Here’s what you need to know today

• Anthony Albanese met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brazil, where Xi declared Sino-Australian relations had “turned around”. With the spectre of a Trump Presidency hanging over Xi’s foreign policy, the Chinese President said “I wish to work with you, Mr Prime Minister, to make our comprehensive strategic partnership more mature, stable and fruitful and eject more stability and certainty to the region and the wider world.” (Capital Brief)
  
  

• Australia’s Reserve Bank has signalled it will not be cutting rates as early as most of the major banks and economists predict. The minutes for the RBA’s November meeting explain it wants to see inflation in the target range for more than one quarter, all but ruling out a rate cut at the February or April meeting. (AFR)
  
  

• As a result of the RBA minutes, several major forecasters including NAB, UBS, Capital Economics and RBC Capital Markets shifted their prediction for the first rate cut from February to May. (AFR)
  
  

• The US Government’s antitrust case against Google continues to move through the courts. US Department of Justice lawyers will be asking the court to force Google to sell its Chrome internet browser in an attempt to separate Google’s dominance in web browsers and dominance in the adjacent market for internet search. Unsurprisingly, Google plans to fight the government’s request. (AFR)
  
  

• RFK Jr. continues to have a profound effect on the stock market. Pharmaceutical stocks, including Australia’s CSL, have sold off but one medical sector is doing well: dental stocks. As RFK Jr. shares plans to remove fluoride from drinking water, investors are betting this will accelerate tooth decay and increase dental visits. One example, dental supply company Henry Schein is up 7% since Trump’s election. (Quartz)
  
  

• Australian tech unicorn Canva has found their next Chief Financial Officer, 10 months after the job became vacant. Stepping into the roll is Kelly Steckelberg the CFO of NASDAQ-listed Zoom. Kelly oversaw Zoom’s IPO in 2019 and now will be responsible for driving Canva towards an IPO, predicted for 2026. (AFR)
  
  

• Air quality in Delhi, India’s capital, has got so bad that the Chief Minister has declared a medical emergency. Schools and construction sites were closed and flights grounded as air pollution hit record levels at 50 times the safe limit. Air quality deteriorates at this time of year as farmers burn off harvested crops. (PBS News)
  
  

• Sweden’s battery maker Northvolt has had internal documents leaked detailing how it consistently missed production and delivery targets. Earlier this year it fired one-fifth of its global staff and reports are it is now considering filing for bankruptcy. (Reuters)

What the…?

In 2020, 9% of Americans aged between 18-29 regularly got their news from social media. In 2023, that number was 32%. One year later, in 2024, that number is now 37%. Across all age groups 21% of all American adults now get their news from social media. (The Economist | CNN)

Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today.

This is an excerpt from our podcast with Dylan Partiger-Green, titled Ask an Adviser: Offset v Superannuation v Debt Recycling – Who comes out on top? (Apple | Spotify)

Question: How does debt recycling actually work?

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.

And 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.

Want to hear Dylan’s full explanation? Listen on your podcast player of choice or watch it on YouTube:

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