Market Reports

• Australian Market Report: The local sharemarket posted a volatile start to the week on Monday. The S&P/ASX 200 closed almost entirely flat, gaining just 2.5 points to 8808 by market close..... [more]

• U.S. Market Report: Wall Street indexes fell on Monday as a fresh escalation between the U.S. and Iran ​in the Gulf pushed oil prices higher and unnerved investors, while chip stocks extended their recent slide..... [more]

• European Market Report: European stocks turned in a lackluster performance on Monday as investors shrugged off escalating geopolitical tensions and shifted focus to the earnings season, with major U.S. banks, including Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan.... [more]

• Asian Market Report: Asian markets fell on Monday amid renewed tensions in the Middle East and anxiety over the status of the Strait of Hormuz..... [more]

Australian Business News

• Australian treasuries are likely to absorb a potential oil-price shock, while those of New Zealand remain vulnerable as renewed tensions in the Middle East revive concerns that central banks may need to keep policy tighter for longer.... [more]

• The 10 most shorted ASX stocks plus the biggest risers and fallers – Week 29. Shorters cover Boss Energy bets and unwind bearish positions in Megaport, Zip and Neuren, while resource shorts build..... [more]

• 12 picks for an income portfolio - Q2 2026 update. Passive income growth continues to exceed my target..... [more]

• The top-performing Australian equities funds of FY26. In a lacklustre year for the ASX, it was a very different story for the active managers who made this list..... [more]

• ASIC hits Deutsche Bank with $2m penalty. Deutsche Bank has been hit with a $2 million penalty for misreporting more than 260,000 over-the-counter derivative transactions..... [more]

• Labor's trust tax proposal leaves small businesses waiting to see what states will do with stamp duty..... [more]

• Victorian businesses ‘scrambling’ ahead of state’s work from home law change. A peak employer group is warning companies could struggle to comply with one state’s new work from home laws by the September deadline..... [more]

• Dalaroo Metals says it has completed a transformational field program at its Blue Lagoon rare earths project in southern Greenland, evolving the asset from an early-stage concept into a well-defined regional system.... [more]

• Infini Resources has added another layer of technical polish to its Portland Creek uranium play in Newfoundland, Canada, completing a high-resolution airborne radiometric survey as boots hit the ground.... [more]

• Manuka Resources boosts Wonawinta silver reserve by 28% ahead of production restart.... [more]

• McLaren Minerals has completed the biggest drilling campaign yet at its McLaren titanium project 150km east of Norseman in Western Australia. The drill bit didn’t disappoint, delivering heavy mineral (HM) grades.... [more]

• The drill bit has officially kissed the ground, kicking off MetalsGrove Mining’s significant 10,000-metre auger drilling campaign at its Zuénoula permit, which forms part of the company’s 1315-square-kilometre Central West project.... [more]

• Delorean has received a $1.66m grant payment from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency, marking the third cash milestone under its $7.74m funding agreement for the SA1 Salisbury bioenergy facility in South Australia..... [more]

• AGL Energy Shares Hit 52 Week Low As Support Tested.... [more]

• Coles Group Ltd (ASX:COL) is reportedly nearing an agreement to acquire Petbarn owner Greencross in a deal worth more than $4 billion including debt, marking a major expansion beyond its core supermarket business..... [more]

• With an El Niño looming, Australia has new laws to stop water market manipulation. It might feel strange to talk about being able to trade water as a financial asset, in the same way as company shares or bonds. But water is big business..... [more]

• Women’s clothing and activewear Stax has entered into voluntary liquidation, with urgent assessment of the business underway. In a grim update from the ACCC, the business appointed Brian Silvia and Michael Hird of Cascap Advisory.... [more]

• Comment/Analysis -Grace Alvino: How much could a $500,000 ASX share portfolio pay in dividends? I think the smartest income portfolios focus on more than just the biggest dividend number..... [more]

• Explainer - Jonathon Davidson: Who are SK Hynix, and how did they end up part of Wall Street’s AI party?.... [more]

World Business News

• Trump Restarts Iran Blockade as US Plans 20% Hormuz Charge.... [more]

• Oil prices were surging on Monday, with the global benchmark topping $82 a barrel after President Donald Trump reimposed the naval blockage on the Strait of Hormuz in response to the renewed strikes between the U.S. and Iran.... [more]

• Trump invested crypto gains in stocks and bonds, filings show. President Donald Trump’s financial disclosures show that even as he and his two eldest sons were encouraging investors to plow their money into crypto projects.... [more]

• China’s Next Move May Decide Whether Oil Prices Soar. For decades, OPEC influenced the market by how much oil it produced. But China, the largest importer, is demonstrating its remarkable power over prices..... [more]

• Corporate America is getting an accidental stimulus. Billions of dollars collected through court-invalidated tariffs are flowing back to businesses confronting stubborn cost pressures..... [more]

• Hundreds of economists say ‘we must act now’ on AI’s economic impact and job displacement risks. The statement released Monday was signed by top economists, along with computer scientists and some executives.... [more]

• Expectations are high that when banks start posting second-quarter results Tuesday, led by JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, revenue from trading equities and fixed income will approach, or even exceed, the records set earlier.... [more]

• A US judge has voided a legal agreement between President Donald Trump and federal agencies that granted him immunity from tax audits and allowed his administration to create a since-abandoned $1.8bn (£1.3bn).... [more]

• Meta is scaling up what was already slated to become its largest AI data center, a Louisiana campus that the tech giant says has fueled "life-changing returns" for local teachers and businesses..... [more]

• Meta and Amazon are leading a trillion-dollar Big Tech spending spree. As the cost of AI infrastructure continues to increase, Morgan Stanley says Big Tech capital expenditures are on track to hit new records.... [more]

• Elon Musk and Sam Altman are fighting in public again.... [more]

• Shares of South Korean memory chipmaker SK Hynix rose 12.8% as they made their debut on Wall Street, at a time when demand for chips is surging thanks to the frenzy around artificial intelligence..... [more]

• Micron and other chip stocks feel the pain of imported volatility — blame SK Hynix. Shares of Micron Technology, along with those of other memory-chip makers, sank Monday, as a historic decline.... [more]

• A group of 12 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit Monday challenging Paramount Skydance’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery The lawsuit, which came after weeks of speculation on if and when it would be filed.... [more]

• The U.S. ​Federal Aviation Administration on Monday closed its review into a SpaceX (SPCX.O), Starship booster's return failure that occurred ‌during a flight test in May, clearing the way for Elon Musk's company to launch.... [more]

• US' NATO shift negative for Europe's sovereign ratings - Moody's. NATO ​in Turkey last week saw its 32 member countries agree to ​shift the balance ​of responsibility for Europe's defence to ‌the ⁠alliance's European members.... [more]

• Ocado investors will be hoping the retail technology giant can point towards a positive outlook for the coming years amid reported unrest amongst its leadership..... [more]

• British nationals can expect shorter passport queues at Swiss airports and border crossings after a £5.2bn trade deal was sealed by Keir Starmer, likely his last big international agreement as prime minister..... [more]

• Volkswagen planning to cut up to 100,000 jobs globally.... [more]

• Helsing said on Monday it had raised $1.8 billion in ​a Series E funding round that values ‌the Munich-based firm at $18 billion, cementing its position as the continent's best-funded defence technology startup..... [more]

• New era for Gibraltar with removal of 118-year-old border controls with Spain. It is hoped that free movement between the UK territory and Spain will provide an economic boost..... [more]

• Washington Is Looking to Keep China From Training Its AI on US Models. Anthropic and OpenAI’s warnings about “adversarial distillation” are reinvigorating one of the oldest debates in Silicon Valley..... [more]

• After China’s cross-border deals for innovative drugs hit a record US$110 billion in the first half of 2026, the sector is now pivoting towards artificial intelligence-powered candidates to drive the next wave of transactions..... [more]

• Shein Is Said to Target Up to $3 Billion Hong Kong IPO by August.... [more]

• Xpeng, armed with road-tested tech, ready to take on Tesla overseas: executive. The Guangzhou-based company will expand its self-driving technology to international markets, challenging its US rival in Europe.... [more]

• Trade talks between India ​and the U.S. are "progressing well" and New Delhi ‌does not see any challenges in successfully concluding a deal, India's trade secretary said on Monday..... [more]

• Aditya Birla Renewables Ltd (ABRen), the renewable energy arm of Grasim Industries, has entered into an agreement to acquire Sprng Energy from Shell Overseas Investment BV in a transaction worth about $1.8 billion. .... [more]

• India's Maxivision Super Specialty Eye Hospitals, backed by healthcare-focused buyout firm Quadria Capital, has ​appointed ICICI Securities and IIFL Capital as bankers ‌for a planned 2027 initial public offering.... [more]

• Gwadar’s missing cargo and fast-closing window. Pakistan government brief tallies yawning gap between what Gwadar Port promised and what it’s delivered 19 years on.... [more]

• Explainer - Valentina Za: Europe's digital euro: What it is and how it would work.... [more]

• Opinion - Shuli Ren: SK Hynix Is a Golden Goose. It Has to Lay More Eggs.... [more]

• Comment - Saqib Iqbal Ahmed and Laura Matthews: Global pension funds pull back on FX hedges as dollar woes ease. A solid U.S. dollar rally in 2026, driven ​by a hawkish Federal Reserve, has found support as global pension funds.... [more]