If you thought the markets were going to take a breather before the holiday season, you should look up the meaning of the most used work in finance right now - volatility. This week has been an absolute slugfest of capex one-upmanship, with the word "trillion" again being thrown around like confetti at a small cap funeral.
Between the AI arms race turning nuclear (literally and figuratively), Trump throwing tariff grenades at the dinner table, and NVIDIA reminding us all who actually runs this whole darn simulation, it’s certainly been a week for the history books. Or the bonfire. Take your pick.
All the top moves, shakes, and red hot AI stocktakes from Azzet's editorial team are right here in your weekly business wrap every Friday (21 November, 2025).
Here's what mattered this week…
The Leads
The AI Crown is Heavy: Just when you thought the AI hype cycle might be cooling off, the big boys decided to double down. Google dropped Gemini 3 like a mic on Wednesday, claiming state-of-the-art dominance.
But the ink wasn't even dry on that press release before stalwart tech giant Microsoft opened its war chest, handing AI chatbot leader Anthropic a casual US$30bn to make sure they don't lose ground.
Not to be outdone by the young guns, Jeff Bezos decided retirement was boring and is now Co-CEO of "Project Prometheus". It sounds like a Bond villain scheme, and given the gargantuan energy demands currently freaking out Washington, it might just burn as much carbon as one.
Nvidia’s Victory Lap: While everyone else is fighting over models, Nvidia is just selling the shovels. The chip giant knocked Q3 earnings out of the park on Thursday, with a level of smugness that comes with a $4.4 trillion dollar (A$6.82 trillion) market cap.
In tandem, investors were climbing over each other all week for a piece of its Blackwell action - it’s Nvidia’s world; we just live in it.
Trump’s Tariff Tantrum: The new administration is wasting no time rewriting the trade rulebook. Trump has been busy cutting tariffs on U.S. food imports while simultaneously slashing duties for the Swiss.
It’s a confusing cocktail of protectionism and favouritism that has New Zealand cheering and everyone else checking their spreadsheets.
Here's the rest of Azzet's news highlights:
Monday
The week kicked off with credit markets running red hot - a clear signal that risk appetite is back with a vengeance despite the macro headwinds.
Big pharma also came out swinging as Merck snapped up Cidara to bolster its pipeline, proving M&A is far from dead.
Locally, the Big Four banks were caught attempting to bypass mortgage brokers, a brazen power play that went down about as well as a bucket of cold sick with the intermediary industry.
- Geopolitics: Trump bought at least $82m in bonds between August and October (nothing to see here, folks), while Netanyahu doubled down on opposing a Palestinian state plan, further complicating the region's stability.
- Legal: A UK court finally found BHP liable for the Samarco dam disaster - a massive headache for the Australian miner that will likely result in a hefty payout.
- Corporate: Warner Bros amended its CEO package and South Korean giants pledged allegiance to the US market following a major deal.
Tuesday
In the words of Cersei Lannister, regulators woke up choosing violence. AUSTRAC is sniffing around super funds for laundering risks, putting the sector on high alert, while financial advisers are absolutely livid about the compensation levy hike.
Meanwhile, the RBA is sitting on its hands, preaching "patience" regarding future rate changes while the rest of us pay the mortgage.
On the equities front, Alphabet surged after news broke of a Berkshire Hathaway stake - seemingly the Oracle of Omaha has finally found a tech valuation he can stomach.
- Deals: J&J bought cancer startup Halda, and Ford partnered with Amazon to sell used cars, because apparently, you can buy everything on Prime now.
- Economy: The GLP-1 price war heated up with Novo trimming Ozempic/Wegovy costs, and fake online shops in Australia are surging 250% ahead of Black Friday sales next week. Watch your wallets.
- Global: The UN voted in favour of adopting Trump's Gaza resolution, and US international student enrolments plummeted by 17%.
- Earnings: TechnologyOne missed revenue targets, sending shares tumbling, but James Hardie nailed it with higher net sales.
Wednesday
Mid-week belonged to Big Tech and big guns. Aside from the Gemini launch, Meta secured a rare win against the FTC, proving that antitrust laws are apparently just suggestions in this brave new world. European defence giant Rheinmetall lifted its 2030 sales target to €50bn - a grim reminder that geopolitical instability is arguably the world’s most reliable growth sector.
- Industry: Mission Critical showed how CATL is expanding aggressively to drive EV innovation, continuing its global battery dominance.
- Consumer: Home Depot posted flat results, blaming a "lack of storms" (which is a grim metric for success), and the UK government banned resale tickets above face value.
- Macro: US private job losses slowed according to ADP, and homebuilder confidence ticked up a point, offering a glimmer of hope for the property market.
Thursday
Nvidia's earnings sucked all the oxygen out of the room, validating the bulls yet again, but there was plenty of drama elsewhere. The Fed remains hopelessly split on the path of rate cuts according to the latest minutes, leaving the market in a familiar state of limbo. In energy news, Japan is preparing to restart the world's biggest nuclear plant, signalling a pragmatic U-turn in the face of energy security fears.
- Shuffles: Larry Summers resigned from OpenAI over an Epstein connection (yikes), and Super funds are fleeing the U.S. for Chinese markets.
- Deals: Adobe dropped $1.9bn on Semrush, Block sees strong profit growth in its 3-year outlook, and Prada is eyeing more acquisitions after digesting Versace.
- Finance: Trump's administration loaned Constellation Energy $1bn, further blurring the lines between state and enterprise.
- Retail: Target hit the mark but with lower profits, highlighting the margin squeeze retailers are facing.
Friday
We ended the week with a massive M&A play as Abbott acquired Exact Sciences for a whopping $23bn.
On the flip side, Verizon is slashing over 13,000 jobs - ruthless efficiency is the flavour of the month in IT and communications.
Geopolitically, a leaked U.S.-Russia secret peace plan raised further pressure on Ukraine, threatening to redraw the map over the weekend.
- Market Movers: Webjet is taking off on a bid for Helloworld amid mixed performance, while one of 2025's ASX market darlings crashed and burned.
- Tech & Space: IBM and Cisco are teaming up on quantum advances, and Blue Origin is upgrading the New Glenn rocket.
- The Weird Stuff: Cloudflare had a major outage before restoring services, and the BLS just gave up on releasing October job data due to the shutdown.
- Super: Chant West says returns for 2025 are looking solid - finally, some good news.
- Earnings: Walmart posted an investment gain to close out the week.
What to watch next week?
Keep an eye on those Black Friday numbers. If the consumer cracks, that "soft landing" the Fed is dreaming of might just turn into a belly flop and ripple across global markets.
