It's Wednesday the 11^th of June 2025, and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has laid out parameters for any trade negotiations with US President Donald Trump: things like the pharmaceutical benefits scheme, the media bargaining code and biosecurity are not up for negotiation. He has also announced a Jobs and Skills Summit for August to help improve productivity.

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News in brief

The S&P/ASX200 finished at a record closing high yesterday, up nearly one per cent to 8587.2 points. Energy, tech and bank stocks led the way on the back of higher oil prices. Bitcoin is also nearing a record level.

A new era for buy now pay later companies, such as Afterpay and Zip, has arrived with the sector’s products now regulated by credit laws. Anyone signing up to BNPL products from yesterday must answer questions about their finances and have their credit history checked before they can borrow money.

Monash IVF Group has reported that it transferred the wrong embryo into a Melbourne woman, the second such incident in two months. In April at its Brisbane clinic, the embryo of one patient was incorrectly transferred to another patient. Monash’s share price fell 27 per cent yesterday.

Donald Trump’s administration is sending 700 marines to Los Angeles amid protests against raids on alleged illegal immigrants, despite opposition from the state’s governor. According to the White House, the Marines are being sent to protect “federal personnel and federal property.”

Growth in sales of e-cigarettes is faltering in North America and Europe, raising questions about the way forward for Big Tobacco. In the US, the world’s largest vaping market, year-on-year sales of regulated devices have fallen almost every month during the past two years, according to Nielsen.

Fear-o-meter

Anthony Albanese held a Jobs and Skills Summit in 2022 and now wants another one in August. The Summit almost three years ago bought together unions, employers, civil society and governments, to “address our shared economic challenges.” The audience is almost the same as what we heard yesterday from the PM.

So why do we need another one? Can’t we just implement the recommendations of the last one? A fair criticism of the last parliament, headed by Albanese, is the number of reports and inquiries and probes that resulted in not much action. Australia doesn’t need another Summit. It needs action.

The issue in Australia isn’t jobs – there’s plenty of them. It’s skills and productivity improvements. We need government action to improve training options for school and university leavers, and for those wanting to change careers. And we need incentives to adopt new, better technologies.

We don’t really need another Summit.

Business by numbers

The top 3 numbers to know for the week, brought to you by Xero - xero.com/au 

$305 billion: The market cap of Commonwealth Bank, Australia's biggest company, after its share price hit another new record yesterday.

$US110,000: Bitcoin pushed past the milestone yesterday morning after rallying about four per cent in 24 hours. Ongoing US-China trade talks seem to be helping riskier assets.

65.2 US cents: The Aussie dollar is hovering around a six month high - good news for anyone planning to travel overseas soon.

Who's talking today?

On the super gap between men and women, and how the solution lies in a mix of policy change, financial education, and collaboration within relationships:

 

"What can we do if I have a daughter and she's entering the workforce? I can educate her to make a difference and start thinking about the fact that women are likely to have career breaks. What can she do if she was to save and put $50 aside in her superannuation a week? What does that mean? So someone starting out today in their mid 20s and they have 40 years of working life ahead of them. $50 a week could be over $1.1 million if you consider a 7 % compounding interest.

If you're in your mid thirties, never too late, it's $560,000. The fact that you can invest and take a bit more proactive approach, investment earnings and compounding returns can make a huge difference. So 7% return compared to 6 % return can actually make a huge difference in the quality of life you're going to have in retirement."

Greed-o-meter

ASX-listed global defence ETFs have been among this year's top performing exchange traded funds, with conflict in several theatres around the world, and US President Donald Trump pushing countries to increase their military spending.

Source: Global X, reported in AFR

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