But I guess if you can just talk us through the pros and cons of each to kind of help us make that decision.

Yeah, look, it is a really tricky question.

And we should point out that there's lots of pundits out there that will try and make a prediction as to what the Australian dollar is going to do, what the US dollar is going to do.

And it's very hard to predict.

I think harder to predict than what equity markets are going to do.

So it's important to sort of make that point.

It is interesting, though, we have seen that there has been growth in the use of currency-edged ETFs over the last couple of years.

It makes me think like we're talking about this concept generally, but does the answer differ for different asset classes or like different markets, you know, like Japan versus the rest of the world or something? Or is the answer kind of universal?

Is that right?

Yeah, so since the reporting season this time a year ago, the materials sector has been really what's underwritten the performance of the Australian equity market.

Copper has been so strong because of the demand for energy transition uses, but also the AI boom.

But also there is concerns that Trump might increase tariffs around refined copper going into the US, which has led to an increase in the copper price.

Interestingly, for the Australian equity market, if we look at some of our major miners, they used to depend very heavily on iron ore for their earnings.

But BHP, in their last earnings, they've reported that 54% of their overall earnings came from copper.

And indeed, if you look at the resources sector as a whole, copper now is on level pegging with iron ore for driving overall earnings growth.

And so in wrapping up, what are you telling your clients right now and where do you see the opportunities for investors?

Is that right?

Yeah, so since the reporting season this time a year ago, the materials sector has been really what's underwritten the performance of the Australian equity market.

Copper has been so strong because of the demand for energy transition uses, but also the AI boom.

But also there is concerns that Trump might increase tariffs around refined copper going into the US, which has led to an increase in the copper price.

Interestingly, for the Australian equity market, if we look at some of our major miners, they used to depend very heavily on iron ore for their earnings.

But BHP, in their last earnings, they've reported that 54% of their overall earnings came from copper.

And indeed, if you look at the resources sector as a whole, copper now is on level pegging with iron ore for driving overall earnings growth.

And so in wrapping up, what are you telling your clients right now and where do you see the opportunities for investors?

Is there potential for it to go even lower back to levels we saw pre-war anytime soon? How will it get there? And what will be the implication for investors and interest rates?

We've seen that a lot of Wall Street firms have started to reduce their price expectations to around about the current levels of $80 a barrel by the end of the year.

Citi itself has actually gone lower than that.

I think that around about $80 a barrel seems about right.

We've still got to think there's going to be a geopolitical risk premium placed on oil.

We still need to see some of the mines that have been put in the strait removed, the rerouting and shipping and the reconstruction on some of the oil infrastructure in the Middle East.

So, I expect that oil around about this level is probably around fair.

What's expected?

Is there potential for it to go even lower back to levels we saw pre-war anytime soon? How will it get there? And what will be the implication for investors and interest rates?

We've seen that a lot of Wall Street firms have started to reduce their price expectations to around about the current levels of $80 a barrel by the end of the year.

Citi itself has actually gone lower than that.

I think that around about $80 a barrel seems about right.

We've still got to think there's going to be a geopolitical risk premium placed on oil.

We still need to see some of the mines that have been put in the strait removed, the rerouting and shipping and the reconstruction on some of the oil infrastructure in the Middle East.

So, I expect that oil around about this level is probably around fair.

What's expected?

Okay.

So there's three different sources of income.

I know that, you know, dividends, we can have periods where dividends sort of start to dry up.

I don't wanna just depend on them.

I wanna make sure I'm diversified there.

And in doing so, my portfolio's gonna consist of, I'll, I'll go through the ETFs, but half will be dedicated to, to fixed income funds.

And when I say fixed income, I should say these are exposures to fixed income as an asset class, but they hold bonds that give you effectively a variable interest over time or they're floating rate.

Mm.

What are the sorts of assets that you're talking about?

Yeah, that's right.

So we're looking to launch BetaShares Space Industry ETF.

The ticker code for that will be RCKT, rocket, would be the pronunciation of that.

That's on the launch pad.

We're doing our final checks.

Nice.

take off, pardon the pun,

Like, I suppose SpaceX's revenue does come through Starlink and not rockets, but how much of the hype in terms of SpaceX is really attached to Elon Musk and also maybe a fundamental of you now starting to get involved as an ETF in that space?

Yeah.

So there's obviously, you know, a lot of excitement about the, the technology.

Uh, people can't help but, you know, get interested when you're talking about rockets.

The, the engine in terms of revenue of SpaceX is, is actually their Starlink satellite network.

So this is, this is a network of around about ten thousand what are called low Earth orbit satellites that provide broadband coverage, and we're seeing growing uptake.

There's now more than ten million subscribers globally.

So, as I said, why this ETF?

Mm.

You don't typically think of these as high growth sectors.

And, and, you know, if I'm looking to invest and I wanna see something which is gonna deliver earnings growth, well, I wanna think about those sectors.

And sort of why is that? Well, there's obviously a couple of things at play.

And in terms of energy, even beyond, um, AI, obviously what's going on in the Middle East is, is of concern.

And, you know, we have a view that, that you will see higher or structurally higher energy prices even with a resolution in terms of this crisis in Iran, and that's good for energy stocks, and their earnings growth, um, for this year is, is gone from, you know, 25% to 50%, incredibly high.

Energy stocks are very cheap relative to other sectors.

Oh, yeah

Countdown.

Look, I mean, the key technologies that we w- that we've sort of seen really evolve are, are, are twofold.

One is firstly the, the real, you know, sort of, I guess, growth in what we call low-Earth orbit satellites.

Uh, so these are satellites that, uh, orbit around the Earth anywhere between, uh, 160 kilometers and 2,000 kilometers above the Earth.

Uh, and they fly around the Earth in around about 90 minutes.

They, because they're quite close to Earth, they have low latency in terms of their signal reaching the Earth.

So if you're looking to have connectivity with a satellite, it, it's really good to be close to the Earth's surface.

And this will only take off, pardon the pun, over the next decade or so, Cameron?

Now, below 100 US, is the market taking the view now that we might be coming close to an end to this war?

I think it's interesting to look at the oil price and look at oil markets and to try and define what we make of the longevity of this war.

Yes, the oil price is down, down below $100 a barrel.

But we can also look at futures markets, so oil for delivery in the future.

And it's notable to see that the price for oil for delivery in 2027 hasn't really moved.

What I see this movement in the spot prices reflecting is not so much the expectation that the war will be wrapped up shortly, but that more extreme scenarios have been avoided.

When Israel attacked the South Pars gas field, we started to worry about an escalation, a broadening of the conflict.

What do you make of this huge volatility? Because surely someone is making money from all these little comments that the US president says that seems to be moving the markets.

But does it feel any different to you this time around? And to what extent are you concerned?

I think it is different.

The scope of both the attacks and the retaliation are very different to, for example, the 12-day war that we saw the US and Israel attack Iran about June last year.

That was very much contained around air defences and nuclear-related facilities.

And the response was forewarned by Iran in terms of missiles sent towards Israel.

The response this time, well, firstly, Israel and the US are essentially trying to eliminate the leadership within Iran, both in the government and military.

They also obviously have gone after a far wider range of targets.

How would you describe reporting season in general?