Origin cyber hack scare; house, unit prices tumble; blockbusters revive cinema
News in brief
House prices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Canberra all fell during the June quarter, while Brisbane and Perth recorded small gains, while in Adelaide, house price growth accelerated. Adelaide is now the fourth most expensive city in the country, for houses. In terms of units, prices fell in every capital city during the quarter, with the exception of Darwin, according to the Domain House Price Report for the June quarter.
Inflation is the biggest economic worry for Australians, according to the Reserve Bank, ahead of interest rates and house prices. But a lack of understanding of how higher rates impacts prices is hindering the Reserve Bank’s efforts to keep a lid on price rises.
Artificial intelligence giant Anthropic has denied it has any deal or negotiations with the ABC to license its archive of content, after the national broadcaster’s managing director Hugh Marks said the company wanted access to its radio content to train its models.
The 50th ALP National Conference kicks off in Adelaide today – a forum where delegates debate and vote on the party’s policy platform.
The world’s biggest cinema chain, AMC Theatres based in the US, has just reported record quarterly earnings, as blockbuster movies like The Odyssey and Toy Story 5 convince people to return to the movies. Viewers are looking for premium experiences. More than half the 4.3 million people who watched The Odyssey in the US on its opening weekend, bought premium seating.
Fear-o-meter
Josh Gilbert, Lead Analyst for APAC at eToro
"Every quarter, we look at which companies have had the biggest proportionate change in Australian holders since last quarter. Interestingly, in Q2 2026, there wasn't a single Australian company on either side of the list, but that's not because local investors have stopped buying locally.
“In a market where investors have become infatuated with AI and space, local stocks aren't necessarily going to get the same love; they're simply playing a different role.
“If you want to own the AI, quantum and space story, the ASX doesn't give you many ways to do it. That's not to say the ASX has nothing to offer, but the local opportunities housing AI aren’t necessarily building it, so that's a very different investment compared to an NVIDIA or a Microsoft.
“The Australian government's new AI vision is largely about attracting overseas capital into data centres, critical minerals and rare earths, which may prove a genuine win for the economy over time, but it doesn't create the listed AI hardware and software names that are driving markets in the US and Korea.
“Australia is effectively supplying the land, power and minerals for the AI boom, while the companies doing the building are all listed offshore, and that flows straight through to where retail investors are putting their money.”
Fear & Greed Q+A today
Calling the end of the housing boom in Australia, and what will eventually stop prices falling:
“To improve conditions and see prices turn around, we're going to need some kind of catalyst. That circuit breaker is going to come in the form of a rate reduction, but we know that's not going to be here for some time. Ultimately, interest rates are going to be higher for longer for the rest of this year and perhaps into 2027 as well.
We have to be realistic that prices are going to continue to fall. Our expectation is that 2026 is going to be where we see the depths of that decline. Then there are a couple of dynamics that help stabilise the market. One is a behavioural response where sellers decide they're simply not selling into a weak market and delay until conditions improve. The other is that construction costs are still very high, and that also creates a floor under prices.”
Origin Energy is investigating a potential security breach after an alleged hacker claimed to have accessed the personal details of about two million customers.
The company said it does not believe the impacted data includes customer credit card or bank details, but The Australian said it had been sent a sample of 50 customer records containing names, addresses, emails, dates of birth, phone numbers and bill history.
Australian companies have become a target for hackers, with Optus and Medibank both suffering mass breaches in 2022.
Last year, a mass breach hit a Qantas call centre database exposing 5.7 million customer records, including names, addresses, phone numbers, birthdates and emails.
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner logged 1205 data breach notifications in 2025, an 8 per cent rise on the year before.
Greed-o-meter
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