📈 Lower house approves budget's tax changes | Mining stocks drop on record Simandou exports

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The Big Picture

• House of Representatives approves CGT, negative gearing changes. Despite pushback from opposition and independent MPs, Labor’s tax change bill passed the lower house with votes tallying 94-48. Labor is reportedly targeting July 2 for the bill to pass the Senate, but the bill’s opponents can still force a parliamentary inquiry. (AFR)
  
  

• Australia hits trade surplus on strong mining exports. Australia exported $1.7 billion more than it imported in April. Metal and mineral export values grew by $47 billion while crude oil and gas imports fell by 24% and 14%. This follows a $1 billion trade deficit in March, Australia’s first since 2017. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• Trump threatens Australia over forced labour investigation. After Trump’s sweeping tariff regime was struck down, the Trump administration has found a workaround and is now proposing a 12.5% tariff on Australia and dozens of other countries for allegedly failing to block goods made via forced labour. (AFR)
  
  

• US oil supplies hit two decade-low as war drags on. US energy companies have profited from soaring demand for US oil, but the downside is that reserves of crude and petroleum products have hit a 22-year low. Oil prices rose 2.6% on fears of a potential undersupply. (FT)
  
  

• Passive investing boom creates first trillion-dollar ETF. Vanguard’s VOO, its popular S&P 500 exchange-traded fund (ETF), crossed the trillion-dollar mark for assets under management. Appetite for low-cost exposure to US markets has been strong, and VOO has received over US$69 billion in inflows so far in 2026. (AFR)
  
  

• EVs sales spike in India as gas prices remain high. The Indian electric vehicle market grew 25% year-on-year in March, now accounting for 5% of passenger vehicles in the country of nearly 1.5 billion people. India imports nearly 90% of its oil, and high prices and fuel-saving measures have rapidly pushed Indians towards EVs. (BBC)

Companies in the news

• Mining stocks drop as ‘Pilbara Killer’ increases iron ore shipments. The massive Simandou mine in Guinea exported a record 2.2 million tons in May. Australian mining stocks fell on the news, with BHP (down 2%), Rio Tinto (down 2%), and Fortesque (down 3%) among those impacted. (AFR)
  
  

• Investors can’t get enough of Google equity offering. Google has increased its equity offer from US$80 billion to US$85 billion after receiving strong investor demand. This contradicts earlier concerns that investors did not like Google’s massive AI investment plans. (FT)
  
  

• Iren plots $10bn data centre outside Adelaide. The Australian-owned Nasdaq-listed data centre company will make it’s first Australian investment with the 800 megawatt data centre, which will be more than double the size of the largest data centre currently. (AFR)
  
  

• Morningstar: SpaceX is worth less than half its $1.75tn valuation. The financial research company says SpaceX is overvalued in almost any scenario and that investors will be able to buy in at a more attractive level after the IPO. However, they still believe the stock will rise in early weeks of trading due to the massive influx of demand overwhelming a limited supply of stocks being issued. (AFR)
  
  

• Meta reveals business agent to compete in enterprise AI. The business agent offers scheduling, support, sales and other business functions. Over a million businesses already use a Meta business agent on WhatsApp and Messenger, and Meta hopes to compete with similar business agents from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. (Capital Brief)

Big Zucker is watching

Meta loves to track and record users’ activities, so its no surprise employees get the same treatment. After already firing 2,000 employees this year, Meta will now track employees’ keystrokes to train an AI model, presumably to replace more employees.

One Meta employee described the monitoring as “very dystopian”. After receiving pushback from employees, Meta will allow employees to have generous 30-minute breaks from being monitored. (BBC)

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Hit super hard

Financial adviser Charlie Viola from Viola Private Wealth had some input for Australians looking to distribute income after the budget’s changes.

Should partners invest under their personal names but split their assets so it's an equal amount in each personal name?

Charlie: Yeah, either that or use a company and we sort of preempt this with saying, you need to go and get some professional advice around this. But yes, the use of trusts, they're going to put a knife to it if we can't distribute income down to a company. Companies often haven't been used as the main investment vehicle because they're a bit less flexible.

So it's likely to be a more prevalent use where you maybe don't have the capital to do it using your personal name may end up just as good as anything over time.

Remembering though, we still always say, get as much into super as you can because it's always going to be the most concessional tax rate. Understand the preservation rules, understand that you can't get back to the money until you're at least 60, but it's always going to be the most concessionally taxed environment that we have. That hasn't changed. Hit super as hard as you can.

Want to work with an adviser like Charlie to optimise your family’s investments? Fill out the form on our website and we’ll match you with one of our hand-picked advisers to help you get started.

• Equity Mates Investing: According to Betashares Direct data, April was the single largest month of buying ETFs and stocks in the past two years. That got us thinking — what are Australians investing in? We’re taking a look on today’s episode. (Spotify | Apple | YouTube)

• Buy or Sell: AI has been very hyped up in the investing world recently. If you’re looking for an anti-AI bet, Ally Selby has got four stocks for you on today’s episode of Buy or Sell. (Spotify | Apple | YouTube)