Live updates: Global markets are on edge after Iran attack, ASX poised to slip
Wall Street closed lower ahead of the weekend raid by US stealth bombers on Iranian nuclear sites.
The ASX futures trading, which also closed ahead of the attack, points to a modest fall today, while oil is expected to jump higher as markets brace for repercussions.
Follow the day's financial news and insights from our specialist business reporters on our live blog.
Disclaimer: this blog is not intended as investment advice.
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News.com.au
15 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Australians caught up in new ‘infinite workday' trend
Advancements in technology have been heralded as a game changer when it comes to flexible working. Forgot to respond to an important email? No need to trudge back to the office to log onto your computer, you can just do it from your phone. What once would have required an in person meeting is now a Zoom call and the rise of remote work means employees are saving countless hours each week they would have otherwise spent commuting. While there is no doubt all of these things have had a positive impact when it comes to the way people work, we are now starting to see the flexibility scales tip so far that it is actually having a negative impact on work-life balance. Being able to send of a quick email after hours has turned into scrolling through your inbox as soon as you wake up. Having access to virtual meetings now means being asked to jump on a call at 8pm and being able to work from anywhere has turned into being expected to work at any time. This phenomenon has been dubbed the 'infinite workday', with Microsoft's 2025 Work Trend Index Annual Report revealing just how widespread it has become. An analysis of data from users of Microsoft 365 services found a series of disturbing changes in the way people are working around the world. In describing the chaos of the seemingly infinite workday trend, the report noted that 'it starts early, mostly in email, and quickly swells to a focus-sapping flood of messages, meetings, and interruptions'. A whopping 40 per cent of users who are online at 6am are reviewing emails, with the average worker receiving 117 emails a day, the report found. By 8am, Microsoft Teams overtakes email as the dominant communication channel, with the average worker receiving 153 Teams messages a day, a 6 per cent year on year increase globally. Microsoft found that, during a standard eight-hour shift, the average worker is interrupted every two minutes by either an email, chat notification or meeting, adding up to 275 times a day. Speaking to Bryan Stallings, Chief Evangelist at Lucid Software, said, if left unchecked, this type of fragmentation will have a severe impact on workplaces across Australia and the rest of the world. 'The consequences of this systemic chaos are taking a toll on Australian workers,' Mr Stallings said. 'Left unchecked, this 'infinite workday' won't boost output. Instead, it leads to disengaged employees, crippling innovation due to a dwindling capacity for deep work, and a workforce unable to truly adapt at 'the speed of business', as research warns. 'This unsustainable model demands a fundamental shift towards intentional design that moves away from accidental chaos and towards visual clarity in how we work.' With employees receiving all these interruptions during the standard work day, you might be wondering, when does this leave time for any actual work to be done? The answer is, it doesn't. Which is why an increasing number of employees are logging back on at night so they can focus on their work without being interrupted. Microsoft found that, for remote workers, they often see evening hours as a productive window to catch up on work, but hybrid workers are more likely to experience that same time as a source of stress. The research found that meetings after 8pm are up 16 per cent year on year and the average employee now recited more than 50 messages outside of core business hours, By 10pm, 29 per cent of active workers are back in their inboxes trying to get on top of the influx of emails. Work is also spilling over into the weekend, with the data showing almost 20 per cent of employees actively working on the weekend are checking their email before noon on Saturday and Sunday. It is clear that boundaries are quickly eroding, with one in three employees saying the pace of work over the past five years makes it impossible to keep up. 'This points to a larger truth: the modern workday for many has no clear start or finish,' the report states. 'As business demands grow more complex and expectations continue to rise, time once reserved for focus or recovery may now be spent catching up, prepping, and chasing clarity.' Ending the infinite workday isn't just about individual workers putting boundaries in place to protect their work-life balance. While its vital to have personal limits, Mr Stallings pointed out they are often 'rendered ineffective by broken systems', with the primary responsibility of addressing these issues lying with executive leadership. He said that senior management must shift focus from where work gets done to how it gets done. Recent research from Lucid has revealed the systematic roadblocks facing Australian employers, with 35 per cent citing a lack of standardisation and 34 per cent pointing to insufficient automation. The data showed that only 31 per cent of Australians have been trained on effective hybrid collaboration, leaving room for communication breakdown. 'Expecting Aussies to set boundaries in a chaotic system without executive leadership's intentional design also erodes psychological safety,' Mr Stallings said. 'Often, management talks about a sustainable pace while inadvertently rewarding 'hero' behaviours that undermine work-life balance, sending deeply conflicting signals.' The Microsoft research points to artificial intelligence as one of the tools that can be used to help redesign the rhythm of work and give people their time back. However, when it comes to Aussie workplaces, there is a still a major literacy gap when it comes to using AI effectively. Kade Brown, Workforce Solutions Director at RMIT Online, told that, because of the rapid pace of AI advancement outstripping traditional education, many Australians are missing the skills needed to confidently prompt, apply and evaluate using AI tools at work. 'AI offers powerful opportunities to boost productivity by streamlining repetitive tasks and freeing up individuals for more strategic, creative work,' he said. 'We need to use AI intentionally, set healthy boundaries, and ensure it enhances (not replaces) human judgment.' In order to thrive in the evolving AI landscape, Mr Brown said people need to embrace a lifelong learning mindset. PwC has estimated AI will contribute up to $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030, with Mr Brown noting that, for those ready to adapt, the 'potential for transformation is enormous'. 'For the individual, staying curious, continuously upskilling, and building digital confidence are now essential,' he said. 'Businesses that invest in training, particularly in areas like AI literacy, won't just keep pace, they'll lead.'
Perth Now
17 minutes ago
- Perth Now
One thing Aussie motorists should do
Australians are being warned that now is the low point in the petrol cycle and they should fuel up before prices rise in the coming days. With the price of Brent crude oil hitting a three-month high over the weekend as the Israel-Iran conflict escalates, surpassing $US80 a barrel, motorists are being urged to fill up. 'We will start to see the prices increase, but they are nowhere near as high as other economies have predicted,' NRMA spokesman Peter Khoury said. Aussie motorists are being told that now is a good time to fuel up. NewsWire / John Gass Credit: News Corp Australia Mr Khoury said while the price of petrol was going up, it was not as much as some motorists feared, with on average drivers likely to pay 8 cents more a litre when fuelling up their car. 'Our regional benchmark – Malaysian Tapis – closed at $77 a barrel and we do expect it to go higher when the markets open tonight,' Mr Khoury said. 'But to put it in perspective, when we saw those really horrible record high prices back when Russia invaded Ukraine, Tapis was trading at $133 a barrel.' Australia motorists' fuel costs are based on Malaysian Tapis crude oil prices. While Tapis crude oil prices are influenced by the same factors as US brent crude oil prices, they do not necessarily trade at the same price. The price of Brent crude oil spiked to $US80 a barrel over the weekend after the US attacked and 'completely obliterated' three nuclear sites in Iran. Traders were worried about two major potential escalations in the conflict, with either the closure of the Strait of Hormuz or an all-out regional war negatively impacting the price of oil. Cutting off the Strait of Hormuz could increase fuel prices. NewsWire / Luis Enrique Ascui Credit: News Corp Australia Cutting off the Strait of Hormuz could send the price of oil above $US100 a barrel, as the 32km mile stretch is the primary route of exports from Saudi Arabia, Iraq, the UAE, and Kuwait. But the passage that feeds the world with about 30 per cent of its oil supply is still open, at least for now, pending a final decision by Iran's Supreme Council after Iran's parliament voted to close it. Mr Khoury said it was important that Australians educated themselves before they filled up, with motorists in Sydney facing the bottom of the cycle, while Perth prices are set to fall on Tuesday. 'The reason I say that is because there is always a spread of prices,' he said. 'People are really surprised. We've had people say I thought the prices would be sky high and they are not.'
News.com.au
22 minutes ago
- News.com.au
Lunch Wrap: ASX clobbered by war fears, but rising oil keeps it from falling harder
ASX sinks as war nerves rattle stocks Oil surges as Iran threat fuels energy fears Bitcoin tumbles under US$99k (briefly) in market shakeout The ASX fell rather sharply at Monday lunch time in the east, down by 0.6% as war jitters and a Wall Street wobble triggered a risk-off mood. But it could've been worse. A lift in energy names helped soften the blow as they ride the wave of surging oil prices after military strikes in the Middle East. Over the weekend, the US launched stealth bomber raids on three Iranian nuclear sites. What was a localised war is now looking more like a direct war with the US with serious flow-on effects for oil, global trade, and investor nerves. Oil prices surged 2% over the past few hours. Experts warned that if Iran follows through with threats to block the Strait of Hormuz, where around 20% of the world's oil and gas passes through, we could be staring down an oil crisis that's three times worse than the oil shocks of the late '70s. OPEC usually has spare capacity to step in during shocks, but analysts reckon not this time. The US strategic reserves are also near empty after Ukraine, and there's no white knight ready to ride in. The Aussie dollar slipped by 0.5% to 64.3 US cents, while gold climbed on the safe-haven bid this morning. Meanwhile, Bitcoin fell below $US99,000 at one point, before climbing back to US$101k as of the time of writing. Some analysts have suggested traders have been piling in to BTC with a bit too much confidence, expecting a continued rise. This is where things stood on the ASX at around 12:50pm, AEST: In the large caps space, grocery wholesaler Metcash (ASX:MTS) was up 4% after posting a small drop in full-year profit that still beat expectations. Its food business is doing the heavy lifting, with earnings up 18%. Tobacco sales, though, are getting smoked, down 20% as the black market continues to chew into legitimate trade. ASX SMALL CAP WINNERS Here are the best performing ASX small cap stocks for June 23 : Security Description Last % Volume MktCap CT1 Constellation Tech 0.002 100% 1,066,500 $1,474,734 ENT Enterprise Metals 0.003 50% 333,333 $2,362,635 GMN Gold Mountain Ltd 0.002 50% 308,261 $5,619,759 PV1 Provaris Energy Ltd 0.022 47% 9,036,019 $10,470,019 BDT Birddog 0.067 37% 3,855,173 $7,912,815 ASR Asra Minerals Ltd 0.002 33% 1,000,000 $5,987,547 DTM Dart Mining NL 0.004 33% 900,000 $3,594,167 VFX Visionflex Group Ltd 0.002 33% 339,890 $5,051,791 X2M X2M Connect Limited 0.025 32% 1,175,174 $7,375,455 BEL Bentley Capital Ltd 0.010 25% 20,000 $609,023 CHM Chimeric Therapeutic 0.005 25% 2,623,094 $8,060,777 EDE Eden Inv Ltd 0.003 25% 6,681,301 $8,219,762 OVT Ovanti Limited 0.003 25% 4,994,924 $6,011,030 RDN Raiden Resources Ltd 0.005 25% 5,625,909 $13,803,566 RLG Roolife Group Ltd 0.005 25% 200,000 $6,371,125 ROG Red Sky Energy. 0.005 25% 4,021,527 $21,688,909 SKK Stakk Limited 0.005 25% 464,971 $8,300,319 TEG Triangle Energy Ltd 0.003 25% 24,346,799 $4,178,468 TFL Tasfoods Ltd 0.005 25% 1,402,984 $1,748,382 T92 Terrauraniumlimited 0.033 22% 390,390 $2,751,716 DGR DGR Global Ltd 0.006 20% 213,910 $5,218,480 LOC Locatetechnologies 0.135 17% 4,460,709 $26,293,219 RIM Rimfire Pacific 0.021 17% 2,385,851 $45,322,090 BLU Blue Energy Limited 0.007 17% 1,114,611 $11,105,842 NHE Nobleheliumlimited 0.022 16% 1,187,326 $11,390,975 BirdDog Technology (ASX:BDT) has bumped up its proposed buy-back price by 40% to 7 cents a share, after talking with shareholders about its plan to delist from the ASX. That new offer is more than double what it last traded at before the delisting news dropped in April. It's also rescheduled the shareholder vote, now set for 9am on Tuesday July 22. Aussie IoT company X2M Connect (ASX:X2M) has landed a $3 million deal with the City of Seoul to supply 100,000 smart personal safety devices by the end of 2025. The 'Help Me' keychains connect to Seoul's emergency systems, and send real-time alerts when someone's in trouble. Backed by a new national safety mandate, the project could scale up to a million units, giving X2M a big runway for growth. It also plans to bring similar tech into Australia. SmartPay (ASX:SMP) jumped 10% after confirming a takeover offer from NYSE-listed payments giant Shift4, valuing the Aussie-NZ EFTPOS provider at $274 million. The offer came in at NZ$1.20 per share, a juicy 46% premium to its 90-day average. Directors are backing the deal, which would see Smartpay swallowed into the Shift4 empire. ASX SMALL CAP LOSERS Here are the worst performing ASX small cap stocks for June 23 : Code Name Price % Change Volume Market Cap GGE Grand Gulf Energy 0.002 -33% 201,290 $8,461,275 PKO Peako Limited 0.002 -33% 500,000 $4,463,226 SKN Skin Elements Ltd 0.002 -33% 160,788 $3,225,642 SFG Seafarms Group Ltd 0.002 -25% 162,000 $9,673,198 AGE Alligator Energy 0.030 -25% 44,661,967 $154,943,974 BCB Bowen Coal Limited 0.140 -22% 1,671,194 $19,396,360 ORP Orpheus Uranium Ltd 0.022 -21% 10,708 $7,887,520 H2G Greenhy2 Limited 0.015 -21% 2,339,556 $11,365,499 ADH Adairs Limited 2.040 -21% 4,044,065 $455,994,533 AKG Academies Aus Grp 0.100 -20% 216,171 $16,576,808 NME Nex Metals Explorat 0.020 -20% 180,999 $8,352,645 ALM Alma Metals Ltd 0.004 -20% 250,000 $7,931,727 ALR Altairminerals 0.002 -20% 250,000 $10,741,860 FIN FIN Resources Ltd 0.004 -20% 99,999 $3,474,442 VEN Vintage Energy 0.004 -20% 10,000 $10,434,568 SNX Sierra Nevada Gold 0.021 -19% 794,784 $4,281,137 ORN Orion Minerals Ltd 0.009 -18% 4,169,917 $75,354,926 CAZ Cazaly Resources 0.019 -17% 2,306,319 $10,609,969 AS2 Askarimetalslimited 0.005 -17% 161,500 $2,425,024 EAT Entertainment 0.005 -17% 657,618 $7,852,716 ERL Empire Resources 0.005 -17% 200,000 $8,903,479 ICR Intelicare Holdings 0.005 -17% 781,904 $2,917,129 JAV Javelin Minerals Ltd 0.003 -17% 1,852,944 $18,378,447 TON Triton Min Ltd 0.005 -17% 50,000 $9,410,332 FAL Falconmetalsltd 0.115 -15% 335,790 $23,895,000 Homewares and furniture retailer Adairs (ASX:ADH) tanked 22% after flagging weaker full-year earnings. Promotions may have boosted sales, but they've also crunched margins. The company expects EBIT to come in lower than last year, blaming intense discounting and a weaker Aussie dollar. Its furniture business is struggling the most. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT Neurizon Therapeutics (ASX:NUZ) has reported encouraging new rodent preclinical pharmacokinetic (PK) data for its lead candidate NUZ-001, showing it effectively crosses the blood-brain barrier (BBB). Zenith Minerals (ASX:ZNC) has upgraded resources at its Dulcie Far North project by 41% to 302,000oz of contained gold as part of a broader consolidation of the Dulcie project in WA. Koonenberry Gold (ASX:KNB) has extended mineralisation at the Sunnyside prospect within the Enmore project in NSW, hitting 80.5m at 1.45g/t gold in the sixth hole of drilling. Ausgold (ASX:AUC) has expanded the footprint of its Kulin project in WA after reaching a farm-in agreement to acquire a majority stake in an adjacent exploration licence highly prospective for gold. Development at Hillgrove Resources' (ASX:HGO) Nugent underground mine in South Australia is better than expected, resulting in the early intersection of the orebody and delivering first copper ore for processing. LAST ORDERS Sipa Resources (ASX:SRI) is taking its pick of drilling contractors for the Tunkillia North and Nuckulla Hill gold projects in South Australia after nabbing approvals for a Program for Environment Protection and Rehabilitation. The PEPR is a requirement before any on-ground activities can begin on the projects – they'll be focused on investigating historical gold mineralisation and testing targets to the north and south of the 1.6Moz Tunkillia gold deposit, held by Barton Gold. Lumos Diagnostics (ASX:LDX) is $215,485 richer after bringing in a Research and Development Tax Incentive for the FY2024. The refund is attached to Lumos' ongoing research and development efforts. The company is focused on enhancing its proprietary benchtop and disposable reader technology platform. It supports the detection of a broader range of clinical biomarkers, improves the interpretation of point-of-care test results, and allows for smooth integration with electronic medical records. Aldoro Resources (ASX:ARN) has brought seasoned Chartered Accountant Mauro Piccini on board as a non-executive director. He has extensive expertise in ASX reporting, corporate advisory, and financial management with a background in publicly listed governance disciplines in addition to preliminary financial assessment. Leeuwin Metals (ASX:LM1) has capped off a 3,000m drilling program at the Marda Central prospect of the Marda gold project, with assays due shortly. The program was focused on extensions to shallow, high-grade mineralisation at the previously mined open pits at Python and Golden Orb, part of a greater 10,000m campaign planned for 2025.
