Market Reports

• Australian Market Report: The Australian sharemarket closed in the red on Friday, dragged down by heavy falls in technology stocks. The S&P/ASX 200 was 125.90 points or 1.4 per cent lower at the end of the session.... [more]

• U.S. Market Report: Stocks have seen considerable volatility over the course of the trading day on Friday, with the major averages swinging wildly back and forth across the unchanged line following the steep drop seen in the previous session..... [more]

• European Market Report: European stocks turned in a mixed performance for a third straight session, with investors mostly reacting to corporate earnings updates and regional economic data on Friday..... [more]

• Asian Market Report: Asian stocks followed Wall Street lower on Friday as investors fretted over the impact of artificial intelligence on various sectors and looked to U.S. CPI data later in the day for clues on when the Federal Reserve might cut rates..... [more]

Australian Business News

• Is this week's reporting season carnage a sign of things to come?.... [more]

• ANZ Group (ANZ) shares jumped about 8% after its Q1 trading update showed a sharp lift in cash profit, driven largely by lower expenses and a small net interest margin (NIM) beat. Cash profit was $1.94bn for the quarter .... [more]

• If you have started 2026 feeling broke then you are not alone, with one expert revealing the grim reason it has become such a universal feeling among Australians..... [more]

• Australia’s peak trade union body, the Australian Council of Trade Unions, has launched an attack on the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) accusing the regulator of prioritising an operating surplus.... [more]

• A 9.6% year-on-year increase has seen global pensions assets surge to a record US$ 68.3 trillion in 2025 as defined contribution (DC) savings continues to power growth, according to the Thinking Ahead Institute’s (TAI) latest.... [more]

• As the AI revolution juggernaut pushes on and the copper-silver data centre glut increases tensions, ASX-listed junior Patriot Resources has masterminded a globally scaled copper-silver portfolio to ride the explosive wave of demand.... [more]

• Alkane Resources posts record first-half revenue and earnings as expanded mine portfolio fires.... [more]

• Riding a red-hot gold market, Horizon Minerals has delivered a timely upgrade to its Kalgoorlie portfolio, boosting its global resource base to 34.3 million tonnes at 1.7 grams per tonne (g/t) gold for 1.88 million ounces..... [more]

• Kalgoorlie Gold Mining has chalked up encouraging results from maiden diamond drilling of its Kirgella Gift and Providence deposits at the company’s Pinjin gold project, .... [more]

• Albemarle lithium refinery closure gives WA government a critical minerals reality check.... [more]

• Austal shares (ASX: ASB) suffered their worst single-day decline in over a year after the shipbuilder revealed a significant accounting overstatement that slashed earnings guidance by nearly 19%,.... [more]

• Australia Post is moving to hike the price of postage stamps as the use of its mailing service drops to its lowest level in almost 90 years, driving an enormous $230m loss in that sector..... [more]

• Wesfarmers is embarking on a groupwide program that will see it use agentic AI to personalise retail experiences and reduce operational complexity..... [more]

• Comment - Mark LaMonica: Two competing views on AI hype. The visionary vs the contrarian..... [more]

• Opinion - Elizabeth Knight: How this Aussie appliance-maker dodged Trump’s tariff bullet. The company, which counts billionaire retailer Solomon Lew as its largest shareholder and which is known for its coffee machines.... [more]

• Comment/Opinion - Grace Alvino: ASX beginner? Here's what I would do if I were starting with $500. If I were starting with $500, I'd focus on habits, not hype..... [more]

World Business News

• A key measure of inflation fell to nearly a five-year low last month as apartment rental price growth slowed and gas prices fell, offering some relief to Americans grappling with the sharp cost increases of the past five years..... [more]

• From software to trucking, here are all the stock sectors that have been gripped by AI panic.... [more]

• AI disruption could spark a ‘shock to the system’ in credit markets, UBS analyst says.... [more]

• Dip-buyers in the retail crowd rushed back into stocks and ETFs after last week's big software-led plunge, JPMorgan says. JPMorgan quantitative strategists examined trading trends among retail investors.... [more]

• BHP, Bridgestone, and more set to report earnings Monday.... [more]

• Rivian’s stock jumps 20% as investors cheer 2026 growth potential. Rivian expects to deliver up to 67,000 EVs this year, but could dole out more than $2.1 billion on capital expenditures as it expands its roadmap.... [more]

• Meta Plans to Add Facial Recognition Technology to Its Smart Glasses. In an internal memo last year, Meta said the political tumult in the United States would distract critics from the feature’s release..... [more]

• Miner Vale (VALE3.SA), on Thursday reported that its fourth-quarter net loss widened year-on-year, citing an impairment of nickel assets in Canada, yet analysts welcomed a core profit above expectations,.... [more]

• SpaceX reportedly mulls dual-class share structure for upcoming IPO.... [more]

• Blackstone Inc.’s private equity fund for wealthy individuals notched a net 20% gain last year, thanks in part to some artificial intelligence investments the firm doesn’t hold in its institutional portfolios..... [more]

• Wendy's closing hundreds of U.S. restaurants as sales plunge.... [more]

• Amazon’s smart doorbell maker Ring has terminated a partnership with police surveillance tech company Flock Safety. The announcement follows a backlash that erupted after 30-second Ring ad that aired during the Super Bowl.... [more]

• L'Oreal favours early access to Gucci beauty licence as Kering, Coty work towards deal, says CEO.... [more]

• Kathy Ruemmler, the top lawyer at storied investment bank Goldman Sachs and former White House counsel to President Barack Obama, announced her resignation Thursday, after emails between her and Jeffrey Epstein .... [more]

• The European Central Bank imposed a 7.55 million euro ($8.96 million) fine on French lender Crédit Agricole for failing to comply with its decision on climate-related and environmental risks, it said on Friday..... [more]

• Bank bosses get huge pay rises in sign top City salaries back to pre-crash highs. Nat West CEO’s £6.6m pay package for 2025 is largest for group since disgraced Fred Goodwin’s £7.7m in 2006.... [more]

• Lloyds has revealed that its boss’s pay package jumped by a fifth in 2025, and set out proposals that could mean he has the potential to earn as much as £17.7 million this year..... [more]

• Hedge fund bets against Hims & Hers Health hit their highest in at least a year in January, just before the online telehealth firm clashed with Novo Nordisk over its cut-price weight-loss pill, according to data.... [more]

• UK advertising agencies had their biggest annual exodus of staff last year, led by younger workers, as artificial intelligence tools threaten to replace workers and force the industry to cut jobs and costs..... [more]

• BBC to make hundreds of millions of pounds of cuts.... [more]

• China’s food delivery giant Meituan on Friday warned that it expected to post a loss of up to 24.3 billion yuan (US$3.5 billion) for 2025 due to “intense industry competition”, with the slump likely to persist this year..... [more]

• Markets likely mispricing Japan’s ‘Takaichi trade’. Japanese leader’s election landslide has won her a market reprieve but the risk of fiscal and monetary blowouts is as high as ever.... [more]

• The head of global ports operator DP World has left the company after mounting pressure over his links to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem's exit as chairman and chief executive comes.... [more]

• Africa leads growth in solar energy as demand spreads beyond traditional markets, report says.... [more]

• India's central bank proposes 10% exposure limit for banks lending to REITs.... [more]

• Prime minister Narendra Modi on Friday said India now accounts for about 16% of global economic growth and is positioned to become a key driver of world expansion in the coming years..... [more]

• Comment - Joey Roulette: Musk fires up SpaceX, Bezos pushes Blue Origin as US billionaires race China to moon. The space race between U.S. billionaires is heating up.... [more]