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Here’s what you need to know today

• The Trump administration announced sanctions on Russia’s two largest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, citing Moscow’s “lack of serious commitment” to ending the war in Ukraine. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged the Kremlin to agree to an “immediate ceasefire.” (FT)
  
  

• Beyond Meat has become the latest meme stock, following in the footsteps of GameStop and AMC. The plant-based meat maker’s shares are up over 400% in the past five days, at one point it was up more than 1,000% before giving up over half those gains. (Quartz)
  
  

• Tesla reported record quarterly revenue of $28bn for the three months to September, up 12% from a year earlier, driven by U.S. buyers rushing to secure EV tax credit’s before they expired. However it wasn’t all good news, profit fell 37% due to higher tariffs and R&D costs. (BBC)
  
  

• Coca-Cola, the world’s biggest soft drink maker, revenue’s rose 5% to $12.5bn in the third quarter, powered by higher prices and strong demand for Coke Zero Sugar, which was up 14%. But volume growth was weak, rising just 1%, underscoring signs of consumer strain. (Quartz)
  
  

• Fortescue Metals Group shipped a record 49.7m tonnes of iron ore in the September quarter, up 4% on the year, highlighting the split fortunes between Andrew Forrest’s booming mining arm and its struggling green-tech ventures. (AFR)
  
  

• PrimaLend Capital Partners, a U.S. lender specialising in sub-prime car loans, has filed for bankruptcy after missing debt payments. Defaults and repossessions are climbing among low-income borrowers. J.P. Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon has warned of hidden risks in the system, calling them “cockroaches,” and it looks like another one just scurried out. (Bloomberg)
  
  

• Google said it achieved a major breakthrough in quantum computing, running a verifiable algorithm on its Willow chip that performed a task 13,000 times faster than the world’s best supercomputer. (Reuters)
  
  

• Andreessen Horowitz is aiming to raise about $10bn for new investments, its largest fundraise ever, as the venture capital firm looks to double down on artificial intelligence and defense technology start-ups. The firm has already taken part in several major funding rounds since it last raised capital about 18 months ago, including backing OpenAI and Elon Musk’s xAI. (FT)

What the…?

PayPal’s stablecoin briefly went haywire after its blockchain partner Paxos accidentally minted $300 trillion worth of PYUSD during an internal transfer.

The error was fixed within 20 minutes, and Paxos confirmed there was no breach and customer funds were safe.

PYUSD is currently the sixth-largest stablecoin in the world with a market capitalization of over $2.6bn, according to data from CoinMarketCap. (CNBC)

Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today

A lifetime of good investing

This is an excerpt from the Get Started Investing episode titled: “A lifetime of good investing: Your 20s vs. 40s vs. 60s”. (Apple Podcasts | Spotify | YouTube)

A Model Portfolio for your 20s, 40s & 60s

Bryce: Let's talk about asset allocation in your forties and how you should be investing because it will need to be somewhat tailored and bespoke based on the competing goals that you spoke about, Ren. But I think overall growth oriented is still the fundamental driving force here and the way that you should think about assets.

Ren: There's a financial planning rule of 110, it says that your asset allocation should be 110 minus your age. Let's take a 40-year-old here, 110 minus 40 is 70. That would say 70% of their assets should be in growth assets- so stocks being the main one, and then 30% of their assets should be in defensive.. Now I think the rule of 110 is too conservative. I personally, my own opinion, think it should be the rule of 130 because if you are 40, you've still got, what?

Bryce: 40 years?

Ren: I was going to say at least 20 years until you are retiring, but then you've also got your super to tap into. So there's a long time before you're going to need this money. There's multiple market cycles before you're going to need this money.

But rather than the rule of 110, use the rule of 130, to start thinking about shifting your portfolio from that 100% percent growth orientation to having a little bit more of a defensive tilt. Now what does that mean and what could that look like?

Well, in the first model portfolio we said you could just do it with one ETF like DHHF and call it a day, 100% DHHF in your twenties. Let's say you're using the rule of 110 and you want a 70 / 30 portfolio. You could keep it super simple still. It could be 70% DHHF, and then 30% there's an Australian bond, like ETF; OZBD. And that could be your defensive bond allocation. So again, it doesn't need to be complex.

Bryce: Yeah, I think that's the key here. It doesn't need to be complex, can easily be achieved through accessible ETFs.

A message from Australian Property Scout

The 10 Key Pillars to Building a 100+ Property Portfolio

Join Sammy Gordon, Equity Mates’ regular property expert, as he’s joined by Jimmy Ibrahim to discuss the 10 key pillars behind building a 100+ property portfolio.

From mindset to mastering leverage and utilising debt recycling, they break down exactly what it takes to scale, whether your goal is 10 properties or 100. This episode is packed with practical frameworks and high-level insights for serious investors.

Tune into the Scouting Australia Podcast on all your favourite platforms.

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