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Anthony Macdonald

Yesterday

Here we go again: second-guessing the Federal Reserve’s next move has created market volatility.

Go America a kick in the guts for Australian shares, dollar

The US patriots are having a field day – and it’s hitting Australian markets hard.

Olivia Wirth and Solomon Lew are teaming up for a deal that will make Myer much bigger.

Why Myer’s big deal with Premier is not a get-out-of-jail-free card

Big is one thing, better is another entirely. What is Myer buying in Premier Investments’ apparel brands?

This Month

Magellan’s Alan Pullen started covering financials and now runs two portfolios, including a hand in the firm’s flagship $12 billion fund. He’s seen a lot at Magellan, but always kept his belief in owning stocks.

How Magellan plans to make money, without two super-hot stocks

Hamish Douglass is gone – along with plenty of clients – but the global equities team marches on with the same search for quality compounders.

Markets are loving Trump 2.0 – for now. Australian business should sense opportunity.

Bumpy Trump era can be boom years for Australia, investors

Australian boardrooms can’t know what his second presidency holds, but they need to be ready to seize opportunities. Change is coming.

Christmas festivities at The Star Brisbane at Queen’s Wharf.

Battling Star Entertainment loses the confidence of its banks

Once a $4 billion casino giant, Star could land in voluntary administration within months as its poor financial results discourage lenders and possible bidders.

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There can only be one winner in the ASX’s big tussle for 2025

Shares in Australia’s big banks are easily outrunning the ASX’s big miners. It will switch, it always does.

Star Entertainment CEO Steve McCann’s back at the negotiating table.

Cash burn puts Star on its deathbed. Its only hope is a deal

Only a white knight can save the casino operator from becoming Australia’s biggest corporate collapse since Virgin Australia in 2020.

Engineers at F1 team McLaren helped medicine and vaccines company Sanofi with 15 production improvements, Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson says.

How Formula 1 engineers turbocharged a $200b public company

Australian CEOs are often shy to talk about how and when they use external consultants. The boss of this big French company, which plays an important role in Australia’s health system, isn’t.

Boards need to be careful they’re not prisoner to economists and interest rate calls.

Boards better off getting on with business than playing economists

The risk for investors is that boards use the interest rates confusion to shut up shop and wait until the supposed uncertainty clears.

Richard White, WiseTech Global’s founder, with chairman Richard Dammery.

WiseTech rolls into a new year like nothing happened

Don’t discount how important culture is to a company whose value is in its people and products, not hard assets in the ground.

BlackRock Investment Institute’s global chief investment strategist Wei Li presenting at the AFR Business Summit last March.

The $18.4trn reason to listen to BlackRock’s three lessons in 2025

Wall Street and its biggest investors like the global investment giant influence the ASX more than anything else. That’s why you need to listen.

The market’s up but earnings are down. Is that about to change?

Earnings turning point gives ASX bears plenty to think about

Shares prices have raced away while company profits have gone backwards. What happens if earnings start going up, too?

Get off the beach, the deals are back on!

Private equity’s $2.9b bolt from the blue kickstarts M&A wave

Get off the beach, the new year has begun with a doozy of a buyout bid. It is not straightforward, but it is a bit of fresh meat.

  • Updated
From top: Seven Group’s Ryan Stokes, Woodside’s Meg O’Neill and Telstra’s Vicki Brady.

CEOs reveal how to fix the productivity problem

Business reckons it’s ready to invest to help bolster living standards for all Australians. It just needs some policy help.

  • Updated
Clockwise from right: Anthony Miller, Leah Weckert, Kevin Gallagher and Shemara Wikramanayake.

More skilled migration, less red tape to kickstart economy: CEOs

The government needs to stimulate sagging productivity growth if Australia is to prosper, business warns.

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How do you beat a market where the biggest investors seem to be able to keep buying their biggest stocks?

The existential risk Australia’s rock star investors are facing

If fund managers cannot work this one out, they could be gone before the problem gets a chance to fix itself. Small shareholders and even super funds would be worse off.

Australia’s battery minerals ambitions are taking a battering – add the ASX’s Jervois Global to the list.

How AusSuper’s big critical minerals bet went belly up

It’s a wake-up call for the companies that think life’s easy when you’re backed by Australia’s most powerful investor. It isn’t.

Lendlease chief executive Tony Lombardo felt heat from major investors John Wylie’s Tanarra Capital and David Di Pilla’s HMC Capital last year.

Shrinking Lendlease shows how to bite the bullet

Having dramatically cut its offshore ambitions, Lendlease hasn’t mucked around.

RBA governor Michele Bullock won’t be rushed on interest rate cuts.

Big business is sweating on a quick rate cut call

Even one would provide a boost for beaten up consumers – banks will have to pass it straight to customers no questions asked given the political environment.

The banks have done their heavy lifting, the miners are waiting on China, so we need the underperformers to step up in 2025.

Dogs of the ASX need to find their bite

The banks ensured the Australian sharemarket made good money for investors in 2024. But we need changes to do it again this year.

Original URL: https://www.afr.com/by/anthony-macdonald-j7gcx