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Here’s what you need to know today

• The price of gold has broken US$4,000 an ounce for the first time ever. This puts the price of the precious metal up 52% so far in 2025. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• The rising price of gold and the falling price of natural gas has the Australian Department of Industry projecting that gold will overtake LNG as Australia’s second most valuable export in FY26. Iron ore remains #1. (Reuters)
  
  

• It’s not just gold hitting all-time highs, Bitcoin also hit a new record high. The major cryptocurrency broke US$125,000 for the first time ever. (Quartz)
  
  

• Nvidia continues investing across the AI industry. Last week it invested $100 billion in OpenAI, this week it followed with a deal for 10% of AMD and yesterday it reportedly committed $2 billion to xAI’s latest funding round. Elon Musk’s AI company is seeking to raise $20 billion. (Bloomberg)
  
  

• Tesla has unveiled its latest models, “affordable” versions of its Model 3 sedan and Model Y SUV. The cars will be priced at US$36,990 and US$39,990 respectively, which some have criticised as not affordable enough when compared to its EV rivals, particularly those coming out of China. (Reuters)
  
  

• Australia has two new highest paid CEOs. Brothers Dan and Will Roberts, founders of IREN each took home A$109 million in the last financial year. IREN started as a Bitcoin miner, turning excess renewable energy into crypto, but now provides computing power for AI. The majority of the co-CEO’s pay came from incentives, which have been smashed as shares are up 1,064% in the past 6 months. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• Qantas is one of 40 companies globally that have been caught up in a ransomware attack. Companies including Toyota, Google AdSense, Cisco and Air France have been given until Friday to contact the hacking group Scattered Lapsus$ Hunters and negotiate a payment. Otherwise, the group warned, their customer data held in Salesforce would be leaked. (AFR)
  
  

• Australia’s free-to-air television market continues its slow decline. The latest figures show ad revenue has dropped 10% so far this year, but the decline appears to be accelerating, with an 18% drop in August compared to August last year. The overall ad market is up 1% so far in 2025, with outdoor and digital advertising taking TV’s market share. (AFR)
  
  

• The fallout from Optus’ triple-zero failure continues. The telco has told a Senate Estimates hearing that messages notifying the government about the outage were sent to the wrong email address at the government department in charge of communications. (AFR)
  
  

• The US government has bought a stake in a 4th company. Following investments in MP Materials, Lithium Americas and Intel, the US government has bought a 10% stake in Trilogy Metals, a mining explorer in Alaska. Trilogy shares were up 208% on the news. (Quartz)
  
  

• The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has surprised economists by making a 50 basis point rate cut. The move comes as inflation is back in the Central Bank’s 1-3% target and concern increases over a slowing economy. New Zealand’s cash rate is now at 2.5%. (Reuters)

What the…?

Since its early days Uber has always had ambitions to extend beyond ride sharing into a more diversified transport offering. It has taken another step in that direction with an announcement that it will offer helicopter and seaplane flights in its app starting in 2026.

This isn’t the first time Uber has attempted to offer helicopter flights. In 2016, it launched Uber Elevate that was eventually sold and shut down in 2021. Uber’s second attempt at this business didn’t have investors too excited, with shares down 1% after the announcement. (Quartz)

Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today

Charlie Viola: Don’t cut up the pie too thin

Community Question: If I have $10,000 or $20,000 or even less, how should I think about splitting that across my investment options?

We put this question to Charlie Viola, financial adviser and founder of Viola Private Wealth.

My counsel always is if you got a small amount use the same principles [as if you had a larger portfolio], but invest in options that are suitable for that smaller pot of money. Don't cut up your pie too thin. Think about good quality ETFs that have got good quality underlying assets and have a material amount of your pot of investments in those good quality assets.

If you've got a small amount - less than $100 each time or less than $50,000 total to invest - you really don't want more than two or three lines of investments, to be honest, because you end up cutting up the pie too thin.

You end up having immaterial exposures that even if that exposure grows 100%, it actually doesn't change your life.

So if you've got $50,000 and you've got 20 lines of investments, you know, simple maths tells you you've got about two and a half grand or two grand or whatever in every investment. Even if that thing shoots the lights out, two grand turned into four. It actually hasn't changed your life.

You want a greater exposure or more material exposure to normal, good quality lines of investments and allow efficient market theory to do its job over the medium to long term.

Want to speak to Charlie or another of our hand-picked financial advisers? Fill out the form on our website and we’ll match you with an adviser that suits your needs.

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