Crypto prices tumble; gaming ad overhaul; Ford hires ‘grey beards’ to help AI
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What are the latest trends in cryptocurrency and commodity prices?
welcome to fear and greed business news you can use today falling commodity and cryptocurrency prices set super funds up for a problematic financial year the federal government introduces legislation to overhaul gaming advertising and ford's novel approach to helping AI employ older human engineers. Plus, Perpetual knocks back a $2.5 billion bid, and OpenAI discusses giving 5% of its shares to the US government as it works to curry favour. It is Friday, the 3rd of July, 2026. I'm Michael Thompson, and good morning, Sean Aylmer.
Morning, Michael. Some pretty outrageous stories today, I've got to say.
It's a pretty extraordinary show. We've got a lot to cover and it's well worth sticking around for the whole thing. It's only 15 minutes, actually. I don't know why I say that like it's an hour or three hour long affair. The main story this morning, Sean, the prices of precious metals. like gold that we were just talking about, and silver, alongside Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, as well as many non-US dollar currencies, have fallen sharply in recent months, with some investors facing much lower financial year returns as a result. Bitcoin has lost more than half of its value from last year's peak over $126,000. Ether, Solana, Cardano, they've fared even worse. Ether is now trading at one-third its level of late last year.
Institutional money isn't as enthusiastic for the asset class. Silver, how about this one? It's also halved from its record above US$121 an ounce, while gold has plunged nearly 30% from its all-time high of around US$5,600 an ounce. It's not a very positive story, this one.
Now, and the common tipping point for precious metals and cryptos was the appointment of US Federal Reserve Chair Kevin Walsh. He was considered and has subsequently confirmed a hawk on inflation. So rather than the Fed getting a Trump nominee that would cut interest rates, They've got someone who's talking about lifting interest rates. That triggered a sell-off in the bond markets, pushing yields higher. That predicts future interest rate levels. In turn, that helped the greenback. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against six other currencies, has rebounded 6% this year. The Japanese yen, for example, is at a record low against the U.S. dollar in commodities. Believe it or not, Brent crude is basically where it was 12 months ago, notwithstanding these phenomenal swings in that currency.
The other big commodities for Australia, coal prices are actually 15% higher over the last year, iron ore prices pretty flat. Quite remarkable given the financial year we've had, the geopolitical turmoil, that all these prices have come off.
Yeah. Yeah. I just love that Brent crude stat though. The fact that if you just looked at those two figures in isolation, where it was this time last year and where it is now, it does not give any hint of the wild ride that has been in between those two points. But what about equities, Sean, away from the big stocks? We talked about those in recent days, but are there any clear trends I suppose and we're always looking for the trend here because the trend is of course your friend how about small caps and gold stocks what about the gold stocks well
Basically, the market in the last financial year became – it's split in two. It's a word, bifurcated. I never know how to say it, but I'm going bifurcated. Between the winners, basically the miners, and the losers, basically healthcare and tech, it was very much a stock picker's market.
How is the Australian government planning to overhaul gaming advertising?
Over the past year, the ASX 20, the biggest 20 stocks, are up nearly 6%. That's all thanks to the big miners. The small odds, though, it's up 4.5%. Now, if you took the miners out of the big 20 stocks, well, the small odds would have outperformed. In fact, you talk about it, the ASX 300 did better than the 200, which did better than the 100. So broadly, if you could just get rid of the miners, small cap stocks did well. Gold stocks, well, the gold index jumped 27% last financial year, but it's down 20% in the last six months.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What are the latest trends in cryptocurrency and commodity prices?
0:06–4:06
2
How is the Australian government planning to overhaul gaming advertising?
4:06–6:12
3
What impact does the new legislation on gambling ads have?
6:12–10:22
4
Why did Perpetual reject a $2.5 billion bid from EQT?
10:22–14:28
5
What is OpenAI's proposal to give a stake to the US government?
14:28–17:58
6
How is Ford using experienced engineers to improve AI and quality?
17:58–18:09