News & Insights
European stocks close mixed and Asia-Pacific markets rise as investors assess renewed Middle East hostilities
8 Sep 2026
European stocks ended Monday’s session in mixed territory after Asia-Pacific markets broadly rose, with investor attention focused on the latest developments in the U.S.-Iran war. The pan-European Stoxx 600 benchmark closed just below the flatline. France’s CAC 40 led…
Read moreSantos boosts stake in $19.5b Papua LNG project
8 Sep 2026
Santos will proceed later this year to build a $19.5 billion LNG project in Papua New Guinea after its French partner TotalEnergies announced a suite of deals that include Australian second-largest oil and gas company…
Read moreI’ve never bought shares. How do I start investing?
Investing for the first time feels a bit like going bouldering. It looks fun, but the fear of falling on your face and breaking a bone seems reason enough to stay away. The good news…
ASX to edge up, shares to grind higher in 2026 as rate talk dominates
Equity markets are expected to grind higher this week despite the risk to the oil price from the US capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, as investors await key pieces of economic data that could…
S&P 500 closes higher on first trading day of 2026 as chip stocks offer small boost to the market
The S&P 500 closed slightly higher on Friday, the first trading day of 2026, as gains in semiconductor names kept the index afloat. The benchmark closed up 0.19% at 6,858.47, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 0.03% to finish at…
Google wraps up best year on Wall Street since 2009, beating megacap peers as AI story strengthens
After a tough start to the year, Google closed out 2025 with its strongest performance — from Wall Street’s perspective — since 2009, when the company’s shares doubled coming out of the financial crisis. Alphabet’s stock popped 65% for the…
Santos misses end-of-year deadline for first Barossa LNG cargo
Santos has missed its end-of-year deadline to ship the first cargo of LNG from its $6.1 billion Barossa gas project in the Timor Sea, creating an early threat to a forecast big lift in the…
Wall Street’s biggest winners and losers in 2025
The S&P 500 Index is poised to end 2025 up more than 17 per cent as the bull market continues for a third year driven by enthusiasm for artificial intelligence. The AI trade broadened out…
Sovereign funds push into tech as assets swell to $22.5trn
Sovereign wealth funds globally amassed a record $US15 trillion ($22.5 trillion) in assets under management in a year when many deepened their technology investments and profited from buoyant markets, according to a new report by Global…
Economist Mark Zandi sees the Fed surprising with three rate cuts in first half of 2026
Labor market weakness, uncertainty about inflation and political pressure will push the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates aggressively in the early part of 2026, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. Though…
Fed minutes show officials were in tight split over December rate cut
Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/30/fed-minutes-december-2025.html
Tesla publishes downbeat analysts’ car sales estimates
Tesla published a compilation of analyst estimates for vehicle deliveries to its website, and the averages for the current quarter are more pessimistic than those gathered by Bloomberg. By Tesla’s count, analysts on average expect…