Almost half of businesses in Australia were reporting higher costs in the month of June, according to fresh data from the ABS. Here's a breakdown of the survey below.

As you can see, lots of businesses are reporting higher fuel and delivery costs, but reports eased back in June as both petrol and diesel prices dropped back down to pre-war levels.

"Data from today's Survey of Business Conditions and Sentiments, shows that while the pressure from fuel prices had eased, there were more businesses that had noted higher costs," Tom Lay, ABS head of business statistics, says.

"The main reasons behind these higher costs included rising businesses overheads for 65 per cent, staffing related costs for 40 per cent and upcoming finance or debt commitments for 19 per cent of businesses."

Capital Economics just put out its analysis of the RBA's June meeting minutes, where the board decided to keep the cash rate on hold.

Capital notes:

The RBA’s messaging shows that it retains a hiking bias.

The minutes of the June meeting confirmed that the Board’s decision to leave rates on hold was unanimous.

Broadly speaking, however, the minutes revealed that the hold was a hawkish one, with the Board leaving the door open to further cash rate increases.

The cash rate is currently at 4.35pc.

EY is declining to comment, after allegations emerged that two of its employees allegedly accessed the Prime Minister's personal banking information while working for the accounting firm at the Commonwealth Bank.

The men, aged 21 and 25, have been charged with a count each of accessing restricted data without authorisation.

For more, here's the story by Nicholas McElroy:

On behalf of his lawyer Justin Wong, TGP Capital baron Joel Thickins has responded to charges after he pled guilty to two offences involving drink driving earlier this month.

His drivers license has been suspended for nine months, and he has been served two fines, totalling more than $1,400.

In a statement, Mr Thickins said: "I would like to sincerely apologise to the police, the court and the people impacted by my reckless actions on 1 June.

"I am fully aware of the seriousness of the matter and know that I have let down my family, my friends and the community.

"I accept full responsibility for the accident. I apologise again for the inconvenience and distress caused and I will meet all costs for the damage.

"I’m very grateful no one was injured or hurt.

"As I have assured the court, this will never happen again."

The Reserve Bank has just put out its minutes from the June 2026 Monetary Policy Board Meeting, where it decided to keep the cash rate stable at 4.35pc.

The minutes show how the board weighed up the ongoing volatility in the Middle East, with oil prices coming down and increased financial pressures on households from previous rate hikes.

Some topline takeaways:

Members agreed that financial conditions were now probably somewhat restrictive.

Members observed that the latest domestic data for the March quarter had confirmed that capacity pressures remained elevated in that period, albeit at a slightly lower level than previously assessed, and inflation was still above target.

And on the eventual decision to hold the cash rate:

Against that backdrop, members agreed that monetary policy needed to remain restrictive to unwind current excess demand through a period of below-trend growth.

The board also discussed data centres, which showed up strongly in the latest GDP figures. Mostly, the data showed data centre spending is focused on infrastructure builds plus the import of things like chips.

Members discussed the broader implications of the strength in investment in data centres, noting that such spending can be difficult to forecast and that in the United States it had repeatedly surprised analysts. Members noted that, while much investment in data centre requires imported components, it also requires some domestic inputs. They discussed the potential for continued strength in such activity to exacerbate capacity pressures and skills shortages in other parts of the economy.

Private equity firm TPG Capital has released a statement, following the guilty plea from its partner Joel Thickins.

In a statement, a TPG spokesperson said: "While we were disappointed to learn of Joel’s actions when he was involved in a car collision in Sydney, we acknowledge that Joel is taking full responsibility for his actions and the impact they have caused and that he appreciates the seriousness of the matter.

"Since the collision occurred, TPG has undertaken a comprehensive third-party investigation into the circumstances surrounding the collision as well as a set of unrelated allegations that publicly emerged several days later. The investigation has determined those unrelated allegations to be entirely without merit. We will be communicating directly with our stakeholders in the coming days as to the broader path forward."

Two Ernst and Young employees allegedly accessed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's personal banking information while working for the accounting firm at the Commonwealth Bank.

The Australian Federal Police said the Sydney pair were charged with privacy offences in May after the bank allegedly identified that they accessed restricted information belonging to a federal politician.

The men, aged 21 and 25, have been charged with a count each of accessing restricted data without authorisation.

The younger man faces an additional charge of using a communications device to distribute personal information "in a way that reasonable persons would regard, in all the circumstances, as menacing or harassing towards those individuals".

For more, here's the story by Nicholas McElroy:

The consumer watchdog has just confirmed at a press conference about its case against Amazon's streaming service Prime that it is investigating other companies too.

"We have not had complaints relating to those introductions looking at other streaming services," chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb says.

"But we do have investigations underway looking at other subscriptions where we are testing them for compliance with Australian consumer law."

She wouldn't confirm what companies.

"They're in confidential investigations," she noted.

The consumer watchdog's chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb has just started speaking to the media about its new case against Amazon Prime.

The ACCC is alleging that one of the world's most prominent streaming services signed up people to contracts on a service that was largely ad-free, and then later introduced them.

"Amazon changed the terms, introduced ads, and made negative changes to subscribers services without offering any refund or remedy," Ms Cass-Gottlieb.

"If we are successful in proving our allegations ... (we expect) Amazon compensate consumers for their losses."

Ms Cass-Gottlieb says they investigated this issue after complaints from consumers, and that Amazon made "changes" to its terms last year after it became aware that the ACCC was investigating the issue.

She says a "small proportion" of people then got refunds. But if ACCC wins this case, it could get a wider refund for up to one million customers.

You can read more about this case here.

We're now an hour into the trading day and the ASX 200 is still trading sideways, or practically flat.

Many of today's worst performing stocks are gold miners including Resolute Mining, Vault Minerals, Regis Resources, Evolution Mining and Perseus Mining.

It comes after an almost 2% drop in the price of spot gold overnight.

But in the past couple of hours, gold has fallen by another 0.8% to $US3,985 an ounce.

Importantly, it has dropped below the psychologically significant threshold of $US4,000 due to rising expectations the US Federal Reserve will lift interest rates later this year.

The effect of that is a stronger US dollar, which makes gold more expensive to buy.

In addition, higher US interest rates makes holding onto American cash a more attractive option than a lump of metal, which pays no interest or income stream.

Spot gold has also plummeted 29% from the record high of US$5,589.38, which it reached in January — only five months ago!

Not sure what to do with all those tax receipts?

How will the new $1000 tax deduction actually work? And what about changes to negative gearing and the CGT discount?

If you want answers, you're in luck! Today we launched a special bonus podcast series called 'Welcome to Tax Week'.

It's presented by ABC Business Daily host Carrington Clarke and ABC finance reporter Emily Stewart (also known as ‘Sensible Emily’, the editor of the Your Money Explained newsletter).

In this episode, Carrington and Emily cover what to do before the financial year ticks over tonight, what to know about work-related purchases, and the low-down on super top-ups and concessional contributions. It's well worth your time!

Joel Thickins, co-head of private equity firm TPG Asia, has pleaded guilty to negligent driving and refusing an alcohol-related breath test in a Sydney court this morning.

The judge referred to the case as "an absolute shocker".

Mr Thickins will not receive any jail time for the offences but has been hit with two fines and has had his licence suspended for nine months.

The incident occurred in Sydney's East in early June and involved damage to other vehicles.

About half the stocks on the ASX 200 are trading higher this morning.

Some of the best performers, so far, include defence-related companies DroneShield (+7.9%), Electro Optic Systems (+4.4%) and Austal (+2.8%), along with healthcare companies Neuren Pharmaceuticals (+6.4%), Telix Pharmaceuticals (+2.8%) and Pro Medicus (+2.4%).

Shares of Neuren have risen again, following yesterday's 36% surge.

That was after the company said European regulators approved its drug used to treat Rett Syndrome, a rare neurological condition which primarily affects young girls in their first 18 months of life.

The local share market is treading water this morning after a very cautious start to the trading session.

The ASX 200 index up 0.1% to 8,831 points by 10:20am AEST.

I'll have more updates for you in a bit!

I’m at the Downing Centre courts in Sydney’s CBD this morning for the case against corporate titan Joel Thickins, the head of TPG Capital in Australia.

Earlier this month, my colleague Dan Ziffer broke the story about Mr Thickins crashing his BMW into five cars in Sydney’s east, before allegedly refusing two alcohol-detecting breath tests.

The 48-year-old private equity baron manages more than $US23 billion ($32 billion) in assets. He has also been the chair of veterinary company Greencross and funeral behemoth InvoCare.

TPG Capital has also launched an investigation into the crash as Mr Thickins takes leave from the company.

Mr Thickins is here at court for today's hearing. I'll keep you updated once the case is heard.

Here's an interesting chart showing how shares of the US entertainment giants have performed since 2024.

As you can see, Comcast shares are down 44% in the past couple of years as it faces intense competition from its streaming rivals.

That's a major reason why the company has decided to split itself in two — with one company focused on broadband / telco services, and the other managing its film studios, theme parks and TV networks.

As I mentioned earlier, Comcast is perhaps better known for its brands Universal Pictures, DreamWorks Animation, NBC, MSNBC, Universal Studios and Sky.

You may also notice in this chart that Warner Bros shares have skyrocketed since 2025 due to a bidding war between Netflix and Paramount.

Paramount, which is controlled by David Ellison (son of Oracle founder Larry Ellison), ended up being the successful bidder of Warner Bros.

The deal was recently approved by US anti-trust regulators. It helps that the Ellisons are allies of Donald Trump.

The US Supreme Court has ruled against Donald Trump by refusing to let the him sack Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook.

In a 5-4 majority ruling, America's highest court decided to preserve the central bank's independence against an unprecedented challenge by the US President.

According to Reuters, no other president since the central bank's founding in 1913 had sought to oust a Fed governor.

Mr Trump last August cited unproven mortgage fraud allegations in trying to oust Ms Cook, the first African-American woman to serve as a Fed governor.

Ms Cook denied the allegations, calling them a pretext to remove her for differences of opinion on where interest rates should be headed.

The ruling definitively protects Fed officials from being fired at will by a president.

Cook was denied 'procedural protections'

Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, who authored the majority ruling, said Mr Trump had "failed to afford Cook the procedural protections to which she was entitled by statute. Without such protections, she could not properly dispute the charges the president laid against her".

"Like the directors of its three predecessors, however, the Federal Reserve's Governors do not serve at the president's pleasure — they instead serve staggered 14-year terms, and may be removed only 'for cause,'" Chief Justice Roberts said.

"We see no reason to leave the public in limbo, or to sow doubt as to the status of one of our nation's (and the world's) most important financial institutions."

The court said its ruling was not deciding the validity of the factual dispute in the case, which can now return to lower courts where action has been stalled while the Supreme Court weighed in.

"It at least remains an open question what precisely happened here, and indeed whether Cook committed 'gross negligence,' let alone 'deceitful and potentially criminal conduct,' as the president's letter alleges," the Chief Justice wrote, adding that she must be able to respond to the charges made against her.

In a social media post responding to the court decision, Mr Trump suggested he will continue trying to sack Ms Cook.

"The Cook Lawsuit, having to do with her suitability in sitting on the Board of the Federal Reserve, was sent back by the Supreme Court on a strictly procedural basis, we will take appropriate action immediately to make sure that someone who has committed wrongdoing will not be making vital decisions concerning the Welfare of the United States of America!" he wrote.

- with Reuters

Life is about to get harder for criminal gangs with bags of cash hoping to buy property.

Australian real estate has been an easy target, but under so-called 'Tranche-2 laws', real estate agents, lawyers and accountants will have to raise the alarm on suspected money launderers, or risk being fined millions of dollars.

The anti-money laundering law change has been more than a decade in the making.

It means those professions and others such as gem dealers can no longer accept money from clients without first asking about the source of their funds, or reporting to financial crimes agency AUSTRAC.

Organised crime has been investing in real estate, pushing up prices, through the loophole that will be closed on July 1.

For more, here's the story by Daniel Ziffer:

One of the big stories on Wall Street markets overnight was the announcement that media giant Comcast would be splitting into two publicly traded companies.

It's a way to separate its cash-generating broadband / telco division from its media and entertainment business — which is facing intense pressure from streaming rivals like Disney and Netflix.

What does Comcast do?

In case you're not familiar with Comcast, you may have heard of its various media brands, which fall under its NBCUniversal division.

They include film studios Universal Pictures and DreamWorks Animation, TV networks NBC and MSNBC, streaming services Peacock and Hayu, theme parks Universal Studios (in the US states of Florida and California, Japan, Singapore, and Beijing) and British TV broadcaster Sky.

Its other division is Comcast Cable, which houses Xfinity, which provides residential cable TV, broadband internet, landline telephone, and wireless services.

Where to next?

Shares of Comcast jumped 4.5% on news of the de-merger — with one company specialising in wireless and broadband, and the other focused on media and entertainment.

Though that's after its share price dropped more than 55% in the past five years.

According to Reuters, this move unwinds 15 years of consolidation at the company that brought together content and distribution, with both feeling the strain from the rapid rise of streaming, and sets up the two companies for more mergers and acquisition (M&A) deals.

Analysts said the move could make NBCUniversal an attractive takeover target, especially for Netflix after it lost the Warner Bros bidding war, although any deal was likely to hinge on how Comcast allocates its more than $US90 billion in debt.