Profit season rollercoaster; auction rates soar; super's flying start

Profit season rollercoaster; auction rates soar; super's flying start

News in brief

James Hardie is facing fresh scrutiny after an LA law firm launched an investigation into whether the company misled investors following a shock 60pc fall in quarterly net profit wiped almost 40pc off its value in just two days. 

 

Super funds are off to a flying start for the new financial year, with the median growth fund up 2.7pc over the first seven weeks of FY26, according to Chant West.

 

Auction clearance rates are continuing to rise, hitting their highest level since February last year, following the RBA's rate cut nearly two weeks ago. The combined preliminary auction clearance rate climbed to 75.3pc, driven by strong growth in Sydney at 79pc, and Melbourne at 75.4pc.

 

Rising crime in-store has prompted Woolworths and Coles to issue body cameras to hundreds of frontline staff in Victoria, and train thousands in de-escalation, including using VR simulations.

 

US President Donald Trump has struck a deal for the US government to take an almost 10pc stake in Intel. It's part of an unconventional package to revive the struggling chipmaker and boost domestic production.

Fear-o-meter

George Brandis, former high commissioner to the UK, and a former Liberal senator and federal attorney-general, has written in Nine newspapers about South Korea's president meeting Donald Trump at the White House. He's the 14th G20 leader to meet with the President, and yet our PM Anthony Albanese is still no closer to getting an invite.

 

"It’s an open secret in Washington that the Australian Embassy cannot secure a White House meeting for Anthony Albanese, despite the persistent efforts of Kevin Rudd, and the entreaties of Rudd’s friend, the former ambassador (and occasional Trump golf partner) Joe Hockey.

Hockey – by far the best-connected Australian in Washington – was ambassador when Trump first ran for the presidency in 2016.... He went on to nurture an excellent relationship with the Trump White House and Trump personally. Yet so far, even Joe’s efforts to work his rich Rolodex of MAGA contacts have been unavailing.

If Albanese does end up getting a meeting, it will have more to do with Hockey’s personal influence in Washington than the much-diminished diplomatic capital of the Australian government.

When a meeting ultimately takes place... the fact that Australia has been left at the end of the queue of G20 nations is revealing.

Signalling is an important part of the language of diplomacy; the signal here couldn’t be clearer. Any other Australian prime minister would have been in the White House by now. Albanese is in the doghouse."

Fear & Greed Q+A today

On the important data coming out this week (including minutes from the RBA meeting, and monthly inflation figures) and why he's now a little more optimistic about the economy.

 

"There's been more than a little bit of decent news on the economy in recent weeks. 

 

So obviously consumers saw the rate cut and went yippee, so consumer sentiment is at a three and a half year high. And something that doesn't get a lot of attention... but Standard & Poor's do a Purchasing Managers' Index. It's sort of like a business survey for want of a better term.

And that survey showed that both for the services sector, so the dominant part of the economy, but also for manufacturing, optimism is at a three and a half year high as well. So the business sector is actually sort of saying, well, yeah, we're getting through this period of cost of living, cost of business, high inflation pressures. We're seeing interest rates coming down and we're seeing a little bit of a lift in activity. So I don't want to over-egg it, but I'm starting to put on my rose-coloured glasses and seeing a bit of optimism out there."

It’s Monday the 25th of August. Earnings season has just over a week left to go, and so far, it's been a rollercoaster. Investor reactions have been extreme, even for market giants - Commonwealth Bank was sold off 5pc in one day, and CSL tumbled 17pc. Some very clear themes are emerging: productivity pays, and leadership matters. But with valuations sky-high, it doesn't take a lot to rattle investors - Guzman y Gomez tumbled nearly 20pc on Friday on its results. This week we hear from Woolworths, Coles, Santos, Fortescue, Flight Centre and more.

Greed-o-meter

	Athlete	Net worth
1	Michael Jordan	$3.8 billion
2	Ion Tiriac	$2.3 billion
3	Magic Johnson	$1.5 billion
4	Junior Bridgeman	$1.4 billion
5	Tiger Woods	$1.3 billion
6	LeBron James	$1.2 billion
7	Roger Federer	$1.1 billion

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Tennis player Roger Federer is officially a billionaire, according to Forbes - just the seventh former athlete to reach that level, largely thanks to career prize money, lucrative sponsorship deals, and a stake in a Swiss shoe brand. According to Forbes, he's also one of only seven athletes to have earned more than a billion dollars in pre-tax income while still playing. The names on that list are quite different - we'll share it tomorrow.

Listen to today's episode 🎧 

Source: Forbes