The G7’s proposed price floor for critical minerals effectively marks the end of the free market in the resources sector. For three decades, the global economy treated commodities as neutral inputs that traded efficiently based on price and availability, but that structure collapsed in Washington this week. Azzet’s Mission Critical is a weekly column that lays out the ebbs and flows around crit
United States President Donald Trump has signalled a retreat from EU trade hostilities at Davos, announcing a preliminary NATO agreement regarding Greenland. Writing on Truth Social on Wednesday, the President stated he had reached the "framework of a future deal", following discussions with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. The announcement appears to have effectively halted the administra
Johnson & Johnson beat estimates on revenue and earnings last quarter, despite hits to profits from acquisitions and tariff relief agreements. Revenue was US$24.56 billion, up from $22.52 billion one year ago and above LSEG estimates of $24.16 billion. Earnings per share (EPS) came in at $2.46, rising from $2.04 and passing estimates of $2.44. “2025 was a catapult year for Johnson & Johnson,
A new peace talks meeting between the United States and Russia has been announced, with ‘land deals’ expected to be discussed. U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff confirmed more talks would be taking place on Thursday, with Russian President Vladimir Putin, at the request of the Kremlin. This will be the latest in a string of meetings between the two nations, as the Trump administration continu
Amazon recently rolled out its artificial intelligence health-care assistant in the United States for the members of its primary care chain One Medical, joining OpenAI and Anthropic, which have launched similar features. The tool is called Health AI and uses large language models from Amazon’s Bedrock service to answer questions and provide members with personalised advice based on their medica
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Fresh Australian labour force data surprised to the upside in December, with stronger-than-expected job gains pushing the unemployment rate lower, according to figures released Thursday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). The unemployment rate fell to 4.1% in December from 4.3% in November on a seasonally adjusted basis. Employment rose by 65,200 over the month, with gains split be
Sony and TCL Electronics have confirmed they are moving forward with discussions for a partnership between the two companies. In a statement released today, it was confirmed that they would be taking the next steps for a “strategic partnership in the home entertainment field", in the form of signing a memorandum of understanding. As outlined in the document, a global joint venture will be es
United States pending home sales fell by 9.3% in December amid a slump in inventory, according to the National Association of Realtors (NAR). Pending sales dropped across all regions during the month, and were also down 3.3% year-over-year. “The housing sector is not out of the woods yet,” said NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun. “After several months of encouraging signs in pending contracts
Blue Origin has announced the launch of ‘TeraWave’, a proprietary satellite communications network designed to rival Elon Musk’s SpaceX. The system targets high-speed connectivity for enterprise and government clients, placing Jeff Bezos’ space company in direct competition with the market leader.Network SpecificationsFilings with the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) indicate the Te
Super Nation is a fortnightly column that examines, explains and analyses key issues in one of Australia's largest, fastest-growing and most important industries: superannuation. Lobbying is well underway to see who will be responsible for funding the scheme that compensates Australians who lose money due to bad financial advice or product failures. The competition among advocates is to be e