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• The US has moved two nuclear submarines towards Russia in response to what President Trump called “highly provocative statements” by ex-President Dmitry Medvedev. On Tuesday, President Trump warned if Russia did not reach a ceasefire with Ukraine within 10 days it would sanction Russian trading partners. Medvedev responded, accused the American president of “playing the ultimatum game with Russia” and warning “"each new ultimatum is a threat and a step towards war". (BBC)
  
  

• More than 60 countries were notified of their tariff rate by the White House. Australia’s tariff rate remains at 10%. Notable increases include Canada, up to 35% on certain goods, India to 25% and Taiwan to 20%. Taiwan is the world’s leading producer of advanced semiconductors, but there has been no tariff carve out for semiconductors announced so far. (Reuters)
  
  

• Based on these announced tariffs, when implemented, America’s average effective tariff rate will be 18.2%, the highest level since the 1930s. (Yale)
  
  

• One reason Australia was able to remain at 10% was the announcement we would loosen biosecurity restrictions over US beef entering Australia. In response, Coles, Woolworths, Aldi, McDonalds and Guzman y Gomez have all announced they will not stock US beef on their shelves or serve it in their restaurants. (AFR)
  
  

• On Friday, US markets reacted to President Trump firing the head of the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika McEntarfer. Trump accused the Bureau of politicising the jobs data, claiming they were “rigged”, after the Bureau reported America added just 73,000 jobs in July, far below expectations, and May and June figures were revised down by 258,000 jobs. (NY Times)
  
  

• Ironically, the weak jobs data actually helps President Trump’s case for a interest rate cut (as a weak jobs market is a sign of a slowing economy that could use a boost from an interest rate cut). But that fact seems to have been lost on the President who sees the weak jobs data as “RIGGED in order to make the Republicans, and ME, look bad” as well as contradicting their claim that the economy “is doing GREAT!” (Truth Social)
  
  

• Investors in Australian design platform Canva were celebrating after rival design platform Figma saw shares jump 250% in its first day as a public company in New York. This great result is seen as a sign that the IPO window is well-and-truly open for Canva. (WSJ)
  
  

• Macquarie Bank continues pushing hard into retail banking, challenging Australia’s existing Big 4. It cracked 5% market share in retail deposits for the first time in June, and has just announced it will pay 4.5% on deposits up to $2m (previously it was $1m) as it continues trying to make it the Big 5. (AFR)
  
  

• Star Entertainment Group’s shares fell 16% on Friday after it was announced the deal to sell their share of the Queen’s Wharf project in Brisbane collapsed. The Australian casino giant will be required to pay $41 million in cash as part of the deal ending, as an attempt to generate much-needed cash now leaves it further out of pocket. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• A $5 billion undersea electricity cable connecting Tasmania to Victoria has received Federal Government approval. This will be the second electricity connection between Tasmania and Victoria and offers Tasmania a chance to export energy when it has excess renewable generation. (AFR)
  
  

• Nintendo shared its first set of quarterly results since the release of the Switch 2 console. It was there best-ever console launch, selling 3.5 million in the first 4 days. Revenue was up 132% and profit was up 19% year-on-year. (CNBC)

What the…?

Tariffs have been the biggest economic topic of 2025, but after plenty of talk now we are starting to see about the impact. Earnings season has shown that car makers have been hit particularly hard:

• Ford expects to pay $2 billion in tariffs this year

• Stellantis expects to pay $1.7 billion this year

• Volkswagen have already paid $1.5 billion in the first half of the year

• General Motors projects up to $5 billion for the year

Traditional car makers had already been struggling with the transition to electric vehicles and the growing competition from Chinese EVs. Now with these tariff costs, its not a good time to be a car maker (or an investor in car makers).

Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today.

Leverage in Superannuation

This is an excerpt from a recent Ask an Adviser episode on Equity Mates Investing with Alex Luck and Scott Taylor from Everest Wealth. (Apple | Spotify | YouTube)

Question: Is geared superannuation worth considering for someone with a long time horizon?

Yeah, potentially. Because if you look at the long-term returns - say the CFS Geared Australian Share Fund - it’s done about 4% per annum better than the ASX 200, the standard index, which it should do. What a geared fund is doing is internally borrowing money. It doesn’t go against your borrowing capacity, but typically it will borrow about 140% of what you put in. So you are getting more exposure for that. You pay a higher fee than just a standard S&P 500 or ASX 200 index, but you are more invested in the market. And if you believe that historically the share markets will go up, more often than not you will make more money.

So if your tolerance to riding out more volatility and bigger ups and downs is there, then typically it does make sense. But again, if someone’s 30 years away from retirement, you’re going to ride through multiple cycles of good and bad markets, so that exposure could give you a better return over the long term.

Want to watch the rest of this conversation? Check it out on the Equity Mates YouTube channel:

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