Today’s News

The Big Picture

• Older Australians ditch industry super funds in record $4.3bn exodus. Over 2025, investors fled to self-managed funds and retail funds, the latter of which saw $3 billion in inflows. The shift is due to older Australians with large super balances having more complex financial needs that require responsiveness and flexibility better addressed by SMSFs and retail funds. (AFR)
  
  

• Oil tops $126 on news of blockade extension. After reports revealed the US is preparing to enact a longer-term blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, Brent crude oil prices reached $122, its highest price since the Russia-Ukraine conflict sent similar shocks through oil markets. (BBC | AFR)
  
  

• One in four flights cancelled out of Australia. April saw nearly a quarter of international flights cancelled as airlines contend with airport closures and sky-high jet fuel prices. The cancellations centred around Middle Eastern carriers, whose flights fell by 61% in March. (AFR)
  
  

• East coast power prices fall 12% on strong renewable, battery contributions. The cost of generation in the National Energy Market, which covers five eastern-most states, fell 12% in the first quarter of 2026 thanks to record contributions from grid-scale batteries cutting peak period prices. Solar and wind also played a major part, contributing 47% of total generation over the period. (AFR)
  
  

• Iran price tag ticks over $25bn for Pentagon. The US Department of Defense stated the cost was mostly munitions. The conflict has consumed years’ worth of missiles and other ordinance, raising questions of how well stocked the US military is should another conflict arise. (FT)
  
  

• 100,000 NSW public servants receive $1,000 inflation bonus. The bonus was contingent on a 4% threshold for Sydney inflation, which came in at 4.4% on Wednesday. The bonus will hit the state budget for roughly $100 million. (AFR)
  
  

• Powell vows to remain at Fed to challenge rate cut-friendly Warsh. After announcing the US Fed would hold inflation, chair Jerome Powell announced he would stay on the board of the Fed after his term as chair. This follows pressure by Trump on Powell to lower rates, an effort that Trump-appointed Kevin Warsh will likely pursue as the next chair when he takes over in two weeks. (BBC)

Companies in the news

• Big week for Big Tech. Four of the Magnificent 7 reported quarterly earnings Wednesday night, resulting in a movements in the companies’ stocks after hours. Google (up 7%) looked like the biggest winner, reporting an 81% increase in profit driven by 63% increase in cloud revenue. Microsoft’s (flat) cloud computing also shone, up 40%, in addition to 123% year-on-year increase in AI revenue run rate. Amazon (up 3%) rounded out the cloud compute, growing 28%, its fastest growth in nearly four years. Meta (down 7%) posted a 33% revenue increase, but a drop in active users and increased AI spending with no timeline on returns spooked investors. The four companies are collectively expected to hit $725 billion in capital expenditures in 2026, up 44% from 2025. (FT)
  
  

• Australia’s largest meat processor hit by $268m tax bill. Brazilian food giant JBS faces the bill after an audit revealed concerning accounting practices from 2015 to 2021. This is the latest in the list of JBS controversies, which include being sued by the ATO and being caught operating a massive corruption scheme in Brazil in 2017. (AFR)
  
  

• Volkswagen rolls out budget EVs to compete with China. The new ID.Polo will retail for around $41,000, marking the first of four entry-level EVs to be launched by Volkswagen Group brands this year. This comes as Chinese manufacturers pressure European carmakers, with BYD’s equivalent EV, the Dolphin Surf, retailing for $38,000. (FT)
  
  

• Samsung records eightfold increase in quarterly profit. The first-quarter profit of 57 trillion Korean won is greater than the company’s annual profit for 2025 of 44 trillion won. The surge comes on the back of Samsung’s chip business, which contributed 54 trillion of the company’s 57 trillion won profit, nearly 95%. (CNBC)

What the…?

Americans concerned about their country’s national debt can contribute more easily than ever. The US Treasury now accepts PayPal and Venmo for donations to help cut down the public debt. Monthly donations average around $120,000, equal to 0.00014% of the Treasury’s monthly interest payments on their $39 trillion debt.

The “Gifts to Reduce the Public Debt” program is not new and has raised around $67 million since 1996. Thanks to the new additions, the US will certainly be out of debt in no time. (Yahoo Finance)

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Today’s Insight

Construct your portfolio like a pro

We asked financial adviser Matt Ingram from Northhaven for his tips and tricks of building a sturdy portfolio, and he used a neat analogy to help us out.

What are your key rules of portfolio construction?

It’s not the best analogy, but try follow along… I tend to think about portfolio construction like building a house. First, you need a strong foundation. That’s the core of the portfolio. For most people, that might be broad index ETFs, a few high-quality managed funds, or some established blue-chip companies. The point of the foundation isn’t to be exciting. It’s to be stable. It should carry most of the weight and do most of the long-term compounding.

Once the foundation is in place, you add the structural beams that hold everything together. In a portfolio, that’s diversification and negative correlation. Different sectors. Different asset classes. Investments that don’t all move in the same direction at the same time. When one part of the portfolio is under pressure, another part should ideally be holding up. That balance is what keeps the whole structure standing.

A portfolio should be the same. It should be built to survive unexpected shocks. If the structure is solid, you don’t need to panic every time the weather changes. The goal isn’t to predict every storm, but rather to build something resilient enough to handle whatever comes.

Want to work with an adviser like Matt to get your portfolio put together? Fill out the form on our website and we’ll match you with one of our hand-picked advisers to help you get started.

Today in Equity Mates