Live: ASX set to rise as SpaceX AI revenue surges

Pinned

• ASX 200 futures: +0.4% to 8,866 points
  
• Australian dollar: -0.1% to 69.99 US cents
• Dow Jones: +1% to 52,495 points
• S&P 500: +0.3% to 7,712 points
• Nasdaq: -0.02% to 26,424 points
• FTSE: -0.3% to 10,733 points
• EuroStoxx: -0.1% to 638 points
• Spot gold: -0.4% to $US4,124/ounce
• Brent crude: -0.4% to $US109.11/barrel
• Iron ore: +0.1% to $US91.15/tonne
• Bitcoin: +0.1% to $US82,853

Prices current around 8:20am AEDT.

Key Event

I'm down at the Citi Investment Conference in Sydney, listening to RBA deputy governor Andrew Hauser speaking with Citi's chief economist for Australia Josh Williamson, before he takes audience questions.

Josh fishes for hints about the prospect of a November rate hike, currently priced in as only about a 30% possibility according to financial markets.

Andrew Hauser likens the question to the opening delivery of a Mitchell Starc over, probably an apt analogy for an Englishman!

He starts by observing that the RBA was the first developed economy central bank to move rates up this year, to be followed by many others.

"We were, if anything, ahead of the curve," he observes.

However, he then goes on to say that inflation was "materially" higher than the Reserve Bank's last forecasts in August.

He also warns that the bank has to prevent one-off supply shocks feeding through into second round effects, where other prices start increasing across the economy.

"You have to react in order to prevent those on-flow effects," he says.

Key Event

RBA deputy governor Andrew Hauser is speaking at the Citi Investment Conference in Sydney.

He's talking currently about the tough choices facing the central bank at the moment.

Michael Janda is at the conference and will be giving us updates.

An ABC investigation has found Australian investors lost millions to a licensed investment scheme they allege was an international scam with possible terrorism links.

They are now asking how it went undetected by authorities and its financial licensor.

Read more from reporter Alex Turner-Cohen:

Key Event

Elon Musk's SpaceX posted a third-quarter profit overnight that blew past estimates as revenue more than doubled thanks to its surging AI business, sending its shares up 2.5% in extended trading.

Capital expenses nearly tripled as it invested in compute infrastructure.

"We are in an inflection moment for SpaceX across launch, connectivity and superintelligence," Musk said on a call with investors.

Starlink and SpaceX's broader connectivity operations have been the company's main financial engine, underpinning Musk's AI ambitions.

But SpaceX's own AI software, including xAI's Grok, has so far been overshadowed by rivals OpenAI, Anthropic and Alphabet's Google.

Revenue in the third quarter surged 161% to $US14.58 billion for the three months ended September 30, compared with analysts' estimate of $US12.72 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.

AI revenue rose more than ninefold to $US7.6 billion, mostly from renting out computing capacity, but AI took $US16.4 billion of the company's $US19.6 billion in capital spending, which SpaceX expects to stay near that level in the near future.

SpaceX is making its AI money mainly by renting out data centre capacity to developers such as Anthropic, Google and Reflection AI rather than from its own models, a business closer to a cloud provider's than an AI lab's.

"With AI revenue now the company's biggest business line, the company's hyperscale business is quickly providing operating strength and leverage which will carry into the advancements of its satellite and launch business. Increasingly the strength and diversification of SpaceX makes a merger with Tesla feel imminent," said Daniel Newman, CEO of tech research group The Futurum Group.

Barclays suggested last week that a deal could be announced before Tesla's annual meeting, with SpaceX the likelier acquirer, though neither company nor Musk has officially committed to favouring a deal.

The company's AI business spans Grok, social media platform X and a fast-growing data centre operation. It is also the company's biggest area of investment.

Operating losses at the AI unit have been large and SpaceX has cautioned it will need sustained investment before it can consistently generate profits.

The satellite-internet unit has continued to expand its subscriber base, aided by additional satellite launches and a growing range of consumer, enterprise, aviation, maritime and government services.

Reuters

Key Event

Good morning, welcome to another day of market moves here on the blog.

It looks like it could be a positive start for the local share market, after a pretty down day yesterday.

Futures are up 0.4% at the moment, indicating the ASX 200 could post a modest rise.

It follows a mostly positive finish for US stocks, with the Dow gaining 1%.

Shares in SpaceX are up in after-hours trade, as the firm beat revenue estimates in its quarterly report — we'll bring you the details shortly.

Yesterday, the ASX 200 fell 0.3%, with a steeper fall for NAB shares after it announced sweeping job cuts.

We'll also be watching NextDC shares today — the stock is due to come out of a trading halt.

And in the next hour, RBA deputy governor Andrew Hauser is due to speak in Sydney, a so-called "fireside chat". Business editor Michael Janda is at the event and will have live coverage here on the blog for us.

Stick with us!