Here’s what you need to know today

• The US Federal Reserve has paused interest rate cuts and voted to keep rates steady in its first meeting of 2025. In its commentary, the Central Bank indicated it forecast just 2 interest rate cuts in 2025 as inflationary pressures loom. (Quartz)
  
  

• Australia’s federal opposition has made a pitch to Australia’s crypto industry, telling an industry conference that they would find a friend in Peter Dutton. This move comes after the Trump campaign had success reaching out to and raising money from the crypto industry in the US. (AFR)
  
  

• Ozempic’s relentless march continues. The US FDA has just approved the drug for kidney disease after studies found it reduces the combined risk of major kidney complications by 24% in patients with type 2 diabetes and chronic kidney disease. (CNN)
  
  

• That Australian government’s taking from the tobacco excise has fallen to its lowest level since 2015, coming in at $9.7 billion. But while less Australians are smoking, more are also turning to the cheaper black market. The tobacco excise is up 282% since 2013, and today a 25-pack of cigarettes retails for $50, $34 of which goes to the government. (AFR)
  
  

• Microsoft and Meta both reported strong quarterly earnings, beating Wall Street’s revenue expectations. Microsoft reported a 12% increase in revenue to $69.6 billion for the quarter, but shares fell 5% as Azure growth slows. (Barron’s) Meanwhile, Meta shares were up 4% as it reported revenue up 21% to $48.4 billion for the quarter. (AFR)
  
  

• Tesla, on the other hand, reported sales and profit below Wall Street’s expectations. Revenue was up 2% to $25.7 billion, but automative revenue was down 8% and the stock fell 2%. (CNBC)
  
  

• Dutch lithography equipment maker ASML saw shares jump 11% after it reported bookings for the quarter of €7.09 billion, almost double analyst expectations. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• Trump Media & Technology Group saw shares rise 7% after it announced plans to expand into financial services, as it launched its new fintech brand Truth.Fi. This takes Trump’s majority-owned company from Truth Social, to a TV streaming service and now into financial services. (Quartz)
  
  

• The AI arms race continues. Alibaba launched its latest model, Qwen2.5-Max, and reported that it scored better than DeepSeek and Meta’s Llama. (Quartz) We expect these back-and-forth announcements from OpenAI, xAI, Meta, Anthropic, DeepSeek, Alibaba, Baidu and others will be a feature of 2025.

What the…?

Here’s a surprising consequence of the brief TikTok ban - iPhones with TikTok already installed are being sold for thousands of dollars on eBay. While President Trump gave TikTok a 75-day reprieve, the Apple App Store and Google Play Store do not have it available to download.

So, all of a sudden, Americans with TikTok already installed are the only ones who can access TikTok. And for many Americans that has become a gold mine, with these phones selling for up to $25,000. (USA Today)

What do you want to see in 2025?

Every year we survey the Equity Mates community as we plan the year ahead. The insights really do matter, last year it prompted us to move this email to daily, focus more on YouTube and develop a new show (more on that in the coming months).

So if you enjoy what we do, and want to help make it better, we have a request: help us by completing this year’s Equity Mates Community Survey (Survey Link).

Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today.

How does debt recycling work?

This is an excerpt from our episode with Dylan Pargiter-Green titled Ask an Adviser: Offset v Superannuation v Debt Recycling - Who comes out on top? (Check it out on Apple | Spotify | YouTube)

Question: How does debt recycling actually work?

Dylan: Debt recycling is the process of turning non-tax deductible debt usually from your principal place of residence or equity in your principal place of residence into tax deductible debt.

You do that through a process of paying down or drawing out new debt against your principal place of residence and then investing that into income producing assets. Because that debt has been used for an investment purpose, similar to going and using debt on an investment property and it's income producing, you are able to claim the costs associated with that investment and interest is one of those costs.

So effectively what you're doing and what these lovely people here in our scenario are doing is taking their savings that they have at the bank, they're actually paying down $250,000 of their mortgage and then they're going to take out a new loan for $250,000. They're then going to invest that and the income that's generated from that investment plus what they can regularly save is going to pay off their mortgage each year and then be redrawn as new tax deductible debt.

Remember, all Equity Mates episodes can now be watched on YouTube. Check out Dylan’s episode here and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode:

Today’s sponsor is Australian Property Scout

Join Sam Gordon, Equity Mates' regular property expert, as he sits down with APS client, investor and all round top bloke Adam Watson to unpack his incredible property journey so far. In just 12 months, Adam and Kerry have built a portfolio with a total purchase price of $1.6m now valued at $2.13m, unlocking $530,000 in net equity and setting themselves up for a massive 2025 and beyond!

Adam shares the highs and lows of his property journey, from early missteps with financial advisors and Buyers Agents to finding the right guidance through APS. With four properties under his belt, Adam exemplifies what can be achieved with the right strategy and mindset.

This isn’t just a story about property, it’s about resilience, transformation, and creating opportunities for his loved ones.

Tune in to Scouting Australia on all your favourite listening platforms. 

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