Next Month At A Glance – Dec 24 – Jan 30, 2026

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This story features SPARK NEW ZEALAND LIMITED, and other companies.
For more info SHARE ANALYSIS: SPK
The company is included in ASX300 and ALL-ORDS

A brief look at important company events and economic data releases scheduled for the month ahead.

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

-For those investors retaining a watchful eye or a passing holiday glance on markets as we move into the end of 2025, Santa has arrived with the ASX200 up 2.29% over the last five trading days to Christmas Eve. which is seeing some profit taking move in on the final half-day before Xmas.

-The US S&P500 reached a new all time high ahead of Christmas Eve, with precious metals and industrial metals like copper continuing to rally.

-Arguably, US markets have climbed a wall of worry in 2025, from tariff concerns around inflation to a pending bust of an “AI-related” bubble. Technology stocks are rallying into year end, thus far.

-The Australian market has managed to move higher again in 2025, with the final tally a few days off. The ASX200 reached its highest close in six weeks at the close on Tuesday.

-Under the surface, the big rotation out of quality growth stocks, healthcare and information technology into materials, including gold stocks, was the dominant theme of the last five months. For some investors 2025 has disappointed, while others will be popping the gold, silver, lithium, to name a few, champagne corks.

-In part, the sell off in quality and growth has emanated from a 180 degree U turn from the RBA, with the market now pricing in 9bps of rate hikes for February 3, the next central bank meeting. There are 25bps of rate hikes priced for July and a cumulative 39bps of rate hikes between now and the end of 2026, as inflation has remained stubbornly high.

-January 2026 is shaping up as a very important month for RBA crystal ball gazers and stock market sentiment. January 7 sees the November CPI print and January 28 the December quarter CPI print.

-The RBA forecasts trimmed mean inflation to rise 0.8% QoQ in Q4. A print at or below this level would likely see the RBA keep the cash rate steady at 3.60%, while a reading of 1.0% or higher could trigger a 25bp hike as early as February.

-Prior to that, the December unemployment rate will be announced on January 22.

-February will be no less important, with the RBA meeting to start the month followed by interim reporting season.

As 2025 draws to a close, the team at FNArena would like to wish everyone a happy and safe holiday season. We look forward to keeping you informed in 2026.

The local bourse will be closed for the coming two days, then resume for 2.5 days of trading prior to New Year’s Eve, then resume on January 2.

The calendar remains largely empty until January 7 and volumes are likely to remain thin.

For more details: https://fnarena.com/index.php/financial-news/calendar/

The FNArena service will resume on January 8, and gradually ramp up onward.

Corporate news in the week that was:

-Spark NZ ((SPK)) has partnered with Challenger ((CGF)) to establish a new financing structure for interest-free plans to mobile handset customers

-Potentia Capital is acquiring HotDoc which was put up for sale in May for $250m-$300m

-Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management and General Catalyst have agreed to buy Janus Henderson Group Plc for US$7.4bn

-Droneshield ((DRO)) is establishing a mandatory minimum shareholding policy for all directors and senior management

-Victoria’s revived State Electricity Commission has made its first investment in wind power generation, committing about -$650 million to build the Delburn wind project

-Larry Ellison, the father of Paramount CEO David Ellison, is personally guaranteeing around US$40.4bn in equity as part of Paramount’s bid for Warner Bros Discovery

– Goodman Group ((GMG)) shares jumped over 8% announcing a $14bn European data centre partnership, a 50-50 venture that involves an initial -$3.9bn capital commitment to develop data centres in Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Paris

– Seven West Media ((SWM)) shares rose 4.2% as the Supreme Court of NSW approved its merger with Southern Cross Media ((SXL))

-Ramsay Health Care ((RHC)) announced it has moved to acquire the assets and operations of National Capital Private Hospital in Canberra from Healthscope receivers for -$251m

-Scentre Group ((SCG)) has sold a -19.9 % stake in its flagship Westfield Sydney precinct to the Australian Retirement Trust (ART) for $864m

– Core Lithium ((CXO)) has completed the sale of its non-core uranium assets to Elevate Uranium for $5m

– Perseus Mining ((PRU)) has lifted its debt facility to US$400m and extended it to a three-year term plus an option to extend for two years.

-At least 1700 jobs have been put at risk after MA Services Group entered voluntary administration following a string of high-profile scandals

-Electro Optic Systems ((EOS)) has secured a contract to deliver remote weapon systems (RWS) to General Dynamics Land Systems including hardware, development, spare parts and training for US$22m.

-AirTrunk is spending -$5bn for a second Melbourne data centre

-Lend Lease Group ((LLC)) is developing a -$2.2bn commercial tower in central Sydney by 2032 above Hunter Street Sydney Metro

-Blackstone acquires Queensland’s Hamilton Island for more than -$1bn

-EVT ((EVT)) is acquiring QT Auckland hotel for NZ$87.5m

-Droneshield has won a $6.2m contract tied to an Asia Pacific military end-customer

-Genesis Capital Investment Management and WH Soul Pattinson ((SOL)) has withdrawn its proposal to acquire Monash IVF Group ((MVF))

-Luxembourg company, Platin and Goudet has taken a 5.05% stake in Treasury Wine Estates ((TWE))

Next month’s Corporate Calendar

For a calendar of upcoming events, see FNArena’s Corporate Calendar:

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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