Market Reports

• Australian Market Report: Australia’s sharemarket gained more than $30 billion in value to close at a record high on Wednesday, as a flurry of corporate news buoyed sentiment and stocks tracked gains on Wall Street.... [more]

• U.S. Market Report: The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq hit two-week highs on Wednesday as technology stocks remained in favor while investors weighed risks to the AI trade and mounting tariff uncertainties ahead of Nvidia's earnings due later in the day..... [more]

• European Market Report: European stocks traded at record highs on Wednesday after Anthropic announced new partnerships, helping ease artificial-intelligence disruption concerns..... [more]

• Asian Market Report: Asian stocks followed Wall Street higher on Wednesday, with Japanese and South Korean shares rallying to record highs on strength in technology stocks..... [more]

Australian Business News

• Inflation rose in January to 3.8 per cent, raising expectations of another rate rise. A leading economist has issued a dire warning on the strategies being used to contain inflation, saying they aren’t working fast enough..... [more]

• The great Australian dream of owning your own home is becoming increasingly unrealistic for many young Australians, new research from real estate platform Domain has confirmed..... [more]

• Sequoia Financial Group is looking to reduce its reliance on its under-pressure licensee, InterPrac, relying on diversity of its other divisions to ensure its survival. The company’s “Comprehensive review” of InterPrac .... [more]

• One of Australia's biggest iron-ore players has turned its interim earnings into a dividend machine for investors after hitting a speed bump in its plan to become a global green hydrogen force. But Fortescue .... [more]

• Pacgold Limited has inked a new deal in South Australia to produce gold from its Wadnaminga project, opening the door to reprocess old waste dumps near its flagship White Dam heap leach operation..... [more]

• Critica Limited has kicked off a major resource upgrade aircore (AC) drilling campaign at its flagship Jupiter rare earths project in Western Australia’s Mid West region, with the program results expected to be a core input.... [more]

• Hillgrove Resources had a defining year in 2025, delivering an earnings boost at its Kanmantoo underground copper mine in South Australia while planting the seeds for future production growth and exploration upside..... [more]

• Lindian sharpens Malawian rare earths delivery with key hire. Lindian Resources has appointed seasoned veteran Cliff Webster.... [more]

• DroneShield shares (ASX:DRO) jumped today, as the company delivered a standout full-year result that demonstrated its ability to convert a rapidly expanding sales pipeline into substantial revenue and profit growth..... [more]

• It took 15 months to narrow a field of 270 artificial intelligence experts to 12 nominees for an AI authority, at a cost of almost $200,000, before it was suddenly scrapped.... [more]

• WiseTech rallies 10% on earnings beat, AI-driven job cuts steal the spotlight. Will Taylor of ETF Shares explains why AI may enhance the product but WiseTech’s value comes from its deeply embedded network..... [more]

• WiseTech Global to cut 2,000 jobs as AI ends era of 'manually writing code'.... [more]

• Imugene Ltd (ASX:IMU, OTC:IUGNF, FRA:ILA) has received a nearly A$2.74 million research and development tax refund for the 2025 financial year, bolstering its funding position.... [more]

• Domino’s has slashed its “crazy” low price pizza deals prompting one in 10 of its bargain hunting customers to get their pizza elsewhere. In its half-year financial results posted on Wednesday, Domino’s recorded an after-tax profit.... [more]

• Profit-making Compumedics clocks record sales in H1FY26; SaaS revenue up +56%.... [more]

• Jumbo Interactive Ltd (ASX:JIN, OTC:JBINF) has delivered a robust first-half result, posting a 22.6% jump in underlying group EBITDA to $37.5 million despite a notably quiet jackpot season in Australia.... [more]

• The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s case that Coles misled customers with its “Down Down” promotions has faced a wall of critical questioning, with the judge hearing the case interrogating whether it has failed.... [more]

• Woolworths' shares surge on 1H26 earnings and dividend beat, sales gap with Coles narrows.... [more]

• Comment - Matt Wacher: Investors continue to enjoy gains as markets move higher, with unfashionable countries and sectors outperforming and highly speculative assets like crypto falling sharply..... [more]

• Comment - Greg Jericho: Finally fixing capital gains tax is good – but linking it to another tax cut for Australia’s rich is bollocks.... [more]

• Comment/Analysis - Samantha Menzies: Average superannuation balance at age 49 versus what you really need. How much do you have in your super?.... [more]

World Business News

• Mortgage rates dipped below a key threshold this week. That could be a boon for Donald Trump's affordability push, but it's not necessarily for the reason the president wants..... [more]

• Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City President Jeffrey Schmid said on Wednesday that overly high inflation remains a key problem the central bank needs to address, but he stopped short of saying how monetary policy should respond..... [more]

• Fears of a software apocalypse could drag the market into another sharp decline. That's according to Wall Street forecasters who say they're eyeing an increased risk of another sharp pullback in US stocks amid the chaos.... [more]

• Trump says AI will pay its fair share for electricity. Don’t expect cheaper power bills soon..... [more]

• Andrew Left thinks he sees a big mismatch between investor perception and reality when it comes to SanDisk stock. SanDisk has been on a tear, surging more than 1,200% in six months.... [more]

• The technology stock trade has stumbled out of the starting block in 2026, stemming from pressure from artificial intelligence disruption fears and the allure of groups that have lagged, but the broader market may struggle .... [more]

• Jamie Dimon says AI euphoria, record stocks and banks doing ‘dumb things’ could lead to another financial crisis.... [more]

• JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon said the bank is taking steps to address the impact of artificial intelligence on its workers, and part of what he said should be a broader societal response to the potentially disruptive nature of AI..... [more]

• Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave Anthropic’s CEO a Friday deadline to open the company’s artificial intelligence technology for unrestricted military use or risk losing its government contract, according to a person familiar.... [more]

• Anthropic ditches its core safety promise in the middle of an AI red line fight with the Pentagon.... [more]

• Waymo robotaxis now available in 10 cities.... [more]

• David Ellison has a rocky history at the box office. Buying Warner Bros. could fix that.... [more]

• Paramount has officially raised its offer for Warner Bros. Discovery, CNN’s parent company, to $31 per share, and now the WBD board says it is extending the window for talks with Paramount about a possible deal..... [more]

• Eleven US states urge DOJ to thoroughly probe Netflix-Warner Bros. deal.... [more]

• Oracle shares have been battered as investors worry about the company’s debt levels and whether OpenAI will follow through on its commitments, but some analysts now see a buying opportunity..... [more]

• Discord postpones age verification rollout amid criticism, promises transparency.... [more]

• An editor who works for YouTube's biggest creator, MrBeast, has been suspended from the prediction market platform Kalshi and reported to federal regulators for insider trading, .... [more]

• DoorDash exits 4 markets, including Japan, to focus on growth elsewhere.... [more]

• Law firms representing nearly 20,000 people who sued Bayer over alleged injuries from its Roundup weedkiller urged a Missouri judge to delay reviewing the German company’s proposed $7.25 billion nationwide settlement.... [more]

• Larry Summers to retire from Harvard amid Epstein scandal.... [more]

• Colombia's government is seeking to transfer 25 trillion pesos ($6.75 billion) managed by private pension funds to state administrator Colpensiones, according to a draft decree from the labor ministry published late on Tuesday..... [more]

• The prospect of an interest rate cut next month is a “genuinely open question”, the governor of the Bank of England has said. Andrew Bailey told MPs on Tuesday he will need to be confident he has seen “enough further evidence”.... [more]

• Energy bills will fall by £117 for millions of households in Britain from April. Ofgem cap drops by 7% to £1,641 a year for consumers’ average gas and electricity costs.... [more]

• Google to test changes to search results, source says as EU fine looms.... [more]

• Man Utd post profit but debt rises to £1.3bn.... [more]

• Blaming Tariffs, Aston Martin Will Trim 20% of Its Work Force. The luxury automaker said losses for 2025 had increased from the year before, as tariffs and geopolitical uncertainty took a toll on its operations..... [more]

• Gucci is facing a backlash after using AI to generate images to promote its forthcoming show at Milan Fashion Week. The images have been posted on social media - where users have questioned how using AI instead of human models.... [more]

• Santander's (SAN.MC), executive chair Ana Botin was paid 18.54 million euros ($21.88 million) in 2025, up 34.6% from 13.77 million euros in 2024, the lender said in its annual report on Wednesday..... [more]

• Hong Kong is aiming to sharpen its competitive edge as an offshore yuan hub, an asset and wealth management base, and a digital-asset front runner under Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po’s budget released on Wednesday..... [more]

• Mercedes says personal relations with China important for economic ties.... [more]

• The founder of Chinese fast-fashion giant Shein made a rare public appearance on Tuesday, as he re-affirmed his ties to Beijing and investments in the country's clothing industry..... [more]

• ByteDance valuation said to hit record US$550 billion in proposed equity sale.... [more]

• Brookfield-backed Clean Max Enviro Energy Solutions' 31 billion-rupee ($341 million) initial public offering, was subscribed 0.94 times as of 5:10 pm IST on Wednesday, exchange data showed, in a muted reception for India's biggest.... [more]