Winston takes his first aim

December 07, 2023

Good Morning,

Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has delivered a diatribe in his first speech back in Parliament taking aim at Te Pāti Māori, Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI is looking to raise $1bn (£0.8bn), the New Zealand sharemarket is very close to wiping out its deficit for the year & Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Ryozo Himino signaled that the central bank is inching closer to putting an end to the world’s last negative interest rate.

Before The Bell

Markets

  • The New Zealand sharemarket is very close to wiping out its deficit for the year after rising nearly 1 per cent while Synlait Milk hit an all-time low. (Herald)

  • The Australian dollar charged back toward US66¢ on Wednesday, extending last month’s strong gains, as Citi forecasts the currency to climb US10¢ in two years. (AFR)

  • The Australian sharemarket had its biggest one-day rally in more than a year on Wednesday as traders raised their bets on the Reserve Bank cutting interest rates. (AFR)

  • Deals including initial public offerings aren’t likely to recover from their doldrums “for a few quarters yet” unless global business confidence returns, according to a review by Swiss bank UBS Group AG. (BBG)

  • Bank of Japan Deputy Governor Ryozo Himino signaled that the central bank is inching closer to putting an end to the world’s last negative interest rate regime by laying out a hypothesis for what might happen if indeed rates go positive. (BBG)


Earnings and Data

  • Endeavour Group chief executive Steve Donohue has told investors that the company will drive higher returns on funds employed and grow hotel earnings by more than $150 million over the next five years through property investment, buying fewer pubs and cutting costs. (AFR)

  • CVS Health forecast 2024 revenue above market estimates and said it would simplify the structure through which its pharmacies get reimbursed for drugs, in a push for more transparency amid scrutiny on surging healthcare costs. (RT)

News Summary

  • Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has delivered a diatribe in his first speech back in Parliament taking aim at Te Pāti Māori, the media and those who counted his party out from returning. (Herald)

  • Two brothers have been found guilty of murdering grandmother Meliame Fisi’ihoi after she was shot at point-blank range as she peered through her living room window after hearing a noise. Their cousin was found guilty of manslaughter. (Stuff)

  • Many of the gravest threats to humanity are drawing closer, as carbon pollution heats the planet to ever more dangerous levels, scientists have warned. (Guardian)

  • Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence startup xAI is looking to raise $1bn (£0.8bn) as the world’s richest man looks to keep pace with rivals including OpenAI, Microsoft and Google in the race to dominate the field. (Guardian)

  • The federal government will give the states $25 billion in GST top-up payments and extra health and hospital funding by the end of the decade, in return for their agreement to reform the NDIS and save it from collapse. (AFR)

  • Amazon.com Inc. is sharply cutting fees for merchants selling clothing priced below $20, a sign it’s hunkering down for a price war with Chinese fast-fashion upstart Shein. (BBG)

Deal Flow

Investments / M&A

  • Investment conglomerate Washington H. Soul Pattinson made a $3 billion offer to acquire Perpetual and break the funds management business up. (AFR)

  • Origin Energy investors Allan Gray and Australian Retirement Trust voted in favour of an $18.7 billion takeover of the electricity retailer before a shareholder vote was postponed this week. Allan Gray has thrown its support behind a possible “alternative” transaction. (AFR)

VC & Fundraising

  • Salesforce.com Inc. and other investors have put $39.5 million into a UK startup, AutogenAI, that makes artificial intelligence for a mundane field: bidding for public contracts. (BBG)

Equity Raises

  • Gecko Robotics has raised $100 million for its robots that assess the safety and condition of infrastructure for industries including defense, oil and manufacturing. (BBG)

  • A rally across equity markets lifted Birkenstock Holding Plc and other newly public firms, but Wall Street still isn’t welcoming initial public offerings with open arms. (BBG)

Debt

  • Sberbank's (SBER.MM) consumer lending dropped by 30% in the fourth quarter, the first deputy CEO of Russia's biggest bank, Kirill Tsaryov, said on Wednesday. (RT)

Daily Picks

  • A Bangladesh batter was dismissed in bizarre fashion during the first day of the second test against the Black Caps. (Herald)

  • Sky TV has announced another range of price hikes for its entertainment and sports content - some just months after its previous round of rises - and it has revealed that advertisements are coming to its previously ad-free Neon. (Herald)

  • The North Korean family who risked execution to escape by boat. (BBC)

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