1h agoTue 17 Feb 2026 at 11:16pmMarket snapshotASX 200: +0.4% to 8,998 points
Australian dollar: flat at 70.8 US cents and 52.2 British penceWall Street: Dow Jones (+0.1%), S&P 500 (+0.1%), Nasdaq (+0.1%)Europe: DAX (+0.8%), FTSE (+0.8%), Stoxx 600 (+0.5%)Gold: -2.2% to $US4,883/ounceSilver: -3.8% to $US73.66/ounceOil (Brent crude): -1.9% to $US67.36/barrelIron ore: -0.3% to $US96.4/tonneBitcoin: -0.3% at $US67,441
ASX 200: +0.4% to 8,998 pointsPrices current at around 10:15am AEDT
Live updates on major ASX indices:
6m agoWed 18 Feb 2026 at 12:36am
Public sector wages grow 4% a year
The pay packets of public servants are growing faster than inflation, meaning their ‘real wages’ are increasing.
For the year to December, wages in the public sector increased 4%.
Growth in the cost of living – measured by the a basket of goods and called CPI or inflation – was 3.8% in the same period.
Workers in the private sector saw their pay lift by 3.4% over that timeframe.
It means people not employed by governments are earning more than they were a year ago, but their purchasing power – what they can do with their money – is eroding.
Costs are going up more than their wages are.
12m agoWed 18 Feb 2026 at 12:30amWages lift 3.4%, below current inflation levels
Wages rose 3.4% for the year to December, powered by a 0.8% lift in the quarter.
The cost of living, measured by the Consumer Price Index or CPI, rose 3.8% for the year to December.
The new data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics has just been released.
The Wage Price Index (WPI) looks in the economic rear vision mirror, telling us what happened to pay packets in the three months (quarter) and the full year to December 2025.
More to come…
19m agoWed 18 Feb 2026 at 12:23amShares of health insurers NIB and Medibank surge ahead of premium hike
Two companies that are doing particularly well on the share market today are the health insurers Medibank and NIB Holdings.
By 11:20am AEDT, shares of Medibank jumped 6% to $8.62.
Meanwhile, NIB shares have surged 4.5% to $6.67.
This was after the federal government approved a 4.41% average increase in health insurance premiums from April.
The above-inflation rise is the largest since 2017, with Health Minister Mark Butler saying he had ordered insurers to go back to the drawing board on “multiple” occasions before landing on an agreed increase.
The sense of outrage will certainly increase when the ABS publishes its Wage Price Index in a few minutes.
There is no chance Australians, on average, will have received a pay rise that keeps up the upcoming hike in premiums.
27m agoWed 18 Feb 2026 at 12:15amNetwealth shares jump, despite half-year loss and First Guardian compensation payments
You may have noticed that Netwealth Group is one of the companies seeing the biggest increases to its share price.
By 11am AEDT, its shares had jumped 13.4% to $25.30.
That’s despite the fact it reported a statutory net loss of $9.16 million in the half-year ending December 31, 2025.
That’s a huge downgrade for the financial services firm, compared to the the previous first-half statutory profit of $75.4 million.
The company’s name might ring a bell.
In December, it agreed to pay more than $100 million to compensate more than 1,000 clients who invested in the failed First Guardian super fund, which Netwealth hosted on its platform.
Netwealth, which had previously claimed to have “complied with all relevant legal obligations”, admitted it failed to get enough information about First Guardian to understand the risk it posed to investors.
So why did its share price surge?
The market decided to ignore the statutory net loss and look at a different measure of Netwealth’s earnings instead.
Its underlying half-year profit was $69 million, an almost 20% increase from a year ago.
To arrive at that underlying profit figure, Netwealth excluded the impact of its First Guardian compensation and $1 million in legal costs.
Companies prefer the underlying figure because they see it as a truer reflection of its financial performance, especially if these one-off costs (like compensation) don’t show up again in future results announcements.
Netwealth will also pay its shareholders a fully-franked interim dividend of 21 cents per share (an increase of 20% compared to last year’s payout).
49m agoTue 17 Feb 2026 at 11:53pmSuperloop inks $165m takeover deal for rival telco, gold stocks tumble
Around 130 out of 200 stocks have risen this morning (so that’s most of them higher).
Today’s best performer is Superloop (+13.4%) after the NBN provider said it signed a deal to take over its smaller rival Lightning Broadband for $165 million in cash.
In a statement, Superloop said the deal will position the company to be a “leading national Gibre-to-the-Premises (FTTP) challenger”.
Subject to regulatory approval, the telco expects this deal to be finalised by the 4th quarter of FY26 (or June 30).
On the flip side, many of today’s worst-performing stocks are gold miners, following a 2% fall in gold prices overnight.
Given how high the price of bullion has risen (above $US5,000 an ounce earlier this year), it’s only natural for investors and speculators to “cash out”.
Superloop is, by far, the stock making the biggest gains. (LSEG)
55m agoTue 17 Feb 2026 at 11:47pm
Gary Stevenson’s dire warning on Australian property market losing the ‘fair go’
British economist Gary Stevenson warns Australia is losing the concept of “a fair go”.
“This is a country that tells people it believes in having a fair go.
“And it is a country which has, for a long time, provided affordable housing and good living conditions to ordinary working Australians.
“You’re losing that,” he told The Business.
Stevenson is visiting Australia on a speaking tour to build support for his global social cause of narrowing the inequality gap between the rich and the poor.
Key to this, he said, was to restructure the taxation systems of modern economies to take more money from the wealthy and less from lower-income earners.
For more, you can read the highlights of his interview with my colleague David Taylor.
1h agoTue 17 Feb 2026 at 11:37pmHealthcare and tech sectors lead ASX higher
It’s a positive sign for the stock market when most sectors are performing well.
This morning, healthcare (+1.4%) and technology (+1.2%) are the best-performing sectors.
There’s been a sharp rise in the share prices of CSL (which entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Eli Lilly for kidney disease treatments) and health insurers (after the government announced the average premium will rise 4.11% in the new financial year).
Meanwhile, local tech companies have continued to recover from the global software sell-off, which began on Wall Street more than a week ago.
At the other end of the spectrum is the materials sector (-0.5%) as a sharp fall in gold prices has led to a bad day for gold mining stocks.
Most sectors are trading higher on the ASX 200. (LSEG)1h agoTue 17 Feb 2026 at 11:28pmACCC vs Coles case starts hearing from supermarket’s staff
Good morning from the Federal Court of Australia in Melbourne, where we’ve just started day three of the ACCC’s case against supermarket giant Coles.
The consumer watchdog is alleging Coles was jacking the price of products on items for short periods, then reducing the price with “Down Down” stickers, giving “illusory” discounts.
The ACCC isn’t calling witnesses and today we’ve just launched straight into the first Coles witness, which is one of their own who works in senior management.
It’s a rare opportunity to hear from Coles about the intricacies of its business decisions. We’ll keep you updated.
There’s just a few of us journalists in the court today, tapping away quickly on our laptops, but anybody can view this session on the court’s YouTube.
1h agoTue 17 Feb 2026 at 11:20pmCSl strikes deal with Eli Lilly on kidney disease treatment
CSL says it’s entered into an exclusive licensing agreement with Eli Lilly ranting it certain rights to develop and commercialise clazakizumab, an antibody aimed at preventing heart-related illness and death in people with end stage kidney disease.
CSL will receive an up-front payment of $100 million and will be eligible for potential further milestone and royalty payments.
A Stage 3 clinical trial is ongoing.
By 10:20am AEDT, its share price had risen 1.7% to $154.17.
With Reuters
1h agoTue 17 Feb 2026 at 11:13pmASX 200 climbs above 9,000 points, once again
The Australian share market has been trading for almost 15 minutes and it’s making solid gains so far.
The ASX 200 rose 0.5% to 9,003 points.
The broader All Ordinaries index went up by a similar percentage to 9,226 points.
Earlier this year, the benchmark ASX index climbed above 9,000 points to hit a new record high — then fell again quite quickly on profit-taking.
Now it’s above this threshold again, let’s see how long it lasts.
1h agoTue 17 Feb 2026 at 11:03pm
Market recap: Alan Kohler’s finance report
In case you need a refresher before the trading day really kicks off, I can certainly recommend Alan Kohler’s finance report from last night’s 7pm News bulletin.
Without further ado, here it is:
Loading…1h agoTue 17 Feb 2026 at 11:02pmSantos plans to sack 400 employees as its full-year profit drops 33 per cent
Oil and gas company Santos plans to lay off 400 workers, or 10% of its workforce, as part of a major cost-cutting measure.
Santos employs 4,028 people, according to its 2025 Annual Report, published this morning.
“As these major growth projects come to an end and become part of the base business, and as we deliver on our cost savings objectives, we are targeting a headcount reduction of around 10 per cent, rightsizing the business,” Santos’ chief executive Kevin Gallagher said, in comments accompanying the company’s financial results.
The “growth projects” he was referring to are the Barossa and Darwin LNG (liquefied natural gas) projects, which delivered its first cargo earlier this year.
Santos also reported an annual statutory profit of $818 million, down 33% from a year ago.
It will also pay shareholders an unfranked final dividend of 10.3 US cents per share, unchanged from last year.
When its interim dividend is included, Santos will return a total of $770 million to its shareholders.
2h agoTue 17 Feb 2026 at 10:41pmSuncorp profit plunges, dividend slashed
Insurer Suncorp has reported 76.1% dive in first-half net profit, to $263 million, as it took a hit on the costs of natural hazards.
“Suncorp dealt with nine declared natural hazard events through the half, resulting in more than 71,000 claims at a net cost of around $1.3 billion,” Suncorp chief executive Steve Johnston said in a statement, citing thunderstorms and hailstorms on the east coast.
The insurer cut its interim dividend to 17 cents per share, down from 41 cents a year ago.
2h agoTue 17 Feb 2026 at 10:30pmStokes/Steel Dynamics consortium ups Bluescope bid
The consortium bidding for Australian-listed steelmaker Bluescope has increased its bid for the company from $30 a share to $32.35 a share.
In a statement, Kerry Stokes’ Seven Group Holdings and US steel company Steel Dynamics said the higher price was their “best and final offer in the absence of a superior competing proposal for all or a material part” of Bluescope.
The consortium said the value of the all-cash offer was $15bn.
It comes after Bluescope’s board and shareholders pushed back against the original offer, describing it as inadequate.
2h agoTue 17 Feb 2026 at 10:15pmASIC announces review into ‘lead generators’ pushing superannuation switching
The corporate regulator ASIC is reviewing financial advice licensees using controversial lead generation services.
Lead generators are often paid “marketing fees” by licensed financial advisers for their service.
ASIC is publishing a list of known entities involved in lead generation as part of the review and will investigate if they are complying with their legal obligations.
How have lead generators have led to financial harm
Essentially, lead generators cold call consumers suggesting they switch their superannuation into more lucrative funds, which offer them fewer legal protections.
That’s what happened in the cases of the First Guardian and Shield managed investment schemes, which later collapsed.
In those cases, after being called by sales representatives from various lead generation companies, consumers decided to move thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars of their super savings from Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA)-regulated super funds to Shield and First Guardian.
Investors in First Guardian, many of whom switched from highly regulated super funds into the product, face little prospect of recovery directly from the fund, with liquidators in December saying $1.6 million of $446 million had been recovered — not enough to pay their fees.
For more, here’s the story by Nassim Khadem:
2h agoTue 17 Feb 2026 at 9:53pmNAB’s quarterly profit jumps to $2.1 billion
National Australia Bank has reported a statutory profit of $2.21 billion in the December quarter.
That’s a solid 30% increase from a year ago (when it posted a quarterly profit of $1.7 billion).
It helped that NAB’s net interest margin (NIM) rose 2 basis points to 1.8%. That’s the difference between the interest earned by the bank on lending and interest paid out on deposits.
NAB’s preferred measure of profitability is cash earnings. On that count, it earned $1.74 billion during the December quarter (a 2% fall compared to its average over the last two quarters).
“Over the December quarter, our focus on improving deposit performance has supported good growth of 2% in deposit balances,” NAB’s chief executive Andrew Irvine wrote in his trading update.
“Australian home lending grew 1% and we have seen improved momentum versus system of 0.9x compared with 2H24 and increased drawdowns through our proprietary channels.
“Business lending balances rose 2% including 1% growth in SME [small medium enterprise] business lending.”
Increased competition in the home loans market seems to be the common theme for all banks — as rate-sensitive borrowers refinance in droves to get the best deal on their mortgage.
But one area where NAB fell slightly was its spare cash, or ability to withstand financial stress.
On that metric, its Group Common Equity Tier 1 ratio (CET1) dropped from 11.7% to 11.48% (between September and December).
The bank said its CET1 ratio was dragged down by its “payment of the 2025 final dividend and RWA [risk weighed assets] growth of $6 billion, partly offset by cash earnings and the impact of the sale of the Group’s remaining 20% stake in MLC Life”.
3h agoTue 17 Feb 2026 at 9:38pmPrivate health insurance customers stung by exclusions after downgrading from gold policies
Australian households are getting increasingly sceptical about the value of private health insurance — particularly as the government has granted the industry permission to raise premiums on average 4.41%, the largest increase since 2017.
It follows a year of intense debate in the sector following high-profile fallouts between insurers and private hospitals, the collapse of Healthscope and the convening of a “CEO forum”, which meets regularly to try to iron out problems with the industry.
Growing discontent among patients and health care providers with insurers has prompted calls for price benchmarks for hospital services akin to the public sector, a mandatory code of conduct and an independent regulatory authority.
For more, here’s the story by Alison Branley:
3h agoTue 17 Feb 2026 at 9:24pmWall Street slightly higher as investors dump software stocks
It’s past 4pm in New York now, which means Wall Street has finished trading.
It was a relatively lacklustre day, judging from these flat closing figures:
Dow Jones: +0.1% to 49,533 pointsS&P 500: +0.1% to 6,843 pointsNasdaq Composite: +0.1% to 22,578 points
Essentially, investors sold down their software stocks again — on concerns about artificial intelligence (AI) making their products obsolete, which would be very bad for their finances.
There were big falls in the share price of industry-specific cloud and software companies like ServiceNow (-1.1%), Autodesk (-2.6%), Salesforce (-2.9%) and Oracle (-3.9%).
To give you an idea of how bad things are for the software stocks, the iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF is down almost 22% since the year began.
There was, however, a “rotation” into other areas of the market, like banking stocks Citigroup (+2.9%), JPMorgan Chase (+1.6%) and Goldman Sachs (+1.3%).
3h agoTue 17 Feb 2026 at 9:07pmAustralian dollar no longer at 40-year high against Japanese yen
Some of you may be thinking: “Dave, I have no plans to visit the UK, and I don’t care how the Aussie dollar is going against the pound.”
That’s fair enough I say!
In that case, here’s how the Australian dollar is performing against other major currencies:
The Australian dollar is higher against most currencies today. (LSEG)
As you can see, it’s buying around 70.8 US cents (after a 0.2% rise overnight).
And it has fallen quite substantially against the Japanese currency. One Aussie dollar will get you 107.9 yen, following a 0.8% drop in the past few hours.
It’s partly because of profit-taking — as the Aussie dollar had jumped to a 40-year high against the yen (110.8 yen) earlier this week!
No wonder Japan is a popular holiday destination right now!