It’s Thursday the 7^th of August, 2025. Treasurer Jim Chalmers has labelled AI “an enabler, not the enemy”, backing a Productivity Commission report claiming artificial intelligence could represent a $200 billion boost to the economy over the next decade. The Commission likened AI to the introduction of the steam engine in the Industrial revolution, claiming emerging technology could lift worker productivity by 4.3 per cent and, in turn, raise economic output by $116 billion over the next decade

Listen to today's episode 🎧 

News in brief

Global asset manager TPG Capital will buy software group Infomedia for $651 million but that announcement was overwhelmed by a mistake made by ASX Ltd, the market operator. It confused TPG Telecom with the US private equity group, sending TPG Telecom’s share price down four per cent.

The S&P/ASX200 hit a new record yesterday and is now up 20 per cent over the past four months, as confidence in the local economy grows, and expectations of rate cuts rise. Commonwealth Bank’s value pushed back above $300 billion after a near two per cent jump, and is up 40 per cent over the past year.

Online property group REA and Dow Jones drove higher revenue and earnings for News Corp for the June half year, sending its share price up six per cent. Pre-tax earnings jumped 14 per cent to $US1.4 billion. Earnings were down at both HarperCollins and its news divisions.

Warren Buffett’s farewell tour is not pleasing investors, with Berkshire Hathaway’s class A shares down 14 per cent since May 2, the last trading day before 94-year-old Buffett said he would hand control of Berkshire to top executive Greg Abel. In contrast, the S&P 500 in the same period is up 11 per cent.

A doyen of the Australian music industry, Col Joye, has died aged 89. The musician, entertainer and entrepreneur had a career that earned him dozens of gold and platinum records, and several number one hits. He left school at 14 to work as a salesman for a jeweller and start a band with his brothers Kevin and Keith. On the advice of a clairvoyant, he changed his name to Col Joye and became a regular on the music show Bandstand for 14 years.

Fear-o-meter

The debacle that occurred yesterday morning in trading in TPG Telecom’s shares is inexcusable, and the ASX Ltd looks very, very foolish, again.

Confusing TPG Telecom with US private equity group TPG Capital – the bidder for software group Infomedia – was due to human error, the ASX said. Hopefully it is human errors, because if only one person is responsible, there are no checks on what’s going on inside ASX Ltd.  

Trades in TPG Telecom first thing yesterday morning will be reversed but it should never have happened.

ASX Ltd is under pressure after years of failing to upgrade its CHESS system. Regulators, including ASIC and the Reserve Bank, have been critical of ASX. The problem is: what’s the alternative? There isn’t one for mainstream investing.

Fear & Greed Q+A today

How long can newspapers survive? 

 

This week, Australia's publishing rivals News Ltd and Nine did a deal that will save them millions on the cost of printing newspapers over the next five years. But is there a future in print after that? Sean Aylmer previously ran the newsrooms across The Australian Financial Review, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald, and shares his view in today's Q+A.

 

"I would be absolutely stunned if there were still daily printed newspapers in 10 years time.

 

But the other big issue, which you sort of forget about, is actually distribution. So it's not just creation, but how do you get the newspaper into someone's hand? Now, people used to have it delivered to their doorstep. It's actually really hard to do that last mile to get from the newsagent, because newsagents don't want to be delivering newspapers anymore. It's okay if you can go and throw 40 copies at an office building but you can't deliver newspapers. So it's not just people not wanting them but actually it's hard for people to get them. Buying them now is hard."

Greed-o-meter

Temu and Guzman Y Gomez were Australia's fastest growing consumer retail brands in FY25, each collecting more than 1 million new customers.

The market penetration of GYG suggests that 33% of the adult Australian population bought from the brand in the last 12 months.

Source: Fonto Market Metrics

Forwarded from a friend? Sign up to our daily newsletter