Here’s what you need to know today

• Australia’s inflation rebounded in July, rising 2.8% annually from 1.9% in June and well above the 2.3% expected by forecasters. Electricity prices surged 13% as government rebates rolled off, pushing headline inflation near the top of the RBA’s 2–3% target range. The stronger-than-expected figures saw traders pare back bets on a September rate cut, with odds falling to 23% from 37%. (AFR)
  
  

• US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick signaled the Trump administration may buy stakes in defence firms, describing Lockheed Martin as “basically an arm of the US government” and saying defence procurement had “been a giveaway.” It comes a week after the government took a 10% stake in Intel in a $9bn deal. (CNBC)
  
  

• President Trump has threatened to raise tariffs on China by up to 200% if Beijing restricts exports of rare earth magnets, materials critical for electronics, aircraft, and semiconductor production. China dominates the global market, controlling around 90% of supply and refining capacity. The warning comes after Trump recently extended a 90-day tariff deadline to allow more time for negotiations. (Quartz)
  
  

• Woolworths shares fell 14.7% on Wednesday after the retailer reported a 17% fall in underlying net profit to $1.38 bn, just a day after rival Coles beat market expectations. CEO Amanda Bardwell pointed to industrial action at distribution centres and another weak performance from Big W as key drags on results. (AFR)
  
  

• Nine Entertainment reported a 2% lift in revenue to $2.7bn for FY25 and will return $780m to shareholders, via a 49c per share special dividend, following the sale of its Domain stake to US firm CoStar. The company highlighted Stan’s growth, adding 200,000 subscribers after securing English Premier League rights, but cautioned that looming gambling ad restrictions could weigh on revenue. Shares rose 7.9% on Wednesday. (SMH)
  
  

• Domino’s Pizza Enterprises posted a loss of $3.7m for the year, its first annual loss in 20 years, after being hit with $121m in restructuring costs from closing 312 stores, mostly in Japan. Shares plunged 22% and are now down 90% from the $161 peak seen in 2021. Executive chairman Jack Cowin said shoppers had become conditioned to only buy on specials and Dominos will scrap vouchers and discounts in favour of “everyday low prices” to win back customers. (Bloomberg)
  
  

• Fears of a looming debt crisis raised concerns France’s government could collapse for the second time in nine months, sparking a selloff in French stocks and bonds on Tuesday. The turmoil deepened after Finance Minister Eric Lombard warned the eurozone’s second-largest economy may need IMF assistance if the crisis cannot be contained. (NYT)
  
  

• Alex Gerko, one of the UK’s richest people and the country’s biggest individual taxpayer earned £682m in 2024 from his trading firm XTX Markets. The London-based company makes money by using vast amounts of computing power to detect tiny margins on millions of trades across currency, debt, equity, commodity and crypto markets. It handles about $250bn worth of trades every day and uses over 25,000 AI chips, mainly from Nvidia, to power its high frequency trading. (Financial Times)

  
  

• Eli Lilly’s obesity pill is inching closer to entering the market. The drug, orforglipron, cleared another late-stage trial, helping patients with obesity and Type 2 diabetes lose nearly 10% of their body weight while improving blood sugar levels. The results give Lilly the data needed to seek approval for the daily pill by year-end, positioning it as a needle-free alternative in the blockbuster GLP-1 drug market. (Reuters)
  
  

• Nissan shares were down 6.3% on Tuesday after its second-biggest shareholder Mercedes-Benz sold its entire 3.8% stake in the struggling Japanese carmaker. The partnership began in 2010 under then-CEO Carlos Ghosn, when automakers were forging alliances after the global financial crisis to cut costs. (Financial Times)

What the…?

Big Tech is spending big to keep its bosses safe.

The top 10 tech companies spent over $45m on protection last year. Meta shelled out $27m alone for Mark Zuckerberg and family, Nvidia boosted spending on Jensen Huang by more than 50%, and Elon Musk now rolls with up to 20 guards and has his own security firm.

Security experts say threats against tech leaders have surged following high-profile attacks in the US targeting corporate executives. Execs are under fire not just for their wealth and fame, but for corporate profits, job layoffs, data misuse and growing political influence since the 2024 election. (Financial Times)

Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today.

Is adding more to Super always the smart move?

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)

When is a good age to start contributing to superannuation?

This is a pretty common question and something we deal with quite a lot at Everest Wealth with the demographic that we work with.

We've been told it's been hammered into us, you've got to put money into super, it's all about protecting your retirement, etc. So if this hypothetical 22-year-old is wanting to retire at 50 as an example, well super's not really going to help that. They can't access it until they're 60, 65, so there's no point having this huge superannuation balance and nothing in their personal name or another structure.

It's always thinking about your overall holistic picture. It is not just about having the world's biggest super balance. You should have a nice spread across different structures in terms of when you're looking at your wealth.

When we're chatting to our clients, the risk of putting extra money in now as a 22-year-old is, A) you can't access it for a long time, but B) there's so much legislative risk that you're going to go through. I think they change superannuation laws on average every three years, so there's just so many unknowns.

To be locking that kind of money into a system where there is no certainty whether it's going to be as tax effective as it is now in the future is very hard to tell.

If you've got your house sorted and your own investment portfolio sorted and you've got just simply spare money lying around, then it is still a tax-effective way to be efficient there.

Interested in speaking to a financial adviser? Fill out the form on our website and we’ll match you with one of our hand-picked advisers.

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