Today’s News

The Big Picture

• Australian government explores new tax on gas and coal exports. On Friday, it was revealed that the government had asked for modelling on a new tax on the windfall profits Australian gas exporters are expected to make during this Iran conflict. One Nation, The Greens, and most cross-benchers support additional taxes on gas exports. (ABC)
  
  

• No ceasefire talks with Iran. That was the clear message from the US President as he explained, “You don’t do a ceasefire when you’re literally obliterating the other side.” As the war enters its fourth week, Trump gave Iran a 48 hour ultimatum to open the Strait of Hormuz while the US is preparing to send an additional 3 warships to the Middle East. (Bloomberg)
  
  

• NATO withdraws forces. While the US sends more forces, the NATO alliance is withdrawing. On Friday, it withdraw all its personnel from Iraq and relocated them to Italy. Trump lashed out on Truth Social, calling the alliance “A PAPER TIGER” and “COWARDS”. (Reuters)
  
  

• Largest oil supply disruption in history. That was the conclusion of the International Energy Agency as people are being urged to work from home, car pool, drive more slowly and avoid air travel. The price of Brent crude is just above $110 a barrel. (IEA | CNBC)
  
  

• Gold not acting like a safe haven. Surprisingly, gold had its worst week since 2011 dropping 9.6%. Usually with the threat of rising inflation and global conflict gold is seen as a reliable safe haven. Zoom out and it is still up, growing 5% in 2026. (CNBC)

Companies in the news

• Canva to delay IPO to 2027. That news was reported by The Information, and has not been confirmed by the company. It would make sense for the Australian design software company to wait, given the current selloff in global software stocks. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• Super Micro cofounder arrested. The company that makes the servers for AI data centres saw a contractor and 2 employees, including a co-founder, accused of smuggling Nvidia AI chips into China. Super Micro’s shares dropped 33% on the news. (FT)
  
  

• Elon Musk defrauded Twitter investors. That was the conclusion of a jury in San Francisco hearing the case over Elon’s criticisms of the company in 2022 to get it at a lower price. Whatever the court awards in damages, Elon will be okay, with Forbes putting his current net worth at US$814 billion. (AFR | Forbes)
  
  

• Saudi Arabia’s gaming ambition grows. ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, sold its gaming studio Moonton for $6 billion to Savvy Games, a subsidiary of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. This follows the Saudi-led acquisition of Electronic Arts late last year. (Reuters)
  
  

• Nothing stationary about Smiggle. The colourful stationary retailer saw a 11% drop in sales in the past 6 months. That loss was partially offset for its parent company, Premier Investments, by better news from premium pyjama-maker Peter Alexander, where sales rose 5%. (AFR)

What the…?

Japan builds AI robot monk due to shortage of monks. ‘Buddharoid’ is an AI-powered humanoid trained on centuries of Buddhist scripture, designed to offer spiritual guidance and answer life’s big questions. Built to help address Japan’s ageing population and shortage of monks, it can speak, gesture and respond in real time.

In a recent temple demo, the faceless, grey-robed robot moved among attendees, stopping for one-on-one conversations, meaning your existential crisis can now be handled by a machine. So reaching enlightenment just got easier, assuming you didn’t forget the charger. (Euro News)

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Today’s Insight

The booming $6bn industry driven by Gen-Z

This was taken from our recent Equity Mates Investing episode titled ‘Bryce’s Top 5 Healthcare Picks, Two Quality Additions to the Community Portfolio & Gen Z’s $6B Boom’ (Spotify | Apple | YouTube)

Ren: So Bryce, global demand for cosmetic injectables rose 44% between 2020 and 2024. That was the stat that caught our eye and sent us down a bit of a rabbit hole to understand what's going on in this industry and where are the opportunities to play it here in Australia. This is an industry that we don't know a lot about. It's a massive industry and it's a growing industry and there's an interesting way to invest in it.

Bryce: Yep, so let's look at the numbers. It's an industry that was worth $4.1 billion here in Australia in 2023. By early 2026, that is up to $6.3 billion.

Ren: And globally in four or five years it grew 44%. In Australia, in the space of about 2 and bit years, it's grown just shy of 50%. So huge, huge growth, and that growth is being driven particularly by the younger demographics. So, millennials aged 30 to 45 now drive over 50% of all consultation, cosmetic consultations in Australia. But here's a surprising stat from the University of South Australia. 1 in 3 young women aged between 18 and 35, so now we're pushing into Gen Z have had a cosmetic procedure.

So then we were interested with all of this growth, are there ASX listed opportunities? And surprisingly, for a growth industry focused on young people, the way to play it is a somewhat boring company that tends to be loved by older people.

Bryce: Yep that’s it so Wesfarmers, they have a meaningful health portfolio. So within the portfolio, they have Silk Laser Clinics, Australian Skin Clinics, and Clear Skincare.

Today in Equity Mates