Mining stocks tumble, banks bounce; Apple’s slim iPhone; Ellison v Musk

Mining stocks tumble, banks bounce; Apple’s slim iPhone; Ellison v Musk

News in brief

The federal government will spend $1.7 billion building a fleet of AI-controlled underwater drones over the next five years, although it insists the decision had nothing to do with demands by the Trump Administration for Australia to increase its defence budget.

 

Soaring prices are making it more difficult to afford a house, according to a new report from Domain. “Affordable” homes are essentially becoming unaffordable. Houses priced in the 25th percentile – typically purchased by first home buyers – have increased in price at a greater rate than premium houses across most major capitals since 2022.

 

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is visiting Pacific nations, and yesterday a deal was done for Australia and Fiji to negotiate a new bilateral security treaty. It came a day after Vanuatu delayed signing an agreement with Australia, concerned about restrictions it might impose on spending from China.

 

Apple has launched a new slimline iPhone Air, the biggest change to the look of its flagship product in years, and the tech giant held smartphone prices steady despite pressure from the US trade disruption. Chief executive Tim Cook described the iPhone Air, which is 5.6mm thick, features a single camera on the back and is packed with Apple’s own custom chips, as the “biggest leap ever for iPhone”.

 

Oracle boss Larry Ellison is closing in on Elon Musk for the title of the world’s richest person, after the software group reported very strong quarterly results, sending its share price up 30 per cent. Ellison is now worth $US364 billion, within striking distance of Musk who sits at $US384 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Fear-o-meter

Mining stocks are not a place for the faint-hearted investor. News that China’s Contemporary Amperex Technology Limited was about to resume production at a lithium mine following a halt last month due to a license expiry, sent local stocks tumbling.

 

CATL is the world’s biggest battery producer for electric vehicles and needs lithium. If it, and the other booming Chinese EV battery manufacturers, can access lithium at home, and not need product from Australia, then that’s bad news for local companies. Yesterday Liontown’s share price fell 18 per cent. Pilbara Minerals was off 17 per cent while IGO was off 14 per cent.

 

The big miners – BHP and Rio Tinto – also lost ground yesterday, despite iron ore prices topping US$107 per tonne, on news of the merger of Anglo American and Canada’s Teck Resources to create one of the biggest miners in the world. It will create a major player in mining, particularly in copper, providing more competition in that sector.

 

More than any other sector, mining rises and falls to the beat of international events. And investors need to be prepared for that.

Fear & Greed Q+A today

Apple CEO Tim Cook promised the “biggest leap ever for iPhone” - and yesterday, the tech giant unveiled its new suite of products, including the iPhone 17 and 17 Pro, and its thinnest ever phone, the iPhone Air. Was the 'biggest leap ever' accurate?

 

"I'd say it'd be the biggest leap in recent years. Previous to this year, there'd been quite incremental upgrades and very, very slight design changes. This year... the architecture of the phones has changed a little bit and the introduction of the iPhone Air, but also the redesign of the iPhone 17 Pro and Pro Max with that larger camera plateau that actually made room to pack more battery and more other features into the device. In terms of the change from 16 to 17 in terms of design and architecture, then I'd say, yeah, it has been quite a change. 

 

The iPhone Air will appeal to younger customers, customers who focus on style and design and want something thin and light and sexy rather than having a bigger phone [but] it's a flagship price that starts at $2,000.

 

But the hardware features on the 17 Pro and the 17 Pro Max -the processor, camera and the great screens - are really Apple at its finest."

It is Thursday the 11^th of September 2025. There has been a massive sell off in commodities stocks with falls across the mining companies on the back of a mega mining merger and increased lithium output from China. It happened even though gold is trading around a record high, and iron ore prices are at six-month highs. Fortunately for investors, the big four banks saved the day, each rising around 1.5 per cent in trading yesterday.

Greed-o-meter

Market	1947-1951	1987-1991
Australia	68%	50%
NSW	66%	45%
VIC	72%	52%
QLD	67%	49%
SA	71%	55%
WA	67%	56%
ACT	72%	53%

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Housing affordability is diminishing in every market across Australia. Research from Domain shows that over 68% of the population born between 1947-51 owned a home by the age of 30-34. Today only 50% of those aged 30-34 own a home. It varies from state to state:

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Source: Domain