Here’s what you need to know today

• Australia’s uranium stocks have emerged as some of the most shorted stocks in the ASX 200. Boss Energy, Paladin Energy and Deep Yellow all top the list of most shorted, as traders bet that the benefits of US technology companies direct deals with nuclear energy producers won’t trickle down to these Aussie names. Australia is home to more than one-third of the world’s uranium. (SMH)
  
  

• Speaking of uranium stocks, Paladin Energy was down more than 20% yesterday after it updated the market that there “can be no certainty” it will be able to get approval to acquire Canadian uranium explorer Fission Uranium. Shares recovered in the afternoon to be down around 15%. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• Qantas is again in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. The Prime Minister is being forced to defend the dozens of free upgrades the national carrier gave him as well as explaining why he did not declare upgrades given to his wife-at-the-time. (ABC | AFR)
  
  

• Apple is enjoying a resurgence in China. After falling behind local smartphone maker Huawei, Apple’s iPhones have enjoyed a recent sales surge. In Q3, Apple enjoyed 15.6% of market share while Huawei had 15.3%. Apple was only in second place however, with Chinese phone maker vivo taking top stop. (Quartz)
  
  

• US earnings season continues and this week is all about Big Tech. Alphabet reports on Tuesday, Microsoft and Meta report on Wednesday and Apple and Amazon report on Thursday. These 5 companies account for almost 25% of the S&P 500 and are right in the middle of the AI hype. How these 5 companies go will affect how everyone is feeling about the market heading into the weekend (and the US election next week). (Reuters)
  
  

• The Australian National University is facing a financial crisis, forecasting a $200 million loss for 2024. The university has proposed a $250 million cost-cutting program, which would include cutting 600 jobs, but the union representing university workers, the NTEU, has announced it will take legal action over any breaches to the enterprise agreement. (Capital Brief)

What the…?

Another day, another story about Elon Musk. This time, it is being reported that Elon Musk has been in regular contact with Vladimir Putin since late-2022 and has limited Starlink’s internet service in Ukraine and Taiwan as a result (Taiwan as a favour from Putin to Chinese president Xi Jinping).

The Wall Street Journal first broke the story but Musk and the Kremlin have denied much of the paper’s reporting. Musk said in response his companies “have done more to undermine Russia than anything”. (Wall Street Journal)

Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today.

Community Question: How much should I put in my emergency fund?

We put this question to Jacob McCudden, financial adviser at Back-to-Back Financial Planners

Depends completely on you and your financial position. A general rule of thumb would be to aim for 6 months’ worth of essential living expenses (e.g. rent/mortgage, bills, cost of living, etc.), but this is really just the starting point. These funds should be held 100% in cash. Term deposits are ok, but can take time to break (potentially a month), so the best place is typically a savings account (i.e. something that pays interest, rather than a transaction account that typically pays no interest these days), could even hold it with a different bank to your usual bank if that helps with any “temptations” to dip into it.

Remember, this money is not intended to “earn a return”, the interest it earns just help it keep up with inflation (generally), but what it is intended to do, is avoid the need to ever have to use “bad debt” (e.g. personal loan, credit card, etc.) and should very much be seen as the “break glass in case of emergency” fund. That is, it’s not for the yearly holiday, it’s not for the new car, it is an emergency fund that should be used for emergencies or unexpected expenses (e.g. car breaks down, washing machine blows up, etc.).

Most importantly, an emergency fund gives you “financial confidence” and studies have shown the positive benefit on people’s mental health due to the confidence they gain knowing that if there was an emergency, they would be ok. The stress and damaging impacts on mental health of living “day-to-day” or “paycheque-to-paycheque” are well known.

Lastly, having an emergency fund potentially means you can have lower personal risk insurance premiums as you’ve built up a buffer yourself and thus can have a longer waiting period on any income protection policies you may hold (an emergency fund is really a risk management tool, rather than an “investment” per se). It also demonstrates a good history of building genuine savings (this helps with future credit applications, like a home loan), not to mention it requires discipline and self-control to build an emergency fund in the first place, both extremely important skills to develop on your path to financial freedom!

Want to speak to one of our hand-picked financial advisers? Fill out the form on our website and we’ll put you in touch.

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