Failed Firmus float to rock ASX; EV makers cut prices; have rents stopped rising?

Failed Firmus float to rock ASX; EV makers cut prices; have rents stopped rising?

News in brief

EV price war: Tesla has cut $9,000 from the entry price of its Model 3, while BYD is offering discounts of up to $7,000 as competition intensifies. Electric vehicles accounted for almost a quarter of Australian car sales last month.

 

Oil prices jump: Oil closed at $US104 a barrel following renewed threats to shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and deadly attacks on Saudi Arabia. Prices have risen 50 per cent since late February, adding to inflation concerns.

 

Brazil's beef challenge: Brazil has overtaken the US as the world's biggest beef producer and is looking for new export markets. That threatens Australian exporters, particularly if Brazil gains access to Japan and South Korea.

 

Adidas takes on White Fox: Adidas is suing Australian fashion retailer White Fox, alleging its four-striped clothing designs infringe the sportswear giant's famous three-stripe trademark. White Fox has reportedly refused requests to stop selling the products.

 

Trump tirades: US president Donald Trump has had a busy 36 hours, criticising judges of the Nobel peace prize for not awarding it to him, suggesting Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky should be replaced, and launching an investigation into major the news coverage of the TV networks.

Fear-o-meter

AMP economist My Bui on Wall Street:

 

Why haven’t shares fallen further, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq near record highs despite a near-zero equity risk premium and more than three weeks of bond yields above 5%?

 

The explanation is familiar: AI earnings remain solid, evident by TSMC’s quarterly revenue which was up 51%; markets expect the AI capex cycle to continue; and rising manufacturing and services PMIs are pointing to decent global growth around 3.3% this year.

 

But several risks are beginning to emerge. First, the equity rally is very narrow. Since mid-September, when the 10-year Treasury yield crossed 5%, Information Technology has been the only S&P sector to rise materially, gaining almost 7%, while most others were flat or lower.

 

Without IT, the S&P 500 would have fallen 0.5% rather than risen. Another evidence can be seen in the underperformance of the equal-weighted S&P 500 relative to the market-cap-weighted version, in which IT accounts for 60%.

Fear & Greed Q+A today

The Week Ahead with NAB, including why Thursday's unemployment figures matter so much:

 

"This will be the last employment print that we get before the RBA's meeting in early November. And so I think it's pretty important because at the moment we know that the RBA, their main concern is inflation. The recent data's been coming in too strong.

 

They can see where oil prices are, they can see some of the challenges from offshore in terms of those cost pressures that are flowing through the economy and keeping inflation elevated and keeping inflation risk elevated.

 

On the other side, they still characterise the labour market as a bit tight. They're not spooked by unemployment that's been creeping higher over the course of 2026 so far. But that's something that they will be closely watching.

 

In August the unemployment rate actually jumped up a little bit and a bit more than expected. The unemployment rate was 4.6 last month. The RBA was forecasting that the unemployment rate would end the year around 4.5 per cent. So it's threatening to move up a little bit more quickly than they expected."

Failed Firmus float raises questions about AI boom

 

The collapse of Firmus Technologies' $8 billion float has raised serious questions about the Australian sharemarket's ability to attract major listings, the brokers behind the deal, and whether investors are becoming more sceptical about the artificial intelligence boom.

 

The IPO was abandoned on Friday after failing to attract sufficient investor support for a proposed $44 billion valuation. That's despite lead brokers JPMorgan, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Morgans Financial initially suggesting demand was well above the shares available.

 

The failure is another setback for the ASX, which has lost major companies including Boral, Newcrest Mining, Afterpay and Sydney Airport in recent years. Its last major float was Endeavour Group in 2021.

 

But the bigger issue may be investor confidence in AI valuations. Firmus was seeking billions of dollars for an ambitious data-centre business, with 97 per cent of its proposed facilities still to be built.

Greed-o-meter

Rank	Model	Volume	YoY change %
1	Ford Ranger	5,062	+4.0
2	Toyota RAV4	4,624	+81.0
3	Tesla Model Y	4,476	+14.0
4	Toyota HiLux	4,455	-11.7
5	BYD Sealion 7	2,687	+42.4
6	Chery Tiggo 4	2,059	+0.5
7	GWM Haval Jolion	2,018	+7.3
8	Geely EX5	2,008	+620.0
9	Toyota Prado	2,006	+6.4
10	Isuzu D-Max	1,866	-6.2

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The Ford Ranger is back as Australia’s best-selling vehicle, with 5,062 sales in September, ahead of the Toyota RAV4 and Tesla Model Y. But electric vehicles continue to gain ground, outselling petrol-only and diesel-only cars for the second consecutive month. EV sales more than doubled from a year earlier, with three electric models now featuring in the top 10, according to figures from the FCAI and Electric Vehicle Council.

Listen to today's episode 🎧 

Source: FCAI and Electric Vehicle Council, reported by Drive