Markets

SpaceX posted $7.8 billion in revenue for the second quarter of 2026, a 92% increase on the same period a year earlier, the largest revenue figure of any company in a debut quarterly report as a public company.

Watch the new-orders line and you know where China's factories are heading before output figures arrive. In July 2026, that line dropped to 48.5, the weakest new-orders reading since 2023, and the headline manufacturing PMI followed it down to 49.2, the first sub-50 reading in five months.

The number that matters most from the Bank of England's latest meeting is not 3.75, it is three. Three members of the Monetary Policy Committee voted against holding Bank Rate, preferring an immediate rise.

Total net sales came in at $109.42 billion, up 16 per cent on the same period a year earlier, and net income of $29.79 billion was up 27 per cent from $23.43 billion. By any measure those are exceptional numbers for a June quarter. The market's reaction was to sell the stock.

Shell posted a quarterly profit of $9.84 billion, more than double the $4.26 billion recorded in the same period a year earlier, making it the company's second-highest quarter on record. The figures came out of Shell's second-quarter results webcast on 30 July 2026.

Tech stocks dragged the Australian sharemarket higher on Monday, with Xero and WiseTech surging while cheaper oil pulled Santos and Woodside to the bottom of the board.

The LBMA gold price reached a historical high of US$5,405 per ounce in January 2026, capping a multi-year rally that rewrote the calculus for central bank reserve managers, sovereign wealth funds and retail buyers alike.

The RBA warned it might not be done raising rates. The ASX 200 finished the year 0.51 per cent lower.