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Here’s what you need to know today

• Australia’s share market had its worst day since April, with the ASX 200 down 1%. This sparked headlines, but keep it in perspective: despite a 14% fall earlier in the year, the ASX 200 has recovered and is up 6% so far in 2025. And over the past 5 years, with dividends reinvested, it is up 74%.
  
  

• The Donald Trump-Jerome Powell feud continues. The Fed Chair sent a letter to the White House defending the Federal Reserve’s office renovation project, as Trump supporters argue the project’s cost overruns are a reason to fire Powell. (CNBC)
  
  

• President Trump sued News Corp over the Wall Street Journal’s reporting of Trump’s 50th birthday message for Jeffrey Epstein. The US President is suing for damages “not to be less than $10 billion” and has also requested a jury trial. (Financial Times)
  
  

• China’s Premier Li Qiang announced that construction on the world’s largest hydropower dam had begun. The $257 billion dam located along the Yarlung Zangbo river in Tibet, is expected to spike demand for Australian iron ore, and shares of Australia’s iron ore majors BHP, Rio Tinto and Fortescue were all up on the news. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• Some of the world’s largest tech companies are being investigated by the Australian Tax Office over concerns that data centre profits are being under-reported in Australia and funnelled offshore. Microsoft, Google and Amazon are reportedly the focus of the investigation, although all three tech giants did not comment. (AFR)
  
  

• Australian human resources platform Employment Hero is suing job listing giant Seek, alleging anticompetitive conduct after Seek cut off access to its platform that allows developers to connect and automate parts of the recruitment process. Here’s what makes it more awkward: Seek is an investor in Employment Hero. (AFR)
  
  

• The largest private credit player in Australia, Metrics Credit Partners, is reportedly under investigation from ASIC into loan valuations and governance practices. The company has said it is unaware of any investigation. This alleged investigation comes after ASIC said it will be taking a closer look at Australia’s private equity and private credit industry. (Bloomberg)
  
  

• European leaders are meeting this week to prepare a response to America’s threatened 30% tariffs. While both sides are confident a deal can be reached before the 1 August deadline, European leaders are also discussing the EU’s anti-coercion powers that would allow the EU to retaliate on US tariffs, including by taxing US tech firms, restricting US investment and limiting government spending with US firms. (Bloomberg)
  
  

• A Ukrainian drone attack shut down Moscow’s main airports and saw at least 140 flights cancelled. Russia’s defence ministry claimed to have shot down 230 drones including 27 over Moscow. (BBC)
  
  

• It was a horrific weekend in Gaza. On Saturday, 36 Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces near a food-distribution centre and then on Sunday, 73 were killed while waiting for UN food trucks in Northern Gaza. In response, the Israeli Defence Force said it had “fired warning shots in order to remove an immediate threat”. (CNN)
  
  

• Iran will reportedly restart nuclear negotiations with Britain, France and Germany. The European nations have warned Iran that failure to land a nuclear deal will see international sanctions being reimposed. At this stage there is no indication of America’s involvement. (Reuters)

What the…?

To our mind, this is the story that sums up America in 2025: The company backed by the President’s son trying to become the ‘Amazon of guns’ listed on the stock market via a SPAC.

The intersection of politics and commerce, a controversial financial instrument and an enduring obsession with guns. America. The company, GrabAGun, has built an online marketplace promising the lowest prices for firearms and offers its ‘Shoot Now, Pay Later’ financing option.

It listed on the stock market with the ticker NYSE: PEW, which Donald Trump Jr. thought needed explanation, “a little take off of ‘pew pew,’ like shooting a gun.” (Financial Times)

Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today.

4-steps to find great stocks

This is an excerpt from our recent episode on Get Started Investing titled ‘4 Simple Steps for Anyone to Pick Great Stocks’ (Apple | Spotify | YouTube)

Alongside the episode, we created our 4-Step Stock Checklist, download it for free.

Ren: We've got to start by asking a question that I think not enough people ask. What game are you playing?

Bryce: There are plenty of ways to make money in the stock market and it's important that you understand the way that you're trying to make money.

You would've heard things like value investing, momentum, looking for quality, looking for growth, technical analysis, day trading, you name it. There are plenty of ways to make money in the stock market and all of them work at different times and people make money in many different ways. But when it comes to understanding what works, they all have different methodologies of going about it.

Ren: And I think to this question that we're answering today, what makes a great stock? They all have different answers to that question. Let's look at a momentum investor, which is a pretty far step removed from what we do. What makes a great stock for them will be a lot of momentum indicators or technical indicators. Their indicators and their criteria are just completely different to what we're going to talk about today. But it's not like they're wrong and we're right or vice versa because we'll make money, they'll make money, whichever game you choose to play, if you play that game well and consistently and in a disciplined way, you can make money in the share market.

So I think it's not about, there's not one right answer to this question, but it is having a clear and consistent answer to this question. The follow up question becomes what game are we playing?

Bryce: We are playing a game of trying to find long-term compounders that are great companies. We are looking for great companies that become great investments. That is the game that we are playing.

Ren: That leads to our four step checklist. So let's hit them briefly and then we'll go into detail.

• Number one: A company that makes a great product or service

• Number two: They can earn above market profit from that product or service for years to come.

• Number three: They can reinvest that profit in productive ways.

• And then finally: We can buy that company at a reasonable price.

Bryce: Simple. Who needs a finance degree when you have a simple four step checklist like that.

Check out the full episode on the Get Started Investing YouTube channel:

A message from Scouting Australia Podcast 

How This Couple built $4.1M and $1.1M in Equity

Join Sammy Gordon, Equity Mates’ regular property expert, as he chats with investors Lil and Deklan, who’ve built $4.1m and $1.1m in equity.

In a raw and honest conversation, they break down the strategies that helped them scale fast, showing what’s possible with the right mindset and action.

Want more Equity Mates?