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Markets,
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December
2025
Dec
31
Sydney,
Australia to Wall St, New York
Digital
Bush Telegraph
Last
Day Of The Year Edition!
Markets
ASX
200 futures down 6 points/0.1% to 8701
AUD
+0.01% to US66.95¢
Bitcoin
$88,370.39 +1.37%
Wall
St:
Dow
-0.2%
S&P -0.1%
Nasdaq -0.2%
VIX +0.16 to 14.36
Gold +0.4% to $US4348.71 an ounce
Silver +8.2% to $US76.30/oz
Brent oil -0.03% to $US61.92 a barrel
Iron ore -0.1% to $US105.70 a tonne
10-year yield: US 4.12% Australia 4.74%
Cryptos
Bitcoin
$88,370.39 +1.37%
XRP $1.8738 +1.15%
BNB $860.21 +1.11%
Dogecoin $0.1229 +0.07%
Shares
Media
Man Favs
TKO
$214.17 -1.94 -0.90%
Alphabet
Inc Class A $313.85 +0.29 +0.092%
Netflix
Inc $93.78 -0.37 -0.39%
Paramount
Skydance Corp $13.51 +0.0100 +0.074%
Porsche
Automobile Holding SE Unsponsored Germany ADR $4.64
+0.040 +0.87%
Mercedes
Benz Group ADR $17.67 +0.13 +0.74%
Volvo
ADR (Owner/Parent of Mack Trucks) $32.10 +0.13 Today
+0.42%
Formula
One Group Series A $89.26 +0.42 +0.47%
Microsoft
Corp $487.53 +0.43 +0.088%
Meta
Platforms Inc $666.01 +7.32 +1.11%
Madison
Square Garden Sports Corp $259.74 +1.79 +0.69%
Imax
Corp $37.24 -0.21 -0.56%
News
Corp Class A $26.39 +0.14 +0.53%
CoStar
Group Inc $67.86 +0.26 +0.38%
eBay
Inc $87.10 -0.64 -0.73%
PayPal
Holdings Inc $59.10 -0.39 -0.66%
Wynn
Resorts Ltd $120.33 -1.94 -1.59%
Rio
Tinto Ltd $146.77 -0.24 - 0.16% (ASX)
BHP
Group Ltd $60.92 +0.53 +0.88%
Hancock
& Gore Ltd $0.22
Mineral
Resources Ltd $54.33 -0.13%
Evolution
Mining Ltd $8.41 -0.34 -3.91%
Caterpillar
Inc $577.39 -1.22 -0.21%
Tesla
Inc $454.43 -5.21 -1.13%
Trump
Media & Technology Group Corp
$12.57 -0.59 -4.48%
Gold.com
Inc $33.45 +0.030 +0.090%
Amazon.com
Inc $232.53 +0.46 +0.20%
News Lead Up
12
+ Hours Ago
Dec
30
Sydney,
Australia to Wall St, New York
Digital
Bush Telegraph
Markets
ASX
200 futures pointing down 6 points/0.1% to 8711
AUD
-0.3% to US66.93¢
Bitcoin
$87,218.84 -0.73%
Wall
St:
Dow -0.5%
S&P -0.4%
Nasdaq -0.5%
VIX +0.59 to 14.19
Gold
-4.4% to $US4335.01 an ounce
Silver -6.8% to $US71.94/oz
Platinum -13.8% to $US2118.03/oz
Brent oil +1.8% to $US61.75 a barrel
Iron ore +1.3% to $US106.05 a tonne
10-year
yield: US 4.11% Australia 4.75%
Cryptos
Bitcoin
$87,218.84 -0.73%
XRP $1.8529 -0.70%
BNB $852.81 -0.71%
Dogecoin $0.1231 -0.64%
Stockmarket
US
Stock Market Overview (as of late December 2025)
The
US stock market is in a strong bull run heading
into the final days of 2025, with major indices
near all-time highs and on track for a robust year-end
close. Trading volume has been light post-holidays,
but sentiment remains positive amid resilient economic
growth, AI-driven gains, and expectations of a "Santa
Claus rally" (the seasonal uptrend in the last
five trading days of the year and first two of the
next).
Key
Index Levels (from the most recent close on December
26, 2025)
S&P
500 — Closed at approximately 6,930 (down slightly
that day but hit an intraday high near 6,946). Up
nearly 18% year-to-date, with the index eyeing the
psychological 7,000 milestone in the coming sessions.
Dow
Jones Industrial Average — Closed at around
48,711 (fractionally lower), up solidly for the
year.
Nasdaq
Composite — Closed near 23,593, up about 22%
YTD, led by tech and AI stocks
Markets
were closed on December 27 (weekend) and reopen
on December 29 for the last few trading days of
2025. Expect thin liquidity and potential for modest
moves as investors position for 2026.
Broader
Context
2025
has been a resilient year despite challenges like
early tariff impacts, AI spending concerns, and
Fed rate adjustments (benchmark now at 3.50%-3.75%).
Tech and AI names (e.g., Nvidia crossing $5T market
cap) have dominated, but there's been rotation into
cyclicals, materials, and foreign equities. Precious
metals like gold and silver are at historic highs
amid safe-haven demand.
Wall
Street forecasts for 2026 are bullish, with many
targeting S&P 500 levels between 7,100–8,100.
However, history suggests potential pullbacks after
strong years, so caution on overvaluation is advised.
(Grok)
News
Dec
24
Precious
metals rewarded for success
The
US dollar is falling as a safe-haven asset amid
growing risk appetite.
Gold
is performing well, but other assets in the sector
are looking even better.
GDP
growth of 4.3% in the third quarter did not help
the US dollar. It would seem that the strength of
the economy, the rise in Treasury bond yields and
the decline in the likelihood of the Fed easing
monetary policy in March to less than 50% should
have cooled the hot heads of the EURUSD bulls. However,
greed reigns supreme in the financial markets.
The
S&P 500 closed at a record high, which had a
negative impact on the USD index.
Donald
Trump was encouraged by the success of the US economy,
citing tariffs as the main reason. The president
said that the new Fed chairman would cut rates if
the market was performing well. Investors should
be rewarded for their success. Support from the
White House is helping US stock indices, improving
global risk appetite and reducing demand for the
dollar as a safe-haven asset. In such conditions,
high-yield currencies feel most at home.
The
British pound reached a three-month high against
the greenback, and the Australian dollar reached
a 14-month high. After the Reserve Bank signalled
the end of the monetary policy easing cycle, the
futures market began to price in expectations of
a cash rate hike in 2026.
By
Christmas, the start date for monetary tightening
had shifted to June, which created a tailwind for
AUDUSD.
Investors
in a Bloomberg survey see the Bank of England's
neutral rate at 3.25% and estimate the chances of
it falling to 3% in 2026 as fifty-fifty. They are
more dovish than the BoE. At their December meeting,
Andrew Bailey and his colleagues opted for caution,
which supported GBPUSD. Meanwhile, gold has broken
through the psychologically important level of $4,500
per ounce.
JP
Morgan forecasts XAUUSD to rise to 5,000 by the
end of 2026 and estimates the scale of bullion purchases
by central banks and retail investors at 585 tonnes
per quarter. According to the bank, every 100 tonnes
above the base 350 tonnes leads to a 2% increase
in precious metal prices.
Gold
has already gained more than 70% in value in 2025
and is heading for its best performance since 1979.
Other
assets in the precious metals sector are growing
even faster. Prices for silver, platinum and palladium
have more than doubled this year. Along with strong
investment demand, fears about the introduction
of US import duties are playing into their hands.
(FxPro)
News
Dec
29
A
confident Euro and a vulnerable Yen
Rapid
GDP growth in the eurozone has helped EURUSD.
USDJPY
risks rising to 164. Christmas week turned out to
be the worst for the US dollar since June. Falling
Treasury yields and new S&P 500 records caused
the USD index to retreat. The chances of the Fed
easing monetary policy in March rose above 50% again,
and there is active discussion in Forex about the
new Fed chair. Historically, central bank chiefs
have had a significant influence on the FOMC. Donald
Trump's man could bring down interest rates and
the greenback. However, the Fed is not a one-man
show. Decisions are made collectively based on incoming
data. The longer the pause in the monetary expansion
cycle lasts, the higher the chances of a correction
in the EURUSD to an upward trend. In this case,
the yield differential between US and German bonds
will remain wide. Money will flow from Europe to
the United States, strengthening the dollar. In
the medium term, monetary policy divergence and
a narrowing gap in GDP growth could play in favour
of the euro. Financial Times experts expect the
eurozone economy to expand by 1.2% in 2026 and 1.4%
in 2027. In 2025, it will grow by 1.4%, significantly
more than the 0.9% forecast at the end of 2024.
Faster economic growth in the currency bloc has
been one of the key drivers of the EURUSD's 13.5%
rally this year. Another trump card for the euro
has been the divergence in monetary policy. Financial
Times experts believe that the ECB's deposit rate
will remain at 2% until the end of 2026 and rise
to 2.25% in 2027. The futures market expects two
acts of monetary expansion from the Fed next year.
The narrowing of the spread between US and German
bond yields is a strong argument in favour of maintaining
the upward trend in EURUSD. Meanwhile, the number
of yen bears is growing after the Bank of Japan
failed to bring about a serious correction in USDJPY
by raising the overnight rate in December. BNP Paribas
forecasts the pair to rise to 160 by the end of
2026, while JP Morgan forecasts 164. The strengthening
of the greenback has caused gold to retreat from
record highs. The precious metal is heading for
its best annual performance since 1979. Since the
beginning of the year, it has risen by more than
70%, partly due to capital inflows into ETFs. The
reserves of the largest specialised exchange-traded
fund, SPDR Gold Shares, have increased by more than
20%.
News
Dec
29
Miners
and Metals
Nickel
price jumps as Indonesia signals big production
cut
Nickel
prices are at a seven-month high after Indonesia,
the world’s biggest producer, signalled plans
to cut supply of the metal in a Christmas gift for
struggling Australian miners who have been shuttering
projects.
The
rising prices came after Indonesian media reported
Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia had
confirmed plans for unspecified production cuts.
A group representing Indonesian nickel miners this
month said it expected Jakarta to enforce a 34 per
cent cut in volumes next year.
While
the size of the cuts has not been finalised, the
comments suggest the worst could be over for miners
after a two-and-a-half year period in which prices
for the metal were crushed by excess production
in Indonesia.
Nickel
was a fashionable commodity for investors between
2017 and 2022 on expectations that demand would
rise in line with the metal’s use in the batteries
used in electric vehicles. Prices reached $US30,000
a tonne in late 2022, but a wave of Indonesian supply
emerged in 2023 as new technology allowed low-grade
material to be cheaply processed into top quality
metal.
The
extra supply pushed nickel prices below $US20,000
since mid-2023, forcing Australian miners like BHP
and Panoramic Resources to mothball their Western
Australian mines, refineries and smelters.
The
price had slumped to $US14,110 a tonne at the London
Metal Exchange on December 16, but has rallied to
$US15,430 after reports of Indonesian production
cuts. The price had not been above $US15,400 since
May.
The
recovery could help BHP’s nickel assets just
14 months before a self-imposed deadline to decide
whether they should be permanently closed. BHP mothballed
the assets last year in the belief the supply surge
was a structural change to nickel markets, and not
merely a cyclical one.
BHP
announced at its August half-year results that it
would attempt to sell the assets, but finding a
buyer has proved difficult given the enormous rehabilitation
obligations attached to them. If a buyer cannot
be found, BHP will permanently shut the nickel division
in February 2027.
Another
potential winner from a nickel price recovery would
be businessman Duncan Saville, whose companies control
the mothballed Savannah mine in WA. The mine closures
have seen Australian exports slump from about 180,000
tonnes in 2017 to 81,000 tonnes this year.
The
Industry Department provided a gloomy outlook for
the sector in a report published on December 19,
predicting prices would stay low, and export volumes
would fall further as IGO Limited prepared for the
Nova-Bollinger nickel mine in WA to reach the end
of its working life.
Closure
of Nova would leave Glencore’s Murrin Murrin
operation as the last remaining major nickel mine
in the country.
Industry
Department economists predicted Australia will ship
just 49,000 tonnes of nickel in 2027; down 73 per
cent in a decade.
Batteries
account for about 16 per cent of global nickel demand,
with the stainless-steel sector still buying about
63 per cent of the world’s nickel.
Fitch
predicts nickel prices will average $US16,000 a
tonne in 2026.
Silver
continues to soar
Signs
of recovery in nickel prices come as silver prices
have soared. The precious metal was fetching $US28.83
an ounce on the final trading day of 2024, but soared
to a record high $US79.27 on Boxing Day 2025.
Financial
markets have traditionally used gold prices to determine
an appropriate price for silver, and the rally in
silver prices is partly linked to the earlier rally
in gold prices over the last 12 months.
Very
few mines are primarily focused on silver production,
with the metal typically occurring as a byproduct
at mines that are focused on copper, zinc or lead.
Australia’s biggest silver producers include
South32’s Cannington mine in Queensland, Glencore’s
Mount Isa hub and BHP’s Olympic Dam.
Iltani
Resources, an ASX-listed miner exploring for silver,
zinc, lead and indium near Herberton in Queensland,
is one producer that has seen its share price jump
more than 200 per cent alongside the silver rally.
“It
puts us in a really good position to hit 2026 with
a really aggressive drill program,” said Iltani
managing director Donald Garner. (AFR). *Full article
and coverage via The Australian Financial Review
News
VC/Sports
Biz/Tech News
Jake
& Logan Paul Announce $30M Venture Fund Backing
AI, Robotics Startups
Anti
Fund, co-founded by YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul
and entrepreneur Geoffrey Woo, closed its oversubscribed
$30 million Anti Fund I on December 3, bringing
the firm’s total assets under management to
more than $65 million. The firm named influencer
and WWE star Logan Paul as a general partner, marking
the first time the Paul brothers have become business
partners.
According
to a press release, the venture capital firm concentrates
its investments in artificial intelligence and robotics
companies. Anti Fund focuses on pre-seed and seed-stage
ventures, as well as select growth-stage industry
leaders. The portfolio includes OpenAI, Anduril,
Ramp, Cognition, Polymarket, Flock Safety, and Physical
Intelligence.
Investment
Strategy
Anti
Fund employs what it calls an “extreme barbell
strategy,” making first checks of $100,000
to $500,000 for 10% ownership in technical founders,
while also deploying $10 million or more in growth
investments into industry leaders.
The
fund’s limited partners include institutional
investors Aquarian Holdings and Autilus Partners,
as well as individual investors Marc Andreessen
and Chris Dixon. Focuspoint Private Capital Group
served as the exclusive placement agent for the
fund.
Founder
Background
Woo
holds a bachelor’s degree with honors and distinction
in computer science from Stanford and has co-authored
numerous U.S. patents and peer-reviewed scientific
papers.
Jake
Paul built his career as a professional boxer and
entrepreneur. Logan Paul founded PRIME, a beverage
brand, and performs as a professional wrestler.
“Jake,
what I realized is that he is essentially an avatar
of the American dream, and I think Logan, in a very
similar parallel sense, also represents that,”
Woo said in an interview with FOX Business.
“When
Jake named Anti Fund, I think we all share the same
belief, that the people that create the future are
the crazy ones that believe they can do it.”
Business
Philosophy
The
firm positions itself as founder-friendly, emphasizing
what it calls the intersection of capital and attention.
While capital remains a commodity, Anti Fund leverages
the Paul brothers’ cultural influence to source
founders and accelerate portfolio company growth.
Jake
Paul discussed his long-standing interest in venture
capital, noting he met with companies including
Google, Uber, and Twitter in Silicon Valley as a
teenager.“
Not
only are we investors, but we can disrupt Logan
with PRIME, me with W, Betr is always in the top
five in the App Store is absolutely crushing it,”
Paul told FOX.
“And
these are companies that we’ve incubated ourselves,
because if no one else is building it and we see
a hole in the market, we can hire the best teams
and grow and scale these companies in a major way.”
Anti
Fund has incubated and funded several of Jake Paul’s
business ventures, including W and Betr Media.
Rudy
Sahay, founder and managing partner of Aquarian
Holdings, said the fund closing “validates
the confidence investors have in their strategy”
and noted the firm “carved out a unique position
at the intersection of frontier technologies and
culture.”
Best Quotes
Cryptocurrency,
Finance and World
"Volatility
is Satoshi’s gift to the faithful." -
Michael Saylor
"Bitcoin
is a tool for freeing humanity from oligarchs and
tyrants, dressed up as a get-rich-quick scheme."
— Naval Ravikant
"We
have elected to put our money and faith in a mathematical
framework that is free of politics and human error."
— Tyler Winklevoss
"You
can't stop things like Bitcoin. It will be everywhere,
and the world will have to readjust. World governments
will have to readjust." — John McAfee
"Bitcoin
is the most important invention in the history of
the world since the Internet." — Roger
Ver
"Cryptocurrency
is such a powerful concept that it can almost overturn
governments." — Charles Lee
"In
the future, national currencies will become obsolete.
Bitcoin will become the single global currency."
— Jack Dorsey
"The
future of finance is crypto, whether it’s in
payments, contracts, or savings." — Changpeng
Zhao
"Crypto
offers freedom to the unbanked and hope to the underprivileged."
— Elizabeth Stark
"The
new frontier of innovation is in decentralization.
Blockchain leads the charge." — Don Tapscott
"Digital
currency is here to stay, and it’s only a matter
of how long before governments embrace it."
— Brad Garlinghouse
Pop
Culture
Dream
Matches: Fantasy Booking
Santa
vs Grinch
Bulls vs Bears
Crypto King vs Mr World Bank
Citizens vs NWO
Neo vs Agent Smith
John McAfee vs You Know Who!
TKO vs Naysayers
Jake Paul, Polymarket and BETR vs Naysayers
Pro Boxing vs Newspaper Reports
VKM vs The World
Paul Bros vs Mainstream Wokes
Mr X vs Mr Bluesky
News
Lead Up
12
+ hours ago
News
Media
Man Favs
TKO
$216.11 -1.33 -0.61%
Alphabet Inc Class A $313.56 +0.050 +0.016%
Netflix Inc $94.15 -0.32 -0.34%
Paramount Skydance Corp $13.50 -0.090 -0.66%
Porsche Automobile Holding SE Unsponsored Germany
ADR $4.60 -0.040 +0.86%
Mercedes Benz Group ADR $17.54 +0.11 +0.63%
Markets,
Cryptos and Biz
December
2025
Dec
30
Sydney,
Australia to Wall St, New York
Digital
Bush Telegraph
Markets
ASX
200 futures pointing down 6 points/0.1% to 8711
AUD
-0.3% to US66.93¢
Bitcoin
$87,218.84 -0.73%
Wall
St:
Dow -0.5%
S&P -0.4%
Nasdaq -0.5%
VIX +0.59 to 14.19
Gold
-4.4% to $US4335.01 an ounce
Silver -6.8% to $US71.94/oz
Platinum -13.8% to $US2118.03/oz
Brent oil +1.8% to $US61.75 a barrel
Iron ore +1.3% to $US106.05 a tonne
10-year
yield: US 4.11% Australia 4.75%
Cryptos
Bitcoin
$87,218.84 -0.73%
XRP $1.8529 -0.70%
BNB $852.81 -0.71%
Dogecoin $0.1231 -0.64%
Stockmarket
US
Stock Market Overview (as of late December 2025)
The
US stock market is in a strong bull run heading
into the final days of 2025, with major indices
near all-time highs and on track for a robust year-end
close. Trading volume has been light post-holidays,
but sentiment remains positive amid resilient economic
growth, AI-driven gains, and expectations of a "Santa
Claus rally" (the seasonal uptrend in the last
five trading days of the year and first two of the
next).
Key
Index Levels (from the most recent close on December
26, 2025)
S&P
500 — Closed at approximately 6,930 (down slightly
that day but hit an intraday high near 6,946). Up
nearly 18% year-to-date, with the index eyeing the
psychological 7,000 milestone in the coming sessions.
Dow
Jones Industrial Average — Closed at around
48,711 (fractionally lower), up solidly for the
year.
Nasdaq
Composite — Closed near 23,593, up about 22%
YTD, led by tech and AI stocks
Markets
were closed on December 27 (weekend) and reopen
on December 29 for the last few trading days of
2025. Expect thin liquidity and potential for modest
moves as investors position for 2026.
Broader
Context
2025
has been a resilient year despite challenges like
early tariff impacts, AI spending concerns, and
Fed rate adjustments (benchmark now at 3.50%-3.75%).
Tech and AI names (e.g., Nvidia crossing $5T market
cap) have dominated, but there's been rotation into
cyclicals, materials, and foreign equities. Precious
metals like gold and silver are at historic highs
amid safe-haven demand.
Wall
Street forecasts for 2026 are bullish, with many
targeting S&P 500 levels between 7,100–8,100.
However, history suggests potential pullbacks after
strong years, so caution on overvaluation is advised.
(Grok)
News
Dec
24
Precious
metals rewarded for success
The
US dollar is falling as a safe-haven asset amid
growing risk appetite.
Gold
is performing well, but other assets in the sector
are looking even better.
GDP
growth of 4.3% in the third quarter did not help
the US dollar. It would seem that the strength of
the economy, the rise in Treasury bond yields and
the decline in the likelihood of the Fed easing
monetary policy in March to less than 50% should
have cooled the hot heads of the EURUSD bulls. However,
greed reigns supreme in the financial markets.
The
S&P 500 closed at a record high, which had a
negative impact on the USD index.
Donald
Trump was encouraged by the success of the US economy,
citing tariffs as the main reason. The president
said that the new Fed chairman would cut rates if
the market was performing well. Investors should
be rewarded for their success. Support from the
White House is helping US stock indices, improving
global risk appetite and reducing demand for the
dollar as a safe-haven asset. In such conditions,
high-yield currencies feel most at home.
The
British pound reached a three-month high against
the greenback, and the Australian dollar reached
a 14-month high. After the Reserve Bank signalled
the end of the monetary policy easing cycle, the
futures market began to price in expectations of
a cash rate hike in 2026.
By
Christmas, the start date for monetary tightening
had shifted to June, which created a tailwind for
AUDUSD.
Investors
in a Bloomberg survey see the Bank of England's
neutral rate at 3.25% and estimate the chances of
it falling to 3% in 2026 as fifty-fifty. They are
more dovish than the BoE. At their December meeting,
Andrew Bailey and his colleagues opted for caution,
which supported GBPUSD. Meanwhile, gold has broken
through the psychologically important level of $4,500
per ounce.
JP
Morgan forecasts XAUUSD to rise to 5,000 by the
end of 2026 and estimates the scale of bullion purchases
by central banks and retail investors at 585 tonnes
per quarter. According to the bank, every 100 tonnes
above the base 350 tonnes leads to a 2% increase
in precious metal prices.
Gold
has already gained more than 70% in value in 2025
and is heading for its best performance since 1979.
Other
assets in the precious metals sector are growing
even faster. Prices for silver, platinum and palladium
have more than doubled this year. Along with strong
investment demand, fears about the introduction
of US import duties are playing into their hands.
(FxPro)
News
Dec
29
A
confident Euro and a vulnerable Yen
Rapid GDP growth in the eurozone has helped EURUSD.
USDJPY
risks rising to 164. Christmas week turned out to
be the worst for the US dollar since June. Falling
Treasury yields and new S&P 500 records caused
the USD index to retreat. The chances of the Fed
easing monetary policy in March rose above 50% again,
and there is active discussion in Forex about the
new Fed chair. Historically, central bank chiefs
have had a significant influence on the FOMC. Donald
Trump's man could bring down interest rates and
the greenback. However, the Fed is not a one-man
show. Decisions are made collectively based on incoming
data. The longer the pause in the monetary expansion
cycle lasts, the higher the chances of a correction
in the EURUSD to an upward trend. In this case,
the yield differential between US and German bonds
will remain wide. Money will flow from Europe to
the United States, strengthening the dollar. In
the medium term, monetary policy divergence and
a narrowing gap in GDP growth could play in favour
of the euro. Financial Times experts expect the
eurozone economy to expand by 1.2% in 2026 and 1.4%
in 2027. In 2025, it will grow by 1.4%, significantly
more than the 0.9% forecast at the end of 2024.
Faster economic growth in the currency bloc has
been one of the key drivers of the EURUSD's 13.5%
rally this year. Another trump card for the euro
has been the divergence in monetary policy. Financial
Times experts believe that the ECB's deposit rate
will remain at 2% until the end of 2026 and rise
to 2.25% in 2027. The futures market expects two
acts of monetary expansion from the Fed next year.
The narrowing of the spread between US and German
bond yields is a strong argument in favour of maintaining
the upward trend in EURUSD. Meanwhile, the number
of yen bears is growing after the Bank of Japan
failed to bring about a serious correction in USDJPY
by raising the overnight rate in December. BNP Paribas
forecasts the pair to rise to 160 by the end of
2026, while JP Morgan forecasts 164. The strengthening
of the greenback has caused gold to retreat from
record highs. The precious metal is heading for
its best annual performance since 1979. Since the
beginning of the year, it has risen by more than
70%, partly due to capital inflows into ETFs. The
reserves of the largest specialised exchange-traded
fund, SPDR Gold Shares, have increased by more than
20%.
News
Dec
29
Miners
and Metals
Nickel
price jumps as Indonesia signals big production
cut
Nickel
prices are at a seven-month high after Indonesia,
the world’s biggest producer, signalled plans
to cut supply of the metal in a Christmas gift for
struggling Australian miners who have been shuttering
projects.
The
rising prices came after Indonesian media reported
Mineral Resources Minister Bahlil Lahadalia had
confirmed plans for unspecified production cuts.
A group representing Indonesian nickel miners this
month said it expected Jakarta to enforce a 34 per
cent cut in volumes next year.
While
the size of the cuts has not been finalised, the
comments suggest the worst could be over for miners
after a two-and-a-half year period in which prices
for the metal were crushed by excess production
in Indonesia.
Nickel
was a fashionable commodity for investors between
2017 and 2022 on expectations that demand would
rise in line with the metal’s use in the batteries
used in electric vehicles. Prices reached $US30,000
a tonne in late 2022, but a wave of Indonesian supply
emerged in 2023 as new technology allowed low-grade
material to be cheaply processed into top quality
metal.
The
extra supply pushed nickel prices below $US20,000
since mid-2023, forcing Australian miners like BHP
and Panoramic Resources to mothball their Western
Australian mines, refineries and smelters.
The
price had slumped to $US14,110 a tonne at the London
Metal Exchange on December 16, but has rallied to
$US15,430 after reports of Indonesian production
cuts. The price had not been above $US15,400 since
May.
The
recovery could help BHP’s nickel assets just
14 months before a self-imposed deadline to decide
whether they should be permanently closed. BHP mothballed
the assets last year in the belief the supply surge
was a structural change to nickel markets, and not
merely a cyclical one.
BHP
announced at its August half-year results that it
would attempt to sell the assets, but finding a
buyer has proved difficult given the enormous rehabilitation
obligations attached to them. If a buyer cannot
be found, BHP will permanently shut the nickel division
in February 2027.
Another
potential winner from a nickel price recovery would
be businessman Duncan Saville, whose companies control
the mothballed Savannah mine in WA. The mine closures
have seen Australian exports slump from about 180,000
tonnes in 2017 to 81,000 tonnes this year.
The
Industry Department provided a gloomy outlook for
the sector in a report published on December 19,
predicting prices would stay low, and export volumes
would fall further as IGO Limited prepared for the
Nova-Bollinger nickel mine in WA to reach the end
of its working life.
Closure
of Nova would leave Glencore’s Murrin Murrin
operation as the last remaining major nickel mine
in the country.
Industry
Department economists predicted Australia will ship
just 49,000 tonnes of nickel in 2027; down 73 per
cent in a decade.
Batteries
account for about 16 per cent of global nickel demand,
with the stainless-steel sector still buying about
63 per cent of the world’s nickel.
Fitch
predicts nickel prices will average $US16,000 a
tonne in 2026.
Silver
continues to soar
Signs
of recovery in nickel prices come as silver prices
have soared. The precious metal was fetching $US28.83
an ounce on the final trading day of 2024, but soared
to a record high $US79.27 on Boxing Day 2025.
Financial
markets have traditionally used gold prices to determine
an appropriate price for silver, and the rally in
silver prices is partly linked to the earlier rally
in gold prices over the last 12 months.
Very
few mines are primarily focused on silver production,
with the metal typically occurring as a byproduct
at mines that are focused on copper, zinc or lead.
Australia’s biggest silver producers include
South32’s Cannington mine in Queensland, Glencore’s
Mount Isa hub and BHP’s Olympic Dam.
Iltani
Resources, an ASX-listed miner exploring for silver,
zinc, lead and indium near Herberton in Queensland,
is one producer that has seen its share price jump
more than 200 per cent alongside the silver rally.
“It
puts us in a really good position to hit 2026 with
a really aggressive drill program,” said Iltani
managing director Donald Garner. (AFR). *Full article
and coverage via The Australian Financial Review
News
VC/Sports
Biz/Tech News
Jake
& Logan Paul Announce $30M Venture Fund Backing
AI, Robotics Startups
Anti
Fund, co-founded by YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul
and entrepreneur Geoffrey Woo, closed its oversubscribed
$30 million Anti Fund I on December 3, bringing
the firm’s total assets under management to
more than $65 million. The firm named influencer
and WWE star Logan Paul as a general partner, marking
the first time the Paul brothers have become business
partners.
According
to a press release, the venture capital firm concentrates
its investments in artificial intelligence and robotics
companies. Anti Fund focuses on pre-seed and seed-stage
ventures, as well as select growth-stage industry
leaders. The portfolio includes OpenAI, Anduril,
Ramp, Cognition, Polymarket, Flock Safety, and Physical
Intelligence.
Investment
Strategy
Anti
Fund employs what it calls an “extreme barbell
strategy,” making first checks of $100,000
to $500,000 for 10% ownership in technical founders,
while also deploying $10 million or more in growth
investments into industry leaders.
The
fund’s limited partners include institutional
investors Aquarian Holdings and Autilus Partners,
as well as individual investors Marc Andreessen
and Chris Dixon. Focuspoint Private Capital Group
served as the exclusive placement agent for the
fund.
Founder
Background
Woo holds a bachelor’s degree with honors and
distinction in computer science from Stanford and
has co-authored numerous U.S. patents and peer-reviewed
scientific papers.
Jake
Paul built his career as a professional boxer and
entrepreneur. Logan Paul founded PRIME, a beverage
brand, and performs as a professional wrestler.
“Jake,
what I realized is that he is essentially an avatar
of the American dream, and I think Logan, in a very
similar parallel sense, also represents that,”
Woo said in an interview with FOX Business.
“When
Jake named Anti Fund, I think we all share the same
belief, that the people that create the future are
the crazy ones that believe they can do it.”
Business
Philosophy
The firm positions itself as founder-friendly, emphasizing
what it calls the intersection of capital and attention.
While capital remains a commodity, Anti Fund leverages
the Paul brothers’ cultural influence to source
founders and accelerate portfolio company growth.
Jake
Paul discussed his long-standing interest in venture
capital, noting he met with companies including
Google, Uber, and Twitter in Silicon Valley as a
teenager.“
Not
only are we investors, but we can disrupt Logan
with PRIME, me with W, Betr is always in the top
five in the App Store is absolutely crushing it,”
Paul told FOX.
“And
these are companies that we’ve incubated ourselves,
because if no one else is building it and we see
a hole in the market, we can hire the best teams
and grow and scale these companies in a major way.”
Anti
Fund has incubated and funded several of Jake Paul’s
business ventures, including W and Betr Media.
Rudy
Sahay, founder and managing partner of Aquarian
Holdings, said the fund closing “validates
the confidence investors have in their strategy”
and noted the firm “carved out a unique position
at the intersection of frontier technologies and
culture.”
Best Quotes
Cryptocurrency,
Finance and World
"Volatility
is Satoshi’s gift to the faithful." -
Michael Saylor
"Bitcoin
is a tool for freeing humanity from oligarchs and
tyrants, dressed up as a get-rich-quick scheme."
— Naval Ravikant
"We
have elected to put our money and faith in a mathematical
framework that is free of politics and human error."
— Tyler Winklevoss
"You
can't stop things like Bitcoin. It will be everywhere,
and the world will have to readjust. World governments
will have to readjust." — John McAfee
"Bitcoin
is the most important invention in the history of
the world since the Internet." — Roger
Ver
"Cryptocurrency
is such a powerful concept that it can almost overturn
governments." — Charles Lee
"In
the future, national currencies will become obsolete.
Bitcoin will become the single global currency."
— Jack Dorsey
"The
future of finance is crypto, whether it’s in
payments, contracts, or savings." — Changpeng
Zhao
"Crypto
offers freedom to the unbanked and hope to the underprivileged."
— Elizabeth Stark
"The
new frontier of innovation is in decentralization.
Blockchain leads the charge." — Don Tapscott
"Digital
currency is here to stay, and it’s only a matter
of how long before governments embrace it."
— Brad Garlinghouse
Pop
Culture
Dream
Matches: Fantasy Booking
Santa
vs Grinch
Bulls vs Bears
Crypto King vs Mr World Bank
Citizens vs NWO
Neo vs Agent Smith
John McAfee vs You Know Who!
TKO vs Naysayers
Jake Paul, Polymarket and BETR vs Naysayers
Pro Boxing vs Newspaper Reports
VKM vs The World
Paul Bros vs Mainstream Wokes
Mr X vs Mr Bluesky
News
Media
Man Favs
TKO
$216.11 -1.33 -0.61%
Alphabet Inc Class A $313.56 +0.050 +0.016%
Netflix Inc $94.15 -0.32 -0.34%
Paramount Skydance Corp $13.50 -0.090 -0.66%
Porsche Automobile Holding SE Unsponsored Germany
ADR $4.60 -0.040 +0.86%
Mercedes Benz Group ADR $17.54 +0.11 +0.63%
Markets,
Cryptos, Biz and Culture
All
That Glitters
Digital
Bush Telegraph - Australia to Hollywood and Silicon
Valley Edition; Xmas Media Watercooler; Santa vs
Grinch
December
25, 2025
Sydney, Australia
Gold
4479.21 -0.28%
S&P/ASX 200 8762.70 -0.24%
S&P 500 6932.05 +0.32%
NIKKEI 50344.10 -0.14%
FTSE 9870.68 -0.19%
AUD/USD 67.05 +0.08%
Cryptos
BTC
$87,605.02 -0.07%
BNB $849.26 +0.75%
Dogecoin $0.1285 +0.70%
XRP $1.8721 -0.50%
Market
Favs
TKO
$217.98 +2.15 +1.00%
Alphabet Inc Class A $314.09 -0.26 -0.083%
Netflix Inc $93.64 +0.14 +0.15%
Paramount Skydance Corp $13.74 +0.21 +1.55%
Porsche Automobile Holding SE Unsponsored Germany
ADR $4.64 +0.011 +0.24%
Mercedes Benz Group ADR $17.40 +0.0100 +0.058%
News
Dec
24
Fortescue
aims for 2030 debut in African iron ore
Gabon's President Brice Oligui Nguema has committed
to undertaking a "comprehensive audit"
of every mining agreement that the developing nation
secured between 2010 and 2024. This is likely to
include the deal that Fortescue struck with Nguema's
predecessor Ali Bongo in 2021 regarding the Belinga
iron ore project. Fortescue's executive chairman
Andrew Forrest recently travelled to Gabon to discuss
the project with Nguema. Fortescue aims to complete
a feasibility study by the end of 2026, and Forrest
has indicated that he wants shipments to begin by
2030. (RMS)
News
Golden
time as bullion hits new heights
The
gold price has risen by more than 70 per cent so
far in 2025, which is the strongest annual performance
for the 'safe haven' in over four decades. The spot
price reached a new peak of $US4,497.80 an ounce
on Tuesday, compared with about $US2,624/oz at the
start of this year. Factors such as central bank
buying and geopolitical tensions have contributed
to the rally in the gold price, as well as the shares
of Australian-listed gold producers. Meanwhile,
Justin Lin from Global X says the gold price could
potentially rise to around $US5,000/oz in 2026.
(RMS)
The
Lead Up
Dec
23
Sydney, Australia
Australian
Dollar: $0.6654 USD (up $0.0044 USD)
Iron Ore: $104.90 USD (up $US0.40)
Oil: $58.04 USD (up $1.52 USD)
Gold: $4,436.33 USD (up $96.23 USD)
Copper: $5.4985 USD (up $0.0150 USD)
Bitcoin: $88,564.31 -0.09%
Dow Jones: 48,389.19 (up 254.30 points)
BTC
$88,564.31 -0.09%
BNB $856.94 -0.10%
Dogecoin $0.1327 -0.99%
Market
Favs
TKO
$215.49 +2.06 +0.97%
Alphabet Inc Class A $309.78 +2.62 +0.85%
Netflix Inc $93.23 -1.16 -1.23%
News
Trading
Schwab
CEO Rick Wurster draws a ‘bright line’
between investing and gambling
When
it comes to encouraging customers to invest for
the long haul or live in the fast lane, Rick Wurster
says he knows where his brokerage stands. And it
is not on the side of the guy dressed as a race-car
driver. Wurster, appointed Charles Schwab’s
CEO in January, has delivered higher profit this
year thanks to individual investors’ mounting
confidence in trading everything from stocks and
bonds to options and exchange-traded funds. An extended
rally has led some ordinary Americans into riskier,
more-volatile markets.
News
Las
Vegas
30
years, millions of lights and one big party at downtown
Las Vegas’s Fremont Street Experience
In
Vegas time, 30 years is long enough to feel like
forever. It’s a monumental chunk of time wherein
generations of locals and visitors may have no understanding
of what came before. That’s how long we’ve
had the Fremont Street Experience—the historic
casino-lined five-block pedestrian promenade Downtown,
covered mostly by the 1,375-foot LED-screen canopy
flashing Viva Vision shows every night—instead
of “Glitter Gulch,” what we called Fremont
Street when you could drive your car there. When
the canopy came to life, there was no Stratosphere
tower in Las Vegas, no Bellagio fountains, no faux
Eiffel Tower.
News
Congressman
urges Commodity Futures Trading Commission to review
Kalshi-CNN deal
Congressman
Abe Hamadeh has called on federal regulators to
review the partnership between news broadcaster
CNN and prediction market platform Kalshi, warning
that the deal posed risks to market integrity and
even national security. In a letter to Commodity
Futures Trading Commission Acting Chairwoman Caroline
D. Pham, Hamadeh requested details on how the regulator
is reviewing the partnership between Kalshi and
CNN. He argued that the arrangement creates a conflict
of interest as it allows a major news organization
to potentially profit from geopolitical events.
News
The
crypto market rebound is far from recovery
Market
Overview
The crypto market is making a new attempt at growth,
and its capitalisation has once again exceeded the
psychologically important round level of $3 trillion.
The centre of the battle between bulls and bears
over the past month has been near this level. Positive
dynamics prevail on Monday, but this is mainly due
to the low base effect.
The
sentiment index rose to 25, signalling a potential
exit from the extreme fear zone. It seems that over
the past month, the crypto market has simply grown
tired of fear. On the other hand, this is not enough
for growth, and objective fundamental changes will
be needed to return to a bull market.
Bitcoin
is trading at $89K, once again at the upper limit
of the range that has been in effect since the beginning
of last week. The short-term positive momentum may
be misleading, and the broader picture of disappointment
compared to hopes at the start of the year should
not be overlooked. Bitcoin is 30% below its peak
and trading at a level lower than it was at the
beginning of 2025. Attempts to bring YTD momentum
to zero are little consolation in this context.
News
Background
Sentiment
in the crypto market remains bearish, according
to Santiment. Growth in demand for Bitcoin is fading,
which could keep the asset in a bearish trend, according
to CryptoQuant.
Risk
appetite in the derivatives market has also weakened.
The technical picture has deteriorated: Bitcoin
has broken below the 365-day moving average, which
traditionally serves as the boundary between growth
and decline phases.
There
has been no final capitulation of investors in the
market yet, and the search for a price bottom is
not over, according to Checkonchain's assessment
of the situation. Experts cite $81K as a critical
level, which corresponds to the average purchase
price for spot Bitcoin ETFs.
Fundstrat
has named the possible range of $60K - $65K as a
‘good entry point’ before the subsequent
recovery of the asset.
The
fact that many influential BTC developers are ignoring
the threat of quantum computing is already a bearish
factor for Bitcoin, according to Castle Island Ventures.
This position contradicts the philosophy of ‘active
paranoia,’ which is typically characteristic
of the Bitcoin community.
Ethereum
developers have chosen a name for the upcoming update,
which will follow the Glamsterdam hard fork in the
first half of 2026. The upgrade has been named Hegota,
and its release is scheduled for the second half
of 2026. (FxPro_
News
Gold
sets a record
The
US dollar may strengthen against major global currencies.
Debasement
trading and geopolitics are helping gold. Markets
await Christmas, central banks await data. As expected,
the Bank of Japan raised its overnight rate to 0.75%,
the highest level in three decades. However, the
yen weakened sharply against major global currencies
due to the implementation of the ‘buy the rumour,
sell the fact’ principle and the BoJ's reluctance
to use hawkish rhetoric. Kazuo Ueda noted that there
is room to continue the normalisation cycle, but
further actions by the regulator will depend on
data. The futures market gives only a 20% probability
of a cut in the federal funds rate in January and
a 54% chance in March. Most likely, the Fed will
wait until spring to ease monetary policy. The rate
differential with the Bank of Japan will remain
wide. This will be a strong argument in favour of
intensifying carry trade and continuing the USDJPY
rally. The same applies to other low-yielding currencies.
The US dollar is becoming a risky asset due to its
still high interest rates. It may rise against the
backdrop of the traditional Christmas rally in US
stock indices. The presidents of the Federal Reserve
Banks of New York, John Williams, and Cleveland,
Beth Hammack, spoke in favour of keeping the Fed's
monetary policy unchanged, at least until spring.
According to the latter, rates are slightly below
neutral. Therefore, the risks of stimulating the
economy and accelerating inflation are still high.
The weakening of major global currencies and the
rise in bond yields around the world, led by Japan,
as prices fall, are bringing back investor interest
in so-called debasement trading. This has allowed
gold to break above $4,400 per ounce for the first
time in history and reach a new record high. The
rally is being fuelled by rising geopolitical risks,
including the US blockade of oil supplies from Venezuela
and Ukraine's first attack on a Russian shadow fleet
tanker in the Mediterranean. Capital inflows into
specialised exchange-traded funds have been flowing
for five consecutive weeks. Precious metal-focused
ETFs increased their reserves every month in 2025
except May. According to Goldman Sachs, investors
are beginning to compete with central banks for
a limited number of bullion bars. This will allow
gold to reach $4,900 in 2026. (FxPro)
News
More
Intel
Dec
19
Central
banks did not scare the dollar
Central
banks prefer to pause
The
strengthening of the dollar prevented gold from
reaching a record high. Global central banks are
diverging in their policy paths. In the wake of
the Fed's decision, Britain and Mexico have lowered
rates, whereas the eurozone, Norway, and Sweden
have signalled a continued pause. The Bank of Japan
tightened its policy, raising the overnight rate
to its highest level since 1995 at 0.75%. Nevertheless,
the US dollar strengthened against major world currencies
on expectations of a prolonged pause in the process
of lowering the federal funds rate. The Bank of
England lowered the repo rate to 3.75% by five votes
to four. Andrew Bailey warned of limited room for
manoeuvre in the monetary expansion cycle in 2026.
As a result, the futures market reduced its expected
scale to 25 basis points. The pound initially strengthened,
but a reassessment of US inflation data brought
GBPUSD back down to earth. As expected, the ECB
raised its eurozone GDP forecasts to 1.4% in 2025
and 1.2% in 2026. The central bank expects inflation
to remain below target until 2028. Christine Lagarde
did not encourage the ‘hawks’ who had
previously discussed raising deposit rates. The
Frenchwoman repeated the mantra that the European
Central Bank is in a comfortable position. The EURUSD's
inability to break through resistance at 1.176 resulted
in a sell-off. The Bank of Japan raised its overnight
rate to 0.75%. This outcome of the December meeting
was predicted by all 50 Bloomberg experts. In this
regard, after the BoJ's verdict, a sell-off of the
yen began on the facts. Moreover, the Governing
Council did not signal a continuation of the cycle
of monetary tightening. The US dollar strengthened
against major world currencies as investors ignored
the slowdown in US core inflation to 2.6% in November.
This is the lowest level since the beginning of
2021. After the shutdown, the BLS is experiencing
problems with data. It will take time for confidence
in it to return. The market's reluctance to take
US consumer price statistics at face value played
a cruel joke on gold. The precious metal hit a new
local high but failed to reach a record high and
was forced to retreat due to the strengthening of
the US dollar. According to Goldman Sachs, structurally
high demand from central banks for bullion and cyclical
support from the Fed's rate cuts will continue to
create tailwinds for XAUUSD. (FxPro)
News
U.S/Tech/Search/A.I
News
Google
executive addresses calls to slow AI, highlights
security and energy focus
Executive
cites cybersecurity and energy as key areas where
AI growth can be beneficial
Google
executive Royal Hansen responded to some lawmakers'
calls to slow the development of artificial intelligence
(AI) in the U.S., emphasizing the need to develop
and use the technology responsibly rather than fall
behind other countries.
"It's
really… this idea of being responsible as we
invest in and develop AI because there's a lot of
upside to using AI well, whether it's in energy
production or healthcare or science."
"But
in cybersecurity," he continued, "it's
an area where we need to keep people safe, help
people learn to use AI well at the same time."
News
Dec
22
Australia
Dodgy
$60m crypto mining scheme shut
The
Federal Court last week ordered that NGS Crypto
and two linked companies be wound up, with the three
firms known collectively as the NGS digital mining
scheme. The ruling followed an Australian Securities
& Investments Commission investigation into
the dubious scheme, with ASIC reporting that over
450 people invested about $60 million with the NGS
companies over a period of six years. However, to
date, only around $US4.5 million ($6.7 million)
of that money has been traced. (RMS)
News
Dec
20
Show
hits pay dirt, and some real gold
The
Discovery Channel Australia will broadcast the 10th
season of Aussie Gold Hunter from 8 January. The
show was the highest-rating factual series across
Foxtel's channels from 2017 and 2022, while it has
an estimated global audience of 40 million people
in 140 countries. Seven teams of gold prospectors
will appear in the new season of Aussie Gold Hunters;
the program is produced by Perth-based Electric
Pictures, and executive producer Andrew Ogilvie
says much of its appeal lies in its depiction of
ordinary people finding gold - or not finding it.
(RMS)
News
Dec
22
New-age
'showman' stalking Hollywood
Netflix
and Paramount are battling for control of Warner
Bros Discovery, with Netflix's bid for much of Warner
Bros valued at $US72bn ($108.7bn). Some have claimed
that Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos is trying to destroy
Hollywood with its bid, but he has stated he views
it as a win for the entertainment industry. He promised
in a speech in Paris to keep films in theatres,
although he told a Time magazine event this year
that he views traditional filmgoing as being outmoded
for most people. Producer Greg Berlanti has stated
that Sarandos "has that old studio showman
flair", while US President Donald Trump has
spoken highly of him. (A.I Newsfeed)
News
Gold
Gold
prices surged over 65% this year, nearing $4,400
per ounce.
Rising
central bank buying and geopolitical risks are driving
gold demand and outlook.
It’s
hard to imagine gold having a better year in 2026
than it has this year.
The
precious metal is up more than 65% this year and
has been retesting highs set near Halloween, gaining
7.5% in the last month to get within sniffing distance
of $4,400 per ounce.
Markets
that achieve that kind of vertical lift — and
gold prices as measured by SPDR Gold Shares (GLD)
are up 33.7% annualized and roughly 140% cumulative
over the last three years — nearly always have
similarly scary pullbacks, so investors’ gold
nerves are on edge.
And
while gold has always been considered a hedge against
rising prices and inflation has proven persistent
and sticky, gold’s recent rise appears to have
little to do with inflation and more to do with
geopolitical risk, tariff concerns, a weakened dollar,
and more.
News
Dec
20
Sharemarket
caps weak year of returns amid blue-chip exodus
Australia's
benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is set to underperform
its global peers in calendar 2025. It is on track
to post a gain of about six per cent, compared with
8.4 per cent in 2024 and 11.4 per cent in 2023;
in contrast, the US and UK bourses are set to post
double-digit returns, while the Hang Seng Index
in Hong Kong has gained nearly 30 per cent. Tony
Sycamore from IG notes that the S&P/ASX 200's
performance would have been much worse if it had
not benefited from a rally by the resources sector,
which has gained about 25 per cent in the year to
date; this has been primarily due to a surge in
the price of gold. The S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.39
per cent to 8,621.4 points on Friday. (RMS)
News
Flashback
Markets,
Biz, News, Resources, Culture
December
19, 2025
Sydney, Australia
Australia
and World
S&P/ASX
200 8588.20 +0.37%
S&P 500 6778.28 +0.85%
NIKKEI 49001.50 -1.03%
FTSE 9837.77 +0.65%
AUD/USD66.15 +0.23%
GOLD 4331.30 +0.23%
BITCOIN $84,747.60 -1.52%
News
Markets
ASX
futures up 44 points/0.5% to 8627
Wall
Street:
S&P 500 +0.8%
Dow Jones: +0.1%
Nasdaq +1.2%
Europe:
Stoxx 50 +1.1%
FTSE +0.7%
DAX +1%
CAC +0.8%
Australian
dollar +0.1% to US66.12 cents
Bitcoin
$85,077.30 -0.99%
Gold
-0.3% to $US4325.33 per ounce
US
oil +0.1% to $US55.98 a barrel
Brent
crude oil +0.1% to $US59.71 a barrel
Iron
ore +1.3% to $US105.00 per ton
10-year
yield:
US 4.11%
Australia 4.74%
Germany 2.85%
News
Mining/Energy/Resources
Demand
headwinds may put brakes on iron ore's run
The
iron ore price has risen by about seven per cent
so far in 2025, but Vivek Dhar from the Commonwelth
Bank warns that oversupply concerns could soon see
the price of the steel input fall below $US100 per
tonne. He notes that demand headwinds are accelerating
in China, while shipments from the Simandou project
in Guinea have commenced. UBS in turn says factors
such as rising iron ore port inventories, pressure
on the steel sector and Simandou pose downside risks
to iron ore prices. Despite the bearish outlook,
the ASX 200 materials sector has gained 27 per cent
in the year to date. (RMS)
News
Iron
ore tipped to plunge into a bear market
Westpac
is particularly bearish about the outlook for the
iron ore price, forecasting that it will fall by
20 per cent to about $US83 per tonne by the end
of 2026. The pessimistic forecast comes amid ongoing
signs of a downturn in China's steel industry. Production
fell by 11 per cent year-on-year in November, declining
for a sixth consecutive month. In contrast, iron
ore imports into China reached a record high during
the first 11 months of calendar 2025, and inventories
at the nation's ports have reached their highest
level since March. (RMS)
News
US
miners take on Simandou play in Guinea
The
Rio Tinto-backed Simandou iron ore mine in Guinea
is currently the world's biggest mining project.
However, the Kon Kweni iron ore deposit in south-east
Guinea is estimated to be of higher quality. It
is owned by US-based Ivanhoe Atlantic, which has
proposed a $US1.8bn mine and rail project to produce
iron ore with 66.5 per cent purity. Ivanhoe Atlantic's
president and CEO Bronwyn Barnes says every ton
of iron ore produced at Kon Kweni will be reserved
solely for US and allied supply chains. The company
expects to start shipping ore in the first half
of 2027, while it has received preliminary approval
to list on the Australian sharemarket. (Roy Morgan
Summary)
News
Bitcoin
is holding, while Solana is on the edge
Market
Overview
The
crypto market capitalisation fell to $2.91T (-2.4%
for the day). The surge at the start of the US session
on Wednesday only fuelled the bears, who drove the
market down to $2.89T by the end of the day, retreating
only slightly from these lows. Under intense pressure,
the major old altcoins — Ethereum, XRP, and
Solana — retreated to multi-month lows, losing
about 4% over the past 24 hours.
Bitcoin
is trading near $87K, roughly where it was the day
before. A sharp jump in price above $90K hit a wall
of selling, and now just above this round level
is a significant short-term resistance line, which
was support until 14 December. However, it is also
difficult for the market to find reasons to go below
the $85K level, from which the price has been rebounding
since the beginning of the week. Additionally, it
is worth noting that BTC is trading significantly
above its late November lows of $80K, outperforming
major altcoins.
Solana's
price fell to $123, testing an important support
area from March 2024. Since its peak in September,
this seventh-largest altcoin has lost half of its
value. The technical rebound that began at the end
of November has ended, and if support at $120 fails,
the road down to $90 or even $70 will open up.
News
Background
Long-term
Bitcoin holders have almost completed their active
selling phase, according to K33 Research, which
anticipates a decrease in selling pressure. Over
the past two years, 20% of the supply has returned
to the market, and this process is almost complete.
Institutional
investors have begun buying Bitcoin at a rate faster
than miners can mine it, Capriole notes. For the
first time since November, demand from companies
has exceeded the inflow of new coins into the market
amid a more than 30% drop in the asset from its
October highs.
Strategy
bought 641 bitcoins daily in 2025, according to
Finbold Research. This allowed it to increase its
holdings by 223,800 BTC (a 50% increase) in less
than a year.
The
capacity of the Lightning Network (LN) micropayment
network has reached a historic high, thanks to technical
improvements and the implementation of the solution
by major exchanges. The growth of this indicator
is a sign of demand for faster and cheaper transactions.
(FxPro)
News
Currency
Notes Under The Watercooler
Crypto
Winter Darwinism
Digital
asset treasuries were flying high earlier this year
until bitcoin's sudden October crash. Now many of
those companies are sitting on unrealized losses.
Over
180 public companies currently hold crypto on their
balance sheets, with roughly 100 of that total having
followed some version a the playbook that Strategy
co-founder Michael Saylor pioneered in 2020 by issuing
debt and equity to rapidly accumulate bitcoin.
Bitcoin's
more recent volatility has prompted a sell-off across
the digital asset treasury space.
Strategy's
stock has fallen roughly 40% since bitcoin's Oct.
10 liquidation.
Investors
have wrestled with Strategy's imitators even worse
over the past month. KindlyMD (NAKA) has dived 39%.
Eric Trump's American Bitcoin (ABTC) is down 60%.
Anthony Pompliano's ProCap Financial (BRR) has fell
65%.
Other
ether-holding treasury companies, like sports betting
company SharpLink Gaming (SBET) and computing firm
Bit Digital (BTBT), have seen their stocks tumble
about 40% over the past two months.
"Market
concerns on MSTR are overstated and there is no
realistic scenario which threatens the longevity
of MSTR," analyst Gautam Chhugani wrote in
a note on Dec. 1. "However, several MSTR copy-cats
may continue to trade at discount to their NAVs
without a clear path to raise long term capital."
Restructuring
and stronger players acquiring weaker ones are possibilities,
according to Will Owens, a research analyst for
Galaxy Digital.
"In
other words, treasury companies are about to enter
a Darwinian phase," Owens wrote earlier this
month.
Bet
with your head, not over it!
Best
Quotes Of The Day
Cryptocurrency,
Finance and World
"Volatility
is Satoshi’s gift to the faithful." -
Michael Saylor
"Bitcoin
is a tool for freeing humanity from oligarchs and
tyrants, dressed up as a get-rich-quick scheme."
— Naval Ravikant
"We
have elected to put our money and faith in a mathematical
framework that is free of politics and human error."
— Tyler Winklevoss
"You
can't stop things like Bitcoin. It will be everywhere,
and the world will have to readjust. World governments
will have to readjust." — John McAfee
"Bitcoin
is the most important invention in the history of
the world since the Internet." — Roger
Ver
"Cryptocurrency
is such a powerful concept that it can almost overturn
governments." — Charles Lee
"In
the future, national currencies will become obsolete.
Bitcoin will become the single global currency."
— Jack Dorsey
"The
future of finance is crypto, whether it’s in
payments, contracts, or savings." — Changpeng
Zhao
"Crypto
offers freedom to the unbanked and hope to the underprivileged."
— Elizabeth Stark
"The
new frontier of innovation is in decentralization.
Blockchain leads the charge." — Don Tapscott
"Digital
currency is here to stay, and it’s only a matter
of how long before governments embrace it."
— Brad Garlinghouse
Markets,
Cryptos, Biz and Culture
Media
Man Group
All
That Glitters
Digital
Bush Telegraph - Australia to Hollywood and Silicon
Valley Edition; Media Watercooler
December
22, 2025
Sydney, Australia
December
21, 2025
Wall St, New York
Australian
Dollar: $0.6610 USD (down $0.0003 USD) Iron Ore:
$104.50 USD (down $US0.50)
Oil: $56.52 USD (up $0.51 USD)
Gold: $4,340.10 USD (up $9.48 USD)
Copper: $5.4835 USD (up $0.0610 USD)
Bitcoin: $88,482.84 +0.23%
Dow Jones: 48,134.89 (up 183.04 points)
BTC
88,851.95 +0.26%
BNB $861.43 +0.84%
Dogecoin $0.1320 +0.04%
Market
Favs
Closed
Today
TKO
$213.44 +1.81 +0.86%
Alphabet Inc Class A +$307.16 +4.70 +1.55%
Netflix Inc $94.39 +0.39 +0.41%
News
Trading
Schwab
CEO Rick Wurster draws a ‘bright line’
between investing and gambling
When
it comes to encouraging customers to invest for
the long haul or live in the fast lane, Rick Wurster
says he knows where his brokerage stands. And it
is not on the side of the guy dressed as a race-car
driver. Wurster, appointed Charles Schwab’s
CEO in January, has delivered higher profit this
year thanks to individual investors’ mounting
confidence in trading everything from stocks and
bonds to options and exchange-traded funds. An extended
rally has led some ordinary Americans into riskier,
more-volatile markets.
News
Las
Vegas
30
years, millions of lights and one big party at downtown
Las Vegas’s Fremont Street Experience
In
Vegas time, 30 years is long enough to feel like
forever. It’s a monumental chunk of time wherein
generations of locals and visitors may have no understanding
of what came before. That’s how long we’ve
had the Fremont Street Experience—the historic
casino-lined five-block pedestrian promenade Downtown,
covered mostly by the 1,375-foot LED-screen canopy
flashing Viva Vision shows every night—instead
of “Glitter Gulch,” what we called Fremont
Street when you could drive your car there. When
the canopy came to life, there was no Stratosphere
tower in Las Vegas, no Bellagio fountains, no faux
Eiffel Tower.
News
US
Congressman
urges Commodity Futures Trading Commission to review
Kalshi-CNN deal
Congressman
Abe Hamadeh has called on federal regulators to
review the partnership between news broadcaster
CNN and prediction market platform Kalshi, warning
that the deal posed risks to market integrity and
even national security. In a letter to Commodity
Futures Trading Commission Acting Chairwoman Caroline
D. Pham, Hamadeh requested details on how the regulator
is reviewing the partnership between Kalshi and
CNN. He argued that the arrangement creates a conflict
of interest as it allows a major news organization
to potentially profit from geopolitical events.
News
More
Intel
Dec
19
Central
banks did not scare the dollar
Central
banks prefer to pause
The
strengthening of the dollar prevented gold from
reaching a record high. Global central banks are
diverging in their policy paths. In the wake of
the Fed's decision, Britain and Mexico have lowered
rates, whereas the eurozone, Norway, and Sweden
have signalled a continued pause. The Bank of Japan
tightened its policy, raising the overnight rate
to its highest level since 1995 at 0.75%. Nevertheless,
the US dollar strengthened against major world currencies
on expectations of a prolonged pause in the process
of lowering the federal funds rate. The Bank of
England lowered the repo rate to 3.75% by five votes
to four. Andrew Bailey warned of limited room for
manoeuvre in the monetary expansion cycle in 2026.
As a result, the futures market reduced its expected
scale to 25 basis points. The pound initially strengthened,
but a reassessment of US inflation data brought
GBPUSD back down to earth. As expected, the ECB
raised its eurozone GDP forecasts to 1.4% in 2025
and 1.2% in 2026. The central bank expects inflation
to remain below target until 2028. Christine Lagarde
did not encourage the ‘hawks’ who had
previously discussed raising deposit rates. The
Frenchwoman repeated the mantra that the European
Central Bank is in a comfortable position. The EURUSD's
inability to break through resistance at 1.176 resulted
in a sell-off. The Bank of Japan raised its overnight
rate to 0.75%. This outcome of the December meeting
was predicted by all 50 Bloomberg experts. In this
regard, after the BoJ's verdict, a sell-off of the
yen began on the facts. Moreover, the Governing
Council did not signal a continuation of the cycle
of monetary tightening. The US dollar strengthened
against major world currencies as investors ignored
the slowdown in US core inflation to 2.6% in November.
This is the lowest level since the beginning of
2021. After the shutdown, the BLS is experiencing
problems with data. It will take time for confidence
in it to return. The market's reluctance to take
US consumer price statistics at face value played
a cruel joke on gold. The precious metal hit a new
local high but failed to reach a record high and
was forced to retreat due to the strengthening of
the US dollar. According to Goldman Sachs, structurally
high demand from central banks for bullion and cyclical
support from the Fed's rate cuts will continue to
create tailwinds for XAUUSD. (FxPro)
News
U.S/Tech/Search/A.I
News
Google
executive addresses calls to slow AI, highlights
security and energy focus
Executive
cites cybersecurity and energy as key areas where
AI growth can be beneficial
Google
executive Royal Hansen responded to some lawmakers'
calls to slow the development of artificial intelligence
(AI) in the U.S., emphasizing the need to develop
and use the technology responsibly rather than fall
behind other countries.
"It's
really… this idea of being responsible as we
invest in and develop AI because there's a lot of
upside to using AI well, whether it's in energy
production or healthcare or science."
"But
in cybersecurity," he continued, "it's
an area where we need to keep people safe, help
people learn to use AI well at the same time."
News
Dec
22
Australia
Dodgy
$60m crypto mining scheme shut
The
Federal Court last week ordered that NGS Crypto
and two linked companies be wound up, with the three
firms known collectively as the NGS digital mining
scheme. The ruling followed an Australian Securities
& Investments Commission investigation into
the dubious scheme, with ASIC reporting that over
450 people invested about $60 million with the NGS
companies over a period of six years. However, to
date, only around $US4.5 million ($6.7 million)
of that money has been traced. (RMS)
News
Dec
20
Show
hits pay dirt, and some real gold
The
Discovery Channel Australia will broadcast the 10th
season of Aussie Gold Hunter from 8 January. The
show was the highest-rating factual series across
Foxtel's channels from 2017 and 2022, while it has
an estimated global audience of 40 million people
in 140 countries. Seven teams of gold prospectors
will appear in the new season of Aussie Gold Hunters;
the program is produced by Perth-based Electric
Pictures, and executive producer Andrew Ogilvie
says much of its appeal lies in its depiction of
ordinary people finding gold - or not finding it.
(RMS)
News
Dec
22
New-age
'showman' stalking Hollywood
Netflix
and Paramount are battling for control of Warner
Bros Discovery, with Netflix's bid for much of Warner
Bros valued at $US72bn ($108.7bn). Some have claimed
that Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos is trying to destroy
Hollywood with its bid, but he has stated he views
it as a win for the entertainment industry. He promised
in a speech in Paris to keep films in theatres,
although he told a Time magazine event this year
that he views traditional filmgoing as being outmoded
for most people. Producer Greg Berlanti has stated
that Sarandos "has that old studio showman
flair", while US President Donald Trump has
spoken highly of him. (A.I Newsfeed)
News
Gold
Gold
prices surged over 65% this year, nearing $4,400
per ounce.
Rising
central bank buying and geopolitical risks are driving
gold demand and outlook.
It’s
hard to imagine gold having a better year in 2026
than it has this year.
The
precious metal is up more than 65% this year and
has been retesting highs set near Halloween, gaining
7.5% in the last month to get within sniffing distance
of $4,400 per ounce.
Markets
that achieve that kind of vertical lift — and
gold prices as measured by SPDR Gold Shares (GLD)
are up 33.7% annualized and roughly 140% cumulative
over the last three years — nearly always have
similarly scary pullbacks, so investors’ gold
nerves are on edge.
And
while gold has always been considered a hedge against
rising prices and inflation has proven persistent
and sticky, gold’s recent rise appears to have
little to do with inflation and more to do with
geopolitical risk, tariff concerns, a weakened dollar,
and more.
News
Dec
20
Sharemarket
caps weak year of returns amid blue-chip exodus
Australia's
benchmark S&P/ASX 200 is set to underperform
its global peers in calendar 2025. It is on track
to post a gain of about six per cent, compared with
8.4 per cent in 2024 and 11.4 per cent in 2023;
in contrast, the US and UK bourses are set to post
double-digit returns, while the Hang Seng Index
in Hong Kong has gained nearly 30 per cent. Tony
Sycamore from IG notes that the S&P/ASX 200's
performance would have been much worse if it had
not benefited from a rally by the resources sector,
which has gained about 25 per cent in the year to
date; this has been primarily due to a surge in
the price of gold. The S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.39
per cent to 8,621.4 points on Friday. (RMS)
News
Flashback
Markets,
Biz, News, Resources, Culture
December
19, 2025
Sydney, Australia
Australia
and World
S&P/ASX
200 8588.20 +0.37%
S&P 500 6778.28 +0.85%
NIKKEI 49001.50 -1.03%
FTSE 9837.77 +0.65%
AUD/USD66.15 +0.23%
GOLD 4331.30 +0.23%
BITCOIN $84,747.60 -1.52%
News
Markets
ASX
futures up 44 points/0.5% to 8627
Wall
Street:
S&P 500 +0.8%
Dow Jones: +0.1%
Nasdaq +1.2%
Europe:
Stoxx 50 +1.1%
FTSE +0.7%
DAX +1%
CAC +0.8%
Australian
dollar +0.1% to US66.12 cents
Bitcoin
$85,077.30 -0.99%
Gold
-0.3% to $US4325.33 per ounce
US
oil +0.1% to $US55.98 a barrel
Brent
crude oil +0.1% to $US59.71 a barrel
Iron
ore +1.3% to $US105.00 per ton
10-year
yield:
US 4.11%
Australia 4.74%
Germany 2.85%
News
Mining/Energy/Resources
Demand
headwinds may put brakes on iron ore's run
The
iron ore price has risen by about seven per cent
so far in 2025, but Vivek Dhar from the Commonwelth
Bank warns that oversupply concerns could soon see
the price of the steel input fall below $US100 per
tonne. He notes that demand headwinds are accelerating
in China, while shipments from the Simandou project
in Guinea have commenced. UBS in turn says factors
such as rising iron ore port inventories, pressure
on the steel sector and Simandou pose downside risks
to iron ore prices. Despite the bearish outlook,
the ASX 200 materials sector has gained 27 per cent
in the year to date. (RMS)
News
Iron
ore tipped to plunge into a bear market
Westpac
is particularly bearish about the outlook for the
iron ore price, forecasting that it will fall by
20 per cent to about $US83 per tonne by the end
of 2026. The pessimistic forecast comes amid ongoing
signs of a downturn in China's steel industry. Production
fell by 11 per cent year-on-year in November, declining
for a sixth consecutive month. In contrast, iron
ore imports into China reached a record high during
the first 11 months of calendar 2025, and inventories
at the nation's ports have reached their highest
level since March. (RMS)
News
US
miners take on Simandou play in Guinea
The
Rio Tinto-backed Simandou iron ore mine in Guinea
is currently the world's biggest mining project.
However, the Kon Kweni iron ore deposit in south-east
Guinea is estimated to be of higher quality. It
is owned by US-based Ivanhoe Atlantic, which has
proposed a $US1.8bn mine and rail project to produce
iron ore with 66.5 per cent purity. Ivanhoe Atlantic's
president and CEO Bronwyn Barnes says every ton
of iron ore produced at Kon Kweni will be reserved
solely for US and allied supply chains. The company
expects to start shipping ore in the first half
of 2027, while it has received preliminary approval
to list on the Australian sharemarket. (Roy Morgan
Summary)
News
Bitcoin
is holding, while Solana is on the edge
Market
Overview
The
crypto market capitalisation fell to $2.91T (-2.4%
for the day). The surge at the start of the US session
on Wednesday only fuelled the bears, who drove the
market down to $2.89T by the end of the day, retreating
only slightly from these lows. Under intense pressure,
the major old altcoins — Ethereum, XRP, and
Solana — retreated to multi-month lows, losing
about 4% over the past 24 hours.
Bitcoin
is trading near $87K, roughly where it was the day
before. A sharp jump in price above $90K hit a wall
of selling, and now just above this round level
is a significant short-term resistance line, which
was support until 14 December. However, it is also
difficult for the market to find reasons to go below
the $85K level, from which the price has been rebounding
since the beginning of the week. Additionally, it
is worth noting that BTC is trading significantly
above its late November lows of $80K, outperforming
major altcoins.
Solana's
price fell to $123, testing an important support
area from March 2024. Since its peak in September,
this seventh-largest altcoin has lost half of its
value. The technical rebound that began at the end
of November has ended, and if support at $120 fails,
the road down to $90 or even $70 will open up.
News
Background
Long-term
Bitcoin holders have almost completed their active
selling phase, according to K33 Research, which
anticipates a decrease in selling pressure. Over
the past two years, 20% of the supply has returned
to the market, and this process is almost complete.
Institutional
investors have begun buying Bitcoin at a rate faster
than miners can mine it, Capriole notes. For the
first time since November, demand from companies
has exceeded the inflow of new coins into the market
amid a more than 30% drop in the asset from its
October highs.
Strategy
bought 641 bitcoins daily in 2025, according to
Finbold Research. This allowed it to increase its
holdings by 223,800 BTC (a 50% increase) in less
than a year.
The
capacity of the Lightning Network (LN) micropayment
network has reached a historic high, thanks to technical
improvements and the implementation of the solution
by major exchanges. The growth of this indicator
is a sign of demand for faster and cheaper transactions.
(FxPro)
News
The
dollar's wings have been clipped
Christopher
Waller's dovish rhetoric halted the bears' attack
on EURUSD.
Slowing
British inflation caused the pound to fall, while
the Bank of Japan is preparing to raise rates.
Christopher
Waller's comments had as much of an impact on the
US dollar as the US labour market statistics. The
rise in unemployment to 4.6% and the acceleration
in average private sector employment over three
months from 13,000 in the summer to 75,000 in the
autumn forced investors to change their views. They
began to expect a prolonged pause in the monetary
expansion cycle and a reduction in the federal funds
rate to 3.75% in 2026. However, a senior FOMC official
thinks differently.
Christopher
Waller is one of the candidates for the position
of Fed chair. He believes that the neutral rate
is 2.75%, which is 100 basis points below current
levels. This is significantly lower than the forecasts
of the futures market. If the cost of borrowing
falls to this level, Treasury yields will decline
and the USD index will collapse. Moreover, the futures
market is confident that the ECB's monetary expansion
cycle is coming to an end. Investors are beginning
to price in expectations of a rise in deposit rates.
This is usually done when the risks of inflation
accelerating increase or monetary policy becomes
too loose. Neither of these conditions applies to
the eurozone. It is too early to talk about a new
trump card for EURUSD. On the contrary, weak data
on business activity in the currency bloc and German
business confidence from the IFO are disappointing
ECB hawks and putting pressure on the euro. The
regional currency appears too expensive. Japan has
a different problem. The yen appears too cheap for
a government fighting inflation. Therefore, Prime
Minister Sanae Takaichi will not stand in the way
of the Bank of Japan's intention to raise rates.
Investors are eagerly awaiting Kazuo Ueda's signals
about the regulator's actions in 2026. The BoJ is
expected to very slowly normalise monetary policy.
This fact supports the bulls on USDJPY. The slowdown
in British inflation from 3.6% to 3.2% in November
caused the pound to plummet. The futures market
is confident that by April, the repo rate will be
cut by 50 basis points to 3.5%. Investors doubt
that the Bank of England will take a hawkish stance
in December. They expect Andrew Bailey to signal
a continuation of the cycle of monetary policy easing.
(FxPro)
News
The
Lead Up
Dec
18
ASX
ends lower on oil stocks; miners rally
The
Australian sharemarket lost ground on Wednesday,
with the S&P/ASX 200 shedding 0.2 per cent to
close at 8,585.2 points. Woodside Energy was down
2.4 per cent at $23.40, GrainCorp fell 15.5 per
cent to $7.09 and DroneShield ended the session
12,1 per cent lower at $2.47. However, Liontown
Resources was up 11.8 per cent at $1.51 and Humm
Group rose 10.6 per cent to $0.73 in response to
a takeover bid.
News
Markets/Resources/Commodities
Dec
18
Australian
Dollar: $0.6600 USD (down $0.0030 USD) Iron Ore:
$103.60 USD (up $US1.15)
Oil Price: $56.13 USD (up $0.94 USD)
Gold Price: $4,339.35 USD (up $28.14 USD)
Copper Price: $5.4205 USD (up $0.0545 USD)
Bitcoin: $85,642.68 USD (down 2.38%)
Dow Jones: 47,974.02 (down 140.24 points)
News
Currency
Notes Under The Watercooler
Crypto
Winter Darwinism
Digital
asset treasuries were flying high earlier this year
until bitcoin's sudden October crash. Now many of
those companies are sitting on unrealized losses.
Over
180 public companies currently hold crypto on their
balance sheets, with roughly 100 of that total having
followed some version a the playbook that Strategy
co-founder Michael Saylor pioneered in 2020 by issuing
debt and equity to rapidly accumulate bitcoin.
Bitcoin's
more recent volatility has prompted a sell-off across
the digital asset treasury space.
Strategy's
stock has fallen roughly 40% since bitcoin's Oct.
10 liquidation.
Investors
have wrestled with Strategy's imitators even worse
over the past month. KindlyMD (NAKA) has dived 39%.
Eric Trump's American Bitcoin (ABTC) is down 60%.
Anthony Pompliano's ProCap Financial (BRR) has fell
65%.
Other
ether-holding treasury companies, like sports betting
company SharpLink Gaming (SBET) and computing firm
Bit Digital (BTBT), have seen their stocks tumble
about 40% over the past two months.
"Market
concerns on MSTR are overstated and there is no
realistic scenario which threatens the longevity
of MSTR," analyst Gautam Chhugani wrote in
a note on Dec. 1. "However, several MSTR copy-cats
may continue to trade at discount to their NAVs
without a clear path to raise long term capital."
Restructuring
and stronger players acquiring weaker ones are possibilities,
according to Will Owens, a research analyst for
Galaxy Digital.
"In
other words, treasury companies are about to enter
a Darwinian phase," Owens wrote earlier this
month.
Bet
with your head, not over it!
Best
Quotes Of The Day
Cryptocurrency,
Finance and World
"Volatility
is Satoshi’s gift to the faithful." -
Michael Saylor
"Bitcoin
is a tool for freeing humanity from oligarchs and
tyrants, dressed up as a get-rich-quick scheme."
— Naval Ravikant
"We
have elected to put our money and faith in a mathematical
framework that is free of politics and human error."
— Tyler Winklevoss
"You
can't stop things like Bitcoin. It will be everywhere,
and the world will have to readjust. World governments
will have to readjust." — John McAfee
"Bitcoin
is the most important invention in the history of
the world since the Internet." — Roger
Ver
"Cryptocurrency
is such a powerful concept that it can almost overturn
governments." — Charles Lee
"In
the future, national currencies will become obsolete.
Bitcoin will become the single global currency."
— Jack Dorsey
"The
future of finance is crypto, whether it’s in
payments, contracts, or savings." — Changpeng
Zhao
"Crypto
offers freedom to the unbanked and hope to the underprivileged."
— Elizabeth Stark
"The
new frontier of innovation is in decentralization.
Blockchain leads the charge." — Don Tapscott
"Digital
currency is here to stay, and it’s only a matter
of how long before governments embrace it."
— Brad Garlinghouse
Markets,
Cryptos and Pop Culture
Culture
In Biz Series Edition
December
To Remember
Dec
17
Sydney, Australia
Dec
16
Wall Street, New York Groove
Cryptos
Struggling; All That Glitters
TKO To Naysayers Again! Thank You Cena! Enter Gunther!
Clock ticking on Jericho and Rollins?
Road To Royal Rumble
World Streaming Wars
Crypto Wolf Of Wall Street Works Weekends And Xmas
Online Media vs Legacy Media: Disruptors
"Gold" (Spandau Ballet)
"Video Killed The Radio Star" *The Buggles)
"Money Changes Everything" (Cyndi Lauper)
"Ring My Bell" (Anita Ward)
"Netflix And Chill"
"War" Edwin Starr
Media Pop Culture Theme: "Another Brick In
The Wall" aka "We Don't Need No Education"
(Pink Floyd)
"Schools Out" (Alice Cooper)
Silicon Valley theme: "Stretch Your Face"
(Tobacco)
"All You Need Is Love" (The Beatles)
"The Social Network" (score album for
film)
"Hall of Fame" (The Script)
"Eight Days a Week" (The Beatles)
"The Wolf of Wall Street" ("Mercy,
Mercy, Mercy" (Cannonball Adderley)
"Friday On My Mind" (The Easybeats)
"Trading Begins" (Wall Street track)
December
17, 2025
Sin
City Sydney, Australia
ASX
futures down 5 points/0.1% to 8597
Wall
Street:
S&P 500 -0.4%
Dow Jones: -0.8%
Nasdaq flat
Europe
Stoxx 50 -0.6%
FTSE -0.7%
DAX -0.6%
CAC -0.2%
Australian
dollar -0.2% to US66.30 cents
Bitcoin
$87,464.28 +1.75%
Gold
+0.1% to $US4311.28 per ounce
US
oil -2.6% to $US55.35 a barrel
Brent
crude oil -2.6% to $US59.01 a barrel
Iron
ore +0.9% to $US102.45 per ton
10-year
yield:
US
4.15%
Australia 4.72%
Germany 2.84%
Bitcoin
$87,464.28 +1.75%
News
Update: (Near Live)
News
New
York/Wall St via Mr Wolf!
December To Remember!
Dec
16 into Dec 17
Bells To Be Rung
NYC!
Cryptos
Today: (Near Live)
Cryptos
tarnished again! Slight upward movement
Bitcoin
$87,521.33 +1.90%
Market
ups and downs! Mood: Medium: Still picking up a
little. Play the long game?! Hardcores keep dream,
as always!
Media
Man Favs:
(Near
Live)
Bells
Rung by Mr Wolf!
TKO hulks up Again! Going for submission on competitors?!
Christmas Grinch vs Santa.
Miners on hunt. Gamers full speed instead of socials.
Gaming Awards: Tomb Raider: Atlantis!
Tech heads and grapplers watch streaming wars!
NYSE Bell Ringers With Trees! Prep for new Season's
Beatings!
TKO kicks out again. Saturday Night's Main Event
aftermath heading to WWE RAW and Road To Royal Rumble
In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
Wall
St, New York
TKO
Group Holdings Inc $210.65 +3.20 +1.54%
NVIDIA Corp $177.72 +1.43 +0.81%
Formula One Group Series $87.27 +0.15 +0.17%
Alphabet Inc Class A $306.57 -1.65 -0.54%
News Corp Class A $25.89 -0.16 -0.61%
Netflix Inc $94.57 +0.80 +0.85%
Caterpillar Inc $588.93 -0.83 -0.14%
Trump Media & Technology Group Corp $10.73 +0.27
+2.58%
Tesla Inc $489.88 +14.57 +3.07%
Walt Disney Co $111.62 +1.13 +1.02%
Wynn Resorts Ltd $126.04 -0.21 -0.17%
Meta Platforms Inc $657.15 +9.64 +1.49%
Elders ADR $19.73 (US) (NYSE)
Mercedes Benz Group ADR $17.79 -0.050 -0.28%
Rio Tinto Ltd ADR $75.99 +0.17 +0.22%
Paramount Skydance Corp $13.85 -0.14 -1.00%
Red Light Holland Corp $0.019 -0.0012 -5.94%
Volvo ADR (parent/owner of Muck Trucks) $31.43 -0.34
-1.07%
Porsche Automobile Holding SE Unsponsored Germany
ADR $4.71 -0.040 -0.84%
Microsoft $476.39 +1.57 +0.33%
News
Energy,
tech drag ASX lower; DroneShield soars
The
Australian sharemarket lost ground on Tuesday, with
the S&P/ASX 200 shedding 0.4 per cent to close
at 8,598.9 points; local investors were awaiting
the upcoming release of US employment data for October
and November, which was delayed by the record government
shutdown. Life360 was down 5.7 per cent at $32.71,
Woodside Energy fell 2.2 per cent to $23.99 and
Westpac finished 1.1 lower at $38.48. However, DroneShield
rose 22,2 per cent to $2.81 and Qantas was up 2.9
per cent at $10.09. (RMS/AFR)
News
Mining
stocks best way to play rate hikes: Macquarie
Financial
markets are now pricing in a 25 per cent chance
that the Reserve Bank of Australia will increase
the cash rate as soon as February. Macquarie Group's
equities strategists say that contrary to popular
opinion, historical analysis shows that shares typically
rise in the early stages of a new monetary policy
cycle. Macquarie believes that mining stocks are
set to benefit, as interest rate rises tend to boost
the sector's earnings. (RMS)
News
Major
coins dragged the market down
Market
Overview
The
cryptocurrency market capitalisation fell by 2.7%
to $2.94T. Buyers failed to keep the market above
the $3 trillion threshold but managed to stabilise
prices for key cryptocurrencies above last month's
lows. Bitcoin lost 4%, Ethereum and XRP lost about
6%, and Solana lost 5%. These major coins, which
have ETFs, now appear to be victims of changing
institutional sentiment.
The
sentiment index fell to 11, rolling back to its
lowest level in precisely one month. Such a deep
dive into the fear zone confirms that we are seeing
more than just an interim correction, which occurred
in February and April.
Bitcoin
fell below $85K on Monday, marking a decline for
four consecutive days. Active selling began with
the start of active trading in the American session.
This is likely the result of a portfolio rebalancing
at the end of the year, as well as another wave
of interest in cryptocurrencies from corporations
and institutions, which drove the price up from
April to August. It appears that the next significant
support level will now be in the $81K range, where
the November lows and the March support range for
the outgoing year are concentrated. The golden support
level is in the $60-70K range, where the key resistance
levels for 2021 and 2024 are located.
News
Background
Market
liquidity is declining as the end of the year approaches.
Leverage remains low, with market participants closing
positions and optimising balances, avoiding risky
bets, according to FlowDesk. The decline in liquidity
is exacerbated by historically low volumes of cryptocurrency
trading on platforms.
The
current Bitcoin rally appears to have come to an
end. Before the next major upward movement, a deeper
correction phase is likely, possibly to around $50,000,
according to CryptoQuant.
Companies
holding Bitcoin in reserves continue to ‘selectively
but steadily accumulate’ the asset. However,
the buyer base has expanded significantly: not only
miners are active, but also tech giants and financial
firms, Glassnode notes.
Strategy
bought 10,624 BTC ($980 million) over the past week,
repeating the scale of purchases from the previous
week, which was the highest since July, and made
one large purchase of bitcoins, in the same amount
as a week before. Strategy now owns 671,268 BTC
with an average purchase price of $74,972 per bitcoin.
Bitcoin's
hash rate declined by 17.25% over the week due to
the potential closure of mining farms in Xinjiang,
China, according to BlockBeats. The Chinese authorities'
measures may have been a response to a Reuters article
published in late November, which claimed that the
mining sector in China was experiencing a ‘quiet
revival’ — the country's share of the
global hash rate had grown to 14%. (FxPro)
24
hours ago
Global
Markets React to Central Bank Decisions and Policy
Outlooks
Stock
indices
The
Fed managed to please the American stock market
by easing its policy and forecasting an increase
in GDP from 1.8% to 2.3%, as well as a slowdown
in inflation from 3% to 2.5% in 2026, while also
discussing the positive impact of AI on productivity.
As a result, the S&P500 experienced its most
dramatic reaction to an FOMC meeting since March,
and the Russell 2000 set a new record. A strong
economy and inflation heading towards the 2% target
present a prime opportunity for stocks. Along with
increased productivity, this indicates that S&P500
companies may see growth in corporate earnings.
Historical episodes in which the Fed cut rates and
markets were near their peaks have shown higher
levels 12 months later in every case.
However,
expectations for the next rate cut have now shifted
to April, removing the indexes safety buffer. There
may be renewed talk of a tech giant bubble, as evidenced
by Oracle's shares plunging sharply after the company
reported disappointing earnings.
According
to Yardeni Research, investors should diversify
away from the "Magnificent Seven" and
seek opportunities in other issuers, as artificial
intelligence is transforming nearly every company
into a technology firm.
What
is ahead
The
key events of the third week of December will be
the release of US labour market data for October
and November, as well as central bank meetings.
The ECB, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan
will have their say. Investors will also pay attention
to European business activity data for December.
Jerome
Powell says that FOMC officials have similar views
on the US economy but differ in their assessment
of its risks. Hawks are concerned about high inflation,
while doves are worried about the cooling labour
market. If employment figures disappoint, derivatives
will shift expectations of monetary policy easing
from April to March, and possibly even January.
This will weaken the dollar. On the other hand,
a pleasant surprise from non-farm payrolls will
allow the USD to recoup some of its losses. While
no changes are expected from the ECB, the Bank of
England is 90% likely to cut its repo rate to 3.75%.
However, the negative is already priced into the
pound, and in the event of hawkish comments, the
pound could strengthen. The fate of the yen will
depend on the outlook for the Bank of Japan's leadership.
Few doubt that the overnight rate will be raised,
but what next? (FxPro)
News
'I
love solving puzzles': How AFP's crypto sleuth tracks
ill-gotten gains
Abigail
Gibson is the Australian Federal Police's only cryptocurrency
forensic accountant, a role she has held since 2022,
after she first joined the AFP as a forensic accountant
in 2017. Gibson uses blockchains to look for clues
that might be able to connect individuals to money
laundering, scams or sales of illicit goods and
services on the dark web, and she says that "cryptocurrency
is a well-established method for criminals to attempt
to hide their wealth and transfer assets".
Her work includes aiding the AFP's Criminal Asset
Confiscation Taskforce, which has frozen $65 million
in cryptocurrency assets since July. (AFR)
News
Flashback
Miners
lift ASX after Fed; Oracle hits tech
The
Australian sharemarket posted a small gain on Thursday,
with the S&P/ASX 200 adding 0.2 per cent to
close at 8,592. The resources sector was bolstered
by a rise in the gold price after the US Federal
Reserve's decision to reduce the cash rate for a
third time; Ramelius Resources advanced 6.7 per
cent to $3.81 and Rio Tinto was up 1.8 per cent
at $140.01. However, a sharp fall in Oracle's share
price weighed on local technology stocks, with WiseTech
Global shedding 2.2 per cent to end the session
at $70.99. (AFR/Roy Morgan Summary)
News
Crypto
market awaits the final battle of the year
Market
Overview
The
crypto market lost just over 1% in 24 hours to $3.08T,
falling back to the consolidation levels of late
November. Attempts to shake up the market at the
beginning of this month were unsuccessful for both
bulls and bears. Excluding this impulse, the market
has been treading water for almost two weeks, hovering
around the 23.6% correction rebound line from the
October-November decline. Such a shallow rebound
could be a sign of a strong bear market, but this
will only be confirmed if November's lows of $2.73T
are updated.
Bitcoin
is trading near $90K, having crossed this level
for the fifth consecutive day. An upward trend line
can be drawn through the lows of late November,
but BTC is now trading dangerously close to this
line. At the same time, horizontal resistance has
formed in the $92K area, bringing the positions
of bulls and bears closer together over time and
promising a decisive battle by the end of this week.
It could not only be the last significant battle
of the year but also determine the trend for the
coming months.
News
Background
Short
positions on Bitcoin have recorded their largest
outflow since March 2025, when the price of BTC
was near its lows. Investors likely believe that
the current surge in negative sentiment has bottomed
out, according to CoinShares.
According
to Glassnode, the reserves of long-term Bitcoin
holders fell to a cyclical low in November. This
marks the end of the spot sell-offs that have hindered
market growth throughout 2025.
Ethereum
exchange reserves have fallen to record lows, which
could signal an imminent supply crisis, according
to CryptoQuant. Since July 2025, the indicator has
fallen by about 20%.
The
largest American investment company, BlackRock,
has applied with the SEC to register an ETF that
will allow investors to earn income from staking
Ethereum without directly owning the cryptocurrency.
Strategy
has increased its weekly Bitcoin purchases to their
highest level since July. The company bought 10,624
BTC ($963 million) last week at an average price
of $90,615 per coin. Strategy now owns 660,624 BTC,
purchased for $49.3 billion at an average price
of $74,696 per Bitcoin. (FxPro)
News
Streaming
Wars: Netflix vs Paramount (for Warner Bros) aka
WBD. What's Up Doc?!
Paramount
makes hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery
Dec
9
Paramount
Skydance has directly approached Warner Bros Discovery's
shareholders with a takeover offer; it has opted
to bypass the rival media group's board, contending
that Warner's directors have backed an "inferior
proposal". Paramount has proposed a cash offer
of $US30 per share, valuing its bid for the entire
company at about $US108bn. It is seeking to trump
Netflix's deal to acquire some of Warner's assets
for around $US83bn, which has been approved by the
boards of both companies. Warner has rejected Paramount's
claims that its sale process had favoured a single
bidder.
*Developing
news story "The Streaming Wars"
News
Australia
- USA Connection
World
Leaders Condemn Bondi Beach Attack
Many
Small Crypto Bears Sell Out; Tests Patience To Often;
Bulls Controlling Market For Long Haul
News
56
hours ago +
Developing
Story
The
crypto market tries to form an uptrend
Market
Overview
The
crypto market soared by almost 7% over the past
day, reaching a capitalisation of $3.15T and forming
a higher local peak compared to Sunday. The mood
on the crypto market was buoyed by moves from institutional
giants Vanguard and Bank of America to open access
to digital assets for their clients. Combined with
the fact that the low point on December 1st is higher
than the lows on November 21st, we are seeing a
series of vital signs of an upward trend forming.
However, a conservative view suggests that fluctuations
below $3.38T are a correction from the previous
decline.
Bitcoin
approached $94K on Wednesday morning, recovering
half of its losses from the sell-off between November
11th and 21st. Considering the entire decline from
its October peak, BTCUSD remains trading below $
98K as part of the correction. The $98-100K range
contains three psychologically significant levels:
the 50-day average, early November support, and
61.8% of the decline from the peak. Consolidation
above this level could convince buyers that crypto
winter has not arrived.
News
Background
Vanguard,
the world's second-largest investment company by
assets, will open access to crypto ETF trading for
its clients on December 2nd. The company had previously
stated that it would avoid Bitcoin funds because
cryptocurrency is an “immature asset class”
and does not fit with the company's philosophy.
Bank
of America, one of the largest banks in the United
States, has recommended that its institutional clients
allocate 1% to 4% of their portfolios to cryptocurrencies.
Previously, investors were unable to access cryptocurrencies
because advisors were prohibited from recommending
such instruments.
The
four-year cycle theory has ceased to work, so Bitcoin
has a chance to reach new highs in 2026, according
to Grayscale. Analysts believe there are already
some signs that Bitcoin has likely bottomed out.
News
(from Friday: Sydney)
ASX
up as tech stocks rally, WiseTech gains
The
Australian sharemarket posted a modest gain on Thursday,
with lower trading volumes ahead of Wall Street's
closure for Thanksgiving Day; the S&P/ASX 200
added 0.1 per cent to close at 8,617.3 points. WiseTech
Global was up 6.9 per cent at $69.72, Bellevue Gold
rose 3.2 per cent to $1.29 and Reece advanced four
per cent to $12.73. However, DroneShield was down
7.8 per cent at $2 and Santos fell 1.8 per cent
to end the session at $6.44. (RMS)
News
The
Dollar's new edge: from shield to sword
The
dollar is losing its safe-haven status. • The
scale of the Fed's rate cuts has been overestimated.
• The yen is the main favourite for 2026.
BoJ
may not raise rates until March. If the US dollar
was previously a shield, it is now turning into
a sword. (FxPro)
News
Pop
Culture News
Dream
Matches: Fantasy Booking/Sports; Media Man Group
Dream Match Series; Crack The Code!
Million
Dollar Man vs IRS
Michael Wall Street vs Billionaire Ted
Mr X vs Mr BTC
Mr Green vs Mr Cash
VKM vs Easy E
Vinnie Vegas vs Mr Corbin
Mr Corp Merch vs Mr Freelance
Masked Superstar vs John McAfee
Sid Justice vs Mr Blood Diamond
Mr Bluey Chipper vs Street Fighter - King Of The
Streets Mr Dotcom vs Mr Wiki
Mr Gold vs Mr Green - Money In The Bank Ladder Match
Khan vs Khan - Winner Take All Match
Mr Wolff vs The Cleaner
Mr News vs Mr Vice - U.S Market Footprint Stipulation
Mr Paramount vs Mr Netflix
Mr ESPN vs Mr Fox
Mr Kross vs Mr Cardona
Cesaro vs Rollins
Dirty Dom vs Mr AAA
Punks vs Egos
Kross vs H
Murdoch Title vs Title
Mr Black Coffee vs Mr Claudio's Cafe Blend
Mr Warner vs Mr Netflix: Broadway draw thus far!
Re-match! Winner take all?!
TMZ vs Riddle
UFC vs PFL
The Oracle vs Cincinnati, Ohio
Mr X vs Hollyweird
Succession vs Billions
Mouse House vs Art House
NFL vs UFL
ABC vs Mainstream Aussies
Reigns vs Blanka
Cody Rhodes vs Joe
E. Honda vs NJPW
Capcom vs Warner
Cena vs ACME
Combat Sports Players vs Father Time
NXT vs TNA Wrestling (Showdown, not Invasion)!
Alpha vs Meta
TED X vs The Others
WWE's Solo vs NYC and Western Australia
UFC Predator vs MMA Predator
UFC Legal vs UFC Bad Egg Betting Disruptors
Bulls vs Bears
Logan Paul vs WWE babyfaces
Santa's Helper vs Grinch
John McAfee vs FBI + + +, Running .... Netflix Wins
again!
Killer Kross vs Matt Riddle - Shoot Fight/Wrestling
(MLW)! Holliday working web?! Most Marketable?!
VKM vs Numerous!
MLW vs The World
The Big Event vs US Promoters
Storm vs WWE Locker Room. Lash Legend on side!
NXT Gold Rush: Page & Green vs Hendry &
Hail
Baszler vs Itoh - HOG Superclash - Nov 15
MSG, NY winning with WWE and UFC in Nov
The Vision vs WWE Lockerroom
John Cena vs Dirty Dom
Miz vs Management
Jericho vs Internet Marks
Mr Gold vs Mr Fool's Gold
Neo vs Mr Smith
PBR vs Others. No Bull?!
Aus Gvt vs Big Tech
Banks vs Cryptos
NVIDIA vs World
White House vs Wokes
Packer vs Devil D
Lucha Bros vs AAA Heels
WWE Black Scorpion/Masked Man vs Babyfaces
CM Punk vs The Hood
Starks vs Oba Femi - NXT Deadline
TNA Wrestling vs Dirtsheets
TKO vs Naysayers
John Cena vs Gunther: SNME
Chris Jericho, Mr X and Austin Theory vs IWC
Mr Netflix vs Mr Paramount
Triple H vs (many) Washington Cena Fans!
Heroes vs Villains
News
Crypto
Movies/Docos
The
Rise and Rise of Bitcoin (2014)
Follows early Bitcoin adopter Daniel Mross, exploring
Bitcoin’s origins, its volatile rise, and the
community behind it. Great for understanding Bitcoin’s
early days and its potential to disrupt finance.
Banking
on Bitcoin (2016)
Examines Bitcoin’s history, ideological roots,
and impact on global financial systems through interviews
with pioneers and experts. A solid primer for newcomers.
Cryptopia:
Bitcoin, Blockchains, and the Future of the Internet
(2020)
Directed by Torsten Hoffmann, this documentary dives
into blockchain’s broader applications beyond
cryptocurrency, addressing scalability and regulatory
challenges. Ideal for those interested in blockchain’s
transformative potential.
Trust
Machine: The Story of Blockchain (2018) Narrated
by Rosario Dawson, it explores blockchain’s
societal impact, from financial inclusion to voting
systems. A comprehensive look at real-world applications.
Bitcoin:
The End of Money as We Know It (2015)
Traces the history of money and introduces Bitcoin
as a decentralized alternative, critiquing centralized
financial systems. Features interviews with crypto
experts.
Deep
Web (2015) Narrated by Keanu Reeves, this documentary
focuses on the Silk Road marketplace and its creator,
Ross Ulbricht, highlighting Bitcoin’s role
in dark web transactions.
Bitconned
(2024) Explores the Centra Tech crypto scam, detailing
how three individuals defrauded investors during
the 2010s crypto boom. A cautionary tale about unregulated
markets.
Feature
Films
Crypto
(2019)
A crime thriller starring Beau Knapp, Luke Hemsworth,
and Kurt Russell. It follows a young anti-money
laundering agent investigating corruption and cryptocurrency
in his hometown. Critics note its exaggerated portrayal
but praise its entertainment value.
Silk
Road (2021)
A dramatization of Ross Ulbricht’s creation
of the Silk Road, a dark web marketplace using Bitcoin.
It explores his rise and fall, blending crime and
drama.
Dope
(2015) A coming-of-age comedy-drama featuring Bitcoin
as a plot device. High schooler Malcolm uses Bitcoin
for a dark web transaction, reflecting its early
association with illicit activities.
Bonus
Mentions
Life
on Bitcoin (2014): Follows a couple attempting to
live solely on Bitcoin for 100 days, showcasing
early adoption challenges.
Bitcoin
Heist (2016): A Vietnamese action-comedy about hackers
chasing a crypto criminal, blending humor and thrills.
Notes
Documentaries are generally more educational, focusing
on Bitcoin’s history, blockchain technology,
and real-world implications. They’re great
for beginners and enthusiasts alike.
Feature
films often dramatize crypto’s association
with crime or scams, sometimes oversimplifying or
exaggerating for effect. They prioritize entertainment
over accuracy. For a deeper dive, check streaming
platforms like Prime Video, Fandango at Home, or
YouTube, where many of these are available.
News
Wall
Street (Movie)
Wall Street (1987), directed by Oliver Stone, is
a drama about ambition and greed in the 1980s financial
world. It follows Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen), a young
stockbroker desperate to succeed, who gets entangled
with Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), a ruthless
corporate raider. Gekko’s mantra, “Greed
is good,” drives the story as Bud is lured
into insider trading and unethical deals, compromising
his morals for wealth and power.
The
film explores themes of capitalism, loyalty, and
betrayal, with Bud navigating pressures from Gekko,
his father (Martin Sheen), and his own conscience.
Key
Details: Cast: Michael Douglas (Gordon Gekko), Charlie
Sheen (Bud Fox), Daryl Hannah (Darien Taylor), Martin
Sheen (Carl Fox).
Runtime: 2h 6m.
Genre: Drama/Crime.
Rating: R. Box Office: ~$44 million (US).
Awards:
Michael Douglas won the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Notable
Aspects:
Gekko’s
“Greed is good” speech is iconic, reflecting
1980s excess. Inspired by real-life figures like
Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken.
A
sequel, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010),
continued the story.
Where
to Watch (as of 2025):
Streaming: Available on platforms like Peacock or
rentable on Amazon, YouTube, or Apple TV (check
current availability).
Physical: DVD/Blu-ray via retailers like Amazon.
News
Best
Quotes
An
investment in knowledge pays the best interest."
— Benjamin Franklin
"Bottoms
in the investment world don't end with four-year
lows; they end with 10- or 15-year lows." —
Jim Rogers
Be
fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when
others are fearful." — Warren Buffett
Media
Man News
Markets,
Cryptos and Pop Culture
Culture
In Biz Series Edition
December
To Remember
Dec
15
Sydney, Australia
Dec
14
Wall Street, New York Groove
Cryptos
Struggling; All That Glitters
TKO To Naysayers Again! Thank You Cena!
Road To Royal Rumble
World Streaming Wars
Crypto Wolf Of Wall Street Works Weekends And Xmas
Online Media vs Legacy Media: Disruptors
Media
Pop Culture Theme: "Another Brick In The Wall"
aka "We Don't Need No Education" (Pink
Floyd)
"Schools Out" (Alice Cooper)
Silicon Valley theme: "Stretch Your Face"
(Tobacco)
"The Social Network" (score album for
film)
"Hall of Fame" (The Script)
"Eight Days a Week" (The Beatles)
"The Wolf of Wall Street" ("Mercy,
Mercy, Mercy" (Cannonball Adderley)
"Friday On My Mind" (The Easybeats)
December
15, 2025
Sin
City Sydney, Australia
ASX
futures down 51 points/0.6%, to 8659
Wall
Street:
S&P
500 -1.1%
Dow Jones: -0.5%
Nasdaq -1.7%
Europe:
Stoxx
50 -0.6%
FTSE -0.6%
DAX -0.5%
CAC -0.2%
Australian
dollar at US66.43 cents
Bitcoin
$88,689.56 -1.83%
Gold
+0.5% to $US4299.63 per ounce
US oil -0.3% to $US57.44 a barrel
Brent crude -0.3% to $US61.12
Iron ore -1% to $US100.45 per ton
10-year
yield:
US 4.18% Australia
4.72% Germany 2.86%
Bitcoin
Bitcoin:
(Near Live) $88,689.56 -1.83%
News
Update: (Near Live)
News
New
York/Wall St via Mr Wolf!
December To Remember!
Dec
14
Before The Bell; Bells To Be Rung
NYC!
Cryptos
Today: (Near Live)
Cryptos
tarnished again!
Bitcoin
$88,689.56 -1.83%
Market
ups and downs! Mood: Medium: Still picking up a
little. Play the long game?! Hardcores keep dream,
as always!
Media
Man Favs:
(Near
Live)
Bells
Rung by Mr Wolf!
TKO hulks up Again! Going for submission on competitors?!
Christmas Grinch vs Santa.
Miners on hunt. Gamers full speed instead of socials.
Gaming Awards: Tomb Raider: Atlantis!
Tech heads and grapplers watch streaming wars!
NYSE Bell Ringers With Trees! Prep for new Season's
Beatings!
TKO kicks out again. Saturday Night's Main Event
aftermath heading to WWE RAW and Road To Royal Rumble
In UAE
Wall
St, New York
TKO
Group Holdings Inc $208.42 +4.12 +2.02%
NVIDIA Corp $208.42 +4.12 +2.02%
Formula One Group Series $86.41 -0.25 -0.29%
Alphabet Inc Class A $309.29 -3.14 -1.01%
News Corp Class A $26.22 +0.12 +0.46%
Netflix Inc $95.19 +1.10 +1.17%
Caterpillar Inc $597.89 -27.72 -4.43%
Trump Media & Technology Group Corp $10.65 -0.26
-2.38%
Tesla Inc $458.96 +12.09 +2.71%
Walt Disney Co $111.60 +0.14 +0.13%
Wynn Resorts Ltd $123.66 -1.19 -0.95%
Meta Platforms Inc $644.23 -8.48 -1.30%
Elders ADR $19.73 (US) (NYSE)
Mercedes Benz Group ADR $18.03 +0.12 +0.67%
Rio Tinto Ltd $96.29 +5.70 +6.29%
Paramount Skydance Corp $13.74 -0.38 -2.69%
Red Light Holland Corp $0.020 -0.00018 -0.87%
Volvo ADR (parent/owner of Muck Trucks) $31.94 -0.12
-0.37%
Porsche Automobile Holding SE Unsponsored Germany
ADR $4.75 -0.030 -0.63%
Microsoft $478.53 -4.94 -1.02%
News
Global
Markets React to Central Bank Decisions and Policy
Outlooks
Stock
indices
The
Fed managed to please the American stock market
by easing its policy and forecasting an increase
in GDP from 1.8% to 2.3%, as well as a slowdown
in inflation from 3% to 2.5% in 2026, while also
discussing the positive impact of AI on productivity.
As a result, the S&P500 experienced its most
dramatic reaction to an FOMC meeting since March,
and the Russell 2000 set a new record. A strong
economy and inflation heading towards the 2% target
present a prime opportunity for stocks. Along with
increased productivity, this indicates that S&P500
companies may see growth in corporate earnings.
Historical episodes in which the Fed cut rates and
markets were near their peaks have shown higher
levels 12 months later in every case.
However,
expectations for the next rate cut have now shifted
to April, removing the indexes safety buffer. There
may be renewed talk of a tech giant bubble, as evidenced
by Oracle's shares plunging sharply after the company
reported disappointing earnings.
According
to Yardeni Research, investors should diversify
away from the "Magnificent Seven" and
seek opportunities in other issuers, as artificial
intelligence is transforming nearly every company
into a technology firm.
What
is ahead
The
key events of the third week of December will be
the release of US labour market data for October
and November, as well as central bank meetings.
The ECB, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan
will have their say. Investors will also pay attention
to European business activity data for December.
Jerome
Powell says that FOMC officials have similar views
on the US economy but differ in their assessment
of its risks. Hawks are concerned about high inflation,
while doves are worried about the cooling labour
market. If employment figures disappoint, derivatives
will shift expectations of monetary policy easing
from April to March, and possibly even January.
This will weaken the dollar. On the other hand,
a pleasant surprise from non-farm payrolls will
allow the USD to recoup some of its losses. While
no changes are expected from the ECB, the Bank of
England is 90% likely to cut its repo rate to 3.75%.
However, the negative is already priced into the
pound, and in the event of hawkish comments, the
pound could strengthen. The fate of the yen will
depend on the outlook for the Bank of Japan's leadership.
Few doubt that the overnight rate will be raised,
but what next? (FxPro)
News
'I
love solving puzzles': How AFP's crypto sleuth tracks
ill-gotten gains
Abigail
Gibson is the Australian Federal Police's only cryptocurrency
forensic accountant, a role she has held since 2022,
after she first joined the AFP as a forensic accountant
in 2017. Gibson uses blockchains to look for clues
that might be able to connect individuals to money
laundering, scams or sales of illicit goods and
services on the dark web, and she says that "cryptocurrency
is a well-established method for criminals to attempt
to hide their wealth and transfer assets".
Her work includes aiding the AFP's Criminal Asset
Confiscation Taskforce, which has frozen $65 million
in cryptocurrency assets since July. (AFR)
News
Miners
lift ASX after Fed; Oracle hits tech
The
Australian sharemarket posted a small gain on Thursday,
with the S&P/ASX 200 adding 0.2 per cent to
close at 8,592. The resources sector was bolstered
by a rise in the gold price after the US Federal
Reserve's decision to reduce the cash rate for a
third time; Ramelius Resources advanced 6.7 per
cent to $3.81 and Rio Tinto was up 1.8 per cent
at $140.01. However, a sharp fall in Oracle's share
price weighed on local technology stocks, with WiseTech
Global shedding 2.2 per cent to end the session
at $70.99. (AFR/Roy Morgan Summary)
News
Flashback
Dec
11
Bitcoin
attempts to break the short uptrend
Market
Overview
The
crypto market cap has been in a see-saw pattern
over the past three weeks, exhibiting a gentle uptrend
that has returned to the $3.08 trillion level during
a consolidation phase. With no clear trend, crypto
traders have reduced their activity in altcoins,
waiting for the trend to recover in the first cryptocurrency
and key stock indices.
Bitcoin
jumped to $94.5K on Wednesday evening in response
to the Fed's announcement of a bond-buying programme
and a key rate cut. But this link to stocks played
a cruel joke. The fall in Oracle shares dragged
the Nasdaq-100 to eight-day lows, and BTC rolled
back to $90K. The market is testing the strength
of the modest uptrend that has been forming since
21 November. A drop below $88K would break this
trend, bolster bearish sentiment and confirm the
end of the recovery rally.
News
Background
Public
and private companies have increased their Bitcoin
reserves by 448% since the beginning of the year
to 1.08 million BTC, according to Glassnode. The
corporate sector remains a key driver of demand
for digital gold.
ARK
Invest CEO Cathie Wood believes that large companies
buying cryptocurrency for long-term storage could
prevent BTC from falling 75-90% as it has in the
past.
Strategy
founder Michael Saylor announced the company's plans
to acquire as much Bitcoin as possible. Mayside
Partners believes that such plans are economically
unsound. This is not innovation, but cascading leverage
on speculative collateral — a model that has
failed time and time again.
The
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) has called
on the US Senate to withdraw the cryptocurrency
bill on ‘responsible financial innovation,’
which will be considered next week. The organisation
pointed to the risks to pension savings and the
country's economy.
Twenty
One Capital, a big Bitcoin holder, has entered the
stock market. The company's shares fell 20% on their
first day of trading on the NYSE. The firm ranks
third among public holders of the first cryptocurrency
with 42,000 BTC (~$3.9 billion). (FxPro)
News
Crypto
market awaits the final battle of the year
Market
Overview
The
crypto market lost just over 1% in 24 hours to $3.08T,
falling back to the consolidation levels of late
November. Attempts to shake up the market at the
beginning of this month were unsuccessful for both
bulls and bears. Excluding this impulse, the market
has been treading water for almost two weeks, hovering
around the 23.6% correction rebound line from the
October-November decline. Such a shallow rebound
could be a sign of a strong bear market, but this
will only be confirmed if November's lows of $2.73T
are updated.
Bitcoin
is trading near $90K, having crossed this level
for the fifth consecutive day. An upward trend line
can be drawn through the lows of late November,
but BTC is now trading dangerously close to this
line. At the same time, horizontal resistance has
formed in the $92K area, bringing the positions
of bulls and bears closer together over time and
promising a decisive battle by the end of this week.
It could not only be the last significant battle
of the year but also determine the trend for the
coming months.
News
Background
Short
positions on Bitcoin have recorded their largest
outflow since March 2025, when the price of BTC
was near its lows. Investors likely believe that
the current surge in negative sentiment has bottomed
out, according to CoinShares.
According
to Glassnode, the reserves of long-term Bitcoin
holders fell to a cyclical low in November. This
marks the end of the spot sell-offs that have hindered
market growth throughout 2025.
Ethereum
exchange reserves have fallen to record lows, which
could signal an imminent supply crisis, according
to CryptoQuant. Since July 2025, the indicator has
fallen by about 20%.
The
largest American investment company, BlackRock,
has applied with the SEC to register an ETF that
will allow investors to earn income from staking
Ethereum without directly owning the cryptocurrency.
Strategy
has increased its weekly Bitcoin purchases to their
highest level since July. The company bought 10,624
BTC ($963 million) last week at an average price
of $90,615 per coin. Strategy now owns 660,624 BTC,
purchased for $49.3 billion at an average price
of $74,696 per Bitcoin. (FxPro)
News
Streaming
Wars: Netflix vs Paramount (for Warner Bros) aka
WBD. What's Up Doc?!
Paramount
makes hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery
Dec
9
Paramount
Skydance has directly approached Warner Bros Discovery's
shareholders with a takeover offer; it has opted
to bypass the rival media group's board, contending
that Warner's directors have backed an "inferior
proposal". Paramount has proposed a cash offer
of $US30 per share, valuing its bid for the entire
company at about $US108bn. It is seeking to trump
Netflix's deal to acquire some of Warner's assets
for around $US83bn, which has been approved by the
boards of both companies. Warner has rejected Paramount's
claims that its sale process had favoured a single
bidder.
*Developing
news story "The Streaming Wars"
News
Australia
- USA Connection
World
Leaders Condemn Bondi Beach Attack
Many
Small Crypto Bears Sell Out; Tests Patience To Often;
Bulls Controlling Market For Long Haul
News
56
hours ago +
Developing
Story
The
crypto market tries to form an uptrend
Market
Overview
The
crypto market soared by almost 7% over the past
day, reaching a capitalisation of $3.15T and forming
a higher local peak compared to Sunday. The mood
on the crypto market was buoyed by moves from institutional
giants Vanguard and Bank of America to open access
to digital assets for their clients. Combined with
the fact that the low point on December 1st is higher
than the lows on November 21st, we are seeing a
series of vital signs of an upward trend forming.
However, a conservative view suggests that fluctuations
below $3.38T are a correction from the previous
decline.
Bitcoin
approached $94K on Wednesday morning, recovering
half of its losses from the sell-off between November
11th and 21st. Considering the entire decline from
its October peak, BTCUSD remains trading below $
98K as part of the correction. The $98-100K range
contains three psychologically significant levels:
the 50-day average, early November support, and
61.8% of the decline from the peak. Consolidation
above this level could convince buyers that crypto
winter has not arrived.
News
Background
Vanguard,
the world's second-largest investment company by
assets, will open access to crypto ETF trading for
its clients on December 2nd. The company had previously
stated that it would avoid Bitcoin funds because
cryptocurrency is an “immature asset class”
and does not fit with the company's philosophy.
Bank
of America, one of the largest banks in the United
States, has recommended that its institutional clients
allocate 1% to 4% of their portfolios to cryptocurrencies.
Previously, investors were unable to access cryptocurrencies
because advisors were prohibited from recommending
such instruments.
The
four-year cycle theory has ceased to work, so Bitcoin
has a chance to reach new highs in 2026, according
to Grayscale. Analysts believe there are already
some signs that Bitcoin has likely bottomed out.
News
(from Friday: Sydney)
ASX
up as tech stocks rally, WiseTech gains
The
Australian sharemarket posted a modest gain on Thursday,
with lower trading volumes ahead of Wall Street's
closure for Thanksgiving Day; the S&P/ASX 200
added 0.1 per cent to close at 8,617.3 points. WiseTech
Global was up 6.9 per cent at $69.72, Bellevue Gold
rose 3.2 per cent to $1.29 and Reece advanced four
per cent to $12.73. However, DroneShield was down
7.8 per cent at $2 and Santos fell 1.8 per cent
to end the session at $6.44. (RMS)
News
The
Dollar's new edge: from shield to sword
The
dollar is losing its safe-haven status. • The
scale of the Fed's rate cuts has been overestimated.
• The yen is the main favourite for 2026.
BoJ
may not raise rates until March. If the US dollar
was previously a shield, it is now turning into
a sword. (FxPro)
News
Pop
Culture News
Dream
Matches: Fantasy Booking/Sports; Media Man Group
Dream Match Series; Crack The Code!
Million
Dollar Man vs IRS
Michael Wall Street vs Billionaire Ted
Mr X vs Mr BTC
Mr Green vs Mr Cash
VKM vs Easy E
Vinnie Vegas vs Mr Corbin
Mr Corp Merch vs Mr Freelance
Masked Superstar vs John McAfee
Sid Justice vs Mr Blood Diamond
Mr Bluey Chipper vs Street Fighter - King Of The
Streets Mr Dotcom vs Mr Wiki
Mr Gold vs Mr Green - Money In The Bank Ladder Match
Khan vs Khan - Winner Take All Match
Mr Wolff vs The Cleaner
Mr News vs Mr Vice - U.S Market Footprint Stipulation
Mr Paramount vs Mr Netflix
Mr ESPN vs Mr Fox
Mr Kross vs Mr Cardona
Cesaro vs Rollins
Dirty Dom vs Mr AAA
Punks vs Egos
Kross vs H
Murdoch Title vs Title
Mr Black Coffee vs Mr Claudio's Cafe Blend
Mr Warner vs Mr Netflix: Broadway draw thus far!
Re-match! Winner take all?!
TMZ vs Riddle
UFC vs PFL
The Oracle vs Cincinnati, Ohio
Mr X vs Hollyweird
Succession vs Billions
Mouse House vs Art House
NFL vs UFL
ABC vs Mainstream Aussies
Reigns vs Blanka
Cody Rhodes vs Joe
E. Honda vs NJPW
Capcom vs Warner
Cena vs ACME
Combat Sports Players vs Father Time
NXT vs TNA Wrestling (Showdown, not Invasion)!
Alpha vs Meta
TED X vs The Others
WWE's Solo vs NYC and Western Australia
UFC Predator vs MMA Predator
UFC Legal vs UFC Bad Egg Betting Disruptors
Bulls vs Bears
Logan Paul vs WWE babyfaces
Santa's Helper vs Grinch
John McAfee vs FBI + + +, Running .... Netflix Wins
again!
Killer Kross vs Matt Riddle - Shoot Fight/Wrestling
(MLW)! Holliday working web?! Most Marketable?!
VKM vs Numerous!
MLW vs The World
The Big Event vs US Promoters
Storm vs WWE Locker Room. Lash Legend on side!
NXT Gold Rush: Page & Green vs Hendry &
Hail
Baszler vs Itoh - HOG Superclash - Nov 15
MSG, NY winning with WWE and UFC in Nov
The Vision vs WWE Lockerroom
John Cena vs Dirty Dom
Miz vs Management
Jericho vs Internet Marks
Mr Gold vs Mr Fool's Gold
Neo vs Mr Smith
PBR vs Others. No Bull?!
Aus Gvt vs Big Tech
Banks vs Cryptos
NVIDIA vs World
White House vs Wokes
Packer vs Devil D
Lucha Bros vs AAA Heels
WWE Black Scorpion/Masked Man vs Babyfaces
CM Punk vs The Hood
Starks vs Oba Femi - NXT Deadline
TNA Wrestling vs Dirtsheets
TKO vs Naysayers
John Cena vs Gunther: SNME
Chris Jericho and Mr X vs IWC
Mr Netflix vs Mr Paramount
Triple H vs (many) Washington Cena Fans!
News
Crypto
Movies/Docos
The
Rise and Rise of Bitcoin (2014)
Follows early Bitcoin adopter Daniel Mross, exploring
Bitcoin’s origins, its volatile rise, and the
community behind it. Great for understanding Bitcoin’s
early days and its potential to disrupt finance.
Banking
on Bitcoin (2016)
Examines Bitcoin’s history, ideological roots,
and impact on global financial systems through interviews
with pioneers and experts. A solid primer for newcomers.
Cryptopia:
Bitcoin, Blockchains, and the Future of the Internet
(2020)
Directed by Torsten Hoffmann, this documentary dives
into blockchain’s broader applications beyond
cryptocurrency, addressing scalability and regulatory
challenges. Ideal for those interested in blockchain’s
transformative potential.
Trust
Machine: The Story of Blockchain (2018) Narrated
by Rosario Dawson, it explores blockchain’s
societal impact, from financial inclusion to voting
systems. A comprehensive look at real-world applications.
Bitcoin:
The End of Money as We Know It (2015)
Traces the history of money and introduces Bitcoin
as a decentralized alternative, critiquing centralized
financial systems. Features interviews with crypto
experts.
Deep
Web (2015) Narrated by Keanu Reeves, this documentary
focuses on the Silk Road marketplace and its creator,
Ross Ulbricht, highlighting Bitcoin’s role
in dark web transactions.
Bitconned
(2024) Explores the Centra Tech crypto scam, detailing
how three individuals defrauded investors during
the 2010s crypto boom. A cautionary tale about unregulated
markets.
Feature
Films
Crypto
(2019)
A crime thriller starring Beau Knapp, Luke Hemsworth,
and Kurt Russell. It follows a young anti-money
laundering agent investigating corruption and cryptocurrency
in his hometown. Critics note its exaggerated portrayal
but praise its entertainment value.
Silk
Road (2021)
A dramatization of Ross Ulbricht’s creation
of the Silk Road, a dark web marketplace using Bitcoin.
It explores his rise and fall, blending crime and
drama.
Dope
(2015) A coming-of-age comedy-drama featuring Bitcoin
as a plot device. High schooler Malcolm uses Bitcoin
for a dark web transaction, reflecting its early
association with illicit activities.
Bonus
Mentions
Life
on Bitcoin (2014): Follows a couple attempting to
live solely on Bitcoin for 100 days, showcasing
early adoption challenges.
Bitcoin
Heist (2016): A Vietnamese action-comedy about hackers
chasing a crypto criminal, blending humor and thrills.
Notes
Documentaries are generally more educational, focusing
on Bitcoin’s history, blockchain technology,
and real-world implications. They’re great
for beginners and enthusiasts alike.
Feature
films often dramatize crypto’s association
with crime or scams, sometimes oversimplifying or
exaggerating for effect. They prioritize entertainment
over accuracy. For a deeper dive, check streaming
platforms like Prime Video, Fandango at Home, or
YouTube, where many of these are available.
News
Wall
Street (Movie)
Wall Street (1987), directed by Oliver Stone, is
a drama about ambition and greed in the 1980s financial
world. It follows Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen), a young
stockbroker desperate to succeed, who gets entangled
with Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), a ruthless
corporate raider. Gekko’s mantra, “Greed
is good,” drives the story as Bud is lured
into insider trading and unethical deals, compromising
his morals for wealth and power.
The
film explores themes of capitalism, loyalty, and
betrayal, with Bud navigating pressures from Gekko,
his father (Martin Sheen), and his own conscience.
Key
Details: Cast: Michael Douglas (Gordon Gekko), Charlie
Sheen (Bud Fox), Daryl Hannah (Darien Taylor), Martin
Sheen (Carl Fox).
Runtime: 2h 6m.
Genre: Drama/Crime.
Rating: R. Box Office: ~$44 million (US).
Awards:
Michael Douglas won the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Notable
Aspects:
Gekko’s
“Greed is good” speech is iconic, reflecting
1980s excess. Inspired by real-life figures like
Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken.
A
sequel, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010),
continued the story.
Where
to Watch (as of 2025):
Streaming: Available on platforms like Peacock or
rentable on Amazon, YouTube, or Apple TV (check
current availability).
Physical: DVD/Blu-ray via retailers like Amazon.
News
Best
Quotes
An
investment in knowledge pays the best interest."
— Benjamin Franklin
"Bottoms
in the investment world don't end with four-year
lows; they end with 10- or 15-year lows." —
Jim Rogers
Be
fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when
others are fearful." — Warren Buffett
Media
Man "Bullish is a mindset"
Markets,
Biz, Currency, Resources, Media And Pop Culture
Watercooler
Australia
And World
Politics
On The Side
December
2025
Sydney,
Australia
Dec 9
New
York
Dec 8
ASX
futures down 28 points/0.3% to 8605
Wall
Street:
S&P 500 -0.5%
Dow Jones: -0.6%
Nasdaq -0.4%
Europe:
Stoxx 50 flat
FTSE -0.2%
DAX +0.1%
CAC -0.1%
Australian
dollar -0.3% to US66.26 cents
Bitcoin
$91,279.79 +1.81%
Gold
-0.3% to $US4185.67 per ounce
Oil -2.2% to $US58.78 a barrel
Brent crude oil -2.1% to $US62.41 a barrel
Iron ore -1.4% to $US101.90 per ton
10-year
yield:
US 4.17%
Australia 4.70%
Germany 2.86%
Cryptos:
Bitcoin
$91,279.79 +1.81%
Ethereum $3,144.75 +3.59%
Tether $1.0001 -0.02%
XRP $2.0873 +2.63%
Dogecoin $0.1437 +4.28%
Media/Entertainment
Biz News
Paramount
Launches $108.4 Billion Bid for Warner Bros. Discovery
Paramount,
under David Ellison's leadership post-Skydance merger,
offered $30 per share for the full Warner Bros.
Discovery, totaling $108.4 billion—$18 billion
more in cash than Netflix's $72 billion equity deal
for studios, HBO Max, and films. Backed by Ellison's
family, RedBird Capital, Middle Eastern funds, and
Jared Kushner's Affinity Partners, the bid promises
$6 billion in savings and over 30 theatrical films
yearly with traditional release windows. President-elect
Trump flagged Netflix's deal as an antitrust issue,
while Warner Bros. plans to review the offer and
Netflix stands by its agreement with a $5.8 billion
breakup fee. (Grok)
News
Forex
has set its priorities
In
2026, the euro is expected to grow modestly, while
the yen will become the favourite.
The main outsider is the franc, while the Fed may
help the dollar.
Has
the euro grown too eagerly? The EURUSD rally was
driven by accelerating European inflation and business
activity, as well as confidence that the ECB's rate-cutting
cycle was coming to an end, a belief in peace in
Ukraine, and expectations of a Fed rate cut. However,
political problems in Germany and the growing likelihood
of a pause in US rate cuts in January have slowed
down the main currency pair.
Reuters
experts see limited growth potential. They forecast
the EURUSD to rise to 1.17, 1.19 and 1.2 in one,
three and 12 months. Moreover, the dollar's growth
in the short term is now considered possible by
around 30% of respondents compared to 6% a month
earlier. The main factor in the growth of EURUSD
since the end of the year has been the reversal
in expectations for the key rate in December. They
have gone from less than a 30% probability immediately
after the publication of the minutes of the October
FOMC meeting to almost 90% now.
Investors
seem to have forgotten about the ‘hawks.’
But the need for compromise for Jerome Powell opens
up the potential for the US dollar to strengthen.
Another DXY growth impulse is reasonably possible
after the rate cuts in September and October.
Reuters
experts consider the Japanese yen to be the main
favourite, and the Swiss franc to be the outsider.
Experts expect the USDJPY to fall by 7.5% in a year
due to divergence in monetary policy. The futures
market sees a 90% probability of an overnight rate
hike on 19 December to 0.75%, the highest since
1995. Bloomberg insiders claim that Kazuo Ueda will
signal a continuation of the normalisation cycle
if economic forecasts are realised. The unexpected
reluctance of consumer prices in Switzerland to
rise in November is putting pressure on the National
Bank, as is the slowdown in core inflation to its
lowest level since August 2021. The SNB has previously
stated that it would like to avoid a return to negative
interest rates. Still, the official forecast of
0.4% CPI growth in the fourth quarter is unlikely
to materialise. As a result, the chances of a return
to negative interest rates are increasing, putting
pressure on the franc. (FxPro)
News
The
euro is gaining momentum
Inflation
and the US labour market are slowing down, while
the chances of a rate cut are increasing.
The US dollar is vulnerable, while the euro is being
helped by business activity.
The
US dollar had its worst series of daily declines
since 2020, mainly due to the increased likelihood
of an interest rate cut by the Fed and the improved
positions of its main competitors. The pound is
rising as fears about the budget have been allayed.
The yen and the Australian dollar are awaiting interest
rate hikes by their respective central banks. The
euro is rising due to improved trade conditions,
falling energy prices and hopes for peace in Eastern
Europe. The USD index is further weakened by demand
for hedging in anticipation of the Christmas rally
in US stock indices.
A
decline in private sector employment by 32K in November,
according to ADP, and a fall in the price component
of the PMI in the services sector to a 7-month low
have strengthened the position of speculators betting
on a decline in December. Doves at the Fed believe
it is better to play it safe and ease policy to
prevent an uncontrolled surge in unemployment. Hawks
complain that lowering rates will accelerate inflation,
which is already gaining momentum.
The
arguments of the first group of FOMC officials seem
more convincing, which is why the futures market
assigns a 89% probability of a 25-point cut on December
10th and approximately a 50% chance of a 100-point
cut within a year. Since no further reductions are
expected from the ECB in the coming year, the market
is re-evaluating in favour of EURUSD growth. Moreover,
even without divergence in monetary policy, the
US dollar has many vulnerabilities. The potential
repeal of tariffs by the Supreme Court, the twin
deficits in the budget and trade balance, and faster
economic growth outside the US are all factors in
favour of a further decline in the USD index.
The
euro, on the contrary, draws strength from the remarkable
stability of the eurozone. In November, the composite
business activity index rose to its highest level
in 2.5 years, adding to its sixth consecutive month
of growth. Its positive dynamics give hope for a
reduction in the economic growth divergence with
the US. Along with the divergence in monetary policy
between the ECB and the Fed, the economy is driving
the upward trend in EURUSD. (FxPro)
News
Mining/Resources:
Australia
The
AI plot: miners fear IR ambush
The
Minerals Council of Australia has expressed concern
that the federal government's National AI Plan will
give unions more power and influence over businesses.
The MCA has sent a briefing note to its members
in which it alleges that unions are using artificial
intelligence as a 'stalking horse' to exert more
control over the business sector's use of technology;
amongst other things, the MCA fears that the government
will require businesses to consult with unions before
implementing technology in the workplace and co-design
their AI systems in partnership with unions. The
Opposition contends that the government is using
AI as a 'Trojan horse' to get unions into more workplaces.
(RMS)
News
Australia
ASX
falls as gold stocks dip; Liontown up 15pc
The
Australian sharemarket posted a slight fall on Monday,
with the S&P/ASX 200 shedding 0.1 per cent to
close at 8,622.2 points. Trading was subdued as
investors await today's interest rate decision from
the Reserve Bank of Australia, which is expected
to leave the cash rate unchanged; the US Federal
Reserve is in turn widely tipped to ease monetary
policy on Thursday. Meanwhile, Newmont Mining was
down 2.1 per cent at $134.93, and the DigiCo Infrastructure
REIT fell 1.1 per cent to $2.50. However, Liontown
Resources was up 14.8 per cent at $1.51 and TechnologyOne
rose 0.4 per cent to $28.85. (Roy Morgan Summary)
News
Streaming/Media
Wars
Paramount
makes hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery
Paramount
Skydance has directly approached Warner Bros Discovery's
shareholders with a takeover offer; it has opted
to bypass the rival media group's board, contending
that Warner's directors have backed an "inferior
proposal". Paramount has proposed a cash offer
of $US30 per share, valuing its bid for the entire
company at about $US108bn. It is seeking to trump
Netflix's deal to acquire some of Warner's assets
for around $US83bn, which has been approved by the
boards of both companies. Warner has rejected Paramount's
claims that its sale process had favoured a single
bidder. (RMS)
News
Trump
wants a say in $108b Netflix tie-up
US
President Donald Trump says he intends to be involved
in any decision on whether Netflix's planned $US72
billion ($108 billion) acquisition of Warner Bros
Discovery goes ahead. Speaking as he arrived at
the Kennedy Centre for an event, Trump confirmed
he had spoken to Netflix co-chief executive Ted
Sarandos recently about the deal, with Sarandos
having met with Trump at the White House to lobby
for the acquisition, while Trump indicated that
the market share of the combined entity may pose
issues. (RMS)
News
Yesterday
The
Lead Up
Sydney,
Australia
Dec 8
New
York
Dec 7 (before the bell rings)
Markets
ASX
futs dn 13 pnts/0.2% to 8620
Wall St: S&P 500 +0.2%, Dow: +0.2%, NAS +0.3%
EUR: Stoxx 50 +0.1%, FTSE -0.5%, DAX +0.6%
AUS $ +0.4% to US66.39c
BTC $91,005.46 +1.72%
Gold +2% to $US4197.78 per ounce
Oil +0.7% to $US60.08 a barrel
Brent +0.8% to $US63.75 a barrel
Iron -1.2% to $US103.00 per ton
News
Numbers
Confirmed
Australian
Dollar: $0.6640 USD (up $0.0029 USD)
Iron Ore Jan Spot Price (SGX): $103.00 USD (down
$US1.30)
Oil Price: $60.08 USD (up $0.38 USD)
Gold Price: $4,197.81 USD (down $10.26 USD)
Copper Price: $5.4540 USD (up $0.0950 USD)
Bitcoin:
$90,565.11 +1.23%
Dow
Jones: 47,954.99 (up 104.05 points)
Media
News
Sky
News one of world's most-watched channels
Sky
News Australia CEO Paul Whittaker says its YouTube
channel is now watched by an average of five million
Australians each month. The YouTube channel has
now been viewed more than 7.2 billion times since
it was launched in mid-2019; this compares with
3.8 billion views in October 2023. Sky News Australia
has also ranked 9th among the most-watched news
channels on YouTube in December 2025. (RMS)
News
Social
Media
Meta
seals deals with news publishers
Meta
Platforms has secured content deals with a number
of news publishers, including USA Today, Fox News
and CNN. The owner of social media platforms such
as Facebook will use content from these media outlets
to train its artificial intelligence models. The
company says it aims to improve Meta AI's ability
to deliver "timely and relevant content and
information" (Roy Morgan Summary)
News
How
Australia became the testing ground for a social
media ban for young people
The
origins of Australia's social media ban for those
aged under 16 date back to late 2023. It was then
that the wife of South Australian premier Peter
Malinauskas read a book by American social psychologist
Jonathan Haidt, in which he stated a social media
ban for those aged under 16 would help solve mental
health ills he believes are caused by the platforms,
with Malinauskas' wife urging him to something about
it. South Australia then held a summit on the subject
in partnership with New South Wales, while in 2024,
then federal opposition leader Peter Dutton made
a national ban a key policy of the coalition. News
Corp then took up the cause with its 'Let Them Be
Kids' campaign, with the federal parliament passing
legislation before the end of 2024 to enforce a
national ban, which will come into effect on 10
December.
News
Resources
Gorgon
LNG investment gets green light
The
partners in the Gorgon LNG venture have made a final
investment decision on the third stage of the project.
The latest expansion of Australia's biggest resources
project will connect the offshore Geryon and Eurytion
gas fields to Gorgon's existing infrastructure,
including its processing facilities on Barrow Island.
The backfill project will not increase Gorgon's
capacity, but it will ensure that the current rate
of production is maintained. Gorgon's major partners
are Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell, while Osaka Gas,
JERA and MidOcean Energy all have small stakes in
the project. (RMS)
News
Chevron
warning on gas reform
Federal
cabinet is due to meet on Monday to finalise a gas
reservation scheme for the east coast, as it moves
to head off a looming gas shortfall. Chevron Australia
contends there is a risk that the government's intervention
in the gas market could deter investment, while
a report commissioned by the Australian Pipelines
and Gas Association has found that while over 10,000
megawatts of new gas for power supply may be required
by the mid-2040s, the majority of proposed new projects
are not able to meet the expected commercial return
thresholds under existing national electricity market
arrangements, and that a failure to install enough
new gas supply into the power grid could result
in energy prices increasing to more than $50 per
megawatt hour annually. (RMS)
News
Dec
5
Bear
market rebound in crypto is likely to continue
Market
Overview
The
crypto market capitalisation fell by 1% to $3.14
trillion over the past 24 hours, retreating from
local highs but maintaining a relatively optimistic
mood. Among the popular coins for the day, Zcash
is once again in the lead, adding 10% and exceeding
$400, while XRP loses 3.6% to $2.09. However, we
still classify this as a rebound from oversold conditions,
with doubts about the ability to renew October highs
in the next couple of years. We also saw attempts
to push the market up at the end of 2017 and in
2021. The capitalisation of the crypto market reached
new highs during these pre-New Year rallies, but
this is a dangerous game in which one needs to choose
instruments more carefully than usual.
Bitcoin's
recovery slowed down, facing resistance from sellers
in the $ 94,000 range. However, we view this as
a pause rather than an exhaustion of the corrective
rebound, which may well develop into the $98-100K
range in the next few days. Nevertheless, we adhere
to the 4-year cycle pattern, as the opposite has
not yet been proven. In addition, we have seen a
significant pullback from the highs of the previous
two months, which is consistent with what happened
in 2013, 2017 and 2021.
News
Background
The
Bull Score index developed by CryptoQuant fell to
zero for the first time since January 2022, signalling
a bearish market phase. CryptoQuant acknowledges
that next year, Bitcoin is expected to fall to the
$55K-$70K range.
Most
of Bitcoin's on-chain indicators are bearish, notes
CryptoQuant CEO Ki Young Ju. According to him, without
an influx of liquidity, the crypto market will enter
a bearish phase of the crypto cycle.
K33
draws attention to several emerging medium-term
factors that could form the basis for market growth.
By February 2026, US regulators are expected to
issue new rules for 401(k) retirement savings, which
could potentially open up a $9 trillion market for
Bitcoin.
Ethereum
developers have successfully activated the Fusaka
hard fork on the ETH mainnet. The update is designed
to implement fundamental improvements to increase
the scalability, efficiency and security of the
Ethereum network.
BlackRock
has announced the transformation of the financial
system, influenced by cryptocurrencies and the growth
of US public debt. Stablecoins are increasingly
being used for cross-border payments and have become
a bridge between the digital and traditional economies.
(FxPro)
Pop
Culture News
Dream
Matches: Fantasy Booking/Sports; Media Man Group
Dream Match Series; Crack The Code!
Million
Dollar Man vs IRS
Michael Wall Street vs Billionaire Ted
Mr X vs Mr BTC
Mr Green vs Mr Cash
VKM vs Easy E
Vinnie Vegas vs Mr Corbin
Mr Corp Merch vs Mr Freelance
Masked Superstar vs John McAfee
Sid Justice vs Mr Blood Diamond
Mr Bluey Chipper vs Street Fighter - King Of The
Streets Mr Dotcom vs Mr Wiki
Mr Gold vs Mr Green - Money In The Bank Ladder Match
Khan vs Khan - Winner Take All Match
Mr Wolff vs The Cleaner
Mr News vs Mr Vice - U.S Market Footprint Stipulation
Mr Paramount vs Mr Netflix
Mr ESPN vs Mr Fox
Mr Kross vs Mr Cardona
Cesaro vs Rollins
Dirty Dom vs Mr AAA
Punks vs Egos
Kross vs H
Murdoch Title vs Title
Mr Black Coffee vs Mr Claudio's Cafe Blend
Mr Warner vs Mr Netflix: Broadway draw thus far!
Re-match! Winner take all?!
TMZ vs Riddle
UFC vs PFL
The Oracle vs Cincinnati, Ohio
Mr X vs Hollyweird
Succession vs Billions
Mouse House vs Art House
NFL vs UFL
ABC vs Mainstream Aussies
Reigns vs Blanka
Cody Rhodes vs Joe
E. Honda vs NJPW
Capcom vs Warner
Cena vs ACME
Combat Sports Players vs Father Time
NXT vs TNA Wrestling (Showdown, not Invasion)!
Alpha vs Meta
TED X vs The Others
WWE's Solo vs NYC and Western Australia
UFC Predator vs MMA Predator
UFC Legal vs UFC Bad Egg Betting Disruptors
Bulls vs Bears
Logan Paul vs WWE babyfaces
Santa's Helper vs Grinch
John McAfee vs FBI + + +, Running .... Netflix Wins
again!
Killer Kross vs Matt Riddle - Shoot Fight/Wrestling
(MLW)! Holliday working web?! Most Marketable?!
VKM vs Numerous!
MLW vs The World
The Big Event vs US Promoters
Storm vs WWE Locker Room. Lash Legend on side!
NXT Gold Rush: Page & Green vs Hendry &
Hail
Baszler vs Itoh - HOG Superclash - Nov 15
MSG, NY winning with WWE and UFC in Nov
The Vision vs WWE Lockerroom
John Cena vs Dirty Dom
Miz vs Management
Jericho vs Internet Marks
Mr Gold vs Mr Fool's Gold
Neo vs Mr Smith
PBR vs Others. No Bull?!
Aus Gvt vs Big Tech
Banks vs Cryptos
NVIDIA vs World
White House vs Wokes
Packer vs Devil D
Lucha Bros vs AAA Heels
WWE Black Scorpion/Masked Man vs Babyfaces
CM Punk vs The Hood
Starks vs Oba Femi - NXT Deadline
TNA Wrestling vs Dirtsheets
TKO vs Naysayers
John Cena vs Gunther - WWE SNME
Chris Jericho vs Markets
Peter Yan (UFC) vs Jet Lag and Long Distance. Yen
Wins!
Joshua Van (UFC_ def Alexandre Pantoia. Round 1,
26 secs! Anything can happen in the cage!
Netflix def Warner Bros aka WBD (for now). Paramount
Following Up Situation. Talk of White House media
in Washington, DC. Re-match?! Donald Trump: Special
Ref?!
News
Crypto
Movies/Docos
The
Rise and Rise of Bitcoin (2014)
Follows
early Bitcoin adopter Daniel Mross, exploring Bitcoin’s
origins, its volatile rise, and the community behind
it. Great for understanding Bitcoin’s early
days and its potential to disrupt finance.
Banking
on Bitcoin (2016)
Examines Bitcoin’s history, ideological roots,
and impact on global financial systems through interviews
with pioneers and experts. A solid primer for newcomers.
Cryptopia:
Bitcoin, Blockchains, and the Future of the Internet
(2020)
Directed
by Torsten Hoffmann, this documentary dives into
blockchain’s broader applications beyond cryptocurrency,
addressing scalability and regulatory challenges.
Ideal for those interested in blockchain’s
transformative potential.
Trust
Machine: The Story of Blockchain (2018) Narrated
by Rosario Dawson, it explores blockchain’s
societal impact, from financial inclusion to voting
systems. A comprehensive look at real-world applications.
Bitcoin:
The End of Money as We Know It (2015)
Traces the history of money and introduces Bitcoin
as a decentralized alternative, critiquing centralized
financial systems. Features interviews with crypto
experts.
Deep
Web (2015) Narrated by Keanu Reeves, this documentary
focuses on the Silk Road marketplace and its creator,
Ross Ulbricht, highlighting Bitcoin’s role
in dark web transactions.
Bitconned
(2024) Explores the Centra Tech crypto scam, detailing
how three individuals defrauded investors during
the 2010s crypto boom. A cautionary tale about unregulated
markets.
Feature
Films
Crypto
(2019)
A
crime thriller starring Beau Knapp, Luke Hemsworth,
and Kurt Russell. It follows a young anti-money
laundering agent investigating corruption and cryptocurrency
in his hometown. Critics note its exaggerated portrayal
but praise its entertainment value.
Silk
Road (2021)
A
dramatization of Ross Ulbricht’s creation of
the Silk Road, a dark web marketplace using Bitcoin.
It explores his rise and fall, blending crime and
drama.
Dope
(2015)
A
coming-of-age comedy-drama featuring Bitcoin as
a plot device. High schooler Malcolm uses Bitcoin
for a dark web transaction, reflecting its early
association with illicit activities.
Bonus
Mentions
Life
on Bitcoin (2014): Follows a couple attempting to
live solely on Bitcoin for 100 days, showcasing
early adoption challenges.
Bitcoin
Heist (2016): A Vietnamese action-comedy about hackers
chasing a crypto criminal, blending humor and thrills.
Notes
Documentaries are generally more educational, focusing
on Bitcoin’s history, blockchain technology,
and real-world implications. They’re great
for beginners and enthusiasts alike.
Feature
films often dramatize crypto’s association
with crime or scams, sometimes oversimplifying or
exaggerating for effect. They prioritize entertainment
over accuracy. For a deeper dive, check streaming
platforms like Prime Video, Fandango at Home, or
YouTube, where many of these are available.
News
Wall
Street (Movie)
Wall
Street (1987), directed by Oliver Stone, is a drama
about ambition and greed in the 1980s financial
world. It follows Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen), a young
stockbroker desperate to succeed, who gets entangled
with Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), a ruthless
corporate raider. Gekko’s mantra, “Greed
is good,” drives the story as Bud is lured
into insider trading and unethical deals, compromising
his morals for wealth and power.
The
film explores themes of capitalism, loyalty, and
betrayal, with Bud navigating pressures from Gekko,
his father (Martin Sheen), and his own conscience.
Key
Details: Cast: Michael Douglas (Gordon Gekko), Charlie
Sheen (Bud Fox), Daryl Hannah (Darien Taylor), Martin
Sheen (Carl Fox).
Runtime:
2h 6m.
Genre:
Drama/Crime.
Rating:
R. Box Office: ~$44 million (US).
Awards: Michael Douglas won the Academy Award for
Best Actor.
Notable
Aspects:
Gekko’s
“Greed is good” speech is iconic, reflecting
1980s excess. Inspired by real-life figures like
Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken.
A
sequel, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010),
continued the story.
Where
to Watch (as of 2025):
Streaming: Available on platforms like Peacock or
rentable on Amazon, YouTube, or Apple TV (check
current availability).
Physical:
DVD/Blu-ray via retailers like Amazon.
News
Best
Quotes
An
investment in knowledge pays the best interest."
— Benjamin Franklin
"Bottoms
in the investment world don't end with four-year
lows; they end with 10- or 15-year lows." —
Jim Rogers
Be
fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when
others are fearful." — Warren Buffett
Media
Man "Bullish is a mindset"
Markets,
Crypto and Culture
Cryptos
Struggling; Medium Bull Update: Round 3! Bloody
Noses and Black Eyes Heel Up! Red And Black Attack!
All That Glitters.
December
3, 2025
Sin
City Sydney, Australia
ASX
futures up 8 points/0.1% to 8600
Wall
Street:
S&P 500 +0.3%
Dow
Jones: +0.5%
Nasdaq +0.8%
Europe:
Stoxx 50 +0.3%
FTSE flat
DAX +0.5%
CAC -0.3%
Australian
dollar at US65.41 cents
Bitcoin
$90,961.27 +6.35%
Gold
-0.8% to $US4197.58 per ounce
Oil -1.3% to $US58.55 a barrel
Brent crude oil -1.3% to $US62.34 a barrel
Iron
ore +0.1% to $US103.70 per ton
10-year
yield:
US 4.08%
Australia 4.61%
Germany 2.75%
Bitcoin:
(Near Live) $91,036.27 +6.44%
News
Update: (Near Live)
News
New
York/Wall St via Mr Wolf!
The November Man! To December To Remember!
Dec
2
NYC!
Cryptos
Today: (Near Live)
Cryptos
shining up a little! Cyber Monday into Tues
Bitcoin
$91,036.27 +6.44%
Ethereum $2,986.62 +8.25%
Tether $1.0003 +0.01%
Binance Coin $874.32 +7.02%
XRP $2.1621 +7.13%
Solana $138.78 +11.45%
TRON $0.2813 +1.45%
Dogecoin $0.1451 +8.34%
Cardano $0.3839 $0.4345 +14.89%
Market
ups and downs! Mood: Medium: Picking up big for
some in cryptos to catch up on losses, and traditional
sectors! Hardcores keep dream, as always!
Media
Man Favs:
(Near
Live)
Bells
Rung by Mr Wolf! TKO hulks up! Christmas Grinch
Comes Early for some! Santa gives little for miners,
gamers, some tech heads and grapplers!
Wall
St, New York
TKO
Group Holdings Inc $194.46 +0.57 +0.29%
NVIDIA Corp $181.47 +1.55 +0.86%
Formula One Group Series $85.84 -0.94 -1.09%
Alphabet Inc Class A $315.81 +0.92 +0.29%
News Corp Class A $25.40 -0.12 -0.47%
Netflix Inc $109.35 +0.22 +0.20%
Caterpillar Inc $582.47 +14.42 +2.54%
Trump Media & Technology Group Corp $11.19
+0.24 +2.19%
Tesla Inc $429.24 -0.90 -0.21%
Walt Disney Co $104.83 -1.94 -1.82%
Wynn Resorts Ltd $133.09 +0.32 +0.24%
Meta Platforms Inc $647.10 +6.23 +0.97%
Elders ADR $19.73 (US) (NYSE)
Mercedes Benz Group ADR $17.21 +0.12 +0.70%
Rio Tinto Ltd $86.55 +2.55 +3.04%
Paramount Skydance Corp $15.82 +0.11 +0.70%
Red Light Holland Corp $0.019 +0.00020 +1.05%
News
Panic
helped the dollar
•
Hassett's chances of becoming Fed chair are growing,
and the FOMC may cut rates to 3% in 2026.
•
Europe is losing out to the US due to AI, while
the BoJ's rate hike is raising concerns.
Kevin
Hassett's growing chances of becoming Fed chair
and weak manufacturing activity statistics have
dragged down the US dollar. However, the rally in
Treasury yields amid expectations of monetary policy
tightening by the Bank of Japan has cooled the enthusiasm
of EURUSD bulls. Investors fear that the repatriation
of capital to the Land of the Rising Sun, as local
assets become more attractive, will lead to a sell-off
of US Treasury bonds.
The
director of the National Economic Council is closest
to Donald Trump and has the best chance of becoming
Fed chair. Kalshi gives Kevin Hassett an 82% chance
of winning. Kevin Warsh and Christopher Waller are
estimated to have a 10% and 4% chance, respectively.
As a result of the FOMC being flooded with doves,
the risks of aggressive monetary expansion are increasing.
The futures market gives a 74% and 45% probability
that by the end of 2026, the federal funds rate
will fall to 3.25% and 3%, respectively.
The
US ISM manufacturing PMI published on Monday went
below 50 for the ninth month in a row, indicating
a decline in activity, which is a reminder of the
negative impact of tariffs on the economy. The damage
was less than expected due to large-scale investments
in artificial intelligence technology. Europe is
unable to compete with the United States in this
area. The cost of electricity required for AI in
the Old World is approximately twice as high as
in the New World. Only a dramatic reduction in this
gap could radically change the outlook and encourage
EURUSD buyers.
The
retreat of the main currency pair from two-week
highs is attributed to the rally in 10-year US Treasury
yields, which have risen above 4%. Investors fear
that Japan, which holds $1.2 trillion in Treasuries,
will begin to dump them as local assets become more
attractive and capital repatriates to its home country.
The growing likelihood of a rate hike by the Bank
of Japan in December amid hawkish comments from
Kazuo Ueda supports this. As a result, yields on
10-year Japanese bonds have soared to their highest
level since 2008. (FxPro)
News
The
yen is about to become a favourite
•
The pound has assessed the budget, and now its fate
is in the hands of the Bank of England.
• The Bank of Japan is paving the way for a
rate hike.
Expectations
of an easing of the Fed's monetary policy remain
a key factor weighing on the US dollar, with Kevin
Hassett increasingly likely to be appointed as Fed
chairman. Derivative prices reflect expectations
of a 90-basis-point cut in the key rate over the
next year. (FxPro)
News
(from Friday: Sydney)
ASX
up as tech stocks rally, WiseTech gains
The
Australian sharemarket posted a modest gain on Thursday,
with lower trading volumes ahead of Wall Street's
closure for Thanksgiving Day; the S&P/ASX 200
added 0.1 per cent to close at 8,617.3 points. WiseTech
Global was up 6.9 per cent at $69.72, Bellevue Gold
rose 3.2 per cent to $1.29 and Reece advanced four
per cent to $12.73. However, DroneShield was down
7.8 per cent at $2 and Santos fell 1.8 per cent
to end the session at $6.44. (RMS)
Friday
News
A
Worryingly Weak Rebound In Crypto
The
crypto market is only supported by America
Market
Overview
The
crypto market cap rose 0.6% to $3.02 trillion, continuing
its retreat from the local low reached on Friday.
Once again, the stock market pulled cryptocurrencies
up, but this time the positive sentiment was only
enough for a slight increase to the level of 24
hours ago, with a decline at the end of Tuesday.
Bitcoin
has been trading around $87K for the last three
days. The recovery rebound has lost momentum, but
the bears have not taken active action either, due
to increased risk appetite in global markets and
a moderate weakening of the dollar, which is an
ideal breeding ground for cryptocurrencies. We continue
to note the weakness of cryptos, given the favourable
investment environment, which forces us to look
for reasons in longer-term processes, such as profit-taking
after the rapid growth of the last two years.
News
Background
The
fall in Bitcoin is linked to the reaction of institutional
investors on Wall Street, who were unprepared for
the sharp fluctuations in the asset, said Anthony
Pompliano, founder of Pomp Investments. The situation
is exacerbated by the end of the year: fund managers
are concerned about bonuses and are selling assets
they have begun to doubt.
According
to CryptoQuant, Bitcoin's risk-return ratio has
become the most attractive since mid-2023. This
does not guarantee that the bottom has been reached,
but it does indicate high potential in the future.
In
the first quarter of 2026, the first cryptocurrency
may remain in the $82K-$90K range without sharp
volatility, Citigroup bank suggested. After the
October collapse of cryptocurrencies, investors'
appetite for risk has sharply declined.
According
to The Block Data, the ratio of long and short positions
on Bitcoin among major players on Binance exceeded
3.8, the highest figure in more than three years.
JPMorgan
has opened sales of Strategy (MSTR) shares, according
to TV presenter Max Keiser, but there has been no
official confirmation of this. In October, the bank
announced the risks of MSTR being excluded from
key MSCI stock indices, which could lead to an outflow
of $2.8 billion.
73%
of public companies that have invested in Bitcoin
have liquidity problems, and 39% have liabilities
that exceed the value of their accumulated crypto
assets, according to Cointab. (FxPro)
News
The
crypto market is only supported by America
Market
Overview
The
crypto market capitalisation has recovered to a
round figure of $3.0 trillion, adding 1.3% over
the past day. Once again, crypto was pulled along
by the American stock market, whose sharply positive
dynamics broke the dull trading trend of the first
half of Monday. But at the start of the new day,
the markets are again lacking American optimism,
and we are seeing pressure on quotes with the closing
of American stock exchanges.
Bitcoin
rose to $89K at its peak last night but fell back
to $87K in the morning. Since last Friday, BTCUSD
has formed an upward trend, rebounding from its
upper limit overnight. However, over the past seven
weeks, Bitcoin has still had a sharply negative
dynamic, within which the latest growth looks like
a rebound. In this case, it would be wise to closely
monitor signs of a rebound exhaustion. The first
such signal would be a consolidation below the $85K
level.
News
Background
A
sharp decline in open interest in Bitcoin derivatives
may signal that the price has bottomed out and that
a market reversal is imminent, notes analyst Darkfost.
Bitcoin closed below its 50-week moving average
for the second week in a row, notes analyst Ted
Pillows. In 2018 and 2022, the formation of such
a pattern led to a subsequent 50% collapse in BTC.
Bitcoin
could fall to $50K in 2026, which is about 60% below
its historic high of over $126K, according to Bloomberg
Intelligence strategist Mike McGlone. This will
be facilitated by a decline in the S&P 500 stock
index amid growing concerns about a bubble in the
AI segment.
To
confirm a local bottom, Bitcoin needs to firmly
consolidate above $88K, according to BTC Markets.
Kronos Research expects BTC to consolidate in the
$85K-90K range.
Strategy's
role as an intermediary for Bitcoin ownership is
weakening after the launch of the BTC ETF. The largest
investment funds reduced their positions in Strategy
shares by $5.38 billion (almost 15%) in the third
quarter, CryptoSlate notes.
China's
share of Bitcoin mining exceeded 14%, despite an
official ban on such activity. Reuters calls the
revival of cryptocurrency mining in China ‘one
of the most important signals’ for the market
in recent years. (FxPro)
News
The
Dollar's new edge: from shield to sword
•
The dollar is losing its safe-haven status. •
The scale of the Fed's rate cuts has been overestimated.
• The yen is the main favourite for 2026. •
BoJ may not raise rates until March. If the US dollar
was previously a shield, it is now turning into
a sword. (FxPro)
News
The
crypto is set for a short-term rebound, not a full
recovery
Market
Overview
The
crypto market cap has lost 9.5% over the past seven
days. The decline took place on weekdays last week,
with the level stabilising around $3.25 trillion
over the weekend. Among altcoins, the standout is
the unsinkable Zcash at $700, nearing its highs,
and weak Solana and Ethereum, which have lost 45%
and 40% from their August and September highs, respectively.
The
crypto sentiment index recorded values of 10 on
Saturday and Sunday, marking a return to the lows
of late February this year. Although this was a
good point to buy on the rebound in the following
days, the downward trend continued for almost a
month and a half. Market dynamics since the beginning
of October have been reminiscent of those seen at
the end of January. This is good news for short-term
buyers but may cause medium-term buyers to stay
on the sidelines for a while.
Bitcoin
slipped below $93K during illiquid trading early
in the day, but found impressive buyer interest
there, rising to $95.6K. Whether this is a short-term
rebound or the beginning of a recovery can only
be determined after it consolidates above $100,000.
There is a high chance that the strategy of selling
on rebounds will remain prevalent.
News
Background
Outflows
from spot Bitcoin ETFs in the US continue for the
third week in a row. According to SoSoValue, net
outflows from spot BTC ETFs totalled $1.11 billion
last week, slightly lower than the previous week's
outflows, resulting in a total inflow of $58.85
billion into these products since January 2024.
Net
outflows from spot Ethereum ETFs in the US continue
for the second week in a row, amounting to $728.6
million. The cumulative net inflow since the launch
of ETFs in July 2024 has fallen to $13.13 billion.
Inflows
into the recently launched Solana spot ETFs in the
US have continued for the third consecutive week,
totalling $382.1 million. However, during this time,
the price has fallen by a third, reinforcing the
idea that entering traditional financial markets
does not necessarily promise price growth.
Long-term
Ethereum holders have increased their sales to 45,000
ETH per day, the highest level since February 2021,
according to Glassnode. Long-term Bitcoin holders
are also actively selling their holdings. According
to CryptoQuant, they have dumped 815,000 BTC on
the market over the past month.
Miner
Bitfarms has announced a gradual phase-out of Bitcoin
mining and a transition to developing infrastructure
for artificial intelligence. The company reported
a net loss of $46 million in its third-quarter report.
(FxPro)
News
Lead Up
Price
Movements and Market Outlook
Spot
Gold Dips Slightly: Gold traded at $4,068.70 per
troy ounce on November 17, down 0.36% from the previous
day. This extends a two-day losing streak amid fading
bets for a December Fed rate cut, with the probability
dropping below 50%. However, the metal remains up
55.75% year-over-year, supported by broader safe-haven
demand.
Recent
Rally: Prices surged nearly 3% earlier in the week
to a two-week high, driven by soft U.S. economic
indicators that bolstered rate-cut hopes and lifted
non-yielding assets like gold.
Forecast:
Analysts see potential upside if gold sustains above
$4,100, targeting $4,140–$4,145, and possibly
$4,200. A break below $4,000 could accelerate declines
toward $3,900. A weaker USD and softer risk sentiment
are keeping a floor under prices, amid concerns
over the ongoing U.S. government shutdown impacting
economic momentum.
Global
Demand and Regional Updates
India
and China Cooling: Physical demand in India stayed
subdued due to volatile prices, leading to steep
discounts for the first time in seven weeks post-festivals.
In China, a state bank halted new retail gold accounts
after tax exemptions were tweaked, likely curbing
demand in the world's top consumer market. Premiums
rose in other Asian hubs as global rates eased.
Investment
Trends: First-time gold investing hit its strongest
levels since the Global Financial Crisis, per recent
surveys, signaling renewed interest amid uncertainty.
Buzz
on X (Recent Posts) Social discussions highlight
gold's role as a hedge against crypto volatility
and inflation: Users are buying gold amid Bitcoin's
dip into the $80Ks, viewing it as a tangible alternative
to "digital tulips."
News
Flashback
Oil
Holds Strong Despite Bearish Fundamentals
Weekly
data from the EIA noted that the US returned to
record oil production rates last week, supplying
an average of 13.6 million barrels per day to the
market, according to the latest EIA data. The trend
towards increased supply began in August, but producers
have only now returned to the peak levels recorded
at the end of last year. Despite a 5.5-million-barrel
increase in US commercial inventories over the past
two weeks, inventories stay at the lower end of
the range seen over the past decade, leaving considerable
room for growth. The same can be said for the strategic
reserve, which holds nearly 40% less oil than it
did five years ago, before the start of the active
sell-off. It is an interesting game in which, on
the one hand, the US (the largest oil producer)
is increasing supplies, while OPEC+ is increasing
quotas on a monthly basis. This extremely bearish
combination of factors did not cause oil prices
to collapse; it was only because of global trade
in currency depreciation that caused precious metals,
stock indices, and cryptocurrencies to rise. Oil
prices have not peaked in recent weeks .. To be
cont .. (FxPro)
News
Gold
hits new highs due to political turmoil
Gold
is outside the realm of politics.
While
currencies and securities depend on the actions
of presidents and governments, precious metals do
not. Therefore, political turmoil forces investors
to use them as safe-haven assets.
The
impressive 52% rally in gold started in April with
the introduction of tariffs on America's Liberation
Day. It continued due to the US government shutdown,
the political crisis in France, and the change of
leadership in Japan. he rise of gold above 4,000
dollars per ounce is not only the result of the
weakness of fiat currencies. There are tectonic
shifts in the structure of investment portfolios
and fears of financial crises due to government
recklessness.
The
share of precious metals is growing both in speculators'
assets and in the gold and foreign exchange reserves
of central banks. The indicator has already exceeded
the share of the euro. According to Eurizon Capital,
if it equals the share of the US dollar, the price
per ounce will soar to 8,500 dollars. The Supreme
Court's abolition of tariffs will inflate the US
budget deficit. France does not intend to reduce
it, and Japan plans to increase bond issuance. All
this creates a tailwind for commodity assets. (FxPro)
News
Pop
Culture News
Dream
Matches: Fantasy Booking/Sports; Media Man Group
Dream Match Series; Crack The Code!
Million
Dollar Man vs IRS
Michael Wall Street vs Billionaire Ted
Mr X vs Mr BTC
Mr Green vs Mr Cash
VKM vs Easy E
Vinnie Vegas vs Mr Corbin
Mr Corp Merch vs Mr Freelance
Masked Superstar vs John McAfee
Sid Justice vs Mr Blood Diamond
Mr Bluey Chipper vs Street Fighter - King Of The
Streets Mr Dotcom vs Mr Wiki
Mr Gold vs Mr Green - Money In The Bank Ladder Match
Khan vs Khan - Winner Take All Match
Mr Wolff vs The Cleaner
Mr News vs Mr Vice - U.S Market Footprint Stipulation
Mr Paramount vs Mr Netflix
Mr ESPN vs Mr Fox
Mr Kross vs Mr Cardona
Cesaro vs Rollins
Dirty Dom vs Mr AAA
Punks vs Egos
Kross vs H
Murdoch Title vs Title
Mr Black Coffee vs Mr Claudio's Cafe Blend
Mr Warner vs Mr Netflix: Broadway draw thus far!
Re-match! Winner take all?!
TMZ vs Riddle
UFC vs PFL
The Oracle vs Cincinnati, Ohio
Mr X vs Hollyweird
Succession vs Billions
Mouse House vs Art House
NFL vs UFL
ABC vs Mainstream Aussies
Reigns vs Blanka
Cody Rhodes vs Joe
E. Honda vs NJPW
Capcom vs Warner
Cena vs ACME
Combat Sports Players vs Father Time
NXT vs TNA Wrestling (Showdown, not Invasion)!
Alpha vs Meta
TED X vs The Others
WWE's Solo vs NYC and Western Australia
UFC Predator vs MMA Predator
UFC Legal vs UFC Bad Egg Betting Disruptors
Bulls vs Bears
Logan Paul vs WWE babyfaces
Santa's Helper vs Grinch
John McAfee vs FBI + + +, Running .... Netflix Wins
again!
Killer Kross vs Matt Riddle - Shoot Fight/Wrestling
(MLW)! Holliday working web?! Most Marketable?!
VKM vs Numerous!
MLW vs The World
The Big Event vs US Promoters
Storm vs WWE Locker Room. Lash Legend on side!
NXT Gold Rush: Page & Green vs Hendry &
Hail
Baszler vs Itoh - HOG Superclash - Nov 15
MSG, NY winning with WWE and UFC in Nov
The Vision vs WWE Lockerroom
John Cena vs Dirty Dom
Miz vs Management
Jericho vs Internet Marks
Mr Gold vs Mr Fool's Gold
Neo vs Mr Smith
PBR vs Others. No Bull?!
Aus Gvt vs Big Tech
Banks vs Cryptos
NVIDIA vs World
White House vs Wokes
Packer vs Devil D
Lucha Bros vs AAA Heels
WWE Black Scorpion/Masked Man vs Babyfaces
CM Punk vs The Hood
News
Cryptocurrency
Movies
Docos
The
Rise and Rise of Bitcoin (2014)
Follows early Bitcoin adopter Daniel Mross, exploring
Bitcoin’s origins, its volatile rise, and the
community behind it. Great for understanding Bitcoin’s
early days and its potential to disrupt finance.
Banking
on Bitcoin (2016)
Examines Bitcoin’s history, ideological roots,
and impact on global financial systems through interviews
with pioneers and experts. A solid primer for newcomers.
Cryptopia:
Bitcoin, Blockchains, and the Future of the Internet
(2020)
Directed by Torsten Hoffmann, this documentary dives
into blockchain’s broader applications beyond
cryptocurrency, addressing scalability and regulatory
challenges. Ideal for those interested in blockchain’s
transformative potential.
Trust
Machine: The Story of Blockchain (2018) Narrated
by Rosario Dawson, it explores blockchain’s
societal impact, from financial inclusion to voting
systems. A comprehensive look at real-world applications.
Bitcoin:
The End of Money as We Know It (2015)
Traces the history of money and introduces Bitcoin
as a decentralized alternative, critiquing centralized
financial systems. Features interviews with crypto
experts.
Deep
Web (2015) Narrated by Keanu Reeves, this documentary
focuses on the Silk Road marketplace and its creator,
Ross Ulbricht, highlighting Bitcoin’s role
in dark web transactions.
Bitconned
(2024) Explores the Centra Tech crypto scam, detailing
how three individuals defrauded investors during
the 2010s crypto boom. A cautionary tale about unregulated
markets.
Feature
Films
Crypto
(2019)
A crime thriller starring Beau Knapp, Luke Hemsworth,
and Kurt Russell. It follows a young anti-money
laundering agent investigating corruption and cryptocurrency
in his hometown. Critics note its exaggerated portrayal
but praise its entertainment value.
Silk
Road (2021)
A dramatization of Ross Ulbricht’s creation
of the Silk Road, a dark web marketplace using Bitcoin.
It explores his rise and fall, blending crime and
drama.
Dope
(2015) A coming-of-age comedy-drama featuring Bitcoin
as a plot device. High schooler Malcolm uses Bitcoin
for a dark web transaction, reflecting its early
association with illicit activities.
Bonus
Mentions
Life
on Bitcoin (2014): Follows a couple attempting to
live solely on Bitcoin for 100 days, showcasing
early adoption challenges.
Bitcoin
Heist (2016): A Vietnamese action-comedy about hackers
chasing a crypto criminal, blending humor and thrills.
Notes
Documentaries are generally more educational, focusing
on Bitcoin’s history, blockchain technology,
and real-world implications. They’re great
for beginners and enthusiasts alike.
Feature
films often dramatize crypto’s association
with crime or scams, sometimes oversimplifying or
exaggerating for effect. They prioritize entertainment
over accuracy. For a deeper dive, check streaming
platforms like Prime Video, Fandango at Home, or
YouTube, where many of these are available.
News
Wall
Street (Movie)
Wall Street (1987), directed by Oliver Stone, is
a drama about ambition and greed in the 1980s financial
world. It follows Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen), a young
stockbroker desperate to succeed, who gets entangled
with Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), a ruthless
corporate raider. Gekko’s mantra, “Greed
is good,” drives the story as Bud is lured
into insider trading and unethical deals, compromising
his morals for wealth and power.
The
film explores themes of capitalism, loyalty, and
betrayal, with Bud navigating pressures from Gekko,
his father (Martin Sheen), and his own conscience.
Key
Details: Cast: Michael Douglas (Gordon Gekko), Charlie
Sheen (Bud Fox), Daryl Hannah (Darien Taylor), Martin
Sheen (Carl Fox).
Runtime: 2h 6m.
Genre: Drama/Crime.
Rating: R. Box Office: ~$44 million (US).
Awards:
Michael Douglas won the Academy Award for Best Actor.
Notable
Aspects:
Gekko’s
“Greed is good” speech is iconic, reflecting
1980s excess. Inspired by real-life figures like
Ivan Boesky and Michael Milken.
A
sequel, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps (2010),
continued the story.
Where
to Watch (as of 2025):
Streaming: Available on platforms like Peacock or
rentable on Amazon, YouTube, or Apple TV (check
current availability).
Physical: DVD/Blu-ray via retailers like Amazon.
News
Best
Quotes
An
investment in knowledge pays the best interest."
— Benjamin Franklin
"Bottoms
in the investment world don't end with four-year
lows; they end with 10- or 15-year lows." —
Jim Rogers
Be
fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when
others are fearful." — Warren Buffett
Media
Man "Bullish is a mindset"
Markets,
Cryptos, Culture And Brands
Alpha
TKO Edition
Survivor
Series Market: WarGames (pop culture reference);
Monday Friendly Biz Wars
December
2, 2025
Sydney, Australia
December
1
(New York)
ASX
futures up 18 points/0.2% to 8601
Wall
Street:
S&P 500 -0.4%
Dow Jones: -0.7%
Nasdaq -0.4%
Europe:
Stoxx 50 flat
FTSE -0.2%
DAX -1%
CAC -0.3%
Australian
dollar: US65.43 cents
Bitcoin
Gold
+2% to $US4231.90 per ounce
Oil +1.5% to $US59.41 a barrel
Brent crude oil +1.4% to $US63.22 a barrel
Iron ore +1.6% to $US103.85 per ton
10-year
yield:
US 4.09%
Australia 4.55%
Germany 2.75%
News
Crypto:
Winter began with a sell-off
Market
Overview
The
crypto market took a painful hit at the start of
trading on Monday, marking the beginning of winter
and the new month with a 5% drop in 24 hours and
a return below $3 trillion.
This
seems to be part of the Bears' plan to create the
most emotional pressure, as the beginning of the
month is considered an emotional precursor for the
weeks to come. The market also slipped during the
period of lowest liquidity, which added drama in
the form of a downward swing. Still, before the
start of active trading in Europe, the market is
showing signs of stabilisation and rebound.
Bitcoin
fell to $85.5K on the strategy day but rebounded
to $86.7K at the time of writing. Technically, a
bearish picture is emerging, with the first cryptocurrency
falling sharply after four days of consolidation
at the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement line. Strictly
speaking, we can only say that a quick rebound did
not happen, but the signal for a decline to $64K
(161.8%) will only be given on a drop below $80.5K.
Bitcoin
fell 17.5% in November to $91.3K, marking the first
decline in three years and defying the seasonal
trend of one of the best months of the year. From
a seasonal perspective, December is considered a
relatively successful month for BTC with an average
8.7% increase. Over the past 14 years, Bitcoin has
ended the month with growth on seven occasions.
The average increase was 29.7%, and the average
decline was 12.3%.
News
Background
The
inflow into the recently launched Solana ETFs in
the US has continued for five consecutive weeks.
Investors have poured more than $108 million into
SOL ETFs in a week and nearly $620 million since
the funds launched on October 28th. Inflows into
spot XRP ETFs launched on 14 November in the US
exceeded $666 million.
CryptoQuant
points to several key on-chain indicators that are
creating fertile ground for Bitcoin's resumption
of growth. One of the most significant signals is
the reduction of leverage.
Bitcoin
is still in the ‘high risk zone.’ Still,
the situation is stabilising: selling pressure is
easing, and spot demand is ‘finally beginning
to shift the balance of power,’ according to
Bitcoin Vector.
To
continue its growth, Bitcoin needs to overcome ‘clusters
of large buyer supply’ in the $93,000-96,000
and $100,000-108,000 ranges, according to Glassnode.
Bitwise
points out that the last time such an ‘asymmetrical
ratio’ of risk and potential return was observed
in Bitcoin was during the COVID-19 pandemic, when
BTC fell below $4,000. (FxPro)
News
The
euro is betting on divergence
•
ECB rates are in the right place while German inflation
is accelerating.
•
The Bank of Japan may raise rates in December &
capital flight will pressure the pound.
Attempts
by the US dollar to counterattack are being thwarted.
The euro is rising due to accelerating German inflation,
the pound is rising following the debt market's
approval of Rachel Reeves' draft budget, and the
yen is growing in anticipation of a rate hike by
the Bank of Japan in December. Donald Trump's comments
on the selection of a new Fed chair, as well as
expectations for speeches by Jerome Powell and Michelle
Bowman, are weighing on the dollar.
Christine
Lagarde said that the ECB's interest rates are at
the right level. With inflation under control, the
European Central Bank is well-positioned. Indeed,
there are risks of both acceleration and deceleration
in consumer prices. The former includes Germany's
fiscal stimulus and rising expectations of higher
industrial and service prices. The latter include
the strong euro, lower energy prices and imports
from China.
The
acceleration of inflation in Germany to 2.6% in
November is reinforcing the ECB's caution. The central
bank has most likely ended its cycle of rate cuts.
There are scenarios in which the deposit rate will
rise. The federal funds rate, on the other hand,
risks falling significantly. The divergence in monetary
policy creates an excellent opportunity for the
EURUSD to resume its upward trend. However, to start
with, the bulls need to hold on to 1.16.
Meanwhile,
the yen strengthened thanks to Kazuo Ueda's hawkish
speech. He stated that the Bank of Japan would weigh
all the pros and cons of raising the overnight rate.
At the same time, any increase should be seen as
an adjustment to the ultra-soft monetary policy.
On these words, the probability of a rate hike in
December rose to 76%, allowing bears to develop
a decline in USDJPY.
The
pound is trying to stabilise after the presentation
of the draft budget. According to Eurizon SLJ Capital,
the pound will fall against the euro, yen, and Swiss
franc amid capital flight by the wealthy following
tax increases. (FxPro)
News
Cryptos
Cryptos
Today: (Near Live)
Bitcoin
$86,488.39 - 5.16%
Ethereum $2,790.39 - 7.67%
Tether $1.0001 +0.01%
Binance Coin $822.49 -7.48%
XRP $2.0292 -7.41%
Solana $125.89 -8.18%
TRON $0.2781 -1.48%
Dogecoin $0.1352 -9.22%
Cardano $0.3825 -9.77%
News
Wall
Street via Mr Wolf
Media
Man Favs:
(Near
Live)
Bells
Rung by Mr Wolf! TKO kicks out. Comeback! Christmas
Grinch Comes Early for some! Santa gives little
for miners, gamers, some tech heads and grapplers!
Wall
St, New York
TKO
Group Holdings Inc $193.98 +0.090 +0.046%
NVIDIA Corp $179.92 +2.92 +1.65%
Formula One Group Series $86.79 -1.09 -1.25%
Alphabet Inc Class A $314.89 -5.29 -1.65%
News Corp Class A $25.52 -0.16 -0.62%
Netflix Inc $109.13 +1.56 +1.45%
Caterpillar Inc $568.06 -7.70 -1.34%
Trump Media & Technology Group Corp $10.95 -0.59
-5 .11%
Tesla Inc $430.14 -0.030 -0.0070%
Walt Disney Co $106.77 +2.30 +2.20%
Wynn Resorts Ltd $132.77 +4.09 +3.18%
Meta Platforms Inc $640.87 -7.08 -1.09%
Paramount Skydance Corp $15.71 -0.31 -1.94%
Elders ADR $19.73 (US) (NYSE)
Mercedes Benz Group ADR $17.09 +0.24 +1.42%
Rio Tinto Ltd $84 (US)
Warner Bros. Discovery Inc $23.87 -0.13 -0.54%
Red Light Holland Corp $0.019 +0.00050 +2.70%
News
Spotlight
Wynn
Analysts
at Goldman Sachs just added Wynn to its conviction
buy list. The firm is confident with Wynn’s
“Wynn Al Marjan in the UAE in 1Q27, plus WYNN’s
best-in-class Las Vegas assets, leverage to a higher-income
consumers, a strong 2026 Las Vegas event calendar,
and an improving backdrop in Macau should drive
transformative upside at WYNN,” as quoted by
CNBC.
Nvidia
Analysts
at Morgan Stanley just reiterated an overweight
rating on Nvidia, with a $250 price target. The
firm says NVDA will maintain a dominant market share
and that threats are becoming overstated.
“We
continue to see NVIDIA maintaining dominant market
share, as threats are becoming overstated, though
we aren’t sure exactly what will turn sentiment
around,” they said, as quoted by CNBC. “Customers’
biggest anxiety for the next 12 months is their
ability to procure enough NVIDIA product generally,
and Vera Rubin specifically.”
Alphabet
Analysts
at Guggenheim say Alphabet could run even higher.
The firm raised its price target on GOOG to $375
from $330 with a buy rating.
The
firm is confident in Alphabet because of strong
cloud backlog growth, which is being supported by
enterprise AI demand. It’s also confidence
with Google Gemini’s rise as a leading AI platform
with rapidly growing adoption metrics, as noted
by CNBC.
News
Polymarket
Partnership Could Be a Game Changer for TKO Group
Holdings (TKO)
Nov
17
(In
Case You Missed It)
Polymarket/UFC/TKO
Polymarket
recently announced a multi-year partnership making
it the Official and Exclusive Prediction Market
Partner for UFC and Zuffa Boxing, introducing real-time
fan prediction metrics directly into UFC broadcasts
and social media experiences.
This
collaboration marks the first time major sports
organizations have integrated prediction market
technology into the live fan experience, creating
new ways for audiences to interact and for TKO's
sports brands to differentiate themselves.
We'll
explore how this innovative fan engagement initiative
could strengthen TKO Group Holdings' investment
narrative by deepening audience connection and content
value.
What
Is TKO Group Holdings' Investment Narrative?
To
see the value in TKO Group Holdings as a shareholder,
you really have to believe in its ability to keep
building out top sports entertainment brands like
UFC and WWE into global, multi-platform franchises.
A lot of the story is about continuing to grow earnings
and revenue faster than the overall market, attract
loyal audiences, and evolve with changes in media
rights, streaming, and digital fan engagement. Recent
announcements, such as the multi-year partnership
with Polymarket, reflect TKO’s push to unlock
new monetization avenues and deepen fan involvement.
However,
it’s unlikely this news will materially change
the core short-term catalysts, which are still dominated
by performance in key international deals, broadcast
partnerships, and the rollout of new events. The
biggest risks remain legal challenges, compression
of media rights value, and questions about board
experience. The new fan engagement efforts add differentiation,
but don’t directly reduce these core risks
for now. On the flip side, investors should pay
close attention to ongoing legal proceedings against
TKO and UFC.
TKO
Group Holdings' shares have been on the rise but
are still potentially undervalued by 15%.
Ten
retail investors in the Simply Wall St Community
produced fair value estimates for TKO ranging from
US$63.92 to a very large US$37,618.47. While community
views can be widely split, ongoing legal challenges
remain a topic several market participants keep
circling back to as a concern for TKO’s future
performance. Explore these diverse perspectives
and see how the risks and opportunities stack up.
News
Best
Quotes
An
investment in knowledge pays the best interest."
— Benjamin Franklin
"Bottoms
in the investment world don't end with four-year
lows; they end with 10- or 15-year lows." —
Jim Rogers
Be
fearful when others are greedy and greedy only when
others are fearful." — Warren Buffett
Media
Man "Bullish is a mindset"
News,
Markets, Biz, Politics, Mining, Media, Marketing,
Culture: Australia and World
December
2025
December
2
Markets
Australian
Dollar: $0.6540 USD (flat)
Iron Ore: $103.85 USD (up $1.65 USD)
Oil: $59.48 USD (up $0.93 USD)
Gold: $4,237.89 USD (up $18.66 USD)
Copper: $5.2730 USD (down $0.0050 USD)
Bitcoin: $86,640.57 -0.14%
Dow Jones: 47,396.45 (down 319.97 points close)
News
Minerals
partner to help take on China
The
Australian Nuclear Science & Technology Organisation's
pilot rare earth processing facility at Lucas Heights
in Sydney is slated to commence operating in early
2026. The federal government has advised that Australian
Rare Earths will be the first industry partner fro
the new ANSTO facility. Resources Minister Madeleine
King says the appointment of the program's first
partner will enhance national security initiatives
and support the governments Future Made in Australia
strategy. It will also enable Australian Rare Earths
to accelerate the development of its Koppamurra
ionic-clay project in South Australia. (RMS)
News
New
Eraring extension on cards
Origin
Energy's Eraring coal-fired power station was originally
slated to close this year, but the company struck
a deal with the NSW government in 2024 to keep the
plant operational until August 2027. However, a
report from the Australian Energy Market Operator
has prompted speculation that Eraring's operating
life may need to be extended again. The AEMO has
warned that NSW could potentially face power blackouts
if Eraring is closed on schedule, noting that grid-stabilising
synchronous condensors are unlikely to be installed
before then. Premier Chris Minns says his government
is open to further delaying Eraring's closure. (RMS)
News
Critical
minerals boom yet to take off as gold hogs investment
PwC's
2025 Aussie Mine report notes that 124 critical
minerals projects nationwide are stuck in a 'holding
pattern' between discovery and production, with
investor preferring the safe haven of gold. Few
of these critical minerals projects have a publicly
disclosed net present value of at least $1bn. The
PwC report also notes that the 'investable universe'
- critical minerals projects that are considered
to be attractive by commercial investors - has increased
by a net seven projects in the last year. These
are dominated by copper, nickel and lithium. However,
copper remains excluded from Australia's critical
minerals list and is therefore not eligible for
production tax credits. (Roy Morgan Summary)
Dec
1
ASX
tipped for solid start ahead of GDP data
Futures
pricing suggests that Australian equities will gain
about 0.1 per cent when the market opens on Monday,
following a positive lead from Wall Street. The
release of GDP data for the September quarter is
set to be a key focus for local investors in the
coming week, as they seek guidance on the outlook
for official interest rates. Inflation data released
last week has heightened speculation that the next
rate move may be up rather than down. The S&P/ASX
200 shed 0.37 per cent to close at 8,614.1 points
on Friday, and it fell by three per cent in November.
(RMS)
News
Nov
28
Gold
may have doubled, but miners a gamble
Factors
such as its 'safe haven' staus and record buying
by central banks have seen the price of gold rise
by more than 50 per cent so far in 2025. The share
prices of Australian-listed gold producers have
also rallied during 2025, and some have posted solid
returns over the last decade. However, analysis
shows that just 100 of the 172 listed gold miners
in 2015 are still in business now. Meanwhile, about
40 per cent of the survivors have posted a negative
return over the last 10 years. (RMS)
News
'Bloodbath':
Black Friday deals pose a dilemma for small business
Australians
are expected to spend nearly $7bn over the four
days of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales,
and up to $39bn over the month of November. Indeed,
Black Friday has evolved to essentially become a
one-month sales event, and there is a growing expectation
among consumers that every store will offer big
discounts. However, Black Friday is challenging
for many small businesses, which simply cannot match
the deep discounts of large retailers. This is highlighted
by research from the Council of Small Business Organisations;
it found that 60 per cent of small business owners
do not pay themselves at least occasionally, while
25 per cent have used their personal savings to
stay afloat. (RMS)
News
Australia's
Most Trusted and Distrusted Brands + The Retail
Landscape
Join
Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine to discover Australia's
most Trusted and Distrusted brands; how traditional
retail brands are being impacted by Temu, Shein,
and AliExpress; how the dramatic shift to low prices
is affecting discount department stores like Kmart
and Big W; whether Amazon has finally become the
digital category killer, impacting Myer, JB Hi-Fi
and Harvey Norman; whether Coles and Woolworths
are finally showing real signs of reputational recovery;
and whether the retail sector seeing a rise in distrust
amid all the upheaval. (Roy Morgan Summary)
News
Media
and Marketing
Sport
keeps TV afloat as Seven pips Nine
The
Seven Network has become Australia's top-rating
commercial free-to-air broadcaster for a fifth consecutive
year. Seven's national audience share across the
2025 rating year was 41.6 per cent, ahead of the
Nine Network on 40.5 per cent. Seven's total audience
share across all five free-to-air networks was 29.4
per cent, followed by Nine (28.7 per cent), the
ABC (21.5 per cent), Ten (12.6 per cent) and SBS
(7.7 per cent). Nine's live coverage of the NRL
Grand Final was the highest-rating program for the
year, with a record 4.56 million viewers; the AFL
Grand Final attracted a total audience of 4.18 million.
(RMS)
News
The
Age misses mark on AFL deal
A
spokesman for DAZN says the UK-based sports-focused
streaming company "categorically refutes"
a recent media report which suggested that it could
seek to renegotiate Foxtel's current seven-year
AFL broadcasting rights deal. The Age reported last
week that unnamed sources had claimed that DAZN
believes it is paying too much for the AFL rights.
Foxtel was acquired by DAZN earlier in 2025, in
a deal that is said to have been worth about $3.4bn.
(RMS)
News
News
media eyes $600m yearly boost
Google,
Meta, Microsoft, TikTok and Apple are estimated
to have had combined revenue of $41bn in Australia
during fiscal 2024. They could potentially pay local
news publishers about $610m a year via the federal
government's News Bargaining Incentive, which will
penalise technology companies that fail to secure
content deals with the nation's news publishers;
based on the revenue of the 'big five', the financial
penalty for not striking such deals could be around
$920m a year. The NBI would apply to all digital
platforms that operate "significant" social
media or search services, even if they do not feature
any news content. (RMS)
News
Magazine
stable faces carve-up
Private
equity firm Mercury Capital still hopes to sell
the whole of Are Media to a single buyer. However,
sources at Are have said there is speculation within
the publisher that several potential suitors have
expressed interest in selectively buying some magazine
titles, and shunning the less profitable ones. Mining
magnate Andrew Forrest is said to have been approached
about buying the flagship Australian Women's Weekly
via his family company, Tattarang, which already
owns the RM Williams magazine. (Roy Morgan Summary)
News
AI
threat slashes billions from classifieds giants
Jarden
analyst Tom Beadle has downplayed the risks that
online classified advertising groups are facing
due to the growing use of artificial intelligence
platforms. He contends that AI companies are unlikely
to develop a 'killer application' that will disrupt
the business of Real Estate Dotcom Dot Au http://realestate.com.au
owner REA Group in the near term. However, REA Group's
market capitalisation has fallen by nearly $9bn
since August, while CAR Group - which owns Car Sales
http://carsales.com.au - has shed 16 per cent of
its value. Nevertheless, there are fears that AI
platforms will be increasingly used to directly
search for jobs, homes or cars. (RMS)
News
Nov
28
Free
entry gets museum record-breaking visitors
Analysis
of the annual reports of museums in Australia shows
that consumers continued to embrace the nation's
cultural institutions in 2024-25. Museums Victoria
had the highest patronage, with 1.93 million visitors
during the financial year; however, this was 13
per cent lower than previously. Meanwhile, Western
Australia Museum was the nation's second-most-visited
museum, with visits to its three sites rising by
21 per cent year-on-year to 1.2 million. WA Museum
chair Sheila McHale notes that visitor numbers were
boosted by the state government's decision to waive
entry fees during the 2024-25 summer. (RMS)
News
Mining/Resources/Energy
Nov
28
Inside
the battle for BHP's future
There
is growing speculation that BHP's CEO Mike Henry
is preparing to step down after six years in the
role. However, BHP's merger talks with Anglo American
last week showed that Henry is still deeply engaged
in high-stakes strategic endeavours, rather than
easing into retirement. Potential internal candidates
to succeed Henry when he eventually steps down include
Geraldine Slattery, Rag Udd, Vandita Pant and Catherine
Raw. Meanwhile, some BHP directors believe that
the resources group should simplify its commodities
portfolio by exiting the coal sector and focusing
on copper; indeed, analysis shows that both BHP
and Rio Tinto have underperformed those of pure-play
copper mines in recent years. (RMS)
News
Nov
28
Bitcoin
stalled at a critical resistance
Market
Overview
The crypto market cap corrected by 0.4% to $3.10T,
pausing the cautious rebound from last Friday. Yet
we can’t talk about the rebound running out
of steam, as there was strong growth the day before.
But we do not see any increase in optimism, as just
about one in seven coins has gained in the last
24 hours, compared to a decline for most.
The
sentiment index rose to 25, the threshold for exiting
the territory of extreme fear, despite the latest
round of weakness. The index’s dynamics are
likely to attract buyers who were eager to enter
the market but were waiting for a discount after
the highs were set in early October.
Bitcoin
has fallen below $ 91K, stabilising near the 61.8%
Fibonacci retracement level of the decline since
November 11th. The area near $90K was significant
for the market about a year ago, serving as support
for the correction after the growth momentum in
early November. There is some risk that it will
now act as resistance, reinforcing the bearish signal
of a possible end to the rebound. A rise above $95K
would signal a victory for the bulls and a return
to a bull market, while a decline below $87K could
open the way to $80K, driving the market into a
depression.
News
Background
Kronos
Research describes the current dynamics as a classic
rebound from oversold conditions. The market has
cleared out excess long positions, creating room
for growth, according to Presto Research.
Futures
and options data point to a return of bullish sentiment.
The market is ‘ready for growth’ after
speculative longs were closed over the past two
weeks, according to GSR.
According
to CryptoQuant, in November, the Binance crypto
exchange increased its stablecoin reserves to a
record $51.1 billion. The growth of this indicator
can be seen as a positive factor for the crypto
market.
The
potential exclusion of Strategy from the S&P
500 index and continued outflows from spot crypto
ETFs could bring back bearish sentiment and trigger
sell-offs, warns QCP Capital.
Bolivia
will include cryptocurrencies and stablecoins in
its national financial system to modernise it.
Cryptocurrencies
will be allowed to be used as a means of payment,
savings accounts, credit products and loans. The
authorities’ decision is a result of the country’s
challenging economic situation. (FxPro)
News
Heavy
Industry News
Mack
Trucks wins Media Man 'Truck Manufacturer Of The
Month' award
Caterpillar
wins Media Man 'Heavy Equipment Manufacturer Of
The Month' award
Bingo
Industries wins Media Man 'Construction Brand Of
The Month' award
Elders
wins Media Man 'Agribusiness Of The Month' award
Landman
wins Media Man 'Streaming Series Of The Month' award
(Oil/mining industry based story via Paramount Plus)
Jim's
Mowing wins Media Man 'Franchise Of The Month' award
News
Pop
Culture Flashback
Citizen
Kane (1941)
Directed
by Orson Welles | Written by Orson Welles &
Herman J. Mankiewicz | Cinematography by Gregg Toland
Why it’s considered one of the greatest films
ever made:
Revolutionary storytelling: Non-linear structure
jumping through multiple perspectives and timelines
— decades before it became common.
Iconic
moments/lines:
“Rosebud…”
The
campaign speech with the giant Kane poster
The
slow push-in on young Charlie playing in the snow
as his future is decided
“Old
age… it’s the only disease, Mr. Thompson,
that you don’t look forward to being cured
of.” (Bernstein)
News
Salt
of the Earth (1954)
Mexican
workers at a zinc mine call a general strike. It
is only through the solidarity of the workers, and
importantly the indomitable resolve of their wives,
mothers, and daughters, that they eventually triumph.
News
Sarah's
Oil
Sarah's
Oil is a 2025 American biographical drama film inspired
by the true story of Sarah Rector, an African American
girl born in 1902 in Oklahoma Indian Territory.
At just 11 years old, Rector inherited 160 acres
of seemingly barren land from the Muscogee (Creek)
Nation allotment. Believing—through faith and
intuition—that oil lay beneath it, she fought
off greedy speculators and corrupt oil magnates
to develop the property, which turned out to be
rich in resources. This made her one of the first
female African American millionaires in U.S. history,
earning her the nickname "the richest colored
girl in the world." The film draws from the
2014 book Searching for Sarah Rector: The Richest
Black Girl in America by Tonya Bolden and highlights
themes of faith, perseverance, family, and resilience
amid racial injustice during the early 20th-century
oil boom.
Filming:
Principal photography took place in Oklahoma starting
in July 2024.
Release:
Premiered in U.S. theaters on November 7, 2025,
distributed by Amazon MGM Studios (moved up from
a planned Christmas Day slot).
Runtime:
1 hour 43 minutes.
Best
Quotes
The
best and biggest gold mine is in between your ears."
"You
are a gold mine of potential power. You have to
dig to find it and make it real."
"Your
mind is like a gold mine, if you dig deep you will
find something golden."
"Don't
die without mining the gold in your mind."
"We're
like goldfields. Until we dig deep to find what's
inside us, our true potentials may be hidden forever."
"If
you want to find gold, you've got to love the process
of digging."
"Even
if you're sitting on a gold mine, you still have
to dig."
"Develop
men the same way gold is mined"
"Don't
go into the mine looking for dirt; instead, go in
looking for the gold."
"A
prospector's job is to remove dirt as quickly as
possible"
"A
prospector who analyses every speck of dirt won't
find much gold"
"The
world is sitting on a gold mine but knows it not."
"Make new friends, but keep the old; Those
are silver, these are gold."
"All
that is gold does not glitter."
"Gold
is forever. It is beautiful, useful, and never wears
out"
"Gold
is the money of kings"
"Mining
is the art of exploiting mineral deposits at a profit.
An unprofitable mine is fit only for the sepulcher
of a dead mule."
"Anyone
can find the dirt in someone. Be the one that finds
the gold."
"True
gold fears no fire."
"The
desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means
of freedom and benefit."
"Make
new friends, but keep the old; Those are silver,
these are gold."
"When
taken for granted, gold in one's hand is sometimes
considered like cheap copper – so are people."
Media
Man
Roy
Morgan wins Media Man 'News Services Provider Of
The Month' award; Runner-ups: X, Google News, Yahoo!
Finance
News,
Markets, Biz, Politics, Mining, Media, Marketing,
Culture: Australia and World
December
2025
December
1
Markets
Australian
Dollar: $0.6540 USD (up 0.0011 USD)
Iron Ore: $105.40 USD (down $1.30 USD)
Oil: $58.55 USD (down $0.55 USD)
Gold: $4,219.23 USD (up $61.79 USD)
Copper: $5.2780 USD (up $0.1155 USD)
Bitcoin: $87,321.17 -3.98%
Dow Jones: 47,716.42 (up 289.30 points)
News
ASX
tipped for solid start ahead of GDP data
Futures
pricing suggests that Australian equities will gain
about 0.1 per cent when the market opens on Monday,
following a positive lead from Wall Street. The
release of GDP data for the September quarter is
set to be a key focus for local investors in the
coming week, as they seek guidance on the outlook
for official interest rates. Inflation data released
last week has heightened speculation that the next
rate move may be up rather than down. The S&P/ASX
200 shed 0.37 per cent to close at 8,614.1 points
on Friday, and it fell by three per cent in November.
(RMS)
News
Nov
28
Gold
may have doubled, but miners a gamble
Factors
such as its 'safe haven' staus and record buying
by central banks have seen the price of gold rise
by more than 50 per cent so far in 2025. The share
prices of Australian-listed gold producers have
also rallied during 2025, and some have posted solid
returns over the last decade. However, analysis
shows that just 100 of the 172 listed gold miners
in 2015 are still in business now. Meanwhile, about
40 per cent of the survivors have posted a negative
return over the last 10 years. (RMS)
News
'Bloodbath':
Black Friday deals pose a dilemma for small business
Australians
are expected to spend nearly $7bn over the four
days of the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales,
and up to $39bn over the month of November. Indeed,
Black Friday has evolved to essentially become a
one-month sales event, and there is a growing expectation
among consumers that every store will offer big
discounts. However, Black Friday is challenging
for many small businesses, which simply cannot match
the deep discounts of large retailers. This is highlighted
by research from the Council of Small Business Organisations;
it found that 60 per cent of small business owners
do not pay themselves at least occasionally, while
25 per cent have used their personal savings to
stay afloat. (RMS)
News
Australia's
Most Trusted and Distrusted Brands + The Retail
Landscape
Join
Roy Morgan CEO Michele Levine to discover Australia's
most Trusted and Distrusted brands; how traditional
retail brands are being impacted by Temu, Shein,
and AliExpress; how the dramatic shift to low prices
is affecting discount department stores like Kmart
and Big W; whether Amazon has finally become the
digital category killer, impacting Myer, JB Hi-Fi
and Harvey Norman; whether Coles and Woolworths
are finally showing real signs of reputational recovery;
and whether the retail sector seeing a rise in distrust
amid all the upheaval. (Roy Morgan Summary)
News
Media
and Marketing
Sport
keeps TV afloat as Seven pips Nine
The
Seven Network has become Australia's top-rating
commercial free-to-air broadcaster for a fifth consecutive
year. Seven's national audience share across the
2025 rating year was 41.6 per cent, ahead of the
Nine Network on 40.5 per cent. Seven's total audience
share across all five free-to-air networks was 29.4
per cent, followed by Nine (28.7 per cent), the
ABC (21.5 per cent), Ten (12.6 per cent) and SBS
(7.7 per cent). Nine's live coverage of the NRL
Grand Final was the highest-rating program for the
year, with a record 4.56 million viewers; the AFL
Grand Final attracted a total audience of 4.18 million.
(RMS)
News
The
Age misses mark on AFL deal
A
spokesman for DAZN says the UK-based sports-focused
streaming company "categorically refutes"
a recent media report which suggested that it could
seek to renegotiate Foxtel's current seven-year
AFL broadcasting rights deal. The Age reported last
week that unnamed sources had claimed that DAZN
believes it is paying too much for the AFL rights.
Foxtel was acquired by DAZN earlier in 2025, in
a deal that is said to have been worth about $3.4bn.
(RMS)
News
News
media eyes $600m yearly boost
Google,
Meta, Microsoft, TikTok and Apple are estimated
to have had combined revenue of $41bn in Australia
during fiscal 2024. They could potentially pay local
news publishers about $610m a year via the federal
government's News Bargaining Incentive, which will
penalise technology companies that fail to secure
content deals with the nation's news publishers;
based on the revenue of the 'big five', the financial
penalty for not striking such deals could be around
$920m a year. The NBI would apply to all digital
platforms that operate "significant" social
media or search services, even if they do not feature
any news content. (RMS)
News
Magazine
stable faces carve-up
Private
equity firm Mercury Capital still hopes to sell
the whole of Are Media to a single buyer. However,
sources at Are have said there is speculation within
the publisher that several potential suitors have
expressed interest in selectively buying some magazine
titles, and shunning the less profitable ones. Mining
magnate Andrew Forrest is said to have been approached
about buying the flagship Australian Women's Weekly
via his family company, Tattarang, which already
owns the RM Williams magazine. (Roy Morgan Summary)
News
AI
threat slashes billions from classifieds giants
Jarden
analyst Tom Beadle has downplayed the risks that
online classified advertising groups are facing
due to the growing use of artificial intelligence
platforms. He contends that AI companies are unlikely
to develop a 'killer application' that will disrupt
the business of Real Estate Dotcom Dot Au http://realestate.com.au
owner REA Group in the near term. However, REA Group's
market capitalisation has fallen by nearly $9bn
since August, while CAR Group - which owns Car Sales
http://carsales.com.au - has shed 16 per cent of
its value. Nevertheless, there are fears that AI
platforms will be increasingly used to directly
search for jobs, homes or cars. (RMS)
News
Nov
28
Free
entry gets museum record-breaking visitors
Analysis
of the annual reports of museums in Australia shows
that consumers continued to embrace the nation's
cultural institutions in 2024-25. Museums Victoria
had the highest patronage, with 1.93 million visitors
during the financial year; however, this was 13
per cent lower than previously. Meanwhile, Western
Australia Museum was the nation's second-most-visited
museum, with visits to its three sites rising by
21 per cent year-on-year to 1.2 million. WA Museum
chair Sheila McHale notes that visitor numbers were
boosted by the state government's decision to waive
entry fees during the 2024-25 summer. (RMS)
News
Mining/Resources/Energy
Nov
28
Inside
the battle for BHP's future
There
is growing speculation that BHP's CEO Mike Henry
is preparing to step down after six years in the
role. However, BHP's merger talks with Anglo American
last week showed that Henry is still deeply engaged
in high-stakes strategic endeavours, rather than
easing into retirement. Potential internal candidates
to succeed Henry when he eventually steps down include
Geraldine Slattery, Rag Udd, Vandita Pant and Catherine
Raw. Meanwhile, some BHP directors believe that
the resources group should simplify its commodities
portfolio by exiting the coal sector and focusing
on copper; indeed, analysis shows that both BHP
and Rio Tinto have underperformed those of pure-play
copper mines in recent years. (RMS)
News
Nov
28
Bitcoin
stalled at a critical resistance
Market
Overview
The
crypto market cap corrected by 0.4% to $3.10T, pausing
the cautious rebound from last Friday. Yet we can’t
talk about the rebound running out of steam, as
there was strong growth the day before. But we do
not see any increase in optimism, as just about
one in seven coins has gained in the last 24 hours,
compared to a decline for most.
The
sentiment index rose to 25, the threshold for exiting
the territory of extreme fear, despite the latest
round of weakness. The index’s dynamics are
likely to attract buyers who were eager to enter
the market but were waiting for a discount after
the highs were set in early October.
Bitcoin
has fallen below $ 91K, stabilising near the 61.8%
Fibonacci retracement level of the decline since
November 11th. The area near $90K was significant
for the market about a year ago, serving as support
for the correction after the growth momentum in
early November. There is some risk that it will
now act as resistance, reinforcing the bearish signal
of a possible end to the rebound. A rise above $95K
would signal a victory for the bulls and a return
to a bull market, while a decline below $87K could
open the way to $80K, driving the market into a
depression.
News
Background
Kronos
Research describes the current dynamics as a classic
rebound from oversold conditions. The market has
cleared out excess long positions, creating room
for growth, according to Presto Research.
Futures
and options data point to a return of bullish sentiment.
The market is ‘ready for growth’ after
speculative longs were closed over the past two
weeks, according to GSR.
According
to CryptoQuant, in November, the Binance crypto
exchange increased its stablecoin reserves to a
record $51.1 billion. The growth of this indicator
can be seen as a positive factor for the crypto
market.
The
potential exclusion of Strategy from the S&P
500 index and continued outflows from spot crypto
ETFs could bring back bearish sentiment and trigger
sell-offs, warns QCP Capital.
Bolivia
will include cryptocurrencies and stablecoins in
its national financial system to modernise it.
Cryptocurrencies
will be allowed to be used as a means of payment,
savings accounts, credit products and loans. The
authorities’ decision is a result of the country’s
challenging economic situation. (FxPro)
News
Heavy
Industry News
Mack
Trucks wins Media Man 'Truck Manufacturer Of The
Month' award
Caterpillar
wins Media Man 'Heavy Equipment Manufacturer Of
The Month' award
Bingo
Industries wins Media Man 'Construction Brand Of
The Month' award
Elders
wins Media Man 'Agribusiness Of The Month' award
Landman
wins Media Man 'Streaming Series Of The Month' award
(Oil/mining industry based story via Paramount Plus)
Jim's
Mowing wins Media Man 'Franchise Of The Month' award
News
Pop
Culture Flashback
Citizen
Kane (1941)
Directed
by Orson Welles | Written by Orson Welles &
Herman J. Mankiewicz | Cinematography by Gregg Toland
Why
it’s considered one of the greatest films ever
made:
Revolutionary
storytelling: Non-linear structure jumping through
multiple perspectives and timelines — decades
before it became common.
Iconic
moments/lines:
“Rosebud…”
The
campaign speech with the giant Kane poster
The
slow push-in on young Charlie playing in the snow
as his future is decided
“Old
age… it’s the only disease, Mr. Thompson,
that you don’t look forward to being cured
of.” (Bernstein)
News
Salt
of the Earth (1954
Mexican
workers at a zinc mine call a general strike. It
is only through the solidarity of the workers, and
importantly the indomitable resolve of their wives,
mothers, and daughters, that they eventually triumph.
Best
Quotes
The
best and biggest gold mine is in between your ears."
"You
are a gold mine of potential power. You have to
dig to find it and make it real."
"Your
mind is like a gold mine, if you dig deep you will
find something golden."
"Don't
die without mining the gold in your mind."
"We're
like goldfields. Until we dig deep to find what's
inside us, our true potentials may be hidden forever."
"If
you want to find gold, you've got to love the process
of digging."
"Even
if you're sitting on a gold mine, you still have
to dig."
"Develop
men the same way gold is mined"
"Don't
go into the mine looking for dirt; instead, go in
looking for the gold."
"A
prospector's job is to remove dirt as quickly as
possible"
"A
prospector who analyses every speck of dirt won't
find much gold"
"The
world is sitting on a gold mine but knows it not."
"Make new friends, but keep the old; Those
are silver, these are gold."
"All
that is gold does not glitter."
"Gold
is forever. It is beautiful, useful, and never wears
out"
"Gold
is the money of kings"
"Mining
is the art of exploiting mineral deposits at a profit.
An unprofitable mine is fit only for the sepulcher
of a dead mule."
"Anyone
can find the dirt in someone. Be the one that finds
the gold."
"True
gold fears no fire."
"The
desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means
of freedom and benefit."
"Make
new friends, but keep the old; Those are silver,
these are gold."
"When
taken for granted, gold in one's hand is sometimes
considered like cheap copper – so are people."
Media
Man
Roy
Morgan wins Media Man 'News Services Provider Of
The Month' award; Runner-ups: X, Google News, Yahoo!
Finance
Markets,
News, Biz, Mining, Energy, Politics: Australia and
World
November
2025
Nov
28
Heavy
Industry News
Mack
Trucks wins Media Man 'Truck Manufacturer Of The
Month' award
Caterpillar
wins Media Man 'Heavy Equipment Manufacturer Of
The Month' award
Bingo
Industries wins Media Man 'Construction Brand Of
The Month' award
Elders
wins Media Man 'Agribusiness Of The Month' award
Landman
wins Media Man 'Streaming Series Of The Month' award
(Oil/mining industry based story via Paramount Plus)
Jim's
Mowing wins Media Man 'Franchise Of The Month' award
News
Markets
Australian
Dollar: $0.6529 USD (up 0.0009 USD)
Iron Ore: $106.70 USD (up $0.10 USD)
Oil: $59.10 USD (up $0.40 USD)
Gold: $4,157.44 USD (down $8.15 USD)
Copper: $5.1625 USD (down $0.0410 USD)
Bitcoin: $91,056.34 -0.12%
Dow Jones: 47,427.12 (closed for Turkey Day)
News
Labor
urged to bite the bullet on energy bills
Treasurer
Jim Chalmers recently indicated that the federal
government has yet to decide whether to extend its
electricity bill rebates beyond December 2025. The
rebate was introduced in 2023 and extended by six
months in the March budget. The expiry of state
energy rebates contributed to the higher-than-expected
3.8 per cent headline inflation rate in the year
to October. Economists have urged the government
to end the rebates, contending that they have a
distortionary impact on inflation and have cost
the federal budget about $6.8bn to date. Challenger's
chief economist Jonathan Kearns notes that rebates
also risk lifting expectations of higher inflation;
indeed, ANZ-Roy Morgan Inflation Expectations have
risen to a two-year high. (RMS)
News
ASX
up as tech stocks rally, WiseTech gains
The
Australian sharemarket posted a modest gain on Thursday,
with lower trading volumes ahead of Wall Street's
closure for Thanksgiving Day; the S&P/ASX 200
added 0.1 per cent to close at 8,617.3 points. WiseTech
Global was up 6.9 per cent at $69.72, Bellevue Gold
rose 3.2 per cent to $1.29 and Reece advanced four
per cent to $12.73. However, DroneShield was down
7.8 per cent at $2 and Santos fell 1.8 per cent
to end the session at $6.44. (RMS)
News
What
bubble? AI investors double down
Australian
technology investors have used a slump on the US
Nasdaq earlier in the month to boost their exposure
to the artificial intelligence sector. Those investors
included Munro Partners, which has topped up its
exposure to Nvidia, Alphabet and Taiwan Semiconductor,
while Loftus Peak's holdings of US tech stocks include
Amazon, Microsoft, Nvidia and Taiwan Semiconductor.
For his part, Joseph Ziller from Ziller Funds Management
says he avoids AI stocks that are not creating value
today from their huge capital expenditure. (RMS)
News
Snowy
Hydro signs renewable power deals
Snowy
Hydro will announce today that it has signed a 15-year
deal to purchase power from a wind farm in South
Australia that is being developed by Aula Energy,
and which Rystad Energy says could cost between
$810 million and $945 million. In addition to the
deal with Aula Energy, Snowy Hydro will also announce
that it has entered into a 15-year contract with
French-backed TagEnergy to access 105 megawatts
of capacity at the Golden Plains storage battery,
which will be located alongside a large wind farm
site near Geelong in Victoria. (RMS)
News
Tech
giants target roadblocks to AI spending
Australian
Bureau of Statistics figures shows that investment
in machinery and equipment by IT firms in the September
quarter came in at $2.8 billion, which was double
the previous record of $1.4 billion set in the previous
quarter. The figure includes investment in routers,
cooling towers and servers used to construct data
centres, and technology companies such as Microsoft
and TikTok, along with data centre operators such
as NextDC and AirTrunk, have got together to form
Data Centres Australia. It will lobby for reforms
to energy, water and planning approval and copyright
laws, so as to encourage investment in AI-linked
investment. (RMS)
News
Atlassians
resist Allan's crusade
Atlassian
is expanding its operations in Victoria, where Premier
Jacinta Allan wants to legislate the right to work
from home two days a week for private and public
sector employees. Although he is an advocate of
hybrid work arrangements and once stated that his
employees can work from anywhere, Atlassian co-founder
Mike Cannon-Brookes is against the idea of work-from-home
mandates, believing that flexible work arrangements
should be up to business to decide. As to the future
of the Australian tech sector, Cannon-Brooke is
very optimistic, even though the federal government
seems set to fail in its target for the nation to
employ 1.2 million tech workers by the end of the
decade. (RMS)
News
Online
out to pasture as Tabcorp bets big on pub and club
punters
Tabcorp
CEO Gillon McLachlan announced a major shakeup of
its retail wagering operations earlier in the yea
with McLachlan ditching a strategy by his predecessor
that was heavily focused on internet betting growth.
McLachlan instead plans to focus on punters in clubs
and pubs, where it has an advantage over rivals
such as Sportsbet and Ladbrokes. Its new strategy
will see it pay pubs and clubs hundreds of thousands
of dollars to help entice punters to gamble in their
venues, while it will allocate $50 million to pay
for bonus bets and other inducements for gamblers
in pubs and clubs. (RMS)
News
High
Court challengers of teen social media ban want
Musk, Google to fund case
A
group called the Digital Freedom Project is challenging
the federal government's under-16 social media ban
in the High Court, with the plaintiffs in the challenge
being teenage children of members of the group.
The group's president is NSW Libertarian Party MP
John Ruddick, who is encouraging the big tech companies
to fund its challenge, while he says it should be
the responsibility of parents to be aware of what
their children are doing online and to educate them
about the harms of social media. Minister for Communications
Anika Wells told parliament on Wednesday the government
was committed to the ban, and that it will not be
intimidated by legal challenges. (RMS)
News
Cricket's
shot at $1.2bn Big Bash prize
Cricket
Australia is aiming to partially privatise the Big
Bash League, although it will need the consent of
the various state cricket bodies. There are currently
eight teams in the BBL, with Cricket Australia hoping
to expand it to 10 teams; it has placed a value
of $1.2 billion on a 10-team BBL, meaning that it
stands to make a $600 million windfall if its plans
go ahead. Most potential bidders are likely to come
from India, with Cricket Australia not optimistic
that local buyers would be able to meet its asking
price. (RMS)
News
Critical
minerals rise from waste ashes
Latrobe
Magnesium recently received a letter of interest
from the US Export-Import Bank, which offered to
provide up to $US122m ($187m) to help build a magnesium
plant in Victoria. Latrobe CEO David Paterson says
China accounts for about 90 per cent of the global
supply of magnesium, which is vital to the manufacture
of electric vehicles and military aircraft. Latrobe's
technology can convert the fly ash produced by coal-fired
power stations into magnesium oxide. It has built
a demonstration plant near the site of the defunct
Hazelwood power station, and the funding from the
US export credit agency will be used to build a
commercial plant. (RMS)
News
Mineral
explorers bounce on 81pc funding surge
Data
from advisory firm BDO shows that the 739 pre-revenue
minerals exploration companies on the ASX raised
more than $3.49bn in total during the September
quarter. This is 81 per cent higher than the June
quarter, and Sherif Andrawes from BDO expects this
growth to continue. Meanwhile, total exploration
expenditure by pre-revenue companies rose by 16
per cent to a two-year high of $843.6m in the September
quarter, while the average cash balance of mineral
explorers increased by 20 per cent to $11m. Andrawes
anticipates strong IPO activity among pre-revenue
explorers in the December quarter. (RMS)
News
Palmer's
Covid drug donation behind tax dispute
Clive
Palmer is in a dispute with the Australian Taxation
Office over a purchase he made of a shipment of
the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine during
the COVID-19 pandemic. He is seeking a tax deduction
of almost $13m for his purchase, which was made
at a time when US President Donald Trump was
promoting hydroxychloroquine as a way of combatting
COVID-19, with Palmer claiming his deduction as
a donation for defending Australia, although the
drug was never distributed. (RMS)
News
'How
far is it going to escalate?' Fear Santos gas plan
in Beetaloo basin could be start of NT fracking
rush
Gas
and oil company Santos has announced plans to drill
12 fracking wells at Tanumbirini Station, which
is a large cattle station in the Northern Territory's
Beetaloo basin. Environment Centre NT executive
director Dr Kirsty Howey is worried that if Santos's
plans lead to to full-scale production, that over
6,000 wells could be drilled through "our precious
aquifers, polluting our groundwater with toxic chemicals",
with ninety percent of the NT's water supply coming
from groundwater. Howey says Santos should be a
"good corporate citizen" and refer its
proposal to be assessed under federal environment
laws.
News
LNG
levy proposal scared producers
The
federal government is reviewing Australia's east
coast gas market, with it being understood that
it was considering a levy on east coast LNG exporters
at one stage. However, while that idea appears to
have been shelved and the government looks set to
have settled on a gas reservation-style scheme,
the fact that the government was even considering
a levy has sparked concern among the gas industry
about the extent to which the government is prepared
to intervene in the sector. (RMS)
News
Smelters
become a test case for bailouts
Glencore
and Nyrstar are among the companies that have received
financial assistance from federal and state governments
to keep their ageing Australian smelters operating.
China's dominance of the critical minerals sector
has underlined the importance of continuing to produce
metals such as copper and zinc in Australia. Nyrstar's
lead smelter at Port Pirie and its zinc smelter
in Hobart can potentially be upgraded to produce
critical minerals such as antimony, bismuth, tellurium,
germanium and indium; these metals are crucial to
Australia's economic and security equation, particularly
in the wake of the recent critical minerals agreement
with the US. (RMS)
News
Crisafulli
denies favouritism amid mine deals
Harmony
Gold's Eva Copper Mine has received an undislosed
financial incentive from the Queensland government's
Northwest Energy Fund. However, two coal projects
in the state have received no financial assistance
from the government. Premier David Crisafulli has
rejected suggestions that the government is favouring
critical minerals over coal, arguing that it is
providing the coal industry with certainty with
regard to regulation and taxation; the government
has previously been criticised for retaining its
Labor predecessor's controversial coal royalty regime.
Crisafulli adds that the Eva Copper Mine will help
ensure that Glencore's Mount Isa smelter remains
viable. (Roy Morgan Summary)
News
ASX
rally tempers on CPI shock; miners rise
The
Australian sharemarket posted a sold gain on Wednesday,
despite a pullback in response to data showing that
inflation rose to a higher-than-expected 3.8 per
cent in the year to October. The S&P/ASX 200
added 0.8 per cent to close at 8,606.5 points, having
risen by about 1.2 per cent before the monthly CPI
data was released. BHP was up two per cent at $41.80,
Pilbara Minerals rose 7.2 per cent to $4.04 and
Ramsay Health Care advanced 3.8 per cent to $37.32.
However, Temple & Webster shed 32.3 per cent
to end the session at $13.83. (RMS)
News
Fortescue,
former execs settle with each side to pay costs
The
terms of a settlement between Fortescue and three
former executives will remain confidential, after
all parties to the legal dispute agreed to take
no further action. Michael Masterman, Bart Kolodziejczyk
and Bjorn Winther-Jensen had been accused of using
Fortescue's proprietary information when they left
to establish a rival 'green' iron company called
Element Zero in 2022. Fortescue commenced legal
action in April 2024, and attracted criticism for
hiring private detectives to undertake surveillance
on the three former employees and their families.
Element Zero's green iron plant in Perth will be
formally opened by Premier Roger Cook today. (RMS)
News
The
rare earths race is on
China
has spent unlimited money to develop the world's
best technology to produce heavy rare earths, while
the French have developed rival technology that
is not as good and is far more expensive. Meanwhile,
Sinosteel's $100m pilot plant in Western Australia
to process ore from Northern Minerals' Browns Range
rare earth project is likely to remain idle, as
Northern Minerals intends to build a new plant at
Browns Range with financial support from the US
Export-Import Bank. Haoma Mining's Bamboo Creek
heavy rare earths deposit is also a threat to China's
dominance of the sector; its Elazac process is now
being used to extract gold and platinum from the
Bamboo Creek material, and it could become a rival
to the Chinese and French technology for extracting
heavy rare earths such as terbium. (RMS)
Nov
26
News
Haoma
Mining: Chairman's Presentation to shareholders
Haoma
Mining NL Announcements
Haoma
Mining held its Annual General Meeting at Tonic
House in Melbourne on 26 November. Chairman Gary
Morgan updated shareholders on Haoma's major activities
in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, including
the use of the Elazac process to produce gold bullion
at the Bamboo Creek Pilot Plant, as well as its
Pilbara Heavy Rare Earth discovery. Shareholders
were also updated on progress at the Pirra Lithium
exploration joint venture between Haoma and SQM
Australia, as well as activities at Haoma's Top
Camp Roadhouse and Caravan Park at Ravenswood in
Queensland. (Roy Morgan Summary)
Lead
Up
Nov
25
Big
super's $110m stake in 'blood oil'
Australian
Federation of Ukrainian Organisations chair Kateryna
Argyrou says Australia's superannuation funds should
divest their stakes in companies such as India's
Reliance Industries. Argyrou's comments follow the
revelation that Reliance has profited from refining
sanctioned Russian crude oil and exporting the resulting
fuels into markets such as Australia. The nation's
four largest super funds have invested nearly $110
million in Reliance; they include AustralianSuper
and the Australian Retirement Trust. (RMS)
Nov
25
Markets
Australian
Dollar: $0.6462 USD (up 0.0009 USD)
Iron Ore: $105.00 USD (up $0.75 USD)
Oil: $58.84 USD (up $0.78 USD)
Gold: $4,123.68 USD (up $58.41 USD)
Copper: $4.9890 USD (down $0.0070 USD)
Dow Jones: 46,478.79 (up 233.38 points)
Bitcoin: $88,103.67 +1.47%
News
Force
miners to sell local: smelter owner
Nyrstar
Australia's CEO Matt Howell says the federal government
should consider implementing a domestic minerals
reservation scheme. It would work in much the same
way as the proposed domestic gas reservation scheme,
and require mining companies to sell a portion of
their mineral ore to Australian refinery operators.
The future of facilities such as Nyrstar's Port
Pirie lead smelter and its Hobart zinc smelter have
been under scrutiny, prompting federal and state
government assistance. However, Howell's proposal
has been dismissed by Minerals Council of Australia
CEO Tania Constable, who has cautioned against government
intervention in the minerals market. (RMS)
News
'Our
gas, our prices': Ed Husic breaks ranks with Labor
to demand an end to 'profiteering' by exporters
Former
Labor industry minister Ed Husic has backed a motion
by independent MP Nicolette Boele regarding east
coast gas prices. The motion calls on the federal
government to "only allow uncontracted gas
to be exported after it has been offered to the
domestic market at a reasonable price", with
Boele saying Australia does not have a gas supply
problem, but rather a gas export problem. Calling
for stronger action against what he labels 'profiteering'
gas exporters, Husic contends that "our gas,
our prices: that should be the bedrock of our thinking.
(Roy Morgan Summary)
News
ASX
to rally in 2026 on mining bounce: UBS
The
benchmark S&P/ASX 200 has retreated from the
record high of 9,904 points in recent weeks, having
closed at 8,525.1 yesterday. However, Richard Schellbach
from UBS is upbeat about the outlook for the local
bourse, forecasting that the ASX 200 will top 8,900
points again by the end of 2026. Schellbach says
there are expectations that earning growth will
exceed 10 per cent in 2026; he adds that although
this will be driven by the resources sector, there
will be earnings growth across the broader sharemarket.
(RMS/AFR)
News
BHP
drops second tilt at rival Anglo
BHP
has advised that it has held preliminary discussions
with Anglo American's board regarding a potential
merger, but says it is no longer considering a bid
for its London-based rival. BHP abandoned a previous
takeover bid for Anglo American in 2024, and the
company says it is still of the view that a merger
would have "strong strategic merits" and
create significant value for all stakeholders. BHP
has indicated that it will instead focus on its
organic growth strategy. Meanwhile, the latest aborted
bid for Anglo has prompted speculation that Rio
Tinto could pursue growth via acquisitions. (RMS)
News
Rinehart
puts blowtorch on Rio Tinto, BHP over net zero spending
Hancock
Prospecting's executive chair Gina Rinehart has
criticised major resources groups for spending billions
of dollars on reducing carbon emissions. Rinehart
singled out BHP and Rio Tinto in her speech to mark
National Mining Day; BHP is expected to spend up
to $500m on reducing emissions over the next five
years, while Rio Tinto has committed to halving
its emissions by 2030 at a cost of $US5bn over 10
years. Rinehart contended that the dividends of
BHP and Rio Tinto shareholders are being "sacrificed
on the green altar". The speech was written
by Rinehart but delivered by Hancock Iron Ore's
CEO Gerhard Veldsman via a video message. (RMS)
News
Lithium
prices slide on Chinese mine restart
The
price of lithium fell sharply on Friday, in response
to media reports that China-based Contemporary Amperex
Technology could potentially resume production at
its Jianxiawo mine in early December. Data from
S&P Global Platts shows that the price of spodumene
- the type of lithium that is mined in Australia
- fell by 8.3 per cent to $US1,135 a tonne; the
price of lithium carbonate in turn fell by nine
per cent to 91,020 yuan on the Guangzhou Futures
Exchange. The downturn prompted a fall in the share
prices of Australian lithium producers on Monday.
(Roy Morgan Summary)
News
Santos
hit by delay on Narrabri gas ruling
Santos
has received another setback in its long-running
bid to proceed with the Narrabri gas project in
NSW. A two-day hearing on the Gomeroi people's appeal
against a Native Title Tribunal ruling on the project
had been scheduled to begin in the Federal Court
this week; however, Justice Natalie Charlesworth
recused herself from the case because an associate
had worked for Santos on secondment on two separate
occasions. Another judge is not available to hear
the case, so the traditional owners' appeal has
been pushed back to March 2026. (RMS)
News
Nov
24
UK
launches critical minerals strategy to reduce dependency
on China
British
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has announced a critical
minerals and rare earths strategy, with the strategy
aimed at reducing the UK's dependency on China.
It includes a Stg50 million fund to boost production
at tungsten and lithium mines in Cornwall. Europe's
largest deposits of lithium are in Cornwall, while
the EU has previously singled out the county's tungsten
mine for potential financial support. The strategy
follows a six-week standoff between China and the
EU over the supply of chips used in the car sector,
while it seeks to ensure no more than 60% of any
one critical mineral comes from a single partner
country by 2035; the British government also wants
to produce at least 50,000 tonnes of lithium in
the UK by the same year. (Roy Morgan Summary)
News
Pop
Culture
Gold
Movie
Gold
is a 2016 American epic crime drama film directed
by Stephen Gaghan and written by Patrick Massett
and John Zinman. The film stars Matthew McConaughey,
Édgar Ramírez, Bryce Dallas Howard,
Corey Stoll, Toby Kebbell, Craig T. Nelson, Stacy
Keach and Bruce Greenwood. The film is loosely based
on the true story of the 1997 Bre-X mining scandal,
when a massive gold deposit was supposedly discovered
in the jungles of Indonesia; however, for legal
reasons and to enhance the appeal of the film, character
names and story details were changed.
Trailer
Gold
(YouTube Movies and TV)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=yc0S96OZhi0
Gold
is the epic tale of one man's pursuit of the American
dream, to discover gold. Starring Oscar® winner
Matthew McConaughey (Interstellar, Dallas Buyers
Club, The Wolf Of Wall Street) as Kenny Wells, a
modern day prospector desperate for a lucky break,
he teams up with a similarly eager geologist and
sets off on an amazing journey to find gold in the
uncharted jungle of Indonesia. Getting the gold
was hard, but keeping it would be even harder, sparking
an adventure through the most powerful boardrooms
of Wall Street. The film is inspired by a true story.
News
Citizen
Kane (1941)
Directed
by Orson Welles | Written by Orson Welles &
Herman J. Mankiewicz | Cinematography by Gregg TolandWhy
it’s considered one of the greatest films ever
made:
Revolutionary
storytelling: Non-linear structure jumping through
multiple perspectives and timelines — decades
before it became common.
Iconic
moments/lines:
“Rosebud…”
The
campaign speech with the giant Kane poster
The
slow push-in on young Charlie playing in the snow
as his future is decided
“Old
age… it’s the only disease, Mr. Thompson,
that you don’t look forward to being cured
of.” (Bernstein)
News
Salt
of the Earth (1954
Mexican
workers at a zinc mine call a general strike. It
is only through the solidarity of the workers, and
importantly the indomitable resolve of their wives,
mothers, and daughters, that they eventually triumph.
Best
Quotes
The
best and biggest gold mine is in between your ears."
"You
are a gold mine of potential power. You have to
dig to find it and make it real."
"Your
mind is like a gold mine, if you dig deep you will
find something golden."
"Don't
die without mining the gold in your mind."
"We're
like goldfields. Until we dig deep to find what's
inside us, our true potentials may be hidden forever."
"If
you want to find gold, you've got to love the process
of digging."
"Even
if you're sitting on a gold mine, you still have
to dig."
"Develop
men the same way gold is mined"
"Don't
go into the mine looking for dirt; instead, go in
looking for the gold."
"A
prospector's job is to remove dirt as quickly as
possible"
"A
prospector who analyses every speck of dirt won't
find much gold"
"The
world is sitting on a gold mine but knows it not."
"Make new friends, but keep the old; Those
are silver, these are gold."
"All
that is gold does not glitter."
"Gold
is forever. It is beautiful, useful, and never wears
out"
"Gold
is the money of kings"
"Mining
is the art of exploiting mineral deposits at a profit.
An unprofitable mine is fit only for the sepulcher
of a dead mule."
"Anyone
can find the dirt in someone. Be the one that finds
the gold."
"True
gold fears no fire."
"The
desire of gold is not for gold. It is for the means
of freedom and benefit."
"Make
new friends, but keep the old; Those are silver,
these are gold."
"When
taken for granted, gold in one's hand is sometimes
considered like cheap copper – so are people."
Media
Man
Roy
Morgan wins Media Man 'News Services Provider Of
The Month' award; Runner-ups: X, Google News, Yahoo!
Finance
businesswire.com
PR
Newswire
crypto.com
The
Australian Financial Review. Subscribe for full
articles
Sky
News Australia
Markets
and Commodities
October
17, 2024
Australian
Dollar: $0.6670 USD (down $0.0030 USD)
Iron
Ore Nov Spot Price (SGX): $104.55 USD (down $1.85
USD)
Oil
Price (WTI): $70.52 USD (down $0.39 USD)
Gold
Price: $2,673.95 USD (up $12.93 USD)
Copper
Price (CME): $4.3665 USD (up 0.0270 USD)
Bitcoin:
$67,856.42 USD (up 1.50% in last 24 hours)
Dow
Jones: 43,077.70 at 4.20pm NY time (up 337.28 points
on yesterday's close)
CollaboratorPro
NordVPN
NordPass
NordLocker
Market,
Commodities and Financial News
Snapshot
via Media Man
July
29, 2024
ASX
futures up 60 points or 0.8% to 7938 near 3am AEST
AUD
+0.2% to 65.48 US cents
Bitcoin
-0.6% to $US67,636
Dow
+1.6%
S&P
+1.1%
Nasdaq
+1%
FTSE
+1.2%
DAX
+0.7%
CAC
+1.2%
Gold
+1.0% to $US2387.19 an ounce
Brent
oil -1.5% to $US81.13 a barrel
Iron
ore +2.5% to $US102.40 a tonne
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Advertising
and media rights, plus ticket sales, make the world
go round for WWE, UFC, Bellator, Boxing, Australian
cricket under pressure for men and women competitors
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Man Int X
Elon
Musk’s X Files Antitrust Suit Against Global
Advertising Alliance
August
6, 2024
Elon
Musk’s social media platform X has launched
a significant antitrust lawsuit against the Global
Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) and several
of its member companies, alleging an illegal ad
boycott that targeted the platform. The lawsuit,
filed in Texas, is aimed at GARM, its parent firm
World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), and members
including CVS Health, Mars, Orsted and Unilever.
In
an open letter to advertisers, X CEO Linda Yaccarino
highlighted the reasons behind the lawsuit, stating
that it was a direct response to GARM’s actions
which allegedly cost the company billions of dollars.
“This is not a decision we took lightly, but
it is a direct consequence of their actions,”
Yaccarino wrote. “The illegal behavior of these
organizations and their executives cost X billions
of dollars” per The New York Post.
The
lawsuit is seeking trebled compensatory damages
and injunctive relief, according to a complaint
viewed by The New York Post. GARM, led by Robert
Rakowitz, is an initiative of the WFA, which represents
many of the world’s largest companies and ad
organizations, including Disney and Coca-Cola. Its
members control 90% of global marketing spending,
nearly $1 trillion per year.
Yaccarino
emphasized that the issue extends beyond financial
damages. “This case is about more than damages
— we have to fix a broken ecosystem that allows
this illegal activity to occur,” she added.
According
to The New York Post, the suit argues that the boycott
undermined the marketplace of ideas by financially
harming certain viewpoints over others. (Credit:
PYMNTS)
Full
article and coverage via PYMNTS
https://pymnts.com/cpi-posts/elon-musks-x-files-antitrust-suit-against-global-advertising-alliance/
PYMNTS
is a former Media Man 'Business News Outlet Of The
Month' award winner and finalist
News
Elon
Musk takes GARM, several companies to court over
alleged advertising boycott of X outlined in bombshell
report
August
7, 2024
Tech
billionaire Elon Musk has taken several companies
and an advertising alliance to court over allegations
of a "boycott" of X.
Elon
Musk has waged “war” against advertisers
as his social media platform X filed an antitrust
lawsuit against a global ad alliance and several
major companies, accusing them of illegally boycotting
the site.
X
filed a suit in a federal court in Texas against
the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), the Global
Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) and its members
CVS Health, Mars, Orsted and Unilever.
The
suit comes after a report from the US House of Representatives
Judiciary Committee found GARM and its members “directly
organised boycotts” and employed other indirect
tactics to target disfavoured “platforms, content
creators” and news organisations to demonetise
them.
It
alleges that GARM’s boycott led advertisers
to pull money from X under the guise of “brand
safety” concerns.
X’s
CEO Linda Yaccarino argued this tactic hindered
users on the social media platform from accessing
a wide breadth of ideas by funding alternative viewpoints.
“The
consequence - perhaps the intent - of this boycott
was to seek to deprive X’s users, be they sports
fans, gamers, journalists, activists, parents or
political and corporate leaders, of the Global Town
Square,” she wrote.
“To
put it simply, people are hurt when the marketplace
of ideas is undermined and some viewpoints are not
funded over others as part of an illegal boycott.”
Mr
Musk shared his colleague’s statement to the
platform and boldly declared: “We tried peace
for 2 years, now it is war.”
He
later encouraged “any company who has been
systematically boycotted” to file a suit.
Following
his post, video sharing platform Rumble joined Mr
Musk’s lawsuit, claiming it has also been impacted
towards GARM’s alleged skew away from right
wing voices and ideologies.
The
platform announced its move on X where it accused
GARM of being “a conspiracy to perpetrate an
advertiser boycott of Rumble and others, and that's
illegal”.
Since
Musk took over the social media platform in October
2022, X has suffered a serious dive in ad dollars
with the platform taking in US$2.5 billion in 2023,
according to Bloomberg.
This
was down from the US$1bn it was bringing in every
quarter of 2022.
Musk
triggered controversy again in November 2023 when
he endorsed an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory that
Jewish communities push “hatred against whites”.
The
X owner responded: “You have said the actual
truth,” sparking an advertiser exodus that
was reported to have lost the company as much as
$75m, per The New York Times.
He
made headlines again in the same month after blasting
advertisers boycotting the social media platform,
boldly declaring: “Go f**k yourself”.
“If
somebody is going to try to blackmail me with advertising,
blackmail me with money, go f**k yourself. Go f**k
yourself. Is that clear? I hope it is,” he
said. (Sky News Australia)
Full
article and coverage via Sky News Australia
https://www.skynews.com.au/business/media/elon-musk-takes-garm-several-companies-to-court-over-alleged-advertising-boycott-of-x-outlined-in-bombshell-report/news-story/7bac6243aada770042d14ca84afc23e7
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Finance wins Media Man 'Business News Outlet
Of The Month' award
PYMNTS
wins Media Man 'Businees News Outlet Of The Month'
award
Market,
Commodities and Financial News Snapshot via Media
Man
August
7, 2024
Australian
Dollar: $0.6520 USD (up $0.0024 USD)
Iron
Ore Sep Spot Price (SGX): $102.85 USD (down $0.70
USD)
Oil
Price (WTI): $72.96 USD (down $1.02 USD)
Gold
Price: $2,389.45 USD (down $19.96 USD)
Copper
Price (CME): $4.0095 USD (up $0.0085 USD)
Bitcoin:
$56,485.71 USD (up 3.10% in last 24 hours)
Dow
Jones: 38,997.66 at 5.02pm NY time (up 294.39 points
on yesterday's close)
(Roy
Morgan Summary)
Business
News: Australia
(Roy
Morgan Summary)
ASX
to fall as investors await big tech earnings
July
22, 2024
Futures
pricing suggests that Australian equities will shed
about 0.8 per cent when the market opens on Monday,
following a negative lead from Wall Street. A dearth
of local economic data means that investors will
be focused on offshore markets over the coming week;
the quarterly reporting season in the US is likely
to attract scrutiny, with two of the seven major
technology companies set to release their latest
financial results in coming days. The S&P/ASX
200 fell 0.8 per cent to 7,961.6 points on Friday.
(Roy
Morgan Summary)
News
Lithium
stocks targeted by short sellers
Australian
Securities & Investments Commission data has
revealed that seven companies on the ASX had more
than 10 per cent of their shares reported as shorted
as at 12 July, compared to just one in the previous
year. Companies involved in the mining of lithium
and other materials used in the manufacture of electric
vehicles account for seven of the 10 most shorted
stocks on the ASX, with 21.06 per cent of Pilbara
Minerals shares reported as shorted. Oscar Oberg
from Wilson Asset Management says Pilbara Minerals'
reported short position is unheard of; he adds that
Pilbara Minerals is being shorted because demand
for electric vehicles is not as strong as had been
forecast.
News
Mortgage
cliff turns into a subsiding wave
PEXA
Group's chief economist Julie Toth believes that
the rush for Australians to refinance their mortgage
loans has peaked. She adds that rather than a 'mortgage
cliff', the nation has experienced only a 'wave'
as borrowers have shifted their loans to variable
interest rates after their fixed-loan period expired.
Toth adds that there has been a slight increase
in mortgage arrears and distressed sales in response
to the Reserve Bank's aggressive monetary policy
tightening cycle; she expects arrears to remain
stable if there are no more interest rate increases.
News
CSR's
insulation price rise 'could be gouging'
Insulation
distributor Consolidated Energy alleges that building
materials group CSR misused its market power to
'gouge' suppliers with huge increases in the price
of insulation; it is seeking internal documents
and board papers in order to prove its claim. Consolidated
Energy is asking the Federal Court to grant its
request that CSR be required to hand over information
relating to price increases between June 2021 and
June 2022; Consolidated Energy alleges that CSR
was limiting supply to distributors and imposing
big price increases in order to benefit its own
business.
News
Coal
boss: use gas to ease the transition
Data
from the Australian Energy Market Operator has revealed
that no renewable energy project that was in the
commissioning stage reached full output in June.
This was despite an increase in renewable energy
projects being ready to come online, prompting calls
from Delta Electricity CEO Richard Wrightson for
gas to be included in the federal government's Capacity
Investment Scheme. With Delta being the owner of
the Vales Point coal plant in NSW, Wrightson says
gas is the only technology available now that can
solve the firming problem, but it is the only technology
that is being supported by the government's scheme.
News
Fortescue
now marching 'to the one beat'
July
20, 2024
(Roy
Morgan Summary)
Andrew
Forrest surprised investors at its 2020 AGM when
he outlined a vision for the iron ore mining company
that would see it become a green energy behemoth.
He said Fortescue would be targeting production
of as much as 235 gigawatts or renewable energy,
more than five times the capacity of Australia's
National Electricity Market at the time. However,
Forrest has now conceded it cannot achieve its target
of producing 15 million tonnes of green hydrogen
a year by 2030 because of soaring energy costs,
although he contends Fortescue's green energy dream
is still alive. Fortescue will now bring its iron
ore and green energy units back together, with Forrest
saying that all of the company are "all marching
in the same direction, to the same drum beat".
(Roy
Morgan Summary)
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