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)
