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    Opinion

    Chanticleer

    Yesterday

    The big stockbrokers have all sorts of ways to get more trades, including corporate access and deals.

    What brokers, fund managers do when ‘mkt dead quiet’

    This week is unlisted companies week. Macquarie, UBS and Citi are all parading unlisted companies or investment themes – ostensibly, in the name of research.

    • Anthony Macdonald
    Banking analyst Jonathan Mott wants APRA to allow banks to hold less capital against loans to first home buyers.

    How to stop mortgages becoming just for the rich and old

    Jonathan Mott’s six ideas for how first home buyers could better access credit are not perfect, but they deserve attention from politicians and regulators.

    • James Thomson
    Going hungry: there is a general reluctance in Australia to support new floats.

    Top Barrenjoey banker’s two fixes to restart IPOs

    Barrenjoey co-executive chairman Guy Fowler says rethinking prospectus forecasts and some other reforms could help revive the quiet IPO market.

    • Anthony Macdonald
    Elon Musk says the littany of real-world problems facing Tesla are simply noise compared to the promise of autonomy.

    Elon Musk is right. AI doubters should sell

    Tesla’s first wave of growth is under severe pressure from competition and politics. But the chief executive says none of that matters.

    • James Thomson

    This Month

    Anthony Pratt (left) hosted the superannuation roundtable that also included RBA governor Michele Bullock, former prime minister Paul Keating, Macquarie’s Shemara Wikramanyake and financier Michael Milken.

    Rock stars happy to discuss fixes, but super isn’t the big problem

    Tinkering with super allocations is one thing, but it cannot replace our desire for bolder economic and tax reform. 

    • Anthony Macdonald
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    Scheme of arrangements are sponsored by a target company’s board, which makes directors’ recommendations valuable.

    Takeovers risk turning into money grabs for directors

    Special exertion payments are legal, but we would argue they don’t befit a blue-chip company. Fund managers and governance experts also have concerns.

    • Anthony Macdonald
    Societe Generale strategist Albert Edwards says the ingredients for a retreat in tech stocks are there.

    This is what could spark the next market correction

    Scepticism about how AI investment will translate into earnings is starting to build. That’s a worry given how heavily the market is invested in tech.

    • Updated
    • James Thomson
    Led by Anthony Albanese, politicians have blamed Coles and Woolies for higher supermarket prices.

    Coles and Woolies can tap an $800m profit pool. It may be controversial

    The media businesses of Australia’s supermarket giants are set to keep growing. But that may not excite suppliers as much as investors.

    • James Thomson
    Woodside CEO Meg O’Neill is placing a big bet on the US LNG market.

    Woodside’s big bet on US LNG will collide with Trump’s second coming

    Just days after Donald Trump declared he wants to “drill, baby, drill”, Woodside has placed $22 billion on an unloved US project. It isn’t without risks. 

    • James Thomson
    Insignia bought the nearly 140-year-old MLC from National Australia Bank in May 2021, paying $1.44 billion. Now it is at the centre of its turnaround.

    The grand dame of Australian financial services is making a comeback

    MLC is showing signs of life – with an earnings upgrade – and is the face of Insignia’s fightback story. If it wins, the company and its 53,000 shareholders win too.

    • Anthony Macdonald
    Donald Trump and Kamala Harris.

    Trump v Harris: Seven ASX stocks to play the US election

    Forget speculative Trump trades, the ramifications for Australian investors from the US election are likely to be much bigger. 

    • James Thomson
    Information memorandums are flying around the market like confetti – and private capital buyers are all over them.

    M&A forecast? It’s about to rain private capital deals

    Private capital hunters – domestic superannuation funds, offshore pension funds and asset managers such as KKR and Brookfield – have their chequebooks out and are trying to get their hands on $50 billion of Australian targets.

    • Anthony Macdonald
    Research by Professor Hendrik Bessembinder found that 59 per cent of US companies were a drag on investor wealth between 1925 and today, and just 4 per cent of companies accounted for the net wealth creation in that period.

    Time to sell stars like CBA and Nvidia? History says be careful

    More market watchers are getting worried the stars of this rally are starting to fade. But new research says big winners tend to keep winning. 

    • Updated
    • James Thomson
    Guzman y Gomez co-CEO Steven Marks has a focused plan for growth, and bigger, bolder goal.

    What Guzman y Gomez can learn from the Domino’s disaster

    Domino’s’ latest downgrade tells a story about long-term growth plans that investors in Guzman y Gomez should take note of. 

    • James Thomson
    Xi Jinping and Donald Trump appear to be on a collision course.

    Nvidia crash shows dark side of the Trump trade

    Donald Trump’s comments on Taiwan added to a global sell-off in computer chipmakers. The episode has three big lessons for investors. 

    • Updated
    • James Thomson
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    Andrew Forrest is promising a leaner, meaner Fortescue. But who’s listening?

    Fortescue’s hydrogen back-flip fails to become sugar hit it should be

    One of the issues hanging over the miner is partly gone. So why aren’t fund managers jumping in? They may be more concerned by the company’s other big problems.

    • Anthony Macdonald
    The CFMEU scandal raises obvious questions about how the governance standards of super fund boards could be improved.

    CFMEU scandal should force rethink on super fund boards

    Union-backed industry super funds have pushed hard to lift governance and accountability at public companies. Shouldn’t they want to improve their own governance, too?

    • Updated
    • James Thomson
    Lineage’s Australian sites include what was Oxford Cold Storage’s Laverton North premises in Victoria.

    World’s biggest IPO has Australian flavour and implications

    It might lack burritos, but we’re watching Lineage, a food storage play with Australian assets trying to secure a $30 billion listing.

    • Anthony Macdonald
    Andrew Forrest’s says Fortescue will remain financially disciplined as it pursues its green vision.

    Reality bites for Forrest’s hydrogen dream. Investors won’t mind

    The biggest shake-up of Fortescue’s structure and strategy in years will be music to the market’s ear, but is more evidence the energy transition is spluttering.

    • James Thomson

    Brokers sense interest as Australia’s favourite meme stock returns

    The list of names dumped from the ASX 200 alongside Zip shows how rare a comeback is. But while its business is firing, not everything has changed.

    • Anthony Macdonald

    The Australian Financial Review Magazine

    Saul Eslake at home in Tasmania.

    BOSS Financial Review

    Renee Wootton was unsure if she would be able to complete her degree in aerospace engineering.

    Life & Leisure

    Robert Tedesco, vice president and general manager at American Express Global Merchant Services Australia & New Zealand.

    Rich List

    The Captain Cook Hotel has changed hands again for $6.6m.