📈 Women outperform men as investors | CBA reports 15% home loan applications fall

The Big Picture

• Women found to be better investors than men in UK study. Fidelity International found that females achieved returns of 50% over three years compared to 47% for men. The gap is due to women trading around half as frequently as men and taking a more patient, long-term approach. However, only 26% of women in the UK invest compared to 41% of men. Experts say the cautious instinct that keeps women out of the market in the first place is exactly what rewards them once they are in it. (BBC)
  
  

• Australia's home ownership rate may be lower than first thought. Australia's home ownership rate is often said to be 66% according to census data, but economist Karl Fitzgerald argues the real figure is closer to 52%. The gap stems from a census question that asks whether a house is owner-occupied, not whether the individual living in it actually owns it. Meaning young adults living with their mortgage-paying parents are counted as "home owners" in the official statistics. (ABC)
  
  

• Private health insurers accused of accessing patients' full medical records without consent. Insurers are facing scrutiny for "aggressive" audit practices by requesting patients' full clinical histories, a practice legal experts say violates patient privacy laws. One physiotherapist reported that when two-thirds of his patients refused to consent to releasing their records, Bupa threatening to refund $300,000 in benefits. The insurance industry says audits are required to manage $27 billion in annual healthcare payments. (ABC)
  
  

• US and Iran continue conflicting claims over Strait of Hormuz access. Oil rose more than 2% to close to US$90 a barrel after Iran's new head of the security declared the Strait of Hormuz will not reopen until America accepts Iran's conditions for ending the war. While President Trump told reporters American forces are in "total control" of the strait. (Al Jazeera)
  

Companies in the news

• Commonwealth Bank sees home loans fall 15%. The fall follows Westpac reporting a 20% decline and was attributed to three RBA rate increases and the federal budget’s tax changes. Investors were the biggest fall, down 28%, compared to a 9% fall for owner-occupiers. Despite the fall, CBA still reported record profits, up 7% for the year to $10.9 billion. (ABC)
  
  

• AGL profits hold steady as energy transition continues. Australia's largest electricity generator posted underlying net profit of of $631 million within it’s guidance. Grid-scale battery earnings grew as the business continues to transition away from coal. CEO Damien Nicks warned lower wholesale electricity prices in the market wouldn’t last as ageing coal plants become less reliable and begin to close. (AFR)
  
  

• Seek shares fall 14% as AI weighs on job listings and investor sentiment. The online employment marketplace reported a $307 million loss for the year, missing expectations of a $174 million profit. The company is down 44% from this time last year. CEO Ian Narev said AI is weighing on how investors view the company and the software industry while also beginning to impact job listing volumes. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• Premier Investments pulls Peter Alexander in UK as shares fall 11%. Solomon Lew's Premier Investments has downgraded its FY26 earnings guidance, with full-year sales also expected to fall as difficult retail conditions impacted the company. The company is exiting its Peter Alexander stores in the UK due to sustained underperformance coupled with a poor future outlook for the UK economy. (Capital Brief)
  
  

• OpenAI's chief operating officer departs as leadership exodus continues. Brad Lightcap, who held the COO title at the ChatGPT creator for four years, has announced his departure after eight years in total at the company. The exit is the latest in a string of senior departures at OpenAI, following product and business chief Fidji Simo and three other executives in April, as the company prepares for a major IPO at an US$852 billion valuation. (CNBC)

FinFest 2026 tickets are selling fast. Have you got yours?

Australia's biggest investing festival is back at the Carriageworks in Sydney on Saturday 24 October.

Over 70% of FinFest tickets have already been sold. Plenty of Equity Mates community members have already locked in their spot at FinFest 2026. So what are you waiting for? 

Hear from Joe Aston, Scott Phillips, Andrew Brown and many more. Whether you bought your first ETF last month or you've been investing for decades, there’s no other investing event in Australia quite like it. We’ll see you there! 

Dobby’s grave saved after $800m power cable rerouted

A £430 million ($823 million) undersea electricity cable connecting Britain and Ireland was rerouted after it was originally planned to run right under the burial site of Harry Potter's beloved companion Dobby, a freed elf who (spoiler alert!) tragically passes away in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1. But to be fair, the film came out in 2010, so if you haven't seen it yet, that's on you.

The cable, known as Greenlink and operated by Etchea Energy, was originally planned to run through Freshwater West Beach in Pembrokeshire, Wales, which is also home to a real-world memorial to Dobby, marked by a stone reading "Here Lies Dobby, A Free Elf." When fans caught wind of the plans, project manager Simon Ludlam received hundreds of calls urging him to rethink the route. Fortunately for Harry Potter fans, people power prevailed and the cable was shifted. So Dobby can continue to rest in peace, a free elf to the end. (The Guardian)

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They're building wealth, growing businesses, and making the financial decisions that matter. Interested? Advertise with Equity Mates.

Samsung’s 2026 Profit will exceed its entire 40-year history combined

Ren recently sat down with Sam Ruiz, portfolio specialist at T. Rowe Price, on Equity Mates Investing to chat all things AI and the companies benefitting. Samsung is certainly in that category with its eye-watering 2026 profit guidance figures that almost seem to good to be true. Catch the full conversation via the following links: (Spotify | Apple | YouTube)

Samsung has guided that its operating profit in 2026 alone will exceed the combined profit from its entire 40-year history. Four decades of building televisions, semiconductors and smartphones, and a single year of AI-driven memory demand will surpass all of it. Pretty mind-blowing stuff.

AI data centres have an insatiable appetite for memory, and the world does not have enough of it. One of the hyperscaler CEOs reportedly said they needed to invent a new word for price gouging to describe what memory suppliers are currently charging. Supply cannot keep up with demand, and the companies making the memory are printing money as a result.

Sam's preferred play in this space is actually SK Hynix over Samsung. Sam thinks that if the AI demand cycle runs longer than the market expects, SK Hynix will generate more cash in the next two to three years than its entire current market capitalisation.

There is however an important caveat, with memory being a notoriously cyclical industry. Cheap today can become oversupplied tomorrow. Sam's view is that this cycle has more runway than the market thinks, but it is not a set and forget position. It is one that requires watching.

• On Equity Mates Investing we chat all major headlines from the Aussie reporting season, we answer a community question about whether it matters what day of the week to DCA and also dive into Michael Burry’s latest holdings. (Spotify | Apple | YouTube)

• & Jess chats with Gav on Get Started Investing who was a self-confessed spender but is still able to invest for his future. (Spotify | Apple | YouTube)