Good morning and welcome back, it's Ainsley here with all the news you need to start your working week.
Today's must-reads: • Opposition parties mull coalition return • East coast flood cleanup begins • Banks stuck with DAZN's Foxtel M&A loan
What's happening now
The opposition parties appear on track to return to the Coalition, a longstanding alliance that suffered a surprise split last week in the wake of the disastrous election. David Littleproud, leader of the National Party that was the junior partner in the Coalition, said he had received assurances from the Liberal Party that it's now prepared to accept four policy areas the Nationals had insisted on and which had prompted Tuesday's breakup. He expects to speak with Liberal leader Sussan Ley soon.
Emergency service teams from across the nation have been drafted in to help with clean-up operations after devastating floods in New South Wales. Almost 200 additional personnel will take up specialist roles including water rescue, and storm and flood damage assessment. About 32,000 residents are still isolated by floodwaters that are only slowly starting to abate.
Debris are seen outside a flood-damaged house in Taree on May 24. Photographer: Roni Bintang/Getty Images AsiaPac
Some of Wall Street and Australia's largest banks are stuck holding part of a A$1.8 billion loan backing DAZN Group's takeover of Rupert Murdoch's Australian pay-television provider Foxtel, according to people familiar with the matter. Banks underwriting the loan including Bank of America, Citigroup, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Goldman Sachs and Westpac have been unable to sell down the loan they committed to prior to the closing of the acquisition in April.
What happened overnight
A slump in the US long bond is clouding the comeback of a classic investment strategy. The 60/40 portfolio — long recommended for investors who want to balance exposure to risk with a cushion of safer, steady income — calls for allocating 60% of holdings to stocks and 40% to bonds. One recent major development has cropped up, though, to threaten that balanced approach.
The third day of prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine went ahead as planned on Sunday, wrapping up a program agreed to earlier this month, hours after a second night of deadly missile and drone strikes across much of Ukraine. Ukrainian authorities said at least 12 people were killed in heavy Russian airstrikes, prompting President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to renew his call for more sanctions.
Alibaba Chairman Joe Tsai said Asian companies can look to inter-Asia opportunities and the European market for growth as tensions between Washington and Beijing persist. During a tech conference in Macau on Saturday, Tsai also called out "some governments" who "try to tear down this bridge that we have built between Asia and the rest of the world."
If you think the world is starting to get used to surging sales of Chinese-made electric cars, the next wave of exports is going to be bigger, and more powerful, writes David Fickling for Bloomberg Opinion. That's because the construction machinery giants that grew fat off the country's property bubble are looking for new markets. Combined with looming electrification, the effects could be quite as dramatic as the other Made-in-China export booms which have so troubled trading partners.
What to watch
Nothing major scheduled
One more thing...
For fans of Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible series, the Pentagon can answer the incredulous question at the climax of its latest trailer: "You gave him an aircraft carrier?" Yes, the US Navy and Air Force Special Operations decided to accept the mission: help Cruise's secret agent Ethan Hunt save the world. Or, at least make a movie about it. For Paramount Global's The Final Reckoning, released Friday in the US, Cruise and the crew spent three days in the Adriatic Sea filming aboard the USS George H.W. Bush, a nuclear powered Nimitz-class carrier commissioned in 2009.
Commander Karrie Lang, Combat Systems Officer aboard the USS George H.W. Bush, takes a selfie with Tom Cruise on March 3, 2023. Photographer: Petty Officer 3rd Class Samuel W/Digital
Follow Us
Like getting this newsletter? Subscribe to Bloomberg.com for unlimited access to trusted, data-driven journalism and subscriber-only insights.
You received this message because you are subscribed to Bloomberg's Australia Briefing newsletter. If a friend forwarded you this message, sign up here to get it in your inbox.
