Next Week At A Glance – 27-31 Oct 2025

This story features WOODSIDE ENERGY GROUP LIMITED, and other companies.
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The company is included in ASX20, ASX50, ASX100, ASX200, ASX300 and ALL-ORDS

A brief look at important company events and economic data releases next week.

For a more comprehensive preview of next week’s events, please refer to “The Monday Report”, published each Monday morning. For all economic data release dates, ex-div dates and times and other relevant information, please refer to the FNArena Calendar.

The week that was in Australian Finance

-‘A week is a long time in politics’, or so the saying goes. In President Trump’s term, it’s translating to financial markets. Last Friday it was all about credit cockroaches about to crush global markets; this week, the rolling deleveraging/liquidation took out the record gold price with a “record” fall, and Prime Minister Albanese cut a rare earths deal with the US President, with Russia now facing oil sanctions and US/China trade talks back on track.

-Underlying the staccato-like news flows, the major themes have been ongoing rotation in both the Australian share market and US markets. At home, the booming materials sector took a step back on the gold sell-off, falling circa -2% on the week, while energy sprung back to life, up almost 6% thanks to some good news from Woodside Energy ((WDS)) and higher oil prices on sanctions.

-The ASX200 managed to hit a new record, albeit with lots of volatility. The sectors that led included real estate, utilities, communication services, consumer discretionary, and information technology. Healthcare took a back seat.

-It’s a BIG week ahead, with the Australian September quarter CPI due out Wednesday and the FOMC meeting’s policy statement on Thursday early morning Sydney time. The Bank of Japan and ECB also meet.

-The US interest rate market is currently fully priced for a -25bp Fed cut next week and is almost fully priced for another -25bp cut in December, as the Fed prioritises bringing support to a cooling labour market alongside sticky inflation.

-The RBA meets on the first Tuesday in November, and the interest rate market is currently pricing in 1–6bp (64% chance) of a -25bp rate cut at the RBA’s Board meeting and a cumulative -46bp of RBA cuts between now and August 2026.

-The AGM season rumbles on and should offer more insights into how the economy is performing, while some investors will look forward to October wrapping up next Friday, for now hoping the well-telegraphed collapse of the stock “bubble” doesn’t eventuate.

-Maybe a historically normal correction awaits investors as Big Tech starts quarterly earnings reporting next week?

The team at FNArena wishes everyone a great weekend.

Corporate news in the week that was:

-Litchfield Minerals (LMS)) is seeking to raise $6m from a private placement.

-Australian Strategic Minerals ((ASM)) is looking to raised $50m via an institutional placement at $1.20 per share.

-White Oak Global Advisers is moving to gain control of Sanjeev Gupta’s manganese smelter in Tasmania with an $80m plan to restart operations.

-Infratil ((IFT)) boosts its stake in Contact Energy ((CEN)) to 14.3%.

-Bank of America will receive the final bids for Westpac’s ((WBC)) $30bn RAMS loan book this week.

-Air T is expected to acquire Rex Express after 15 months in administration with most creditors unlikely to be repaid.

-BHP Group’s ((BHP)) WA assets including its nickel holdings are likely to be sold to Gold Fields.

-Credit Clear ((CCR)) launched a $14m institutional placement to fund its $11m purchase of UK-based debt collection agency ARC.

-LGI Ltd ((LGI)) is raising $40m to fund growth opportunities.

-Macquarie Group ((MQG)) plans to cut hundreds of smaller fund managers, with assets under $300bn from its $16bn super platform.

-WA’s Equus Energy, formerly Western Gas, has launched an IPO to develop its stalled Equus gas project in the Northwest Shelf region.

-Stonepeak is looking to raise up to $300m for is cornerstone Stonepeak-plus Infrastructure Debt fund.

-Tanarra Capital will vote to spill Bapcor’s ((BAP)) board unless the board commits to appointing a non-executive chair.

-Multiple buyers including Bega Cheese ((BGA)) are looking at the sale of Capilano, the iconic Australian honey brand business, by parent Hive and Wellness.

-Major shareholder in Qualitas ((QAL)), Redrock has sold -30m shares ($108.6m) or -10% of the company’s issued capital after MD, Andrew Schwartz sold -15.1m shares, lowering his stake to 19.1%.

-Pinnacle Investment Management ((PNI)) is buying a $92m stake in Japan’s Advantage Partners.

-Goldman Sachs is in early stage discussions for the $1bn sale of over 50’s lifestyle developer Lincoln Place.

-San Remo’s Crotti family has acquired 13% of Maggie Beer Holdings ((MBH)).

-OpenAI has hired more than 100 ex-investment bankers to help train its AI on how to build financial models.

-Woodside Energy ((WDS)) has sold stakes in its US LNG project to Williams for US$250m.

-Regis Healthcare ((REG)) has acquired two Victorian aged care homes for -$45m.

-Allianz leads the $100m-plus bid for nib Holdings’ ((NHF)) travel insurance division.

-Premier Foods is considering KKR’s Arnott’s meals unit for Australian expansion.

-The sale of Lendlease Group’s ((LLC)) stake in Keyton has stalled.

Next week’s Corporate Calendar

Available at https://fnarena.com/index.php/financial-news/calendar/

For a calendar of earnings result releases and a summary of earnings results to date, refer to FNArena’s Corporate Results Monitor (https://www.fnarena.com/index.php/reporting_season/)

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