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The Big Picture
Australian gas steals the spotlight as iron ore, coal slide. Gas exports grew on two fronts in July, with volumes rising 9% and prices rising 16% thanks to ongoing global supply disruption. Iron ore and coal were not so lucky, as export volumes fell by up to 22% and 21%, respectively. Iron ore is specifically impacted by Chinese purchasing restrictions on Australian iron ore. (ABS)
EVs outsell petrol cars for the first time. Over 27,000 electric vehicles were sold in Australia in August, outstripping the roughly 26,000 petrol vehicles sold. Chinese brands made up four of the top 10 sellers. EVs made up a record 24.9% of total vehicles sold for the month. (AFR)
“Crisis preparedness”: Netherlands pulls gold from US. The Dutch central bank cited “increasing geopolitical unrest” in its decision to remove 86 tonnes of gold from vaults in New York. This follows France’s decision to do the same, and Germany is also facing pressure to repatriate their US-housed gold as the political tensions push central banks towards other storage locations. (Guardian)
Junior electricians earning $200,000+ on data centre boom. One in 10 members of the Electrical Trades Union are now working on data centres as the AI boom has created a surge in demand for skilled trades. Electricians with as little as two years of experience are being offered $200,000 annually for overtime-heavy jobs in data centres. (AFR)
Companies in the news
Rate rise expectations lift Big Four bank stocks. ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, NAB, and Westpac all saw their stocks rise by between 1% and 2% yesterday as markets are now pricing in roughly a 70% chance of the RBA increasing interest rates in September. Higher rates are beneficial for banks as they increase banks’ net interest margins, meaning they earn more on money they hold. (ABC)
Trump admin backs OpenAI in copyright battle against NYT. The Trump-controlled Department of Justice has sided with OpenAI in its copyright lawsuit against the New York Times, which is suing them for using copyrighted material to train their models. The DOJ claimed in a court filing that preventing OpenAI from using copyrighted materials to train their models would thwart scientific progress, marking an extraordinary intervention. (FT)
Google dodges monopoly break-up. A judge ruled Google would not be forced to sell its digital advertising arm, AdX, after the Department of Justice argued Google had a digital advertising monopoly. While this marks a win for Google, they will be forced to enact anti-monopolistic behaviours, though these have yet to be determined. (FT)
Corporate Travel falls 80% in 30 minutes. Just 30 minutes into its return to the ASX, the scandal-plagued company saw its share price fall 80%. Its shares have been suspended from trading since August last year after its auditor found it had overcharged clients by up to $272 million. Many fund managers had already written down their holdings of the company to zero. (AFR)
Uber axes 10% of workforce. The ride-sharing giant plans to cut 3,300 jobs, saving roughly US$825 million annually after it pledged US$10 billion towards its robotaxi business. As is becoming standard, Uber says advancements in AI will allow it to work more efficiently, enabling the layoffs. (FT)
Legendary fund manager Bill Ackman is joining FinFest 2026. Are you?
Yes, you read that right. Founder and CEO of Pershing Square Capital Bill Ackman will sit down with Bryce and Ren for an exclusive pre-recorded conversation to be aired at FinFest 2026.
If you want to hear Bill unpack all things markets, investing and the opportunities he’s seeing in the world, this is your chance to see it.
Who knows, Ren may even Boost Bill’s Budget while they’re at it.
MapQuest soars up the app store after choosing Ontario over America
Map app MapQuest saw its downloads jump by 6,300% and became the top ranked free app on the Apple app store after it refused to change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America. This follows Trump’s executive order to rebrand the lake as Lake America amid his ongoing trade war with Canada.
This isn’t a first for Trump. After attempting to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America, he took aim at the lake that borders both Canada and the US and is named for the Canadian province. While MapQuest stood its ground on the name, Apple and Google Maps did not show the same resilience and are changing the lake’s name to Lake America in their apps. (CNN)
Dovetail, Ramp and Writer spend 82% less time on audits.
That’s what Vanta does - automates the busywork of compliance. Meaning your team can prep for SOC 2 or ISO 27001 in a fraction of the time and run enterprise GRC without drowning in evidence collection. Less audit prep, more time closing deals.
Ask An Adviser: Uncertain Futures
Financial advisers Alex Luck and Scott Taylor from Everest Wealth had some words of encouragement for anyone worrying about their financial future.
How can someone plan for their financial future if they have no idea what their future looks like?
Yeah, so that's quite a common question we get. You will have people come in that very much know what they want to achieve and where they want to be, but then we get plenty of people coming in as well in this sort of situation being like, "I don't really know what I should be aiming for or what I should be doing."
And that's really where an advisor can help to show you what could be possible, what you should be working towards. Just working through that can really help get you that what your goals should look like for yourself.
But a lot of the time, yeah, it is pretty common. People coming in not really having an idea of what's possible. Because sometimes you’re doing the right things already and just need that validation, but other times it can open your eyes to paths you hadn’t thought of, whether that’s buying property, investing more, or contributing to super. Having someone model that for you can really motivate action.
Want to work with advisers like Alex and Scott to sort out your financial future? Fill out the form on our website and we’ll match you with one of our hand-picked advisers to help you get started.
