- Equity Mates
- Posts
- 📈 Global rally lifts ASX to five-month high | Palantir revenues nearly double
📈 Global rally lifts ASX to five-month high | Palantir revenues nearly double
Here's what you need to know today
Presented by
The Big Picture
Banks and tech lift ASX to five-month high. Strength in US tech names (see story below) extended to Australia, boosting WiseTech (up 3%), Xero (up 3%), Life360 (up 11%), and Zip (up 5%). Bank stocks rallied as well; Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, and Westpac rose 2%, while NAB rose 3%. The ASX 200 rose 1.4% in total to a five-month high of 9146. (AFR)
S&P 500 on track for 47% earnings growth. Despite macro headwinds, all 11 US sectors are on track for positive growth, with eight in double-digits. Tech is still the main driver, but it’s not alone; tech and megacaps contributed 57% of the index’s earnings growth, down from 90% last year. This marks the largest earnings growth since 2021’s pandemic recovery. (FT)
Dow hits record close as Big Tech stocks jump. The Dow Jones index rose nearly 700 points to close at 53,178 on the back of tech megacaps like Meta (up 6%), Amazon (up 4%), Nvidia (up 3%), Alphabet and Microsoft (both up 5%). This marks a broad reversal of the weeks-long AI stock slide. (CNBC | IBD)
"Team Australia” to challenge China’s iron grip. Australia’s biggest miners are teaming up to take on the China Mineral Resources Group, China’s centralised iron ore buyer that uses its massive purchasing power to bully sellers. This type of cooperation would typically be banned as it is anti-competitive, but the miners argue they need to fight fire with fire. (AFR)
Companies in the news
Palantir revenues nearly double. The AI giant saw its stock jump 15% upon announcing it had beat revenue and earnings per share expectations, with second quarter revenue rising 93% year-on-year driven by 149% growth in US commercial revenue. Importantly, Palantir is sitting on $7 billion of non-cancellable contracted revenue, up 103% year-on-year. (Guardian)
Canva stumbles over soaring AI costs. Australia’s largest tech company announced a rare revenue downgrade as its Canva AI 2.0 has proven to be more expensive to bring online than expected. However, context is key: Canva still grew quarterly revenue over 25% year-on-year and is now forecasting annual revenue of 20% instead of 30%. (AFR)
Adani to pay no tax on nearly $1bn of revenue. The Indian conglomerate earned $964 million from its Queensland coal mining operations, but large production and related party costs resulted in a recorded loss of $341 million, so they will pay no company tax. Adani’s Queensland operation has never paid company tax since opening in 2021 despite promising billions in tax and royalty revenues. (Guardian)
HSBC exits Australia after $1.3bn hit to profits. Europe’s second largest bank has struggled to compete with Australia’s Big Four banks and rising star Macquarie, and a $1.3 billion profit decline tipped the scales towards their exit. Its Australian mortgage and personal loan portfolios were acquired by asset management giant Blackstone. (Guardian | Guardian)
Boeing’s 737 Max cleared for takeoff. After nearly a decade of review, America’s Federal Aviation Administration approved Boeing’s 737 MAX-7 for production and passenger service. The certification was delayed after deadly 737 Max crashes in 2018 and 2019. (WaPo)
KKR raises record $27bn infrastructure fund. The fund will invest heavily in long-lived energy and digital infrastructure, which are in high demand due to rapid AI buildouts. Infrastructure offers stable cashflows, inflation protection and noncyclical returns, making it an increasingly popular hedge against bubbly equity markets. (KKR)
Have you got your ticket to FinFest 2026?
The market is closed and the bar is open. Come trade ideas at Australia’s biggest investing festival.
1,200 people have already secured their tickets to FinFest. Make sure you do before they sell out.
You’ll hear from some of Australia’s best investors and entrepreneurs and leave with the knowledge and confidence to take the next step in your investing journey.
This is going to be big. You don’t want to miss this.
Sydney apartment costs pass $1m
Sydneysiders looking to escape soaring property prices with an apartment may need to look elsewhere. New research from the NSW Productivity and Equality Commission shows the cost to build a new apartment in Sydney has hit $1.05 million, driven by soaring construction costs.
Average unit construction costs have nearly quadrupled since the Covid pandemic despite inflation returning to pre-pandemic levels. Developers point to a skilled labour shortage as well as shrinking labour productivity. Brisbane offers one example, where tradespeople spend just 2.75 days per week on-site. (AFR)
Getting serious about investing is much easier when you know what you can actually afford to put in. PocketSmith connects to your bank accounts and automatically categorises your spending, so you can see exactly where your money’s going. From there, you can set simple budgets and use the forecasting tools to test “what if I invest $X each month?” around your bills and paydays. With your spending, savings and investments all contributing to a living net worth, you can choose an investing amount that actually works.
Right now, PocketSmith is offering 50% off the first 2 months of a Foundation Plan. To try PocketSmith for yourself and claim this deal, head to pocketsmith.com/equitymates
Budget tips from a pro
Financial adviser Gemma Mitchell from Rask shared her personal budgeting method with Bryce and Ren.
How do you personally budget? Do you have a preferred method?
Gemma: I just like a zero-dollar budget and people freak out when I say that because they think it means I'm saying, okay, it's $12 a week on coffees and it's this and it's that. It's totally not. It's just like my discretionary spending, which is a certain account that I can do whatever I want with entertainment, whatever.
I do it each week regardless of how I get paid, it goes into a hub and then each week my account refreshes. So it's like I get paid every single week, if there's any leftover, say there was a hundred dollars left, it would get a job, whether it's going to debt, to savings, to a holiday account, whatever that is.
But a zero-dollar budget I think works for most people. I hate the percentage, the 50-30-20, whatever it is, because it rarely works. If you're going to do that, you still need to write out all your expenses to work out if the percent works. So you might as well just do a zero-dollar budget.
Want to work with an adviser like Gemma to sort out your budget? Fill out the form on our website and we’ll match you with one of our hand-picked advisers to help you get started.
