Here’s what you need to know today

• US President Donald Trump has hosted South Korean President Lee Jae-myung at the White House on Monday. Lee pledged a $150bn investment into US shipbuilding as part of a broader $350bn investment plan. Lee also asked for US support to reduce the risk of conflict with nuclear-armed North Korea. (Reuters)
  
  

• The summit was paired with a meeting between government representatives and business leaders from the two countries. Korean Air unveiled a $36bn order for 103 Boeing jets, while Hyundai committed to lift its US investment from $21bn to $26bn. Nvidia boss Jensen Huang was among the top executives at the event, along with US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick and South Korea’s trade minister Kim Jung-kwan. (BBC)
  
  

• Australia Post has halted parcel deliveries to the US after new tariff rules scrapped the duty-free exemption for packages under US$800. Australian goods will now face a 10% duty, though gifts under US$100, letters, and documents remain exempt (ABC). The change has also led major European postal services, including La Poste, Deutsche Post and Spain’s Correos, to halt most US-bound shipments amid uncertainty and limited time to adapt. (Guardian)
  
  

• Coles shares climbed 8.5% on Tuesday after the company reported a 3.65% sales revenue increase to $44.4bn. Supermarket sales revenue was particularly strong, increasing by 4.3% year on year, while Coles' eCommerce segment led the growth charge, with FY 2025 sales of $4.5bn up an impressive 24.4%. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• Mining giant Fortescue reported a 41% drop in net profit to $3.37bn due to weaker iron ore prices. The miner declared total dividends of $1.10 per share, the lowest in seven years and down from $1.29 last year, though still well ahead of market expectations of 71 cents. Shares slipped 3.9% on Tuesday following the results. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• Corporate Travel Management suspended trading on the ASX after telling investors it will fail to lodge its full-year accounts by the August 31st deadline. The company now expects to release results on the 25th of September after auditor Deloitte flagged potential adjustments to how revenues and costs were recognised across reporting periods. (AFR)
  
  

• The ETF boom that opened up investing to everyday Americans has officially hit a tipping point. For the first time, the number of exchange-traded funds has surpassed the number of individual stocks. Thanks to a rapid pace of new launches, there are now more than 4,300 ETFs listed in the US, compared with around 4,200 stocks, according to Morningstar data. (Bloomberg)
  
  

• Elon Musk’s AI startup xAI has filed a lawsuit in a Texas federal court against Apple and OpenAI, accusing them of conspiring to block competition and acting like “monopolists.” The case follows Apple’s move to embed ChatGPT into its devices and software tools, which xAI claims shuts out other innovators. (Reuters)
  
  

• Musk also announced a new side project, Macrohard, a purely AI software company he claims can rival Microsoft. Revealed on X, Musk said “Macrohard is no joke,” arguing that because traditional software giants like Microsoft don’t build physical components, their operations could conceivably be recreated entirely through artificial intelligence. (Quartz)
  
  

• Venture capital firms are pouring money into European air defence start-ups to counter the growing threat of mass drone attacks. Investors such as Lakestar, Lux Capital and Accel have backed companies including Germany’s Tytan Technologies and UK-based Cambridge Aerospace, which just closed a $100m funding round at a $400m valuation. (Financial Times)

What the…?

Insurance tech firm Roadzen saw its stock tumble 10% after Motley Fool published an AI-generated article that wildly overstated analyst expectations.

The piece claimed Roadzen was meant to pull in over $21m of revenue, while the actual estimate was $11.4m. Roadzen reported $10.9m, making a minor miss look like a disaster.

The Motley Fool issued a full correction and the stock has since recovered, but the incident highlights the costly risks of AI-generated reporting. (Quartz)

Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today.

Are emerging markets undervalued?

This is an excerpt from a recent Basis Points episode with Simon Skinner from Orbis. (Apple | Spotify | YouTube)

What long-term stock market lessons have held true over the past 100 years?

Generally buying stocks with low expectations beats buying stocks with high expectations. So value versus growth.

Not necessarily just things that have cheap multiples, but buying things where expectations are low. Buying stocks on a very diverse basis rather than concentrating on the largest stocks is a much better strategy.

Playing that out today, the gap between emerging markets and the US market is the second widest it’s been in over 50 years. The only time we've seen it be this wide is during the Asian financial crisis, but there is no crisis currently.

These countries are generally doing okay, but I think in hindsight, it'll be very clear that this was an opportunity. Narrative follows price moves, the prices will start to move and suddenly sentiment will start to shift, it'll create panic and this thing can unwind quite quickly.

Want to check out the full episode? All Basis Points episodes are now released on their own YouTube channel:

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