Today’s News

The Big Picture

• No deal after 21-hour US-Iran talks. The first day of peace talks concluded yesterday as US Vice President JD Vance said negotiations with Iran ended without agreement, with Washington delivering its “final offer”. The talks took place in Islamabad, Pakistan with the US requiring a “fundamental commitment” from Iran to not develop nuclear weapons. In the Strait of Hormuz, the US reported that two of its ships sailed through to begin clearing sea mines — a move Iran denies. (ABC)
  
  

• Albo jet sets to lock in Australia’s fuel. PM Anthony Albanese has met with Singapore’s leader Lawrence Wong, with both nations agreeing to support each other’s energy needs. Singapore is Australia’s largest petrol supplier and a key source of diesel and jet fuel, making the relationship critical. With fears global refineries could scale back and export controls increase, Albanese is expected to visit more countries in the region to secure further fuel commitments. (ABC)
  
  

• Govt spends $20m to urge Australian’s against fuel use. The federal government is asking Australians to use less fuel to keep essential services running, rolling out its “Every little bit helps” campaign nationwide from today. Appearing across TV, digital and billboards, the campaign encourages drivers to cut back on trips and adopt simple habits like ‘smoother driving’ and reducing ‘excess weight’ to improve fuel efficiency. (ABC)
  
  

• Gulf states caught in crossfire. The conflict has delivered a worst-case scenario for nations like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain, with damaged infrastructure, disrupted travel and an exodus of tourists hitting economies hard. Despite decades of planning and hosting US military support as a safeguard, analysts say neighbouring countries are now “paying the price” for a conflict they didn’t start. (ABC)

Companies in the news

• AustralianSuper CEO calls out Australia’s housing obsession. Paul Schroder says the country needs to rethink its heavy reliance on property, arguing too much capital is tied up in housing and not enough in productive investment. He warned it’s “nonsense” to expect improved affordability or lower prices under current settings, given how deeply the economy is built around the housing market. (ABC)
  
  

• Atlassian pushes AI pivot, investors aren’t sold. CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes says AI is the most exciting technology of his lifetime and key to the future of Atlassian, despite the company losing nearly $40bn in value over the past four months. Shares have been hammered in the broader ‘SaaSpocalypse,’ down 63% this year and 87% from 2021 highs. The company has pushed ahead with an AI-led strategy, including its largest-ever acquisition and 1,600 job cuts, but investors are yet to be convinced. (AFR)
  
  

• Molotov thrown at OpenAI CEO’s home. A 20-year-old man has been arrested in San Francisco after allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at Sam Altman’s home, setting a gate on fire. The suspect fled the scene but later turned up at an OpenAI office, where he reportedly threatened to “burn down the building.” Police arrested the man shortly after with the investigation said to remain ‘open and active.’ (BBC)
  
  

• Bapcor and Amotiv nervous as EV shift accelerates. Rising oil prices are boosting demand for electric vehicles. But the shift is creating challenges for traditional auto parts retailers that rely on servicing petrol and diesel cars. Companies like Bapcor and Amotiv are among the most exposed, with analysts warning their core products, from oil filters to fuel pumps, could face declining demand as EV adoption accelerates. (AFR)
  
  

• Amazon tees off with first-ever Masters coverage. Prime Video has secured rights to stream the Masters for the first time, becoming just the fourth-ever media partner of the tournament, alongside CBS and ESPN and former partner USA Network. The deal adds to Amazon’s growing sports portfolio, which already includes the NFL and NBA. (NYT)
  
  

• Kodak’s film bet pays off in Hollywood comeback. Once facing doubts over its survival, Eastman Kodak reversed plans to shut a key film component factory after pressure from director Christopher Nolan. Years later, that call is paying off, with multiple 2026 Oscar-winning films shot on Kodak film and a broader resurgence in analogue driven by Hollywood and younger audiences. The turnaround is showing up in the numbers too, with shares up 93% over the past year and fourth-quarter gross profit rising 31% to $67 million. (CNBC)

What the…?

UTS spends $1.5m on leadership coach before cuts. The University of Technology Sydney spent nearly $1.5m on an executive leadership coach in the lead-up to major budget cuts, as it grappled with ongoing deficits. The university planned to save $100m at the time and spent $7m on external consultants from KPMG to provide advice on the planned savings.

Since then, more than 100 academic roles have been cut and hundreds of courses scrapped — leaving staff questioning why millions were spent externally while cost-cutting was underway. (ABC)

A message from Vanta

Vanta automates your compliance process and brings compliance, risk, and customer trust together on one AI-powered platform.

Whether you’re prepping for your ISO 27001 or SOC 2, or running an enterprise GRC program, Vanta keeps you secure - and keeps your deals moving. Companies like Dovetail, Ramp and Writer spend 82% less time on audits with Vanta. That’s not just faster compliance - it’s more time for growth. Watch the on-demand demo to see how it works. 

Today’s Insight

3 Stocks Buzzing on X

On a recent episode of Equity Mates Investing Simon unpacks three stocks buzzing on X as our resident X enthusiast. These companies have been coming up again and again, so we dive a bit deeper into all three in the episode. (Spotify | Apple | YouTube)

AST Space Mobile (NASDAQ: ASTS)

AST Space Mobile want to build a space-based cellular broadband network. So in plain English, it wants ordinary mobile phones to be able to connect directly to satellites. So no special satellite handset, just your normal phone. And it's buzzing on X because if it works, the addressable market is huge. They did report about $71m in full year revenue in 2025, but then I got more than $1.2bn in contracted commitments and they're targeting to get 45 to 60 satellites in orbit by the end of this year.

Nebius (NASDAQ: NBIS)

Nebius are an AI cloud infrastructure company. In simple terms, they provide the computing backbone for training and deploying AI models. So they're a picks and shovel play really in the AI trade. You don’t need to bet on which model wins just like the infrastructure boom behind it. This one's buzzing really because the growth is eye catching. So their full year 2025 revenue was $530m, but that was up 479% year on year. the company also has some relationships with big players including Nvidia and Meta.

Rocket Lab (NASDAQ: RKLB)

Originally were purely a rocket launch company, but are increasingly becoming a broader space systems and defence business. Some people consider it a little brother to SpaceX. Their financials are very real and scaling. So they reported $600m-ish of full revenue for 2025. They also reported a backlog of about $1.85bn in contracts already won. And the thing that has gotten X really buzzing, it's got a founder with a cult following. Peter Beckis his name, and he said he's cutting his salary to $1 to redirect it all to research and development.

Today in Equity Mates