Here’s what you need to know today

Australia

Following Sunday’s tragic events in Bondi, we won’t attempt to provide coverage or commentary. Trusted news outlets like ABC News and The Sydney Morning Herald are reporting on the situation far better than we could. Our thoughts are with the victims, their families, and all those affected.

• Attorney General breached spending rules. Attorney General Michelle Rowland will repay part of her $22,000 family holiday to Western Australia that was billed to taxpayers. She is the first minister to repay taxpayer funds as the parliamentary expenses scandal, that started with Minister for Communications Anika Wells, continues to grow. (Guardian)

• ASIC places controls on ASX. The ASX is facing new demands from ASIC, including being forced to hold $150 million in reserve, after a string of outages and failures over the last two years. The demands include more transparent board functions and improved leadership. (AFR)
  

• Citi tips early 2026 rate hike. Citi has become the first major bank to forecast 2026 rate hikes, predicting hikes in February and May next year. It believes high inflation, strong household consumption, and a tight labour market all support rate hikes by the RBA. (AFR)

  
  

• Otway basin opened for oil exploration. The Federal Government has opened five new offshore gas exploration zones between Victoria and Tasmania. This announcement comes within days of Seven Group being issued a warning for failing to remediate a two-year methane leak on one of their gas platforms off the Victorian coast. (Guardian | SMH)

  
  

• Aussie miners go big on copper. BHP is supporting a $1.7 billion Chinese takeover of British copper and gold explorer SolGold after having previously sought control of the firm itself. Meanwhile, Fortescue will acquire Canadian Alta Copper for $152 million, giving it access to the undeveloped Canariaco copper project in Peru. These deals come as the copper prices surges back towards its July all-time high. (AFR)

Global

• China’s housing crisis continues. New home prices in China declined 2.4% decrease year-over-year as Vanke, once one of China’s largest property developers, nears bankruptcy. Chinese leaders are struggling to stabilise China’s $60 trillion housing market, which has suffered a slow-moving catastrophe since developer Evergrande defaulted on its debt in 2021. (Reuters)

  
  

• US lawmakers protest chip sales to China. Several US Senators from Democrat Elizabeth Warren to Republican Josh Hawley have raised concerns about President Trump allowing Nvidia to sell advanced H200 chips to China, fearing the chips will “turbocharge China’s military and technological capabilities”. (CNBC)
  
  

• Final Hong Kong opposition party collapses. Hong Kong’s Democratic Party, the city’s last pro-democracy party, has disbanded due to Chinese pressure. This decision comes as pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai was found guilty of national security offences. (BBC | Guardian)
  
  

• US objects to UK regulations. Tech-focused trade talks between the US and UK have been paused as the US complain the UK has not sufficiently reduced trade barriers, pointing to the UK’s food safety standards and online safety rules. (NYT)

  
  

• Chile elects Trump admirer. Latin America has another pro-Trump leader after far-right candidate José Antonio Kast was decisively elected in Chile on a platform of security and controlling crime and immigration. Kast follows Argentina’s Javier Milei and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele in the pro-Trump mould. (BBC)

Companies

• Commonwealth Bank’s NZ arm hit by money laundering fine. The bank’s New Zealand arm ASB, has agreed to pay a $5.9 million fine for failing to stop engaging with businesses that had undertaken risky transactions. (AFR)

  
  

• First plant closure for Volkswagen. The German carmaker will close its Dresden plant, the first German plant closure in the carmaker’s 88-year history. This comes as demand weakens in China and Europe, and US tariffs reduce US demand. (FT)

  
  

• Costco’s sales driven by wealthy shoppers. The retail giant announced that its higher-tier shoppers, called Executive Members, now make up 74% of sales. This reflects recent Moody’s data, which found that the top 10% of earners in the US make up nearly 50% of spending. (The Street | Moody’s)

What the…?

Could Instagram replace Domain and REA? That is the commentary from one Australian real estate agent, Luke Saville of The Agency, who reportedly sold 40% of his listings this year via social media.

One buyer chose to buy an apartment after a single Instagram message from the agent saying “You should buy this”. If only all sales were that easy.

And Saville is not alone. A survey from the National Association of Realtors in the US found 63% of real estate agents now use social media to advertise listings and 54% found social media to be the best source of high-quality leads. (AFR | Entry Education)

Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today

Building wealth starts with saving more, not necessarily earning more

This is an excerpt from Get Started Investing episode ‘Boost My Budget: Simple changes to get on top of your spending’ catch the full episode here: (Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube)

Ren: You do eat out a lot more. In June you spent $660 eating out and you spent $130 on groceries. Yeah. So I think there's obviously a big opportunity there.

Hilda: It's important, but I do know that I'm lazy when it comes to food, so then I'll spend more money on Uber Eats than it would be me walking to the shops.

Ren: Yes, okay. I do want to give you credit though. So the reason I had a look at five months is I wanted to see how it changed over time and your eating out bill has gone down meaningfully. You've sort of halved it from June. Oh wow. Was that deliberate?

Hilda: I started seeing a new guy a year ago when you first start dating you go out a lot more and I think now a year and a bit into it we're like, oh, we can just cook it home. So I think that's also, not to blame him, but let's blame him.

Ren: Well, whatever you're doing, it's working because your food bill's gone down in a big way. You have $20,000 in your savings account, which is great. Do you think of that as an emergency fund or how do you think of that money?

Hilda: It's just sitting there.

Ren: I mean, if you're thinking about building a house deposit, $20,000 in an account is a great start. Do you know what interest rate you're getting on the account? That is definitely something we can improve. You're getting about 1.5% interest, and these days you could probably be getting about 4.5%. So that's a pretty easy fix.

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