US and European oil companies<\/a>, two sources told Reuters.<\/p>\nThat’s following Washington’s announcement of a $US2 billion oil deal and the supply of US goods to the South American country.<\/p>\n
Reporting from Reuters.<\/p>\n
43m agoThu 8 Jan 2026 at 10:19pm<\/p>\n
Carmakers in EV pullback as hybrid sales soar![\"Emilia](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/lcimg-d36a1fab-6a95-45fa-a423-c2c98ea9acea.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
The story on GM pulling the plug (sorry about the pun) on EV production reflects a report by ABC reporter James Purtill on the choices being made by buyers. PHEV vehicles are being chosen over pure EVs mainly to overcome range anxiety. The problem with these vehicles is people aren\u2019t using them correctly and relying more on the internal combustion engine than the EV components due mainly to laziness especially in corporate fleets. If not used properly , PHEV can actually be worse for the environment than an ICE. Manufacturers have been taken by surprise by this buyer choice and I think we\u2019ll see more of them rethinking pure EV production.<\/p>\n
– Phillip<\/p>\n
Right you are! My colleague published this piece late last year about how hybrid car sales are overtaking EV sales growth. The latest sales data for Australia also confirmed this trend.<\/p>\n
You can read James Purtill’s piece here.<\/p>\n
54m agoThu 8 Jan 2026 at 10:09pm<\/p>\n
A rare one-on-one interview with RBA deputy<\/p>\n
You might have caught this on TV yesterday, with our business editor Michael Janda landing a rare interview with the RBA’s deputy governor, Andrew Hauser.<\/p>\n
It’s an entertaining read!<\/p>\n
“How rude can I be on the ABC?” (Mr Hauser) asked, before launching into a distinctly civil answer.<\/p>\n
“We are not targeting Q4 2025 inflation \u2014 it’s actually impossible to do that because it’s already in the past.<\/p>\n
“But you can’t even target inflation a quarter out. You’re targeting the whole-time inflation out a year to two years, and that informs making a judgement.”<\/p>\n
1h agoThu 8 Jan 2026 at 9:53pm<\/p>\n
Rio Tinto also releases statement on merger talks<\/p>\n
As we’ve been reporting this morning, Glencore and Rio Tinto are back in merger talks. A deal would see the latter acquire Glencore and possibly create the world’s biggest mining company.<\/p>\n
Rio Tinto, which is dual-listed on the ASX, has released a statement there in the last hour. It’s basically a\u00a0verbatim version of Glencore’s statement, confirming the speculation and type of deal they’re investigating.<\/p>\n
“The parties\u2019 current expectation is that any merger transaction would be effected through the acquisition of Glencore by Rio Tinto by way of a Court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement,” it reads<\/p>\n
1h agoThu 8 Jan 2026 at 9:34pmMajor automaker pulls handbrake on EVs<\/p>\n
American company GM is easing up on manufacturing EVs. It’s the latest car company to pull back from EVs in response to the Trump administration’s policies and fading demand.<\/p>\n
The charge stems from reducing its planned EV production and the fallout on the supply chain, GM said in a regulatory filing, and comes weeks after rival Ford Motor\u00a0announced a similar but much bigger charge.<\/p>\n
Most of GM’s writedown – a $US4.2 billion cash charge – is related to contract cancellations and settlements with suppliers, who had planned for much higher production volumes before the market turned.<\/p>\n
Reporting with Reuters.<\/p>\n
1h agoThu 8 Jan 2026 at 9:30pm<\/p>\n
Rio Tinto would acquire Glencore through court deal<\/p>\n
As we’ve been reporting this morning, Glencore and Rio Tinto have restarted discussions about a possible merger that could create the world’s largest mining company. <\/p>\n
The deal\u00a0could include an all-share merger between Rio Tinto and Glencore. <\/p>\n
The expectation is that Rio Tinto, which has head offices in the UK and Australia, would acquire Glencore by way of a court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement, the companies said.<\/p>\n
Reporting from Dow Jones Newswire.<\/p>\n
2h agoThu 8 Jan 2026 at 8:56pmGlencore, Rio Tinto merger would create mega miner<\/p>\n
As we’ve been reporting this morning, Glencore has confirmed it is in merger talks with Rio Tinto.<\/p>\n
Depending on how the deal lands, a merger between the Swiss resources company and the ASX-listed miner would create a mega resources company, possibly the world’s biggest.<\/p>\n
US-listed shares of Glencore were up 6% after the company confirmed deal talks, while Rio Tinto’s US-listed shares were down 0.6%.<\/p>\n
Rio Tinto, the world’s biggest iron ore miner, has a market capitalisation of about $US142 billion, while Glencore is valued at $US65 billion as of last close.<\/p>\n
Glencore had approached Rio Tinto in 2024<\/a> about combining the two big copper producers but the discussions were short-lived.<\/p>\nReporting with Reuters.<\/p>\n
2h agoThu 8 Jan 2026 at 8:22pm<\/p>\n
Glencore and Rio Tinto back in merger talks<\/p>\n
In breaking news, Glencore has just sent out a statement confirming media speculation that the company is back in merger talks with Rio Tinto.<\/p>\n
Any such deal would create a mega mining company.<\/p>\n
Here’s part of Glencore’s statement:<\/p>\n
Glencore notes recent media speculation and confirms that it is in preliminary discussions with Rio Tinto plc and Rio Tinto Limited (together, “Rio Tinto”) about a possible combination of some or all of their businesses, which could include an all-share merger between Rio Tinto and Glencore.<\/p>\n
The parties’ current expectation is that any merger transaction would be effected through the acquisition of Glencore by Rio Tinto by way of a Court-sanctioned scheme of arrangement.<\/p>\n
More to come soon.<\/p>\n
2h agoThu 8 Jan 2026 at 8:18pm<\/p>\n
ASX to rise on Friday after muted Wall Street<\/p>\n
Good morning! ASX 200 futures are currently about 0.3% higher as we head into the Australian share market’s last trading session of the week.<\/p>\n
That’s after another round of mixed trade on Wall Street overnight, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq closing down.<\/p>\n
We’ll bring you more soon!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"28m agoThu 8 Jan 2026 at 10:35pmMarket snapshotASX 200 futures: +0.3%\u00a0Australian dollar: flat at 66.98 US centsWall Street:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[2001,37156,64,29217,63,212960,99,20024,2003,2005,9873,2007,5463,1491],"class_list":["post-400697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-asx","tag-asx-200","tag-au","tag-aud","tag-australia","tag-australian-sharemarket","tag-business","tag-commodities","tag-dollar","tag-dow-jones","tag-financial-news","tag-nasdaq","tag-sp-500","tag-wall-street"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400697"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400697\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}