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Australia’s AI Moment
Australia is emerging as a major AI investment hub, second only to China.
Ankit Sinha
February 09, 2026
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🎯 In this issue:
Banana Bits: Finance headlines that actually matter
Market Summary: Equities notch best day since May after market rout
What’s Ripe / Rotten: The tastiest and most disgusting stocks today
Technical Trip: Interview Q&A from Jane Street
Lesson from the Library: Build clean, defensible DCF models from forecasts to valuation.
Deal Deep Dive: M&A, IPO, and transaction breakdowns
The Daily Poll: See how you stack up
Mentor Spotlight: Breaking into investment banking from a non-target
Market Snapshot
📉 Banana Bits
Australia is emerging as a major AI investment hub, second only to China.
Japan’s Nikkei hit record highs after Takaichi’s historic win boosted optimism.
Gambling stocks lagged as prediction markets siphoned off Super Bowl bets.
The ECB held rates steady while the UK edged closer to a cut.
China’s central bank kept buying gold even as the rally paused.
U.S. consumer credit jumped in December by the most in a year.
The Dow crossed 50,000 for the first time on earnings optimism.
China blocked approval for offshore yuan stablecoin issuance.
Market News
Equities Notch Best Day Since May After Market Rout
Equities have finally reached green territory after days of beating with the broader AI sell-off. The S&P 500 rose 2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 50,000. An ETF tracking software firm added 3.5%.
A gauge of chipmakers soared 5.7%, with Nvidia Corp.'s Jensen Huang telling CNBC demand for AI is “incredibly high.” Amazon sank 5.6% on plans to spend $200 billion on technology. More than 400 S&P 500 shares gained.
Russell 2000 climbed 3.6%. The Nasdaq 100 rose 2.15%. After closing above 40,000 in May 2024, it took the Dow Average 630 days to top 50,000 for the first time. B*tcoin almost regained losses after surging close to $70,000.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose three basis points to 4.21%. The dollar fell 0.4%. Oil edged up higher despite an apparent easing in geopolitical risks.
The drop that happened this week mirrors what happened around last year with the market’s reaction to Deepseek Ai Models. Analysts have been saying that this year’s move might be just overdone, and heavy capex spending will soon boost revenue growth.
What's Ripe
Strategy Inc. (MSTR) 26.1%
MSTR surged 26% even after the world’s largest corporate holder of B*tcoin posted a massive fourth-quarter loss
B*tcoin was back up to $69,970.84 after falling sharply.
Novo Nordisk A/S (NVO) 9.9%
NVO allied 9.9% after the head of the Food and Drug Administration suggested the agency might not let Hims & Hers sell a cheap copycat of Novo’s Wegovy pill.
Shares in fellow weight-loss drugmaker Eli Lilly gained 3.7%, while Hims fell 2%.
What's Rotten
Molina Healthcare Inc (MOH) 25.5%
MOH sank 26%. The managed care company reported a surprise quarterly loss and issued dismal guidance for the current fiscal year, citing the implementation of a new Medicaid contract and underperformance in its Medicare Advantage Part D product.
Stellantis N.V. (STLA) 23.7%
STLA shares traded in the U.S. cratered 24% on the back of a massive write-down and dividend suspension.
The auto maker said the charges “largely reflect the cost of over-estimating the pace of the energy transition that distanced us from many car buyers’ real-world needs, means, and desires.
🧠 Technical Trip
Interview Q&A from Jane Street
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📚 Lesson from the Library
🎥 DCF Modeling Course: Valuing Cash Flow, Not Hype
Build clean, defensible DCF models from forecasts to valuation.
🦈 Deal Dispatch
M&A, IPOs, And Other Notable Transactions
KKR agreed to buy Arctos in a $1.4B deal stretching beyond sports.
Anthropic’s $20B-plus funding round could close as soon as next week.
Jennifer Garner’s Once Upon a Farm jumped 17% after a $198M IPO.
Hellman & Friedman is said to be in talks to buy payments firm Bill Holdings.
TPG sealed a $3.5B deal for power infrastructure firm Sabre.
📊The Daily Poll
Why did U.S. consumer credit jump so much? |
Previous Poll:
Why did India keep rates unchanged after the US deal?
Growth steady: 28.8% // Inflation calm: 25.4% // Play it safe: 37.3% // No rush: 8.5%
🌟 Mentor Spotlight
Breaking Into Investment Banking From a Non-Target | Mentor Podcast
👉 Check out more on WSO YouTube
Banana Brain Teaser
Previous
How many prime numbers between 1 and 100 are factors of 7,150?
Answer: 4
Today
November 16, 2001, was a Friday. If each of the years 2004, 2008, and 2012 had 366 days, and the remaining years from 2001 through 2014 had 365 days, what day of the week was November 16, 2014?
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Chris, Vyom, Ankit, Mitchell, Fernanda, & Patrick