🗞️ Roid rage

Good morning. The Enhanced Games are nearly here, with the event starting on May 21st.

This Olympic-style competition allows athletes to take performance-enhancing drugs in an attempt to break world records.

Anyone willing to sign a 20-page consent form stands to earn millions if they break a world record. However, they could also significantly damage their heart, brain and metabolism by pumping themselves full of drugs, so let’s see how this plays out!

All the headlines and more below...

SYDNEY AND MELBOURNE HOME PRICES JUST FELL FOR THE FIRST TIME THIS YEAR. EVERY OTHER CAPITAL IS STILL RISING.

Sydney's median house price dropped 0.5% to $1.62M in April. Melbourne fell 0.3% to $1.05M. National prices declined for the first time in 2025. Meanwhile, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide all hit record highs, though growth is slowing across the board.

Brisbane's median dwelling price rose 0.2% to $1.078M. Adelaide added 0.2% to $947K. Perth climbed 0.2% to $1.024M. That's down from March's growth rates of 0.7%, 0.4% and 0.5% respectively. AMP expects national growth to soften to around 3% for the full calendar year, with a "high risk of a modest fall" in 2025-26 depending on how high rates go and how long the oil shock lasts.

Perth's surge is being driven by high interstate migration, first homebuyer demand propped up by federal low-deposit schemes and a supply shortfall that isn't closing. The city has 4,000 properties on market. A balanced market would be 13,000.

AUSTRALIAN NEWS

• REA Group’s PropTrack Home Price Index shows national home prices fell for the first time in 2024 as Sydney and Melbourne declined while Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide hit records. LINK

• Australia has sharply tightened its student visa regime as offshore refusal rates hit 32.5% in February 2026, disproportionately affecting South Asian applicants and unsettling a $55B export education sector. LINK

• Australia has entered a mild stagflationary shock as oil prices nearly double, pushing CPI to 4.6% and likely forcing multiple RBA rate hikes in 2026. LINK

• Australia has close to $1T in gross debt and is facing soaring repayment costs as the Iran war drives Brent crude to multi-year highs and fuels cost-push inflation. LINK

• Australian homeowners are increasingly seeking fixed rate mortgages as economists expect the RBA to deliver a third consecutive rate hike amid 4.6% inflation and stagflation fears. LINK

• The government has signalled that the $4.5T superannuation sector will retain its 33% capital gains tax discount as it moves to scrap the 50% discount for personal investors. LINK

• Housing Australia has overseen a $10B housing future fund to deliver 20,000 social and 20,000 affordable homes by 2029, yet has so far provided only 889. LINK

FISHBOWL'S NEW YORK STORES DO 3-4X SYDNEY REVENUE. NOW THEY'RE DOING 5 CITIES.

The salad bowl chain is doubling its New York footprint to 6 locations this year and scouting Miami, Boston, Philadelphia, San Francisco and LA. Co-founder Casper Ettelson says the US business will overtake Australia within 5 years, purely because of market size.

The company is on track for $200M in revenue over the next 12 months across 57 Australian stores and 3 in the US. All company-owned, no franchises. Fish now accounts for less than half of revenue, which is why the US branding is Thisbowl. That packaging is rolling out in Australia too.

Guzman y Gomez is learning how expensive that expansion is in Chicago. Fishbowl is betting New York salad economics are kinder than Midwest burritos.

COMPANY NEWS

• G8 Education announced plans to close 40 childcare centres and blamed steeply falling occupancy to 56% on rising costs, competition, inflation and declining birth rates. LINK

• Australian Payments Plus has decided to shut a card-matching transaction and data service on June 30, threatening retailer debit-linked loyalty schemes that rely on eftpos transaction matching. LINK

• Woolworths pledged greater transparency over inflation-driven price rises as it freezes prices on 300 mostly own-brand staples to help households manage rising fuel and supplier costs. LINK

• Qantas has extended a 5% cut to domestic capacity until September and, with Jetstar, is trimming New Zealand and India flights as the Middle East fuel crisis lifts costs. LINK

• Sephora's Australian business reported a $22.5M loss for CY23 as revenue rose 9% to $368.9M, while rival Mecca generated $1.43B revenue and $126M profit. LINK

• SkyCity Entertainment cut its FY26 underlying EBITDA guidance to $180M-$190M and reported EBITDA to $155M-$165M as higher fuel prices and weaker consumer spending hit visitation. LINK

• ANZ has been warned by Promontory that it must commit more resources to its 3-year cultural reset, as 4 of 7 APRA-enforceable actions remain rated amber. LINK

• Tesla earned more Australian revenue from home batteries and grid-scale energy systems than EVs as its local profit fell 19% and car sales dropped 25% to 28,856. LINK

• Qantas extended its schedule changes to September to offset higher Middle East conflict fuel costs, adding 2,000 weekly Europe seats while cutting Q1 FY27 international capacity by 2%. LINK

• Herbert Smith Freehills has begun treating its vast legacy of contracts, depositions and other documents as data, as inaugural chief AI officer Ilona Logvinova emphasises categorisation’s strategic importance. LINK

• Atlassian reported Q3 revenue up 32% to US$1.79B and raised FY growth guidance to about 24% as AI-driven products deepen adoption despite a wider GAAP loss. LINK

• Airwallex lifted annual revenue 30% to $105.6M while its loss widened to $17.2M as employee benefits rose 22.5% to $69.9M and advertising hit $14.9M. LINK

• ANZ reported a half-year $3.65B profit, up 9%, as it warns Australian households of higher interest rates, inflation and loan stress from the Iran war. LINK

• Nine warned staff that about 20 TV news and current affairs jobs will go in an initial redundancy round as it invests in its Future News technology and workflows. LINK

• ResMed reported Q3 revenue up 11% to US$1.4B and net income up 9% to US$398M as it appoints new CFO Aaron Bloomer. LINK

• Apple has forecast June-quarter sales growth of 14% to 17%, topping 9.1% estimates. LINK

• Fishbowl has outlined an aggressive US growth strategy as it rebrands as Thisbowl, plans 6 New York outlets this year and targets a larger US business within 5 years. LINK

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CHART OF THE DAY

Satellite internet still a niche product

ONE MORE SCROLL

Editor’s Pick: Major US airline shuts down, thousands to lose jobs.

Odd Pick: How Pokémon cards that 'hold more value than a Rolex' are becoming a survival strategy for Aussie retailers.

TRIVIA

The enhanced games are happening this month but do you know the official world records from the below?

• Is the men's 100-metre record 9.48 or 9.58?

• Is the women's marathon record 2:09:56 or 2:14:56?

• Is the men's high jump world record 2 metres 45 centimetres or 2 metres 85 centimetres?

• Is the women's long jump record 6 metres 52 centimetres or 7 metres 35 centimetres?

• Is the women's discus world record 65 metres or 76 metres?

Answers below

OUR SOCIALS

ANSWERS

1. Men's 100m = 9.58
2. Women's marathon = 2.09.56
3. Men's high jump = 2.85m
4. Women's long jump = 7.35m
5. Women's discus = 76m

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