Category: 3. Business

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By Joy Wiltermuth

Tech and speculative assets are now in focus after the Nasdaq’s worst week since April

The “buy everything” rally since April now feels like an uphill battle.

It doesn’t feel like a “buy everything” market anymore.

Last week’s sharp pullback in tech stocks could easily turn into yet another buy-the-dip moment in the week ahead, like other times since April’s tariff-induced market plunge.

Bitcoin’s (BTCUSD) brush up against a new bear market could also prove fleeting, and the recent sharp selloff in other speculative corners of the market that began in late October might easily reverse.

Yet this moment seems a bit different – as though markets might be more fragile, and investors could be less inclined to simply stomp on the gas pedal at the first sign of any pullback.

“You aren’t going to get the timing right,” said Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors. “I’m not trying to guess what’s going to happen over the next week or month.” But the recent pain in areas that have “run a little hotter” is indicating that investors “are taking a little bit more cautious approach to the rally from April’s lows,” he said.

It’s been a pretty solid run for risk assets, Baird noted. But there have been cracks in credit markets, talk of more credit “cockroaches,” and other ominous indicators keeping investors on edge, in addition to a glaring “blind spot” in economic data during the ongoing, historic government shutdown.

“It isn’t as if everything is coming up roses,” Baird said of the rally since April. “Whether it’s economic, policy or geopolitical risks, there’s a lot for investors to absorb.”

Read: The shutdown is starting to ‘bite the economy,’ top Trump aide warns. The Senate is struggling to make a deal.

AI froth in focus

November typically ends up being a strong month for the stock market. But missed paychecks, nationwide flight cancellations and other ramifications of the government shutdown have paved the way for an unsteady start to the month.

The Nasdaq Composite COMP retreated 3% last week, logging its worst week since the early April tariff tumult, while the S&P 500 SPX shed 1.6% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA closed the week 1.2% lower, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

The pullback wasn’t terribly surprising. The S&P 500 remains up nearly 15% on the year despite higher tariffs, growing doubts about the job market and a fresh reading on the mood of U.S. consumers showing sentiment neared a record low in November.

Overall solid corporate earnings also didn’t prevent jitters around stock valuations and artificial-intelligence spending plans from returning, as well as concerns about when large tech companies might earn a return on those AI investments.

A look at the five top “hyperscalers” shows spending could hit $600 billion in two years at Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Google parent Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) (GOOG), Meta Platforms Inc. (META) and Oracle Corp. (ORCL), according to Thomas Shipp, head of equity research at LPL Financial.

Spending by five top “hyperscalers” in the AI race is projected to hit $600 billion in 2027

“I’m not worried about the AI capex spend,” said Bryant VanCronkhite, a senior equity portfolio manager at Allspring Global Investments. Despite “moments” when markets can pull back quickly, he said he’s more focused on the long-term opportunity.

“Every dollar is not being spent wisely, but a lot of them are being spent effectively,” VanCronkhite said.

Looking for catalysts

Another factor creating twinges of anxiety in markets has been the recent upward pressure in short-term funding markets, especially as they reared up at the end of October.

While that eased last week, higher costs to transact overnight can be a warning sign of bigger troubles in the plumbing of the financial system – particularly if funding pressures persists beyond the typical month-end, quarter-end or year-end periods.

Some investors pointed to reduced liquidity in the financial system as a factor in bitcoin’s brief dip below the key $100,000 level last week, after its sharp drop from October’s record territory.

Guy LeBas, chief fixed-income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott, said he thinks it’s a stretch to pin weakness in stocks and riskier assets on the Federal Reserve and recent “minor strains” in overnight funding markets.

“It has nothing to do with Fed policy in 9 out of 10 cases,” LeBas said. “Another way to summarize it [would be] investors who are long risk assets are complaining of reduced demand for risk assets.”

That said, “unsustainable behavior” by some investors in some corners of the market have been a worry to Allspring’s VanCronkhite, especially when looking beyond large-cap stocks to midcap and small-cap RUT sectors.

“They’re buying everything tied to themes when, very clearly, not everything is going to be a long-term win,” VanCronkhite said. He added that he hopes investors soon get into “the sorting-out phase,” where “garbage” investments are distinguished from those with staying power.

Meanwhile, even gold’s (GC00) eye-watering, more than 50% rally on the year might be in a consolidation phase, said Aakash Doshi, head of gold strategy at State Street Investment Management.

The precious metal was up about 0.3% so far in November, hovering around $4,000 an ounce on Friday. Doshi said he thinks gold likely ends the year around that same level, “give or take 5%.”

The week ahead likely won’t see the government shutdown come to an end, if betting markets end up being correct. Veterans Day on Tuesday will see the stock market remain open, but the bond market will be closed. There also will be plenty of Fed officials speaking during the week.

-Joy Wiltermuth

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires

  11-09-25 1531ET
Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

Electric car sales in Australia continue to reach new record levels, according to figures that reveal the market share for internal combustion engine vehicles fell below 70% for the first time.

The latest quarterly sales data from peak motoring body the Australian Automobile Association (AAA) shows electric vehicles accounted for 9.7% of new cars sold in the three months to September, the highest proportion on record.

While welcoming the figures, the Electric Vehicle Council has urged state and territory governments to reinstate axed EV subsidies to help drive the level of sales projected to be required for Australia to meet its emissions reductions goals.

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A record 29,298 battery-electric vehicles were sold in the September quarter, 54 more than the previous three months’ total, which was the highest at the time.

Sales for hybrids (49,929 sold) and plug-in hybrids (12,460) also rose, coinciding with a marked drop in demand for internal combustion vehicles.

A total of 210,458 petrol-powered cars were sold in the latest quarter, down from 226,306 in the previous three quarter.

The share of internal combustion engine vehicles among all new cars sold nationally fell to 69.65% in the September quarter, the lowest on record and down more than 12% from less than two years ago.

The proportion was even lower in New South Wales (68.74%) and Victoria (68.04%).

In the ACT, petrol-powered cars accounted for less than half of all new cars sold.

Aman Gaur, the Electric Vehicle Council’s head of legal, policy and advocacy, welcomed the growth of EV sales and decline in internal combustion vehicles.

“There is a trend that is clear over the last two years that Australians are moving away from environmentally dangerous, expensive to run cars, towards ones that are electrified – and they are saving lots of money,” he said.

The federal government has policies to boost the uptake of EVs, including fuel efficiency standards and fringe benefits tax exemptions, but has not set a sales target.

However, the Climate Change Authority has estimated EVs would need to account for half of all light vehicles sold over the next decade if the Albanese government wanted to achieve even the “lower end” of its aim to cut greenhouse gas emissions between 62% and 70% by 2035.

The authority’s chair, Matt Kean, has warned a proposed road-user charge could be a “headwind” to the mass adoption of EVs. The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, has said he was in “no rush” to develop the system – which would aim to replace lost fuel excise revenue – despite pressure from state governments desperate for funding to fix roads.

Gaur said state and territory governments needed to do more to support the national effort, urging them to restore EV incentive schemes.

He singled out the Western Australian government, which in May ended a popular scheme that offered buyers a $3,500 rebate on the purchase of an eligible EV.

“These are upfront vehicle incentives that have to be implemented so that Australians can continue making that leap. We can’t have a successful transition with just one level of government doing the heavy lifting,” Gaur said.

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By Joy Wiltermuth

Tech and speculative assets are now in focus after the Nasdaq’s worst week since April

The “buy everything” rally since April now feels like an uphill battle.

It doesn’t feel like a “buy everything” market anymore.

Last week’s sharp pullback in tech stocks could easily turn into yet another buy-the-dip moment in the week ahead, like other times since April’s tariff-induced market plunge.

Bitcoin’s (BTCUSD) brush up against a new bear market could also prove fleeting, and the recent sharp selloff in other speculative corners of the market that began in late October might easily reverse.

Yet this moment seems a bit different – as though markets might be more fragile, and investors could be less inclined to simply stomp on the gas pedal at the first sign of any pullback.

“You aren’t going to get the timing right,” said Jim Baird, chief investment officer at Plante Moran Financial Advisors. “I’m not trying to guess what’s going to happen over the next week or month.” But the recent pain in areas that have “run a little hotter” is indicating that investors “are taking a little bit more cautious approach to the rally from April’s lows,” he said.

It’s been a pretty solid run for risk assets, Baird noted. But there have been cracks in credit markets, talk of more credit “cockroaches,” and other ominous indicators keeping investors on edge, in addition to a glaring “blind spot” in economic data during the ongoing, historic government shutdown.

“It isn’t as if everything is coming up roses,” Baird said of the rally since April. “Whether it’s economic, policy or geopolitical risks, there’s a lot for investors to absorb.”

Read: The shutdown is starting to ‘bite the economy,’ top Trump aide warns. The Senate is struggling to make a deal.

AI froth in focus

November typically ends up being a strong month for the stock market. But missed paychecks, nationwide flight cancellations and other ramifications of the government shutdown have paved the way for an unsteady start to the month.

The Nasdaq Composite COMP retreated 3% last week, logging its worst week since the early April tariff tumult, while the S&P 500 SPX shed 1.6% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA closed the week 1.2% lower, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

The pullback wasn’t terribly surprising. The S&P 500 remains up nearly 15% on the year despite higher tariffs, growing doubts about the job market and a fresh reading on the mood of U.S. consumers showing sentiment neared a record low in November.

Overall solid corporate earnings also didn’t prevent jitters around stock valuations and artificial-intelligence spending plans from returning, as well as concerns about when large tech companies might earn a return on those AI investments.

A look at the five top “hyperscalers” shows spending could hit $600 billion in two years at Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), Google parent Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) (GOOG), Meta Platforms Inc. (META) and Oracle Corp. (ORCL), according to Thomas Shipp, head of equity research at LPL Financial.

Spending by five top “hyperscalers” in the AI race is projected to hit $600 billion in 2027

“I’m not worried about the AI capex spend,” said Bryant VanCronkhite, a senior equity portfolio manager at Allspring Global Investments. Despite “moments” when markets can pull back quickly, he said he’s more focused on the long-term opportunity.

“Every dollar is not being spent wisely, but a lot of them are being spent effectively,” VanCronkhite said.

Looking for catalysts

Another factor creating twinges of anxiety in markets has been the recent upward pressure in short-term funding markets, especially as they reared up at the end of October.

While that eased last week, higher costs to transact overnight can be a warning sign of bigger troubles in the plumbing of the financial system – particularly if funding pressures persists beyond the typical month-end, quarter-end or year-end periods.

Some investors pointed to reduced liquidity in the financial system as a factor in bitcoin’s brief dip below the key $100,000 level last week, after its sharp drop from October’s record territory.

Guy LeBas, chief fixed-income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott, said he thinks it’s a stretch to pin weakness in stocks and riskier assets on the Federal Reserve and recent “minor strains” in overnight funding markets.

“It has nothing to do with Fed policy in 9 out of 10 cases,” LeBas said. “Another way to summarize it [would be] investors who are long risk assets are complaining of reduced demand for risk assets.”

That said, “unsustainable behavior” by some investors in some corners of the market have been a worry to Allspring’s VanCronkhite, especially when looking beyond large-cap stocks to midcap and small-cap RUT sectors.

“They’re buying everything tied to themes when, very clearly, not everything is going to be a long-term win,” VanCronkhite said. He added that he hopes investors soon get into “the sorting-out phase,” where “garbage” investments are distinguished from those with staying power.

Meanwhile, even gold’s (GC00) eye-watering, more than 50% rally on the year might be in a consolidation phase, said Aakash Doshi, head of gold strategy at State Street Investment Management.

The precious metal was up about 0.3% so far in November, hovering around $4,000 an ounce on Friday. Doshi said he thinks gold likely ends the year around that same level, “give or take 5%.”

The week ahead likely won’t see the government shutdown come to an end, if betting markets end up being correct. Veterans Day on Tuesday will see the stock market remain open, but the bond market will be closed. There also will be plenty of Fed officials speaking during the week.

-Joy Wiltermuth

This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones & Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal.

  (END) Dow Jones Newswires

  11-09-25 1507ET
Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.

Story Continues

Simply Wall St Financial Health Rating: ★★★★★☆

Overview: Mayne Pharma Group Limited is a specialty pharmaceutical company that commercializes women’s health and dermatology pharmaceuticals across Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Europe, Asia, and other international markets with a market cap of A$398.10 million.

Operations: The company’s revenue is derived from three main segments: A$154.09 million from dermatology, A$75.64 million from international markets, and A$178.37 million from women’s health pharmaceuticals.

Market Cap: A$398.1M

Mayne Pharma Group’s recent earnings report for the year ending June 2025 shows revenue of A$408.1 million, up from A$388.4 million the previous year, with a reduced net loss of A$93.84 million compared to A$174.23 million prior. Despite this improvement, the company remains unprofitable with a negative return on equity of -24.32%. Short-term assets exceed short-term liabilities by over A$90 million but fall short against long-term liabilities by approximately A$30 million. The management and board are experienced, with average tenures exceeding three years, while debt levels have decreased significantly over five years.

Simply Wall St Financial Health Rating: ★★★★★★

Overview: Spheria Emerging Companies Limited is an Australian investment company with a market cap of A$169.43 million.

Operations: The company’s revenue segment consists solely of Investment Activities, generating A$24.25 million.

Market Cap: A$169.43M

Spheria Emerging Companies Limited, with a market cap of A$169.43 million, has shown robust financial performance. Its earnings surged by 116% over the past year, significantly outpacing the industry average. The company maintains a strong balance sheet with no debt and short-term assets of A$146.8 million covering both short and long-term liabilities comfortably. Despite a low return on equity at 11.5%, its price-to-earnings ratio of 10.3x suggests good value compared to the broader Australian market average of 20.7x. Recent board changes include Marcus Burns’ appointment as director, enhancing strategic leadership with his extensive financial markets experience.

This article by Simply Wall St is general in nature. We provide commentary based on historical data and analyst forecasts only using an unbiased methodology and our articles are not intended to be financial advice. It does not constitute a recommendation to buy or sell any stock, and does not take account of your objectives, or your financial situation. We aim to bring you long-term focused analysis driven by fundamental data. Note that our analysis may not factor in the latest price-sensitive company announcements or qualitative material. Simply Wall St has no position in any stocks mentioned.

Companies discussed in this article include ASX:EZZ ASX:MYX and ASX:SEC.

This article was originally published by Simply Wall St.

Have feedback on this article? Concerned about the content? Get in touch with us directly. Alternatively, email editorial-team@simplywallst.com

Drax power plant has continued to burn 250-year-old trees sourced from some of Canada’s oldest forests despite growing scrutiny of its sustainability claims, forestry experts say.

A new report suggests it is “highly likely” that Britain’s biggest power plant sourced some wood from ecologically valuable forests as recently as this summer. Drax, Britain’s single biggest source of carbon emissions, has received billions of pounds in subsidies from burning biomass derived largely from wood.

The report, by Stand.earth, a Canadian environmental non-profit, claims that a subsidiary of Drax Group received hundreds of truckloads of whole logs at its biomass pellet sites throughout 2024 and into 2025, which were likely to have included trees that were hundreds of years old.

The report could raise fresh questions for the owner of the North Yorkshire power plant, which has been forced in recent years to defend its sustainability claims while receiving more than £2m a day in green energy subsidies from UK bill payers.

The report’s findings suggest that the power plant was burning “irreplaceable” trees even as its owners lobbied the UK government for the additional green energy subsidies, which were granted earlier this week.

The company has claimed that it sources wood only from “well‐managed, sustainable forests” to manufacture the pellets that are shipped from its sites in Canada and the US to be burned at its UK power plant.

But these claims have been questioned by Britain’s energy regulator and the Financial Conduct Authority after a BBC Panorama documentary in 2022 reported that Drax had cut down primary forests in Canada to turn into wood pellets.

The latest investigation into the company’s green credentials, seen by the Guardian, uses official data from the government of British Columbia, along with satellite monitoring, to back claims that a Canadian subsidiary owned by Drax sourced 250-year-old trees to manufacture biomass pellets as recently as this year.

‘Old-growth’ forests at risk

The report claims that the company received 90 truckloads of logs sourced from “old-growth forests” in the Skeena region of British Columbia, home to some of Canada’s largest undeveloped wilderness areas.

Old-growth forests are defined by the local government as areas that include trees older than 250 years in slow-growth ecosystems, or older than 140 years in ecosystems in which trees are replaced more quickly.

Drax said in October 2023 it had stopped sourcing wood from areas designated by the government of British Columbia as “protected” or “deferred” old-growth forest stands, but it did not dispute that it was still sourcing wood from other sites containing old growth.

Responding to the Stand.earth report, a spokesperson for Drax said: “Our sourcing policy means Drax does not source biomass from designated areas of old growth and only sources woody biomass from well-managed, sustainable forests.”

These designated areas of old growth amount to less than half of the total old-growth forest areas in British Columbia. Figures from the BC government show that designated areas total 5.3m hectares, while the total area of old-growth forest in the province spans 11.1m hectares. Another 3.7m hectares are protected under separate designation schemes.

Stand.earth claims that in 2024 and 2025 Drax received at least an additional 425 truckloads of whole logs from “cutblocks” – areas of forest land designated for timber harvesting – which contained old-growth forests.

The report claims that 63 of these loads came from three cutblocks that contained more than 90% old-growth forest, “meaning that this purchase almost certainly contained old growth”.

It added that the remaining 362 lorry loads of whole logs came from 22 cutblocks in the Skeena region that were more than 80% old growth, meaning that it was “likely” they contained old growth.

“The true volume of old growth sourced by Drax is likely higher than what our research was able to track, because of spatial data limitations,” the report said.

‘A tree standing up in a forest is not waste’

Tegan Hansen, the lead author of Stand.earth’s report, told the Guardian that the loss of British Columbia’s old-growth trees was “a big problem that’s getting bigger”.

“The region where Drax is operating is an area where we’ve tracked a disproportionate amount of logging in high-risk forests with our satellite monitoring system Forest Eye. With how logging works here in BC, there isn’t really a way for Drax to be operating in these areas and not include old-growth forests in their wood supply. The people of the UK should know that the risk of old-growth trees being cut down to produce wood pellets is higher than ever,” Hansen said.

As part of the investigation, Hansen visited a biomass pellet production site, owned by a Canadian subsidiary of Drax, where the company’s reliance on whole logs was apparent.

“It was quite stark. The yards are sprawling and there were huge piles of logs there. These were large, healthy trees of different ages. We saw some trees which had been scorched by fire, but they were still alive when they were cut, which was apparent by the oozing sap,” she said.

Drax said the “low-grade” wood used to make biomass pellets had typically been rejected by commercial sawmills and either sold to the biomass industry as waste wood or burned to prevent wildfires. A spokesperson said it was “far better to use [waste wood] to generate renewable electricity rather than leaving it to burn”.

The rules that allow companies in the forestry industry to disregard old growth as commercial waste are part of the problem, Hansen said.

“Even exceptionally old trees can rot in the middle, which is one of their features that makes them so important for wildlife, but could mean the tree is called defective by the logging industry. This could mean that the tree is dismissed as waste wood. But a tree standing up in a forest is not waste,” she said.

“Drax has come into British Columbia claiming to solve some of the problems that our forestry industry has, but they have not. It’s very disheartening, and offensive, to hear Drax claiming to be solving these problems when really they’re entrenching some of the problems that we have in forestry here,” Hansen said.

Artificial general intelligence is still years away and far from the breakthroughs some tech leaders predict, former Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) senior director of AI and OpenAI founding member Andrej Karpathy said.

“We’re at this intermediate stage,” he told host Dwarkesh Patel on the “Dwarkesh Podcast” in October. “The models are amazing. They still need a lot of work.”

Karpathy said the rapid growth of large language models has created unrealistic expectations. “Overall, the models are not there,” he said. “I feel like the industry is making too big of a jump and is trying to pretend like this is amazing, and it’s not.”

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He said some companies promote “AI agents” — systems that write code, search the web, or complete office tasks — as if they are truly autonomous. He told Patel such systems still lack reliability and genuine understanding.

His view contrasts sharply with that of OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who told German newspaper Die Welt in Berlin in September that he would be “very surprised” if by 2030 the world didn’t have “extraordinarily capable models that do things that we ourselves cannot do.”

Karpathy said in the podcast AI still struggles with structured reasoning, long-term memory, and safety. He said that many demonstrations show narrow skills rather than true general intelligence.

“I’m very unimpressed by demos,” Karpathy said. “Whenever I see demos of anything, I’m extremely unimpressed by that.” He said that polished demonstrations rarely capture real-world complexity.

Trending: Missed Nvidia and Tesla? RAD Intel Could Be the Next AI Powerhouse — Just $0.81 a Share

He called his outlook “five to 10 times pessimistic” compared with public forecasts but said a decade-long path should still be considered optimistic. “Ten years should otherwise be a very bullish timeline for AGI,” he wrote later on X.

The contrast in timelines underscores how divided the tech world remains over AI’s progress. Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote on X last month that his company’s upcoming model, Grok 5, “will be AGI or something indistinguishable from AGI,” adding that there’s a “10% chance of achieving AGI and rising.”

Meanwhile, Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) CEO Satya Nadella told developers at GitHub Universe 2025 in San Francisco last month that “a new toolchain is evolving and is being born right now,” as AI agents transform how software is built.

See Also: If there was a new fund backed by Jeff Bezos offering a 7-9% target yield with monthly dividends would you invest in it?

Karpathy offered a more cautious perspective, saying current AI systems remain far from general intelligence. “We have some very early agents … but I still feel there’s so much work to be done,” he said on the podcast.

Still, he remains confident the hurdles can be overcome. “I feel like the problems are tractable, they’re surmountable,” he said. “But they’re still difficult.”

Read Next: 7 Million Gamers Already Trust Gameflip With Their Digital Assets — Now You Can Own a Stake in the Platform

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