Today’s News

The Big Picture

• Middle East conflict intensifies. More than 500 people have reportedly been killed in Iran, including six US service members. Drones struck the US embassy in Riyadh, while Australia’s Middle East headquarters — home to over 100 ADF personnel — was also hit, though all are reported safe. Donald Trump has suggested the conflict could last “four to five weeks.” (ABC | CNBC)
  
  

• Oil surges as Strait of Hormuz tensions flare. Iran has warned it would set ships “ablaze” attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz, sending oil prices higher. Saudi Arabia has also shut its largest domestic refinery after intercepting Iranian drones above the facility. (WSJ | Bloomberg)
  
  

• Airlines feel the heat. Flight disruptions across the Middle East are mounting, leaving hundreds of thousands stranded in Doha and Dubai. Airline company share prices slid as a result, with British Airways down 5%, American Airlines 4%, United 3% and Qantas also 3%. (ABC)
  
  

• RBA watching Middle East closely. Governor Michelle Bullock says it’s too early to gauge the economic fallout from the Middle East conflict. While she stopped short of signalling interest rate moves, economists warn petrol prices could jump up to 40% in the near term. (ABC)
  
  

• Gender pay gap narrows — but gaps remain. Australia’s latest Workplace Gender Equality Agency report shows progress, but women still earn 88 cents for every dollar earned by men on average. Men are also twice as likely to earn more than $220,000 a year. (ABC | The Guardian)
  
  

• India and Canada strike nuclear pact. Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Mark Carney have signed a 10-year nuclear energy deal in Delhi, alongside agreements covering technology, critical minerals and space cooperation. (BBC)

Companies in the news

• Berkshire first report post-Buffett — operating earnings falls 30%. Operating earnings at Berkshire Hathaway dropped 30%, largely due to weaker insurance results. Some shareholders had hoped new CEO Greg Abel would deploy more of the company’s US$370bn cash pile. Shares fell 5%. (CNBC)
  
  

• Claude tops app charts after Pentagon snub. Anthropic’s AI app Claude surged to number one in the US and UK app stores after the Pentagon switched to OpenAI, labelling Claude a “supply-chain risk.” The spike in downloads and demand for the AI tool even caused temporary outages. (The Guardian)
  
  

• BYD posts biggest sales drop since COVID. The world’s largest EV maker reported a 41% year-on-year fall in sales, its steepest decline in five years. It marks the sixth straight month of falling demand as China’s EV boom cools. (FT)

  
  

• Life360 turns a profit, shares tumble. The family tracking app reported its first full year of profitability, with revenue up 32%. Investors weren’t impressed, sending shares down almost 18% as analysts flagged slowing user growth as the primary driver. (Yahoo Finance | AFR)
  
  

• Nvidia backs photonics push. Nvidia will invest US$4bn into photonics firms Coherent and Lumentum, betting on light-based chip infrastructure to power future AI systems. (CNBC)
  
  

• Sony faces £2bn PlayStation lawsuit. A class action alleges Sony overcharged gamers by restricting competition on its PlayStation Store, where most games are now downloaded as opposed to purchased on CD. Claimants argue consumers are paying up to 30% more as a result. (FT)

What the…?

Gen Z fuelling global Botox boom. Cosmetic injectables are becoming more commonplace with the younger generation, with global demand up 44% between 2020 and 2024. The International Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery estimates more than 20 million procedures were performed in 2024, up from 13.9 million in 2020. One in four patients aged 18–34 are now getting Botox.

Professor Gemma Sharp from the University of Adelaide says falling prices have made injectables far more accessible to younger Australians. Add in the influence of social media — and what’s being dubbed the “video calling effect” (aka staring at your own face on video calls all day) — and it’s no surprise more people are opting for tweaks. (ABC)

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Today’s Insight

Two behavioural mistakes investors make

We spoke to Alex Thompson, financial adviser at Viola Private Wealth, on the biggest behavioural mistake an investor can make, he gave us two below.

What’s the biggest behavioural mistake investors make?

The two biggest behavioural mistakes we see are trend following and panicking in times of volatility. These are frequently talked about because they are so common across the board.

Trend‑chasing typically shows up as buying assets after a strong run‑up, driven by fear of missing out rather than fundamentals. A recent example is gold. After prices had already risen more than 50%, we saw a surge of enquiries from clients wanting exposure. For those in Sydney, the lines at the Martin Place Bullion were hundreds of metres long and yet on the day it fell by 10%+, the lines disappeared. While gold can play a sensible role in a diversified portfolio, buying any asset primarily because it has already performed well often leads to disappointing outcomes. We’ve seen this repeatedly with digital assets or crypto. Some of these assets can have a place in portfolios when used thoughtfully and sized appropriately, but approaching them with a long‑term investment mindset rather than chasing short‑term hype is critical to avoiding significant capital impairment. 

Panicking in times of volatility is another one we see far too often. For example, we saw people panicking about Trump’s administration and how the world was going to end under his leadership, which resulted in them selling all their US exposure, only for the market to whipsaw back and have them to miss out on ~30% upside. Irrespective of where you sit on the political spectrum or what your economic beliefs are, making emotional decisions in times of uncertainty are one the costliest decisions we see in investors. 

Are you trying to figure out the right balance of passive and active investments for you? Fill out the form on our website and we’ll match you with one of our hand-picked advisers for a wide range of financial advice.

Today in Equity Mates