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Here’s what you need to know today

• The final result from Australia’s federal election is still not clear. More than a week after polls closed the ABC still has 8 seats in doubt. By their measure, Labor currently has 92 seats, the Coalition 40 and minor parties and independents on 10. (ABC News)
  
  

• Newly re-elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s didn’t get long to bask in his victory before being faced with the reality of politics once again. Recently ousted frontbencher Ed Husic called out Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles over the weekend, labelling him a “factional assassin” and claimed his ousting was for speaking out on the war in Gaza. (AFR)
  
  

• India-Pakistan continues to be a boiling point. Over the weekend, the two nuclear-armed nations surprised the world by announcing a ceasefire. It was short-lived, however, with each side accusing the other of breaking it within hours. (News.com.au)
  
  

• Officials from China and the US met in Geneva to discuss de-escalating the trade war. Prior to the meeting Trump floated the idea of cutting tariffs on China from 145% to 80%, interpreted as a sign the US was willing to make a deal. (ABC News) After 8 hours of negotiation, the two sides agreed to keep talking for a second day. (AFR)
  
  

• Toyota became the latest automaker to reveal the cost of Trump’s tariffs. The car company said it expected tariffs to cost it $1.3 billion in April and May alone. (Quartz)
  
  

• Australia exported a record amount of beef in April. As US beef exports to China dry up as part of the trade war, China turned to Australia to fill the gap. So far in 2025, Chinese imports of Australian beef is up 36%. (ABC News)
  
  

• Former Australian Prime Minister John Howard has called poker machines a “grave social evil” and called out newly re-elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, saying “It looks like Albanese has gone to water and I couldn’t be more critical.” (AFR)

What the…?

Counting may still be going for the Australian election (with 8 races too close to call by the ABC) but the competition amongst Australia’s media giants has been called: the ABC was the clear winner.

On election night 4.1 million Australians watched the ABC’s coverage, compared to 2.8m for Seven, 2.4m for Nine and 1.7m for Ten. The commercial stations won’t be too upset though, with the latest figures showing Labor spent $19.8m advertising on TV networks, the Coalition and the Trumpet of Patriots each spent $16.1m, the Greens $0.8m and the Teals $0.1m.

That’s a nice revenue bump every 3 years for these struggling commercial TV networks. (AFR)

Investing is a lifelong journey

Here’s what you can learn today.

ChatGPT reviews Ren’s diversification

This is an excerpt from a recent episode of Get Started Investing on diversification. In it, we tested ChatGPT and asked it to review the diversification of Ren’s portfolio. (Apple | Spotify | YouTube)

Ren: So it had six different categories in which it assessed my diversification. So the first one was count and concentration and it said I hold 22 stocks, which is a healthy number for reducing individual risk. But diversification isn't just about how many you hold. It's about where you are invested.

Bryce: Perfect. Aligned with what we said.

Ren: That's good. Exactly. So number two was geographic exposure and ChatGPT gave me a tick and said decent global reach but heavily tilted towards Australia. 11 out of 22 stocks, which may expose you to domestic economic or political risks. It told me to consider more non-Australian exposure if I want geographic balance.

Bryce: Nice. Also good. What about this, what about sectors?

Ren: Sector exposure? So it separated all my holdings into sectors. Technology being the biggest sector with seven of the 22. Healthcare next with five of the 22. And so it gave me a tick. It said well diversified across sectors though tech and healthcare dominate at over half the portfolio and minimal exposure to utilities, energy outside of mining or traditional consumer staples.

Bryce: Nice. So all those three we spoke about accountant, concentration, geographic and sector exposure. Are there any different ways that it's cut it up?

Ren: The next one was market cap and growth stage, which is something we haven't really spoken about, but it gave me a tick. Good spread across growth stages, which gives you both stability and upside potential thematic exposure was the next one.

I got a tick there as well. I'm liking the amount of ticks I'm getting. It said a strong thematic tilt towards future facing industries. But a warning, some overlap in themes eg. Tech and healthcare heavy may amplify volatility during market rotations. Certainly what I'm feeling at the moment.

Bryce: Yeah. Anything else?

Ren: Well then the final category was a category on suggestions to improve diversification. So here's what ChatGPT suggested. Consider adding traditional consumer staples like Woolworths or Unilever utilities or infrastructure like a group and Transurban. It also suggested considering adding ETFs or LICs for sector or country balance. And then finally energy transition exposure like lithium renewables or nuclear.

Bryce: I'm going to say that there's something in this analysis that ChatGPT I think has missed completely, which is assessing it in the broader context of asset classes that are available.

Ren: That's fair.

Bryce: So it hasn't gone, here's what I suggest, but you are also missing gold, Infrastructure, crypto, property. And your overall still very long equities. 

Ren: Yeah. Well ChatGPT is still learning. But look, the final verdict according to Chat GPT is, I'm 80% of the way there.

Prefer to watch rather than listen? All episodes of Get Started Investing are now released in full on its own YouTube channel. Check out this episode:

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