All the top moves, shakes and red hot takes from Azzet's editorial team are right here in your weekly business wrap every Friday (9 May, 2025).
Caution exercised as markets play tariff news pinball
Markets move, markets snap, they have a little crackle, and sometimes pop.
Wall Street has been doing all of that, as a United States-China trade war and tariff uncertainty has the markets moving on daily news updates and tweets from billionaires, presidents, and U.S. government finance officials.
Not the Federal Reserve though, not in this update.
While markets and analysts believe there’ll be three or four rate cuts by the end of the year, the Fed’s Jerome Powell exercised caution and made no changes to its monetary policy.
As our finance guru Oliver updated us yesterday, the Federal Open Market Committee kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged in a range of 4.25% to 4.5%.
“If the large increases in tariffs that have been announced are sustained, they are likely to generate a rise in inflation, a slowdown in economic growth, and an increase in unemployment,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said.
“The effects on inflation could be short-lived — reflecting a one-time shift in the price level.”
And finally some positive signs on the tariff front that market bulls could latch on to came overnight, as the U.S. and UK signed a landmark trade deal reducing tariffs on carmakers, steelmakers and farmers.
Also today, the Vatican elected its new messenger of god, Pope Leo XIV, the 267th Bishop of Rome and the first Pope born in the U.S.
While he doesn't speak English, perhaps voting for an American pope will convince the Trump administration to lower Catholic nations' tariffs?
Meanwhile, India and Pakistan are butting heads once more, with India striking terrorist infrastructure over its borders.
Earnings reports and a legend retires
On Monday, Wall Street Hall of Famer Warren Buffet announced his retirement from his investment fund Berkshire Hathaway after a whopping six decades at the helm, writes our Harlan Ockey.
Buffett will ask the board to approve Greg Abel, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Energy and vice-chair of Berkshire Hathaway’s non-insurance operations, as his successor by the end of 2025.
“At [year's] end Greg would be the chief executive officer of Berkshire. I would still hang around and conceivably be useful in a few cases, but the final word would be what Greg said in operations, in capital deployment, whatever it might be,” said Buffett at the company’s annual shareholder meeting.
AI software giant Palantir recorded impressive quarterly growth - but not impressive enough for investors as its stocks sank 10%. Perhaps another case of buy the rumours, sell the news?
Apple sold corporate bonds to offset its US$900 million tariff hit and Ford seemed so disenfranchised, or confused about the tariffs, it forgot - or purposefully left out its future guidance information for its quarterly, which you can read about here.
Chipmaker AMD impresses with its quarterly report, with CPU and graphics sales driving a 36% rise in revenue.
Pharmaceutical Novo Nordisk also impressed with strong Q1 results in the expanding obesity market, while ironically two days earlier Weight Watchers voluntarily filed for bankruptcy after 62 years of diet advice.
Elsewhere…
South African miner Gold Fields consolidated its 50% stake in the Gruyere project to full ownership - right as gold hit record highs.
A $3.3 billion bid was rejected in March - but a second $3.7 billion second bid for its JV partner Gold Road Resources was accepted.
Tech billionaires Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos have bought ASX-listed AVZ Minerals' dormant lithium interests in the Democratic Republic of Congo, closening ties between the DRC and the U.S. to cement critical minerals supply chains, says our Mark Story.
Aussie bank quarterlies came in a bit below par, with Westpac mired by expenses and NAB wearing a higher tax squeeze - both with dips in net profit.
Disney has been going from strength to strength since it launched its Disney+ streaming service, reporting a 15% jump in revenue for the quarter.
Its CEO Robert Iger said Disney had a lot more to look forward to including its upcoming “theatrical slate”, the launch of ESPN’s new direct-to-consumer offering, and an unprecedented number of expansion projects in the Experiences.
Labor won the federal election but won't get carried away by its own huge-margin win apparently, and Greens leader Adam Bandt lost his seat of Melbourne - which he had held since 2010 - to Labor's Sarah Witty and blamed ‘the Trump effect’, which is a bit wild.
We wrote about future tech industries being worth a total 48 TRILLION dollars by 2040, De Beers exiting from fake diamonds and Orica's battle with TNT supplies.