Here’s what you need to know today

• Big Tech continues to bet big on nuclear energy. Google, Amazon and Meta have teamed up on a plan that aims to triple nuclear energy production in the US by 2050. All three companies, alongside Microsoft as well, have been investing heavily in nuclear energy for the data centres powering their data centres and other AI infrastructure. (Quartz)
  
  

• As the Australian federal election nears, forecasts of a minority government have grown more likely. The Australian Hotels Association have announced they will run a ‘red-blue’ strategy and funnel tens of thousands of dollars to both Labor and Coalition candidates facing third-party and independent challengers, in a bid to minimise the chances of a minority government. (AFR)
  
  

• American inflation came in at 2.8% for the 12 months to February, below expectations of 2.9%. This data measures a period prior to the latest tariffs drama, but shows that there hasn’t been a major uplift in inflation from the first set of tariffs Trump levied against China. (CNN)
  
  

• The European Union has announced €26 billion in retaliatory tariffs against the US, and Canada announced 25% tariffs on C$30 billion worth of goods, in response to America’s blanket 25% tariff on all steel and aluminium imports into the US. (SBS)
  
  

• Canada’s Central Bank cut rates to 2.75%, it’s seventh rate cut in the past 9 months. The Bank of Canada warned that Trump’s tariffs had caused a “new crisis”. (Reuters)
  
  

• A number of high profile Australian executives have found new homes. Atlassian cofounder Scott Farquhar will takeover as chair of the Tech Council of Australia, replacing Tesla chair Robyn Denholm. (AFR) Former Woolworths CEO Brad Banducci will become CEO of TEG, the owner of Ticketek. (AFR) And the search for Nine Entertainment’s next CEO is over, with acting CEO Matt Stanton being appointed to the job permanently. (AFR)

What the…?

One of the more potent symbols of the cost-of-living crisis has been the rising cost of our morning coffee. Coffee futures have doubled in the past year as the commodity has hit all-time highs.

These rising prices have led to a coffee-crime wave as organised crime who pose as smaller transportation companies only to steal coffee beans by the truck load. (Reuters)

Enjoy this email? We’d love you to forward it to someone else who may enjoy it.

Forwarded this email? You can sign up here. 

Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today.

Can Nintendo change its history?

This is an excerpt from our conversation with Eric Marais, Investment Specialist at Orbis for our new show Basis Points. You can listen on Apple, Spotify or YouTube.

So today, Nintendo is quite a meaningful position in the Orbis Global Equity Fund [at the time of recording in February 2025], but we built the position in 2023. The reason why I’m giving that context is because I think some things have happened since—they've actually announced their latest console, which is the Nintendo Switch 2.

But at the time that was very much still down the pipeline. It was unclear exactly when it was going to launch or what it might look like. But the reason why it was out of favour, the reason why it attracted us as contrarians, is because the stock had performed incredibly poorly for a very long time.

So it’s done much better recently. But between 2008—the stock’s peak—it took them up until 2024 to exceed their peak again. So that is a long grind.

And those are the kinds of things that we sometimes find interesting. The underlying reason why the company performed so poorly is really just its own fundamentals. And that leads us to maybe the biggest risk with Nintendo and very much the market’s view.

Where the market focus is, and that’s that the company has never in its history strung together two successful generations of hardware. So the Switch that’s out today has been hugely successful. But prior to the Switch, the company had the Nintendo Wii U, which any gamers who are listening in will know exactly what I mean. That console was a complete disaster, a complete, complete failure.

And so over the last few years, you’re kind of in this window where everyone knew with the Switch getting older and older that they’d be coming up with something new. So now you’re in this most risky part of the business’s kind of history because now they’ve got to come up with a new generation of hardware.

What are they going to do? Will they finally kind of break that pattern or will it be the same thing?

Prefer to watch our conversation rather than listen? All conversations are available in full on the Basis Points YouTube:

Today’s sponsor is Schroders

As early movers in Australia’s Active ETF space since 2016, Schroders’ expanded range includes two new funds: the Schroder Global Equity Alpha Fund – Active ETF (ASX: ALPH) and the Schroder Australian High Yielding Credit Fund – Active ETF (Cboe: HIGH).

ALPH is a global equities portfolio of 'best ideas' designed to drive consistent outperformance, regardless of market conditions.

HIGH combines attractive yield with the capital protection of institutional-grade fixed income.

Access over 220 years of Schroders’ compounded active management expertise across global markets, with the simplicity and ease of an Active ETF structure.

Markets are dynamic, is your portfolio? Get the active edge with Schroders Active ETFs.

Want more Equity Mates?