Good morning, Equity Mates.

Before we begin, we want to acknowledge the horrific events at Bondi.

We won’t attempt to cover the latest developments here. Trusted outlets like ABC News and The Sydney Morning Herald are doing that far better than we could.

Against this, everything else feels secondary. Our thoughts are with the victims, their families, and all those affected.

Bryce & Ren

Here’s what you need to know today

Australia

• Government targets ‘price gouging’ by Supermarkets. The government has banned large retailers charging “excessive” prices with new rules only allowing retailers to charge the cost of supply “plus a reasonable margin”. These terms remain undefined, and given grocery retail’s notoriously small margins, will likely be ineffective. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• Homes exclusive for first-home buyers. The Australian government has announced $10 billion to drive the construction of 100,000 homes for sale exclusively to first home buyers. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• Treasurer’s spending commitments. Australia’s mid-year economic update came with a number of spending commitments: $1.1 billion for free mental health services, $98 million to fast track qualifications of 6,000 tradies, $1 billion for an economic resilience fund and $956 million for local infrastructure to support new housing. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• Australia’s battery-buying frenzy. When the Albanese government was re-elected it committed $2.3 billion to help households buy batteries. That money was expected to last until 2030, but is now expected to be exhausted by mid-2026 due to greater-than-expected demand. As a result, the government is adding another $5 billion to the scheme. (AFR)
  
  

• Reddit fights Teen Social Media Ban. Social media platform Reddit has filed a challenge in the High Court against Australia’s ban on social media for under-16’s, arguing it “infringes the implied freedom of political communication”. Meanwhile, Denmark has said it will implement a similar law by the end of 2026. (ABC)
  
  

• Record gold price sparks exploration boom. Australian mining companies spent $431 million searching for gold in the September quarter, up 45% year-on-year. The gold price is up 50% in the past 12 months. (ABC)

Global

• EU freezes €210 billion in Russian assets. The European Union has agreed to the move until Russia ends its war in Ukraine and helps to pay for the rebuild. This move ends the risk that Russia-friendly member states, like Hungary, would veto the extension of the freeze on Russian assets that had to be voted on every 6 months. (BBC)
  
  

• Britain’s economy shrinks. The UK shrank by 0.1% in October, surprising economists who were predicting moderate growth. (BBC)
  
  

• 9 million miss student loan payments in the US. In the past year, delinquencies have more than doubled in America’s US$1.7 trillion student loan market. (FT)
  
  

• China injures fishermen in South China Sea. A Chinese coast guard ship has fired a water cannon at a Philippine fishing boat, injuring three people on board. The boat was in the Phillipines' territorial waters in the South China Sea, which China claims ownership over. (ABC)
  
  

• Thailand and Cambodia conflict escalates. Despite, US President Trump announcing the two countries would renew an October ceasefire, the conflict has escalated with Thai jets bombing Cambodia. The ceasefire fell apart earlier in December and 20 people have died since. (Al Jazeera)

Companies

• Investors flee AI stocks. It was a tough end of the week for some of AI’s biggest winners. Oracle is down 16% in two days and Broadcom fell 11% on Friday, as investors tempered their expectations of returns from massive AI investments after Oracle’s weaker-than-expected quarterly report. (Reuters)
  
  

• Italian football team Juventus receives €1.1 billion offer. Crypto companies have long sponsored sports team. Now stablecoin giant Tether is looking to buy one. It has offered €1.1bn for publicly-listed Juventus (BIT: JUVE). For now, Juventus’ owners aren’t selling. (FT)
  
  

• Lululemon CEO’s harsh marks. Sometimes the market is a brutal judge: after the Lululemon CEO Calvin McDonald announced his resignation, investors celebrated and shares jumped 11%. Ouch. (Reuters)

What the…?

Tickets have been released for the 2026 Football World Cup in North America, and supporters are outraged. Prices are up as much as 600% from the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

FIFA are being accused of a “monumental betrayal” after previously saying tickets would start at $60. Instead, prices for group games are at least 3x that much.

The cheapest ticket for the final in New York’s MetLife Stadium is US$4,185. Given MetLife’s capacity is 82,500 and those are just the cheapest tickets, the World Cup final alone may bring in half a billion dollars in ticket sales. (ABC)

Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today

The Biggest Financial Decision You’ll Make

This segment is an excerpt from an Equity Mates Investing episode with Glen Hare of Fox and Hare Financial Advice.

Alec: How should couples start working together financially when they're managing money as a couple for the first time?

Glen: Yeah, great, great question. And the reality is one of the biggest financial decisions you'll ever make is your life partner... For better, or worse! So where we start with, with every couple that we sit in front of- is not necessarily the financial piece, but as a couple, what is it that the two of you are trying to achieve from a life perspective? Whether that be starting a family, getting married, you know, taking a six month sabbatical, buying your first property, whatever the case may be, all of those goals obviously have financial implications, but what we're looking at is what really excites the two of them from a life perspective, and then lead from there.

Bryce: What are some practical steps couples can take to align their financial goals effectively?

Glen: Break it down because again, reflecting on our demographic as Ren, you noted most of our members are in their twenties, thirties, forties. So for someone in their thirties, for me to sit in front of them and go, all right, well, tell me all your life goals. What do you wanna do with the rest of your life? What are the short term pieces? What are some of the core goals that the two of you wanna work towards over the coming 12 months? Then we, then we look at the medium term. I often anchor on an age. So if I'm sitting in front of a couple that's 30, for example, rather than saying, what do you wanna do in the next five years? I'll say, well, what do you wanna do? By the time you turn 35, it just feels different... and then we'll look at the longer term, five years plus... We anchor on the financial goals. So you know, a lot of the short term goals from a practical perspective, they're saying, I want to get a cash flow strategy. I want to start investing or build on my investment portfolio. I want to review my super, I want to make sure my insurance is assorted. I wanna look at tax minimisation strategies.

Want to watch the full episode with Glen? Check it out on the Equity Mates YouTube:

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