Here’s what you need to know today

• The Australian government has announced a $50 million deal to keep regional airline Rex afloat. The government will buy Rex’s debt from private equity giant PAG Asia Capital for $50 million to become the airline’s main creditor, giving it more say over the company. This comes after an $80 million bailout in November last year. (AFR)
  
  

• Reactions continue to the $500 billion Stargate project announced in the US yesterday. Announced by President Trump as a joint venture between Oracle, OpenAI and Softbank to invest in AI infrastructure, Elon Musk was very quick to criticise - claiming the companies did not have the money. (Sydney Morning Herald | Quartz)
  
  

• Trump’s tariff watch continues. So far he has said he will impose 10% tariffs on China and 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico from 1 February. The latest tariff threat? Trump warned Russia on Truth Social that if it did not stop “this ridiculous war” in Ukraine, he would “have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything being sold by Russia to the United States”. (Truth Social)
  
  

• Trump also captured business headlines as he reversed Biden-era climate policies and ordered the government to stop paying out funds appropriated under the Inflation Reduction Act. This reportedly puts more than $300 billion in green infrastructure funding at risk. (FT)
  
  

• Australia’s wealth platforms are having a good week, with big share price jumps. Praemium (up 22% this week), Hub24 (up 16%), and Netwealth (up 12%) led the charge, all rising on better than expected quarterly inflows.
  
  

• Fallout continues from an ASX’s CHESS settlement outage that happened just a few days before Christmas and delayed settlements from Friday 20 December to Monday 23 December. ASIC and the Reserve Bank continue to investigate with ASIC chair Joe Longo suggesting there may also be a role for the ACCC to investigate. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• Netflix shares rose 10% overnight after the streaming giant announced it had added 19 million new subscribers for the quarter, its largest quarterly increase ever, taking its total global subscribers to 302 million. Capitalising on its momentum, the company also announced price increases in the US, Canada, Portugal and Argentina. (Quartz)
  
  

• Iconic Australian clothing brand, Rivers, has announced it will close all 136 of its stores. The company which can trace its roots back to 1863 is owned by Mosaic Brands, the ASX-listed retailer that entered administration last October. In December, the Mosaic-owned womenswear store Katies announced it would close all 80 of its stores. (AFR)
  
  

• Prince Harry settled his lawsuit against Rupert Murdoch’s News Group Newspapers (a subsidiary of News Corp) over allegations Murdoch’s British tabloids illegally gathered information on the Prince. The settlement comes one day before a trial was scheduled to begin, and comes with a reported 8-figure settlement and News Group acknowledging unlawful conduct at The Sun for the first time. (Reuters | BBC)

What the…?

There has been one surprising winner out of America’s $500 billion Stargate project - biotechnology company Metagenomi, who saw shares jump as much as 33% yesterday.

Why? One of Stargate’s backers is UAE technology fund called MGX. Metagenomi’s stock ticker is MGX. You can see where the confusion lies. (Quartz)

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Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today.

Roger Montgomery on managing a stock market crash

This is an excerpt from our conversation with Roger Montgomery, founder & CIO of Montgomery Investment Management (listen on Apple, Spotify or YouTube)

Q: For investors with cash, what's the best way to approach investing in a falling market?

A: Turn the stock market off. Turn off all the noise. When you buy a house or a farm or a Domino's Pizza franchise, you don't go on the screen and look at where it's trading at lunchtime. Look at the business and say, I think this business is a good one, it's got structural tailwinds, it's going to keep growing irrespective of what's happening in the economy. Then turn the stock market back on - where's it trading? If it's fallen 40%, fantastic, buy it, then turn the stock market back off again. Stop looking at it. If the business does what you analysed it would do, the share price will look after itself.

Q: What should young investors keep in mind during market downturns?

A: If you're in your twenties, you're going to be investing for potentially another 80 years. You don't think you are, but you are. And I promise you, there's going to be more booms in the next 80 years and there'll be some busts in the next 80 years. But when you see the busts, load up, you're going to do fine. Your job as an investor is to purchase at a rational price a part share of an easy to understand business whose earnings are virtually certain to be materially higher in five, ten, 20 years from now.

Remember, as well as being available on your favourite podcast app, all Equity Mates content is now available as video on YouTube. Check it out here:

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