Mega defence deal; WiseTech’s White investigated; bird flu lockdown

Mega defence deal; WiseTech’s White investigated; bird flu lockdown

News in brief

Federal police are investigating billionaire businessman and founder of Wisetech Global Richard White over claims he exploited a woman’s immigration status and financial insecurity for sex and provided false information on a visa application, according to Nine Media.

 

The local sharemarket closed down just a touch yesterday to 8816 points. The tech index was the worst performing, while health care and telcos also underperformed.

 

One of the nation’s biggest chicken producers, Ingham’s, has locked down operations in Western Australia after the highly infectious H5N1 bird flu was detected on the state’s south coast.

 

High-level negotiations in Switzerland seeking a permanent end to the Iran war have ended with lower-level talks planned for the rest of the week, as Iran and the US agreed to create a “deconfliction cell” to address the fighting in Lebanon.

 

A company causing a stir at the moment in the US, is a flying car company called Doroni. It is private, but last week reserved the Nasdaq ticker $DRNI, suggesting it wants to list.

Fear-o-meter

Westpac economist Matthew Hassan on the federal government’s proposed CGT and negative gearing changes:

 

The tax changes mainly affect new investor purchases of existing houses, removing the ‘negative gearing’ treatment allowing losses to be deducted from other income and switching from a flat 50% discount to CPI indexation for capital gains.

 

‘Grandfathering’ means existing investors are largely unaffected, with continued access to negative gearing benefits now a strong incentive for this group to retain assets. An exemption for newly-built dwellings means these will be more appealing for new investors going forward.

We expect the changes to drive a steep fall in investor activity with wider market turnover declining 20%.

 

Prices are expected to move 2% lower nationally, leaving them flat over calendar 2026. Corrections are more material in Sydney and Melbourne with price growth slowing abruptly in Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth but still coming in positive for the full year.

Fear & Greed Q+A today

On why inflation remains the biggest risk for investors, the potential for a 'day of reckoning', and why markets have looked through the Middle East conflict:

 

“I think from the get-go the market reaction has been fairly mild. We're talking about quite a significant disruption to the Strait of Hormuz. Twenty per cent of oil and gas on a daily basis normally flows through that strait.

 

But markets right from the get-go have sort of taken their cue from Donald Trump. They've learned from last year — Trump likes to TACO, Trump Always Chickens Out.

 

So consequently, markets have always been allowing for this possibility that he would chicken out and there would be some sort of deal.

 

And he's basically confirmed as much. He said he had to back down because otherwise we'd have a global recession. So I think markets basically have got it right.”

Canada will buy $2.5 billion worth of over-the-horizon radar systems from Australia in the largest defence export deal ever signed. The technology allows surveillance at ranges of up to 3,000 kilometres and is used to monitor the airspace to the north of Australia.

 

Canada, like Australia, has large areas to watch and will use the systems to engage in surveillance over the Arctic.

 

Defence Minister Richard Marles said it means Australia and Canada are now partners in the development of the radar systems.

 

It is the first sale of the technology, which was developed in northern Australia. The Jindalee Operational Radar Network, as it is properly known, keeps watch over air and sea movements across 37,000 sq kms.

 

Greed-o-meter

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Woodside topped the list of the most-traded Australian stocks last week, according to CommSec:

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Source: CommSec

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