Climate blow, Darwin port dilemma, coalition regroups

miércoles, 28 de mayo de 2025

Good morning, it's Ainsley here with all the news you need to start your day.Today's must-reads:• North West Shelf plant get...
Good morning, it's Ainsley here with all the news you need to start your day.Today's must-reads:• North West Shelf plant gets preliminary ex
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Bloomberg

Good morning, it's Ainsley here with all the news you need to start your day.

Today's must-reads:
• North West Shelf plant gets preliminary extension
• Albanese faces dilemma over Port of Darwin
• Opposition regroups a week after split

What's happening now

Environment Minister Murray Watt said he's made a proposed decision to extend North West Shelf LNG's operating life to 2070, with conditions. Operator Woodside Energy will have 10 business days to respond. The preliminary approval to extend the life of Australia's biggest and oldest LNG plan potentially creates billions of dollars in new drilling opportunities but raises questions about the nation's climate agenda.

The North West Shelf LNG Plant is Australia's oldest and largest

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is confronting a fresh diplomatic dilemma with China: How to fulfill a pledge to regain control of a strategic port without jeopardizing improved relations with his country's largest trading partner. Ahead of the election earlier this month, Albanese promised to return to Australian control the Port of Darwin from Chinese company Landbridge Group. He now potentially faces a backlash from the Chinese government if Beijing perceives it's being treated unfairly at the Port of Darwin.

The center-right Liberal and National opposition parties have reassembled into a formal coalition, about a week after ending their decades-long alliance in the wake of a devastating national election loss. Liberal Party leader Sussan Ley announced her shadow ministry Wednesday following the reformation of the Liberal-National Coalition.
 

New Zealand's central bank cut interest rates for a sixth straight meeting and sent mixed signals on its policy outlook, forecasting another cut even as officials said the benchmark is now close to neutral.

What happened overnight

Here's what my colleague, market strategist Mike "Willo" Wilson says happened while we were sleeping…

US stocks ended lower, but that was before the global AI behemoth Nvidia released better than expected earnings which should turn the investor frown upside down in terms of sentiment. The dollar rose on end-of-month flows hurting the Aussie but not the kiwi dollar, which held RBNZ inspired gains into the close. As I type, RBNZ Governor Christian Hawkesby told a parliamentary committee the central bank saw economic headwinds in the near-term. That sort of narrative may see the Aussie trim some losses against the kiwi, assuming Australian capital expenditure data prints solidly later today.

More on Nvidia, Sales will be about $45 billion in the second fiscal quarter, which runs through July. That included the loss of roughly $8 billion in revenue from China because of export controls. The forecast was in line with analysts' estimates. Nvidia  shares rose about 4% in extended trading.

Tesla is poised to begin its long-awaited robotaxi service in Austin on June 12, according to a person familiar with the matter, a milestone in Elon Musk's plan to reshape the company around driverless vehicles and artificial intelligence.

A Tesla Cybercab prototype at a Tesla store in San Jose, California. Photographer: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg

The Trump administration is moving to restrict the sale of chip design software to China, people familiar with the matter said, as the US government evaluates a broader policy announcement on the issue.

What to watch

All times Sydney
• 11:30 a.m.:  1Q Australia Private Capital Expenditure

One more thing...

For Lloyd Blankfein, Harvard University's appeal to foreign students is inextricably linked to its national identity. "It is an American institution that attracts foreigners precisely because it is an American university," the former Goldman Sachs chief said in an interview, echoing a message he delivered to the school's president last year. Blankfein had urged it to prepare for a coming attack, warning that if Harvard failed to define itself as a distinctly American force working for the public good, its detractors would advance a crippling counter-narrative. Almost a year on, the White House is doing just that. Read more in our story on the MAGA threat to Harvard.

The Trump administration last week sought to revoke Harvard's ability to enroll foreign students. Photographer: Sophie Park/Bloomberg
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