Today’s Top Stories

Only got a couple of minutes? Here are the key stories you need to know.

• Natural disasters hit Australia: In Victoria, out-of-control bushfires continue to ravage the state leading Premier Jacinta Allan to declare a State of Disaster. Meanwhile Queenslanders are preparing for the arrival of Cyclone Koji that is expected to bring winds of up to 100km/h and flash flooding. (9 News | ABC)
  
  

• Rio Tinto and Glencore revive merger talks: Rio Tinto, the world’s 4th most valuable mining company, and Glencore, the 11th, have revived merger talks. Combined, they would leap BHP and become the world’s most valuable mining company at around A$300 billion. (AFR)
  
  

• Europe-South America trade deal: After 25 years of talks, a trade deal between the European Union and Meroscur (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay) appears set to go ahead. If approved by the European Commission, it will create a common market for over 700 million people. (BBC)
  
  

• Trump keeps focus on Venezuelan oil: The US President made a number of moves over the weekend: seizing another oil tanker linked to Venezuela sailing in the Caribbean, signing an Executive Order to hold any Venezuelan oil revenue held in the US, and telling US oil companies in a White House meeting he expects them to spend $100 billion in Venezuela. In response, Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil, cautioned the president that the country was currently “uninvestable”. (ABC | CNBC | BBC)

What’s Making News?

A look at the stories making headlines and moving markets.

Australia

• Superannuation compensation scheme in focus: The Australian government is eyeing Australia’s roughly 1 million self-managed Superannuation accounts as a way to top up its Compensation Scheme of Last Resort (a scheme that compensates Australians who receive bad financial advice from a professional). The 6 million Australians that are members of industry Super funds have already paid a special levy, now the government is considering extending it to SMSFs. (AFR)
  
  

• Australia to discuss critical minerals: Australia has been invited to a meeting of G7 finance ministers (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, UK and US) in Washington to discuss critical minerals supplies. Australia is naturally blessed with many minerals essential to produce semiconductors and other advanced technologies. (ABC)
  
  

• eSafety Commissioner questions Grok AI: The Australian regulator has written to Elon Musk’s X and Grok AI questioning the generation of sexualised deepfake images. Australia is not alone, Indonesia has blocked access to Grok and the UK has warned it may block access to X. In response to these concerns, X put access to Grok’s image generation behind a paywall. (Capital Brief | Al Jazeera | BBC)

Global

• US market hits all-time high: America’s S&P 500 hit a new all-time high during the day on Friday. America’s market is up 20% in the past 12 months. (AFR)
  
  

• China’s inflation hits 3-year high: Annual inflation rose to 0.8% in December, a 34-month high. China has been battling deflation for years as weaker consumer demand has been a drag on growth and economic confidence. (Reuters)
  
  

• Iran cuts internet as protests grow: Anti-government protests have been gathering momentum across the country, leading the regime to cut off phone networks and internet access to several cities. In response to protestors, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said his regime will “not back down”. (Al Jazeera)
  
  

• America’s mixed jobs report: There was good news and bad news in December’s job report. The good - the unemployment rate dropped from 4.5% to 4.4%. The bad - only 50,000 jobs were added, lower than expected. Economists believe this will increase pressure on the Federal Reserve to keep cutting rates. (CBS)

Company Watchlist

Here are the companies with big announcements or price movements

• BlueScope mulls acquisition offer: Shares in Australia’s largest steelmaker were up 25% last week as it considers a takeover offer from Kerry Stoke’s SGH and US partner Steel Dynamics. It is the third time in the past two years Steel Dynamics has tried to acquire BlueScope. BlueScope’s largest shareholder, Australian Super, has supported rejecting the offer. (ABC | Capital Brief)
  
  

• Meta’s huge nuclear deals: The company behind Facebook and Instagram signed several nuclear off-take deals to power its AI data centres. It signed a 20-year deal with Vistra to buy power from 3 existing nuclear power plants and also signed deals to be the anchor customer for Oklo and TerraPower, two companies developing small modular reactors. (Reuters)
  
  

• Strava runs towards IPO: The popular fitness tracking app Strava has filed to go public in the US. The company was last valued at $2.2 billion in May 2025, has 150 million active users across 185 countries, and reportedly grew revenue 50% last year. (Capital Brief)

What’s got us thinking

Investing is a lifelong journey. Here’s what we’ve been learning lately.

1 big lesson from 19 years of iPhone

Last week marked 19 years since Steve Jobs stepped on stage and announced the iPhone. Since that moment - 9 January 2007 - Apple’s share price is up 8,421%.

Put another way: $1,000 invested in Apple would today be $85,210. Not bad.

But hindsight is easy. Talking about a stock we should’ve invested in almost 20 years ago doesn’t feel particularly helpful for those of us trying to invest well today. However, there is one big lesson that stands out from the iPhone example: follow the hype.

Good investing information is all around us. What products we’re excited for, what our friends are talking about, what is being reported in the media. Where consumers are putting their money today, investors will often be putting their money tomorrow. Apple and the iPhone is a clear example of this.

Consumers were excited about the iPhone. People lined up for days outside Apple stores, people were even paying proxies to line up for them and the media was reporting on it all. The iPhone had created a historic level of excitement. That didn’t guarantee Apple was a great investment, but it was a clear sign to have a look at the stock for investors who were paying attention.

As investors we can apply that same lens on the world today. A more recent example of the same phenomenon is Labubu. The Labubu craze of the past two years has been well publicised, celebrities are seen with the dolls, there a huge lines and even better resale prices and even South Park has parodied them. Unsurprisingly, the company behind Labubu - Popmart - has done incredibly well, up 870% since the start of 2024.

So as the iPhone ticks over into its 20th year, we should pay attention to the investing lesson that has been staring us in the face for almost two decades. Follow the hype - it may lead to some great investing opportunities.

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What the…?

A look at one story that has us scratching our head

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