Australia Economy Grows Less Than Expected In Q3 As Inventories Weigh

Summary:

Australia's economy grew less than expected in the September quarter, as soft net trade and a sharp rundown in inventories offset solid domestic demand, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed on Wednesday.

Gross domestic product grew 0.4% quarter-on-quarter in the three months to Sept 30, data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed on Wednesday. The print was below expectations of 0.7% and slowed from the 0.6% rise seen in the prior quarter.

Year-on-year, GDP grew 2.1% in Q3 against expectations of 2.2% and growth of 2.0% in the prior quarter.

Domestic demand remained the primary engine of growth, contributing 1.1 points. Private investment surged 2.9% -- the fastest since early 2021 -- driven by machinery and equipment spending linked to major data-centre developments.

Public investment rose 3.0% due to increased renewable energy and water infrastructure projects.

Household consumption gained 0.5%, supported by essential spending on electricity, rents, health, and food. The ABS incorporated household solar electricity generation into the national accounts for the first time, reflecting rising rooftop capacity and shifts in power consumption.

Nominal GDP rose 1.7% as domestic prices firmed and the terms of trade edged up 0.3%.

Service industries, including construction and financial services, led gains in production, helping offset declines in mining.

Source: Investing

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James Whitman

Political

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said any country trafficking illegal drugs into the U.S. could be attacked.

"Anybody that's doing that and selling it into our country is subject to attack," Trump told reporters during a cabinet meeting at the White House, after raising the issue of cocaine from Colombia.

Colombian President Gustavo Petro shot back at Trump in a post on X, arguing the South American nation destroys a drug-producing laboratory every 40 minutes - "without missiles."

Trump has launched an offensive on alleged drug-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and Pacific in recent months, killing dozens through targeted missile strikes.

U.S. military forces have built up in the Caribbean, with tensions ratcheting up between Trump and Nicolas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, which borders Colombia.

U.S. President Donald Trump attends a cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., December 2, 2025. REUTERS/Brian Snyder

The Trump administration alleges Maduro plays a key role in supplying illegal drugs that have killed Americans, which Maduro has denied. In recent days, Trump has flagged the possibility of U.S. military intervention in Venezuela.

Trump on Tuesday told reporters that any country that was sending illegal drugs to the U.S. could be subject to land strikes, "not just Venezuela."

"I hear the country of Colombia is making cocaine, they have cocaine manufacturing plants, and then they sell us their cocaine," Trump said.

Petro, who has been personally sanctioned by the Trump administration, invited Trump to participate in the nation's anti-drug offensive, but with a warning.

"Do not threaten our sovereignty, or you will awake the Jaguar," Petro said. "Attacking our sovereignty is declaring war."

Source: Reuters

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James Whitman

Political

Russia and the U.S. did not reach a compromise on a possible peace deal to end the war in Ukraine after a five-hour Kremlin meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump's top envoys, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.

Trump has repeatedly complained that ending Europe's deadliest conflict since World War Two has been one of the elusive foreign policy aims of his presidency. The U.S. president has at times scolded both Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Talks in Moscow between Putin and Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner went past midnight. Afterward, Putin's top foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, said "Compromises have not yet been found.

"There is still a lot of work to be done," Ushakov told reporters at a briefing in the Kremlin.

Putin reacted negatively to some U.S. proposals, Ushakov said. Witkoff went to the U.S. embassy in Moscow after the talks to brief the White House, Ushakov said.

Ushakov added that a meeting between Putin and Trump was not currently planned, though he said the talks were constructive and that there were huge opportunities for U.S.-Russian economic cooperation.

NO FURTHER AWAY FROM PEACE

Ushakov said Putin had sent a series of important signals and his greetings to Trump, but that the sides had agreed not to disclose details to the media.

He added that they had discussed the "territorial problem", Kremlin shorthand for Russian claims to the whole of Donbas, though Ukraine controls at least 5,000 square km (1,900 square miles) of the area which Russia claims as its own. Almost all countries recognise Donbas as part of Ukraine.

"Some American draft proposals look more or less acceptable, but they need to be discussed," Ushakov said. "Some of the formulations that have been proposed to us are not suitable for us, that is - the work will continue."

Witkoff, a billionaire U.S. real estate developer who has known Trump since the 1980s, and Kushner, the husband of Trump's daughter Ivanka, began talks in the Kremlin after a stroll across Red Square past the mausoleum of Soviet founder Vladimir Lenin to the towers of the Kremlin.

They talked with Putin, Ushakov and Putin's envoy Kirill Dmitriev, via interpreters.

"Our people are over in Russia right now to see if we can get it settled. Not an easy situation, let me tell you. What a mess," Trump said on Tuesday in Washington, adding that there were casualties of 25,000 to 30,000 per month in the war.

Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, triggering the biggest confrontation between Moscow and the West since the depths of the Cold War.

EUROPEAN POWERS WORRIED BY U.S. EFFORTS

A leaked set of 28 U.S. draft peace proposals emerged in November, alarming Ukrainian and European officials who said it bowed to Moscow's main demands.

European powers then came up with a counter-proposal, and at talks in Geneva, the U.S. and Ukraine said they had created an "updated and refined peace framework" to end the war.

Zelenskiy, speaking in Dublin, said everything would depend on the talks in Moscow but that he was afraid the U.S. could lose interest in the peace process.

"There will be no easy solutions ... It is important that everything is fair and open, so that there are no games behind Ukraine's back," he said.

Just before the Kremlin meeting with Witkoff, Putin said Russia did not want war with Europe, but that if Europe started one, it would end so swiftly that there would be no one left for Russia to negotiate with.

Putin threatened to sever Ukraine's access to the sea in response to drone attacks on tankers of Russia's "shadow fleet" in the Black Sea. Ukraine's Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Putin's remarks showed he was not ready to end the war.

Source: Reuters

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Manuel

Cryptocurrency

Vanguard Group, the world’s second-largest asset manager, has decided to allow ETFs and mutual funds that primarily hold cryptocurrencies to be traded on its platform, reversing a longstanding position.

Starting on Tuesday, Vanguard will allow ETFs and mutual funds that primarily hold select cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, and Solana, to be eligible for trading on its platform. It’s a compromise that belies the firm’s long-standing view that digital assets are too volatile and speculative for serious portfolios and comes despite a more than $1 trillion drawdown in crypto market value since early October.

Persistent demand — retail and institutional — has spurred Vanguard’s about-face. Since their January 2024 debut, spot Bitcoin ETFs have amassed billions in assets. Even after outflows and a decline in Bitcoin’s price, Vanguard’s biggest rival, BlackRock, has about $70 billion in its IBIT ETF alone, down from roughly $100 billion just two months ago.

Vanguard’s shift, which follows a late-September report that the firm was weighing the move, opens access to 8 million self-directed brokerage customers to regulated crypto wrappers.

Even with recent price corrections, crypto-linked ETFs remain one of the fastest-growing segments in the history of the US fund industry. Crypto bulls will see Vanguard’s capitulation as psychological fuel: the latest sign that traditional finance can no longer resist the gravitational pull of digital assets.

“Cryptocurrency ETFs and mutual funds have been tested through periods of market volatility, performing as designed while maintaining liquidity,” said Andrew Kadjeski, head of brokerage and investments at Vanguard. “The administrative processes to service these types of funds have matured; and investor preferences continue to evolve.”

The change comes more than a year after Salim Ramji, a former BlackRock executive and longtime blockchain advocate, took over as Vanguard’s chief executive officer. The firm said it will support most crypto ETFs and mutual funds that meet regulatory standards, mirroring its treatment of other non-core asset classes like gold.

Still, the firm won’t be creating its own digital inventory anytime soon and funds tied to memecoins, as described by the Securities and Exchange Commission, will remain excluded.

“While Vanguard has no plans to launch its own crypto products, we serve millions of investors that have diverse needs and risk profiles, and we aim to provide a brokerage trading platform that gives our brokerage clients the ability to invest in products they choose,” Kadjeski said.

Source: Bloomberg

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Manuel

Stocks

Intel's (INTC) stock price rose more than 8% on Tuesday after TF International analyst Ming-Chi Kuo posted on X Friday that the company is expected to begin building Apple's (AAPL) M series chips for its MacBook Air and iPad Pro as soon as early 2027.

If Kuo's report holds true, the move would represent an enormous vote of confidence for Intel, which has struggled to secure customers for its third-party chip manufacturing business. The segment, which generated $4.2 billion in revenue in its latest quarter, compared to the $12.7 billion the company's product business pulled in, primarily relies on revenue from manufacturing Intel's own chips.

While Kuo notes that the team-up won't quite yet allow Intel to compete with TSMC (TSM), which currently supplies Apple's chips, it would show that the company has the ability to build and provide chips to high-profile customers.

According to the analyst, Apple will use Intel's upcoming 18A-P process technology for the chips, which promises improved performance compared to its current 18A technology.

Apple previously used Intel's chips in its laptops and desktops before switching to its own chip designs that are manufactured by TSMC. The new chips would still use Apple's designs but Intel's processing technologies.

Shares of Intel have soared 116% year to date and 113% over the past 12 months, following the ouster of former CEO Pat Gelsinger and installation of current CEO Lip-Bu Tan.

Intel has also gotten a number of high-powered backers, including the US government, which has become the company's largest shareholder, owning some 10% of the chipmaker despite President Trump initially insisting Tan step down from his role as CEO over his investments in Chinese tech firms.

In addition to the government, Nvidia (NVDA) and SoftBank have pumped a combined $7 billion into Intel via their own investment deals.

Intel, however, is still well behind the likes of Nvidia and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) in the ongoing AI race, which has turned Nvidia into the largest publicly traded company, with a market capitalization exceeding $4.4 trillion.

That said, Intel has seen some wins lately, including getting chips based on its 18A technology out the door after a series of delays.

At the same time, poor business decisions in prior years have put Intel's sales lead in the consumer and data center CPU spaces at risk as AMD continues to steal market share.

During AMD's Financial Analyst Day in November, CEO Lisa Su said she believed the company would capture 50% of data center CPU market share revenue over the next three to five years. Su said she believes AMD will also grab more than 40% of client revenue market share, which includes chip sales for consumers and gaming.

Source: Yahoo Finance

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Manuel

Political

Russia-Ukraine Conflict

Russian President Vladimir Putin met U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner in the Kremlin on Tuesday for talks on a possible way to end the deadliest European conflict since World War Two.

Just before the meeting, Putin warned Europe that it would face swift defeat if it went to war with Russia, and he dismissed European counter-proposals on Ukraine as being absolutely unacceptable to Russia.

Trump has repeatedly said he wants to end the war but his efforts so far, including a summit with Putin in Alaska in August and meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, have not yet brought peace.

A leaked set of 28 U.S. draft peace proposals, opens new tab emerged last week, alarming Ukrainian and European officials who said it bowed to Moscow's main demands on NATO, Russian control of a fifth of Ukraine and restrictions on Ukraine's army.

European powers then came up with a counter-proposal and at talks in Geneva, the United States and Ukraine said they had created an "updated and refined peace framework" to end the war.

"I am so pleased to see you," Putin told Witkoff and Kushner when they met on Tuesday.

"It is a magnificent city," Witkoff told Putin after earlier strolling with Kushner and the Russian leader's envoy Kirill Dmitriev on Red Square near the mausoleum of Soviet state founder Vladimir Lenin.

Dmitriev and Putin aide Yuri Ushakov were also at the Kremlin meeting, along with interpreters.

PUTIN ACCUSES EUROPEANS OF TRYING TO BLOCK PEACE

Just before the Kremlin meeting, Putin accused Europe of seeking to undermine Trump's peace efforts by making proposals that it knew were unacceptable to Russia.

"They are on the side of war," Putin said of the European powers. "We can clearly see that all these changes are aimed at only one thing: to block the entire peace process altogether, to make such demands which are absolutely unacceptable to Russia."

"If Europe suddenly wants to start a war with us and starts it," Putin said, then it would end so swiftly that there would be no one left for Russia to negotiate with.

Putin threatened to sever Ukraine's access to the sea in response to drone attacks on tankers of Russia's "shadow fleet" in the Black Sea. Ukraine's foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Putin's remarks showed he was not ready to end the war.

Russian forces now control more than 19% of Ukraine, or 115,600 square km (45,000 square miles), up only one percentage point from two years ago, though they have advanced in 2025 at the fastest pace since 2022, according to pro-Ukrainian maps.

But nearly four years into the Ukraine war, Russia has failed to conquer Ukraine, a much smaller neighbour which has been supported by European powers and the United States.

President Zelenskiy, speaking in Dublin, said everything would depend on the talks in Moscow.

"There will be no easy solutions... It is important that everything is fair and open, so that there are no games behind Ukraine's back," he said.

PUTIN SEES POSSIBLE 'BASIS FOR FUTURE AGREEMENTS'

Putin has said the discussions so far are not about a draft agreement but about a set of proposals that he said last week "could be the basis for future agreements".

Putin has said he is ready to talk peace but that if Ukraine refuses an agreement, then Russia's forces will advance further and take more Ukrainian territory.

A Russian source said the Trump administration's attempts to secure peace represented the best chance to end the war since talks with Kyiv broke down shortly after Moscow's February 2022 invasion.

Conflict first erupted in eastern Ukraine in 2014 after a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine's Maidan Revolution. Russia annexed Crimea and Moscow-backed separatists battled Kyiv's armed forces in eastern Ukraine.

Putin, in video footage released on the eve of Witkoff's visit, hailed what his commanders said was Russia's capture of the city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine as an important victory after a prolonged campaign.

Ukraine's military told Reuters its forces were still holding the northern part of the city and had attacked Russian forces in southern Pokrovsk.

U.S. officials have put the casualty toll in the war at more than 1.2 million killed or wounded. Neither Ukraine nor Russia discloses its losses. The conflict has also caused widespread destruction in Ukrainian towns and cities and forced many people from their homes.

Since the U.S. draft proposals emerged last month, European powers have been trying to bolster Ukraine against what they see as a punitive peace deal that could open up Russia to U.S. investment in oil, gas and rare earths and return Moscow to the G8.

Key Russian demands include a pledge that Ukraine would never join NATO, caps on the Ukrainian army, Russian control of the whole of Donbas, recognition of Russian control of the regions of Crimea, Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, and protection for Russian speakers in Ukraine.

Ukraine says these would amount to capitulation, and leave it vulnerable to eventual Russian conquest, though Washington has also floated a 10-year security guarantee for Kyiv.

Ukraine and European powers view the war as an imperial-style land grab by Moscow and have warned that if Russia wins, then it will one day attack NATO members. Zelenskiy says Russia must not be rewarded for a war it started.

Source: Reuters

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Manuel

Cryptocurrency

Bitcoin's (BTC-USD) biggest problem isn't regulation or even volatility — it's that most investors aren't ready to embrace the roller coaster.

"What we're seeing in crypto is that it's revealing itself to still be just a primarily speculative asset," Tom Essaye, founder of Sevens Report Research, told Yahoo Finance's Opening Bid. "I think a lot of investors thought that it's maturing beyond just a speculative asset, but it's not there yet."

Positive policy signals, including a pro-crypto stance from the Trump administration, have fueled optimism, but the market's recent slide shows fundamentals are still lagging.

Bitcoin has slid roughly 30% from its recent highs, with Monday alone seeing a more than 6% drop, Essaye noted in a new report. There hasn't been any major policy shift, corporate scandal, or regulatory blowup to trigger the sell-off, he added.

He argues that the "only reason to own bitcoin and crypto in general is because you think someone will pay more for it than you bought it for today. And if that opinion changes, then down it goes without a lot of support."

Additionally, crypto is still in its early days for adoption. The long-term appeal of bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, is tied to corporate balance sheets, financial transactions, and a growing number of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

But collectively, these uses remain small. ETFs account for just 6% of bitcoin supply, according to Sevens Report. That limited adoption underscores the asset's speculative nature and the gap between hype and real-world usage.

"Is crypto maturing? ... Absolutely. Is it becoming more fundamentally demanded? Absolutely," Essaye said. "But it's still very early in that process, and it's still a wild ride, as we're learning."

Without broader adoption, most investors remain on the sidelines, leaving bitcoin vulnerable to sharp swings when sentiment shifts. Its price can move dramatically on technical triggers, speculative flows, or even social media narratives.

Bitcoin's big fall on Monday may in part be tied to comments from Strategy (MSTR) CEO Phong Le, who said the company would consider selling some of its bitcoin as a "last resort" to fund its dividend payments, per Essaye.

There's also a psychological factor looming large.

Essaye warns of a critical threshold: if bitcoin drops below $80,000 to $81,000, a "trap door" could open, accelerating selling. Many late ETF investors might dump positions to capture tax-loss benefits, potentially pushing bitcoin into the $70,000s or $60,000s before year-end.

Institutional interest doesn't necessarily equal stability, despite signals from some of Wall Street's biggest firms. Bank of America, for example, now recommends allocating 1% to 4% of a portfolio to crypto.

Furthermore, bitcoin's recent slips shouldn't rule out the possibility of continued volatility.

"If bitcoin makes new lows, I don't think that should be totally ignored," Essaye said, adding that market watchers "should be more vigilant to any stock weakness."