Qantas axes Asia flights; ASX's new high; Nintendo breaks record
Published: June 11, 2025
Qantas axes Asia flights; ASX's new high; Nintendo breaks record
News in brief
The local share market hit a new record high yesterday, as talks between China and the US progressed, providing confidence to investors. The S&P/ASX200 hit a new intraday high of 8639.1 points.
The United States has quickly criticised the federal government’s decision to sanction two Israeli government ministers. Foreign Minister Penny Wong unveiled targeted sanctions against Israel’s National Security Minister and Finance Minister for “extremist violence and serious abuses of Palestinian human rights”.
Buy now, pay later group Zip Co is on a tear, jumping 16 per cent yesterday, after upgrading its trading performance, saying growth in the US is up 40pc.
There is plenty going on at the ABC, including job cuts and the axing of one of its highest profile programs. After 500 episodes Q+A is going to be cut. It went on a break in May and won’t come back.
Nintendo sold 3.5 million-plus units of the Switch 2 in just four days, a record-breaking start for the company’s first new console in eight years. The numbers bode well for its target to sell 15 million units by March next year.
Fear-o-meter
On one hand, the new record for the ASX200 isn’t a surprise. The local economy is performing well, apart from tepid economic growth. At least the Reserve Bank is doing something about that by cutting interest rates. So, markets hitting new highs makes sense.
The flip side is that there is so much global uncertainty, that trading at these levels seems risky. It isn’t just Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs. It is also China’s growth rate.
Australia needs China more than we need the US, at least economically. The Chinese property market is still problematic while consumption in the world’s second largest economy remains underwhelming.
That should be weighing on markets. But it's not.
It’s the domestic economy versus the global economy for sharemarket investors, and at the moment, the local bias is winning.
Who's talking today?
Bitcoin is booming right now. But behind the scenes, there's a lot of pressure on the federal government to follow through with commitments about the regulation of the industry, including a taskforce, and action on 'debanking':
"Debanking is when, because you want to buy crypto, or because you work for a company that makes its money from crypto, or because you're a startup in the Web3 space, you literally can't get a bank account. All your banking services are handicapped... So right now there's kind of a governor on lots of people wanting to put fiat money into their crypto account through the big four and many of the other banks.
This even affects myself. I have a pretty decent set of financial products with a bank. I know people on the boards of these banks, even someone who has been around the block and knows some people in the hallowed halls of the CBD. If I can't get an unlock for this, forget the guy out on the main street in West Sydney who just wants to dabble in trade and crypto.
There are 24 hour holds, there's $10,000 monthly limits. It is absolutely draconian activity from the big banks who are just trying to add friction into the system because they're dealing with hundreds of other issues around the infrastructure of their own businesses. And that's been heightened by scams and frauds."
It’s Thursday the 12th of June. Qantas is closing its Asia subsidiary, Virgin is rushing to list in less than a fortnight, and a potential buyer of the failed REX airline is promising to keep planes in the air on regional routes. It’s been a big 24 hours in the aviation industry.
Greed-o-meter
| Sector | % of demand* |
|---|---|
| Automotive | 29–42% |
| Industrial | 27–36% |
| Jewellery | 23–29% |
| Investment | (–8%)–21% |
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Platinum prices have increased 32 per cent this year, more than gold's 26 per cent rise. Of course, gold still costs a lot more (above $US3,300 an ounce) than platinum ($US1,200 an ounce). But it got us interested in the uses for platinum, and in particular how much demand has varied in recent years from investors.
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*Minimum and maximum ranges over period 2020-2024
Source: World Platinum Investment Council
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