Overnight the House of Republicans passed Trump’s tax bill called – and yes this is the actual name – the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. This is as if a group of lazy high school students had to do a politics assignment.
- S&P 500 = -0.04%
- Nasdaq = +0.28%
- Aussie dollar down 0.3% to 64.16US cents
- Iron down 0.5% to $99.30 US a tonne
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder
What is actually in this beautiful bill? The main headlines will be about tax. I went to a presentation by Global Value Fund Ltd (ASX: GVF) and Miles Staudie was adamant these tax cuts will replace tariffs in the headlines.
The bill is enormous. It covers items such as a tax on university endowments, more mining on public land, ‘MAGA’ (in this instance it stands for Money Accounts for Growth and Advancement) kids savings accounts, no tax on gun silencers, cut backs on food aid, cuts to Medicaid and more. This article by AP News covers it in detail.
The headlines will be for Trump’s tax cuts. These are an extension of the tax cuts for business and individuals from when he was last in office in 2017 and the bill is to make them permanent.
When these tax cuts were introduced back in 2017 markets rallied. Today, there’s greater concern due to the governments ballooning debt. US debt currently sits at $36 trillion and analysts believe this new bill could increase that by as much as $4 trillion. Last week credit ratings agency Moody’s downgraded the US’s credit rating.
The beautiful bill is expected to face stiff competition to pass the Senate.
HR departments busy at Australia’s miners
Both Fortescue Ltd (ASX: FMG) and Rio Tinto Ltd (ASX: RIO) announced executive departures yesterday. Fortescue had been running a joint leadership role, but CEO of Energy Mark Hutchinson will retire and make way for Gus Pichot – formally head of Fortescue’s Latin America division to take the role of CEO.
In the announcement Pichot highlighted the instability in the world right now and Fortescue’s balance sheet strength as a great opportunity to seize future growth possibilities in green metals, energy and tech.
Over at Rio, CEO Jakob Stausholm will step down later this year. No successor has been announced and a search is underway. Stausholm came in to right the ship at Rio in a period where the miner seemed to be kicking non stop own goals. This included the disastrous Juukan Gorge incident and significant internal bullying, harassment and racism claims.
Finally, this week the embattled Mineral Resources Limited (ASX: MIN) found its Chair with Malcolm Bundey stepping up to the plate. In a rough start to the week the AFR referred to Bundey as a “Kia Cerato” when compared to names that were thrown around such as former BHP Chair, Ken McKenzie.
One of Bundey’s jobs will be to get that ethics committee back on deck, currently it’s a committee of one, him!
For his efforts, Bundey will trouser an annual salary of $750,000, split evenly between cash and shares. In addition, he has been granted 780,000 options, which are exercisable in July 2026, 2027 and 2028 at an exercise price of $25.40. These options are subject to performance conditions. The 2026 options vest if the share price reaches at least $30 on the vesting date, the 2027 options need to hit $35 and the 2028 $40.
God speed Mal. But be careful on that haul road!
