KMD Brands’ hugely discounted equity raise, ANZ’s confidence survey drop, and house price doldrums indicate a difficult path forward.
Traditional safe havens have not been living up to their name.
Iranian scorched earth strategy, which is seeing it launch air attacks on its Middle Eastern neighbours, knocked out much of Qatar’s LNG capacity last week.
Also this week: Microsoft backs Anthropic, Revolut secures UK banking license, Atlassian slashes staff.
Some trading into ‘risk off’ positions combined with profit taking and oil price jitters to muddy the market waters this week.
Nvidia’s record result largely shrugged off by market looking for bigger things from AI and tech mega-cap stocks, while Qantas and Air NZ fly into earnings turbulence.
UPDATE: Trade and Investment Minister says US Supreme Court decision overnight has potential to be important for NZ exporters.
Market remains jittery about high levels of AI investment, but tariffs seem to be navigable for Kiwi exporters.
Recent advances in AI spurred fears that it could disrupt the business models of established software companies.
Meanwhile, Trump taps Federal Reserve critic Kevin Warsh to be Jerome Powell’s successor.