Enjoy this email? We’d love you to forward it to someone else who may enjoy it.

Forwarded this email? You can sign up here. 

Here’s what you need to know today

• Australian inflation held steady at 2.4% over the past 12 months. This is the third consecutive month inflation has come in at 2.4%, a good sign that price rises have slowed back to within the RBA’s 2-3% target. (ABC)
  
  

• Over in France, inflation came in at just 0.6% for the 12 months to May, down from 0.9% in April and well below Europe’s 2% target. This adds pressure for the European Central Bank to cut interest rates to stimulate the economy. (Bloomberg)
  
  

• Australian oil and gas giant Woodside has received approval for the extension of their North West Shelf gas project, that will keep the gas field going until 2070. The proposal had been under assessment by the federal government for six years, and has received approval by the new environment minister Murray Watt. (ABC)
  
  

• Mineral Resources saw shares fall 5% after the company guided lower than expected volumes from its Onslow Iron project in Western Australia. This is the latest in a string of bad news for the company that is down 70% in the past 12 months. (West Australian)
  
  

• New Liberal leader Sussan Ley has unveiled her shadow cabinet. Notable moves include shadow treasurer Angus Taylor being moved to defence while finance spokeswoman Jane Hume and education spokeswoman Sarah Henderson were demoted from the shadow cabinet entirely. Incoming deputy Liberal leader Ted O’Brien will take over as shadow treasurer. (9 News)
  
  

• Salesforce announced it will buy Informatica, a data-management company, for US$8 billion. The deal comes as Salesforce seeks to expand its AI offering beyond its workforce AI agent, Agentforce. (WSJ)
  
  

• A German court has handed down punishments in the Volkswagen ‘Diesel-gate’ emissions scandal. Two former VW executives, Jens Hadler and Hanno Jelden, have been given jail terms while two others have received suspended sentences. (Quartz)
  
  

• Just days after US President Trump threatened Apple with 25% tariffs on any iPhones not made in America, one of Trump’s top economic advisers, Kevin Hassett, has told CNBC “we don’t want to harm Apple”. Talk about mixed messages! (Quartz)

What the…?

20% of the money paid under Brazil’s social welfare program was going to online gambling.

That was the finding from Brazil’s Central Bank after it looked at payments from the program, named Bolsa Familia. Fixed-odds sports betting was legalised in Brazil in 2018 and it has exploded in popularity, making the country the 7th largest sports betting market by revenue.

Don’t think Australia will be outdone here. Brazil, a country of 210m people, ranks 7th at US$4.9bn gambling revenue per year. Australia, a country of 27m people, ranks 4th at US$6.3bn. (Reuters | Financial Times)

Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today.

What investors get wrong about diversification

This is an excerpt from our Get Started Investing episode on diversification. (Apple | Spotify | YouTube)

Ren: Here's where we think a lot of investors get it wrong. Too many investors become collectors and think they're diversified when they're not really, because diversification isn't about the sheer number of things you own. If Bryce owns 30 stocks and I own 20 stocks, he's not naturally more diversified than I am.

What we see is a lot of investors owning things that are exposed to the same source of risk. If you own shares in Apple, a S&P 500 ETF, and a large cap global fund manager that mainly invests in the US, you're not diversified. You own three things that are all exposed to the US stock market collapsing.

Bryce: Yeah, that was me recently, definitely overweight US. So then Ren, what is diversification about if not the sheer number of things? If it's not just about going out and getting 40 different stocks?

Ren: It's all about the risks you're exposed to. That's the name of the game with diversification. That's where people are looking at the wrong metric. It's not about how many things you own, it's about what risks each of those things are exposed to. And the name of the game with diversification is you don't want one risk to materialise and blow up your portfolio.

A common example for all Australians is owning Australian property, owning Australian shares, and then also their job is in Australia and they get paid in Australian dollars - and an Australian recession blows all of that up. So that's why it's important to be globally diversified because then you're not purely reliant on the Australian economy doing well. So if that's how people get it wrong, they become collectors and they start counting the number of different things they own rather than thinking about what sources of risks they're exposed to.

Prefer to watch on YouTube? All Get Started Investing episodes now live on their own YouTube channel. Check it out:

Today’s sponsor is Bamboo

Is timing the market stressing you out? 

There’s a smarter way to invest—Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) with Bamboo. Instead of guessing the best moment to buy, the app rounds up your everyday purchases, automates savings and helps you invest consistently over time, reducing risk and smoothing out market volatility.

With Bamboo, it’s effortless:
✅ Round-ups – Invest spare change from everyday purchases
✅ Recurring top-ups – Set automatic weekly or monthly deposits
✅ Instant investments – Add funds anytime with a tap

Whether the market is up or down, you’re always in the game. Start investing today and let small, steady investments in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Gold or Silver build towards big financial goals! 🚀

Want more Equity Mates?