All the top moves, shakes and red hot takes from Azzet's editorial team are right here in your weekly business wrap every Friday (11 April, 2025).
As United States President Donald Trump's scorched earth tactics to restructure global trade send markets into flux make all the headlines, there's a little thing called a federal election on the horizon here in Australia too.
To kick off the week, our very own Mark Story reminded us how lower interest rates can impact shares as the U.S. market bloodbath continued its downward trajectory amid mixed messaging from U.S. officials.
That's because the Reserve Bank is now expected to reduce the cash rate to 3.1% after three or four cuts later this year, even as RBA governor Michele Bullock said it will “take some time” to see how the tariffs issue plays out, Azzet's Chloe Jaenicke reported today.
In positive news, U.S. Inflation fell - by just 2.4% - below the expected 2.6%, yet still offering a sign (or sigh…) of relief.
Markets dive, bounce and dive again
As we slid into the week, so did the markets, with the ASX 200 dipping to fresh 15-month lows and oil sunk to its lowest price in four years amid market volatility, as Azzet's market guru Oliver Gray pointed out.
That may have made Woodside an attractive M&A target - as other commodities such as copper, aluminium and nickel have had their recent price gains unravelled by recession talk.
Coal may have been the only commodity that chalked up a win this week, after the White House announced an executive order to revive U.S. domestic coal production.
As Trump told the world to “take their medicine” amidst the economic turmoil, real life turmoil continues to be played out on the streets of the Ukraine-Russia border, (with Chinese nationals?) while ceasefire negotiations hang on a knife-edge, as Azzet's Franckie Reid covers.
Markets did bounce later in the week, with their highest one-day trading rise in years. Wednesday's trade in the U.S. showed a brief respite for investors:
S&P 500 - up 9.52% to close at 5456.90 points
Nasdaq - up 12.16% to close at 17,124.97 points
Dow Jones Industrial Average - up 7.87% to close at 40,608.45 points
Apple - among the rest of the 'magnificent seven’ tech companies that top U.S. markets and shot up an average of 15% for the day - delivered its highest stock price rise in 27 years.
The bounce, or perhaps a dead cat bounce, ran off the news that Trump would wipe out reciprocal additional tariffs announced on countries for a 90-day period - keeping them all at a baseline 10%.
Except for China. Trump upped the Middle Kingdom's tariffs to a whopping 125%.
China reciprocated the gesture by banning seven rare earths, which could be a huge bargaining chip in this tiresome and globally affecting trade war, as Azzet's Cameron Drummond lays out in part one of a two part investigation in his Mission Critical column.
Tit-for-tat once more, Trump upped China's even further - revealing today that China would now be hit with a 145% levy on goods going into the U.S.
So China bit back, with its own rise to tax the U.S. 125% on imports. Talk about a pointless schoolyard fight between two bullies.
Super time to focus on retirement money
With trillions wiped out of global markets - US$9.6 trillion at one stage - Aussie super funds were urging people to stay calm while their retirement funds dipped heavily.
“Funds have been telling members to stick with their personal investment strategies, remember their retirement savings are invested for the long term, and read specially-created website pages and other content about market volatility,” - seems like good advice (disclaimer: do your own research).
With retirement money a hot topic, what better time for Azzet's Garry West to kick off his new fortnighly column Super Nation: Australia’s retirement savings industry in focus, stepping away from the daily news cycle to examine, explain and analyse key issues in one of Australia's largest, fastest-growing and most important industries.
This week, Garry takes a look at an ASIC review of what's been taking place in Australia's $4.2 trillion superannuation industry (one of the world's largest), to which 18 million Australians entrust their retirement savings.
Meanwhile, Star received a lifeline with a $300m deal giving US casino giant Bally control of the operator, making it just liquid enough to cling to life.
Prada is buying Versace, in a uniting of the luxury brands, and streaming service MAX has launched in Australia, Azzet's Harlan Ockey laid out.
Election news has heated up, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese viewed to have won the first debate (if you could call it that) between him and Opposition leader Peter Dutton.
In a campaign blow to the Liberal Party, the Greens have come out and said they won't support Dutton; and electricity costs for Australians are back on the agenda too.
