US attack to hit markets; record auction weekend; LA Lakers $10b sale
Published: June 22, 2025
US attack to hit markets; record auction weekend; LA Lakers $10b sale
News in brief
Amid the global turmoil, there was some good news over the weekend, at least for homeowners. Auction rates jumped to their highest reading since July last year, with Melbourne leading the way.
The energy market regulator will only allow electricity bills to rise once each year, and some fees charged by retailers will be removed. The rule changes, approved by the Australian Energy Market Commission, come as electricity bills surge and a growing number of Australians are struggling to pay their bills.
Qatar Airways has been named the world’s best airline for the second year in a row, which is good news for new partner, Virgin Australia, while Qantas has moved up the rankings.
Novo Nordisk’s new injectable obesity drug has the potential to deliver higher weight loss than the current market leaders, according to an early-stage trial. Participants in the trial of injectable amycretin lost an average of 24.3 per cent of their body weight on the highest dose, compared with 1.1 per cent for those on a placebo, according to a report in the FT.
The family that owns the Los Angeles Lakers – one of the most recognisable names in all sport – has agreed to sell its majority stake in team to Guggenheim Partners chief executive Mark Walter at a valuation of about $US10 billion ($15.4 billion). That’s the highest amount ever paid for a sports team.
Fear-o-meter
Financial markets are in for a bumpy couple of days, or perhaps weeks. The involvement of the United States in the Israel-Iran conflict changes everything.
Oil and gold prices should rise, the Aussie dollar should fall against the greenback, and equities should drop. The big caveat is that we live in unusual times and in a Donald Trump world, reactions from investors aren’t always what you expect.
Last week AMP deputy chief economist Diana Mousina put together a potted history of how geo-political crises impact markets over the last century. It is worth a listen and the ultimate finding is that no matter what happens, markets in the long term trend higher.
The moral is don’t get distracted by the noise – stick to your strategy and have faith that markets, in the longer term, are rational.
Who's talking today?
On investing in property - everything from data centres and seniors living, right through to student accommodation:
"If you go back three or four years ago, there was probably six or seven student accommodation companies listed around the world. There's now two and soon to be one. So they've all been taken private. There's one of main size that's left... it's a company called Unite. It's the largest student accommodation provider in the UK.
And one of the big stories there is there's two big themes. One is that... there's a greater percentage of students finishing high school, going to university. UK has some of the best well-known universities globally. And now with the second big theme that's emerged is given the hostility... of what's happening in the United States to some of the universities there, and particularly to foreign students, there is going to be, we expect, a demand surge, a real demand surge back into the UK.
It's one of those asset classes that does extremely well in recessions. Because, in fact, demand incrementally goes up because people defer going to back to work and they continue their studies and the like."
It's Monday the 23rd of June 2025. The US has attacked three Iranian nuclear sites, joining the Israeli air campaign as Tehran promises to retaliate. The direct involvement of the US escalates the crisis to a new, more threatening level. The Australian government acknowledged the US attack and said Iran’s nuclear program has been a danger to international peace but stopped short of publicly supporting the bombing.
Greed-o-meter
| Team | Sport | Value USD |
|---|---|---|
| Los Angeles Lakers | Basketball | $10b |
| Boston Celtics | Basketball | $6.1b |
| Washington Commanders | US football | $6.05b |
| Chelsea | Soccer | $5.4b |
| Denver Broncos | US football | $4.65b |
| Phoenix Suns / Mercury | Basketball | $4b |
| Dallas Mavericks | Basketball | $3.5b |
| Charlotte Hornets | Basketball | $3b |
| New York Mets | Baseball | $2.4b |
| Carolina Panthers | US football | $2.3b |
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The sale of the LA Lakers for $US10b is the latest in run of multi-billion sports team sales. Here are the top ten from around the world.
Listen to today's episode 🎧
Source: BBC
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