQ team expected but stronger than market expectations so limited impact on our December quarter inflation estimates. (WIQ)
The RBNZ cut the OCR to 2.25% and signalled a neutral bias as expected. It seems likely that we have reached the bottom of the easing cycle absent further negative news. (WIQ)
Opinion
AI bubble fears are getting louder. Stocks tied to artificial intelligence continue to rise, yet every earnings cycle brings intensifying anxiety, especially around Nvidia and US tech giants such as Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta. Investors are scanning every signal for the earliest sign that the boom could be starting to unwind. ($FT)
Up to 3m low-skilled jobs could disappear in the UK by 2035 because of automation and AI (article, report)
AI’s insatiable appetite for electricity and thirst for water could strain the grid, raise emissions and power bills and slow down decarbonisation efforts. ($AFR)
BlackRock Inc. had ambitions to raise over $2 billion for its Asia Pacific-focused private credit strategies, but things didn’t go as planned due to leadership turnover, a thin track record, and strategies that didn’t click with investors. ($BBG)
Macquarie Dictionary announces ‘AI slop’ as its word of the year, beating out Ozempic face (TG)
State Street Investment Management APAC economist Krishna Bhimavarapu said the surprise October inflation print of 3.8 per cent reinforces that the Reserve Bank of Australia will maintain an extended hold.
Global deregulation is reshaping financial markets as the US, UK, and EU pursue lighter regulation to boost growth. CFA Institute warns that efficiency gains must not come at the expense of investor protection and market stability. (CFA MIA)
Digital Asset Treasury Companies Face Collapse as Crypto Premium Evaporates, Threatening Broader Market Contagion (CN)
Popular investing subreddit, wallstreetbets, calls Strategy (former Microstrategy)’s Bitcoin acquisitions a “Ponzi Scheme”. (r/wallstreetbets) [a]
