Today’s News

The Big Picture

• The stock market whipsaw continues. The US market closed last week on a positive note, with the S&P 500 up 2% after dropped 3% between Monday and Thursday. This week’s drop was tied to fears that AI will challenge many of America’s big software companies. (CNN)
  
  

• Bitcoin not acting like digital gold. This week was an example of Bitcoin’s correlation to high-flying tech stocks. It dropped 20% between Monday and Thursday as tech stocks fell, and then jumped 15% on Friday as tech stocks rebounded. (CNBC)
  
  

• Australia’s worst day since Liberation Day. Australia’s ASX 200 dropped 2% on Friday which was the worst one-day performance since Liberation Day in April 2025. Luckily investing isn’t a one-day endeavour, in the past 5 years the ASX 200 with dividends reinvested is up 53%. Keep thinking long term. (AFR)
  
  

• Small business squeeze. Calls to Australia’s Small Business Debt Helpline rose 21% in 2025, with 64% of all calls coming from businesses struggling with tax debt from the ATO. In response, the ATO noted that unpaid collectable debt had reached an all-time high of $50 billion and reducing that number was a priority. (ABC)
  
  

• TrumpRx.gov launches in US. The US government run platform will offer discounted medicines from Eli Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer and others for Americans to buy directly. This website is an attempt to bypass the middlemen that plague the US healthcare industry and raise prices on the end users. (FT)
  
  

• EU to ban all services to Russian oil tankers. In an effort to make Russia take Ukraine negotiations more seriously, the EU will ban Russian oil tankers accessing EU ports or being insured by European insurers. Many would be surprised these weren’t included in the initial sanctions on the Russian oil industry. (Reuters)
  

Companies in the news

• Amazon’s $200 billion plan scares investors worried about AI bubble. The tech giant was down 8% as it announced plans to spend such a large amount in 2026. The majority will go to AI data centres to keep up with demand, with the balance going to efforts to make its own chips, robots and low-earth orbit satellites. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• Australian neocloud IREN drops. The company that provides computing power for AI platforms disappointed investors by reporting a quarter-on-quarter decline in revenue. The company explained that the revenue drop was part of its transition from Bitcoin mining to AI operations, but it wasn’t enough for the market, with shares dropping 29%. (Barron’s)
  
  

• REA Group’s profit fall. The company behind RealEstate.com.au reported a 24% decline in profit despite revenue rising 5%. Looking into the numbers, the majority of the profit fall was one-off, tied to the sale of PropertyGuru last year. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• Maas exodus. Australian diversified industrial company Maas Group surprised investors as it sold its entire construction materials division - half the company - for $1.7 billion. At the same time it invested $100m in data centre operator Firmus, suggesting it saw its future in AI infrastructure. The market didn’t like that vision of the future, and shares dropped 27% on Thursday, before rebounding slightly on Friday. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• TikTok warned: turn down the addiction. The European Union warned TikTok it must overhaul the “addictive design” of its platform particularly featured like infinite scroll, autoplay and personalised recommendations - which feel pretty core to TikTok’s design. If TikTok’s response is deemed unsatisfactory, the EU can fine TikTok up to 6% of its global turnover. (BBC)

What the…?

Japan’s tourist backlash grows. The city of Fujiyoshida has cancelled its annual cherry blossom festival to protect “the quiet lives of local residents”. The festival brings roughly 200,000 tourists to the area each year. 

This is the latest in a growing anti-tourist movement in Japan, after 2025 notched an all-time high of 42.7 million foreign visitors. (ABC)

Today’s Insight

The Power of Debt Recycling

In our conversation with Matt Ingram from Northhaven Financial Management last year, Matt gave us several insights into debt recycling. He explains it as a way to stop thinking “mortgage or investing” and instead make it “mortgage and investing.”

The basic idea is that you take spare cash sitting in your offset or savings, use it to pay down part of your home loan (which is non-deductible debt), then redraw or refinance that amount into a separate loan split and invest it.

That new split is now deductible debt because it’s being used to buy an income-producing asset like shares or an investment property. So you haven’t necessarily increased your overall debt, you’ve just changed part of it from non-deductible to deductible, while also getting your money working in a portfolio.

Matt notes there are two common ways: refinancing into a new facility, or splitting your existing loan and recycling chunks. He warns against doing lots of tiny $5k splits because it becomes messy, suggesting $50k+ as a practical minimum.

Interested in speaking to an adviser like Matt about getting your cash working for you? Fill out the form on our website and we’ll match you with one of our hand-picked advisers.

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Today in Equity Mates?