ASX higher, Guzman Y Gomez soars on US exit, oil bounces back — as it happened

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A strong rally in tech stocks has largely gone under the radar against a darkening backdrop for European equity markets as the energy shock triggered by the Iran war dampens economic growth.

Research from TS Lombard has shown that two baskets of AI-related shares account for more than two-thirds of the positive performance in European stocks over the past month and a half.

"The performance of our EU AI baskets since April is on par with the Nasdaq, just a touch behind Taiwan," said TS Lombard European and global macro director Davide Oneglia, referring to the US index NASDAQ and Taiwan's TAIEX.

"Look through macro chaos and don't ignore European AI winners," Mr Oneglia added.

Gains in European tech shares are dwarfed by a 55% rise in the South Korean index over the same period, according to LSEG data. The Nasdaq 100 is up roughly 21%, and Taiwanese stocks have rallied by around 28%, the TS Lombard report shows.

Reporting with Reuters

The chair of the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council has told the ABC's Alan Kohler their figures show there's been a slight increase in the number of people experiencing homelessness.

Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz, the former head of Mirvac, sat down with Alan Kohler for a wide-ranging chat for this week's That's Business podcast.

On the question of whether the government should start building affordable housing like in the 1960s, Ms Lloyd-Hurwitz was frank:

"That's certainly one option because we've let the proportion of stock that is social and affordable [housing]... it's down at 3 % of stock and in the period you were just referring to it was more like 6% when we were actually building social and affordable housing," she said.

"It needs to be financed by someone, the market won't deliver it on its own so the Housing Australia Future Fund is one way to put money into the system.

"The community housing provider segment works very hard to deliver housing but it's largely fragmented and quite small scale."

You can hear more here:

The ASX 200 ends higher today, up 0.4% to 8,657 points.

The index has gained 0.3%, but is virtually unchanged year to date, over the past five days.

Overall, the market had 99 stocks gaining, seven unchanged, and 94 in the red.

The Materials sector has led the charge, with buyers stepping in after its near 9% pullback from the May 13 high into this Wednesday’s low, according to IG markets analyst Tony Sycamore.

When looking at the sectors, Materials was at the top, gaining 1%, followed by Industrials and Energy, up 0.5% and 0.4%, respectively.

Telecommunications Services finished at the bottom, down 1.7%, followed by Utilities, down 1.2%, and then Consumer Discretionary, down 0.3%.

Among companies, the top five movers were:

• 4DMedical, +10.4%
• Guzman Y Gomez, +9.6%
• Silex Systems, +6.1%
• Paladin Energy, +5.9%
• Imdex Ltd, +5.7%

The bottom five movers were:

• Seek, -5.9%
• Telix Pharmaceuticals, -5.8%
• LendLease Group, -5.7%
• REA Group, -4.1%
• Insurance Australia Group, -3.4%

Looking back on this week's trading, while a slowing labour market is never good news for job seekers, it reduces the odds of further aggressive RBA rate hikes this year, bringing welcome relief for rate-sensitive sectors like Financials, Real Estate, and Consumer-facing sectors, according to Mr Sycamore.

This helps explain why the three top-performing sectors this week have been Consumer Staples (+2.7%), Financials (+2.2%), and Consumer Discretionary (+1.5%). By contrast, the laggards have been the defensive Utilities (-3.6%), Industrials (-2.2%), and Telcos (-1.7%), he says.

Headline CPI is expected to rise 0.9% month-over-month in April, taking the annual pace to 4.8% year-over-year, according to Westpac's economist Neha Sharma.

"Key contributors to the monthly rise include holiday travel and clothing and footwear," Ms Sharma said

"Transport is expected to detract, owing to the halving in the fuel excise and free public transport in some states.

"The monthly trimmed mean estimate is 0.4% mom, with the annual pace lifting to 3.5% yoy. It is expected to peak at 4.0% yoy in October."

In March, the impact of the Middle East conflict on prices was limited beyond fuel, Ms Sharma said.

"However, there are signs of emerging pass‑through, including business surveys, construction material price notifications and anecdotal evidence of fuel surcharges by food outlets, meaning the April CPI will be closely watched for evidence that cost pressures are broadening."

After strong growth last year, global electric car sales are expected to rise again in 2026, reaching 23 million and accounting for close to 30% of all cars sold worldwide, according to the new edition of the International Energy Agency's (IEA) annual Global EV Outlook.

IEA executive director Fatih Birol said electric car sales set new records in close to 100 countries last year.

"The growing popularity of EVs has marked a major shift for car markets and the energy system as a whole, and it is providing some relief now amid the largest oil supply shock in history.

"Looking ahead, the falls we have seen in battery prices and the potential policy responses to the current global energy crisis are set to provide further momentum in EV markets."

The report found that sales of electric trucks were also growing significantly, with the vast majority in China.

Global sales more than doubled in 2025 from the previous year, it said.

Seven of 11 sectors were higher, along with the ASX 200, which gained 0.3% as at 3:30pm AEST. 

Materials was the best-performing sector, up 1.4% and rebounding from its recent decline.

This sector has lost 1.2% over the past five days.

Here's the snapshot of all sectors.

US President Donald Trump says he had postponed signing an executive order on AI because he did not like certain aspects of it and did not want to take any steps that might undermine the US's position in its AI competition with China.

Trump had planned to sign the order at a ceremony on Thursday afternoon local time attended by CEOs of AI companies.

"I think it gets in the way of, you know, we're leading China, we're leading everybody, and I don't want to do anything that's going to get in the way of that lead," President Trump told reporters.

The order would create a voluntary framework for AI developers to engage with the US government before the public release of advanced AI models, two sources familiar with the order told Reuters.

Trump did not specify which parts of the executive order he objected to.

Technology industry advocates fear that the order's provisions could hurt the industry's profits if they slow the rollout of new models or prompt companies to change how those models perform in order to address security concerns.

The president also had planned to direct the US government to use the advanced models to improve the cybersecurity defences of government systems, along with networks owned by sectors that are vital to the nation's economy, such as banks and hospitals, according to another source.

Concerns are growing across the US government and in the private sector about the cybersecurity risks posed by powerful new AI systems, including Anthropic's Mythos.

Anthropic has warned that Mythos could supercharge complex cyberattacks, although cybersecurity experts told Reuters that fears of unfettered hacking were overstated.

Reporting with Reuters

The woman who headed one of Australia's largest property groups, Mirvac, sat down with the ABC's Alan Kohler for this week's episode of his That's Business podcast.

Susan Lloyd-Hurwitz is now the chair of the National Housing Supply and Affordability Council, which was created as part of the National Housing Accord in 2022.

She's had a frank discussion with Alan about the federal budget and what it will mean for the housing market.

"I think it's been a long time coming. We've underbuilt in this country for decades," she said.

"It's not just migration. It's not just tax. It's not just construction costs. It's not just planning. It's not just land release. It's not just infrastructure. It's all of the above in a complicated, spaghetti web.

"It's untested, unproven. We don't know how investors are going to think about investing in shares or businesses or property, whatever the investment is."

You can download it here.

Small businesses and community organisations need to act now to ensure their text messages continue to reach customers and members when new anti-scam rules take effect in July, according to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA).

The ACMA says organisations that use a branded SMS sender ID – the name that appears at the top of a message (for example, ‘AusPost’, ‘Med-Appt’ or ‘myGov’) – will need to register it under the new system.

From July 1, SMS/MMS sent using unregistered branded sender IDs will display the word 'Unverified' instead of the brand name. They will also be grouped with messages from other unregistered senders, including potential scams.

ACMA deputy chair Adam Suckling said branded sender IDs were widely used by businesses of all shapes and sizes in their marketing, appointment scheduling, and billing.

"We are urging small businesses and community organisations to act now — work out if your organisation uses branded sender IDs and contact your telco or message provider if you want to continue using them from 1 July.

“Sender IDs are used so recipients can quickly identify who a message is from. They may be used by a wide range of family and small businesses such as dentists, GPs, solicitors, schools and childcare centres, and franchisees.

“Failing to register may mean consumers miss important messages or no longer trust them."

Arafura Rare Earths has launched a two-tranche institutional placement to raise $350 million.

Arafura’s largest shareholder Hancock Prospecting, owned by Australia's richest person Gina Rinehart, has committed to subscribe for $85 million in the placement.

Hancock will hold an interest of about 17.5% in Arafura, following the placement.

In an ASX statement, Arafura says it expects to issue approximately 1,346.2 million new shares at an offer price of $0.26 per share.

The company says the capital raising will fully fund the equity component required to develop its Nolans project.

A Finder survey of 1,015 respondents revealed 23% of Australians, equivalent to 4.9 million people, reckon they have been ripped off by a rideshare or taxi driver.

A further 1 in 8 (16%) say they have been charged more than they expected.

Sarah Megginson, personal finance expert at Finder, said passengers were often left feeling duped.

“People rely on taxis and rideshares to get home safely, not to second-guess whether they’re being taken for a ride," she said.

“No-one wants to step out of a car feeling fleeced, but that’s exactly what’s happening to millions of Australians.”

One in 10 (10%) Aussies reported their driver "intentionally" took a longer route to charge a higher fare, the survey says.

Slightly fewer (8%) had been charged for extra tolls, while 6% of Aussies say they’ve had a driver who pretended the meter wasn’t working to extort them.

Charging an airport tax/toll (4%), charging extra for aircon (4%), asking for a set cash fare up front (3%) and charging extra for baggage (2%) were all sneaky tactics Aussies say their driver used to bump up the price.

Young Australians were most likely to be impacted, with more than a third of gen Z (36%) confessing they think they’ve been overcharged compared to 7% of baby boomers, according to Finder.

• ASX 200: +0.5% to 8,663 points
• Australian dollar: -0.2% at 71.36 US cents
• Wall Street: Dow Jones (+0.6%), S&P 500 (+0.2%), Nasdaq (0.1%)
• Europe: FTSE (+0.1%)
• Asia: Nikkei (+2.4%), KOSPI (+0.3%), Hang Seng (+1.1%)
• Spot gold: -0.3% to $US4,527/ounce 
  
• Brent crude: +1.6% to $US104.24/barrel 
• Iron ore: flat to $US108.90/tonne
• Bitcoin: +0.1% to $US77,706

Prices current around 1:56 pm AEST

Some familiar names in the bottom movers on early afternoon trade.

IAG is down 4.36% with LeadLease, Seek and Nick Scali all making appearances.

Guzman Y Gomez has had a strong start to the day  on news the Mexican fast-food chain said it will immediately stop trading at its restaurants in Chicago, after deciding the US business was not meeting its financial targets.

Let's have a look at how the first half of the day has gone this morning on the markets.

Basic materials are up followed by consumer non-cyclicals, financials and consumer cyclicals.

Down are real estate, utilities and educational services.

Mayne Pharma has announced it has been award $13,269,328 in legal costs after its court win against Cosette Pharmaceuticals.

The two had been in court since June 2025 over Cosette's purported termination of the Scheme Implementation Deed between the pair.

In October last year the Supreme Court of NSW found in favour of Mayne Pharma and made an adverse costs order against Cosette.

Snowy Hydro executives were paid more than $1 million in bonuses linked to performance last year, even as costs for the multi-billion-dollar renewables project Snowy 2.0 spiralled.

Snowy Hydro's chief executive, Dennis Barnes, received $323,000 in bonus pay on top of his $1.69 million salary last financial year, while four other senior executives received about $919,000 in "variable pay".

Check out this report from Jake Evans for some lunch time reading.

New research by The Australia Institute suggests that revenue equivalent to almost a quarter of GDP now flows through trusts.

In analysis published today, the think tank says the numbers of trusts has risen from 326,000 to more than a million between 1990-91 and 2022-23

They estimate that family trusts alone cost the Commonwealth budget $4.9 billion a year in foregone revenue.

The report uses Treasury data which shows that trusts are overwhelmingly used by the wealthiest Australians: the top 10 per cent of income earners receive 63 per cent of trust distributions, while the bottom 10 percent receive just 1%.

So how do trusts work? According to the institute the most prominent form of trusts used by households and businesses are family discretionary trusts which many high income earners use to split income between beneficiaries.

The Australia Institute estimates that in 2022-23 $601 billion in revenue was run through trusts.

This represents revenue equivalent to nearly a quarter (23%) of GDP.

"No wonder some of the richest Australians are complaining about the new minimum 30% tax rate on discretionary trusts," Dr Richard Denniss, co-CEO of The Australia Institute said.

"For too long, many of the wealthiest Australians have used trusts to avoid paying their fair share.

"To say these changes are long overdue is an understatement."