Australia Briefing
Good morning, it’s Amy in Melbourne with all the news you need this Friday. The public spat between Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump
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Good morning, it’s Amy in Melbourne with all the news you need this Friday. The public spat between Elon Musk and US President Donald Trump is escalating fast, but first….

Today’s must-reads:
• Push to increase military spending 
• Turnbull discusses the Port of Darwin 
• New podcast on golden visas 

What's happening now

US President Donald Trump wants Indo-Pacific allies to bump up their military spending — but it’s not that simple. Few economies in Asia see his target of 5% of gross domestic product as economically or politically viable. On top of that, bond markets are already nervous about growing budget shortfalls. 

Staying on geopolitics, former PM Malcolm Turnbull has told Bloomberg Television he could have halted the lease of the Port of Darwin to a Chinese company shortly after coming to power a decade ago. Turnbull said security agencies assured him at the time there were no concerns about the deal. 

Australia scrapped its version of the golden visa last year, after concerns the scheme was being rorted. Meanwhile, New Zealand has just revamped its own system and is preparing to welcome wealthy expats with open arms. This week on the Bloomberg Australia podcast, Rebecca Jones speaks to wealth editor Ainsley Thomson about why golden visas are making a comeback in some parts of the world. 

Household spending remained tepid in April. Consumers directed their spare cash to services like eating out rather than goods such as clothing and cars. Australian households are among the most heavily indebted in the world and have struggled with high borrowing costs and elevated inflation. 

Australian financier Lex Greensill’s biggest backers at SoftBank Group Corp. were concerned that he “was prone to lying” and saw the Japanese investor as a “piggy bank,” according to a London lawsuit that stems from the collapse of his trade finance firm. Greensill, once valued at $3.5 billion, collapsed into insolvency in March 2021. 

Citigroup Inc. has a new head of equity capital markets for Australia and New Zealand. John McLean is replacing Rob Jahrling, who is leaving the bank. 

What happened overnight

Here’s what my colleague, market strategist Mike “Willo” Wilson says happened while we were sleeping…

It was a busy Thursday. The euro was higher after the European Central Bank cut rates by 25 basis points to 2%, with policymakers said to expect a pause at their next meeting. Across the pond, US stocks started well after a positive Trump-Xi phone call that even saw Trump accept an invitation to visit China. However, the Trump-Musk break-up then hit Tesla shares and dragged the broader market lower. Futures indicate that dour sentiment will bleed into the opening of local stock indexes. The Aussie and kiwi dollars added to their good week and should hold those gains into US jobs data tonight, given local economic calendars are pretty bare.

Grab the popcorn... as Willo mentioned, the public feud between Elon Musk and Trump is escalating. Musk said he would end use of Space Exploration Technologies Corp.’s Dragon spacecraft and called for the impeachment of the president. 

Meanwhile, Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke on the phone for 90-minutes on Thursday. The pair agreed to further talks and Trump acknowledged the trade relationship with China had gotten "a little off track" but said they are now "in very good shape" with a trade deal.

Chinese officials summoned the heads of major electric vehicle makers, including BYD Co., to Beijing earlier this week to address concerns about the long-running price war, according to people familiar with the matter. Officials told EV makers to “self-regulate,” and that they shouldn’t sell cars below cost or offer unreasonable price cuts. 

A BYD Co. Dolphin Surf electric vehicle at the model launch event in Paris in May. Photographer: Cyril Marcilhacy/Bloomberg

What to watch

• Australia May foreign reserves data released at 4:30p.m. in Sydney

One more thing...

AI-faked celebrities used in advertising are one of the newest tools helping fraudsters trick unsuspecting people. This feature for Bloomberg Businessweek explains how the deceptive ads, featuring some of the world’s biggest stars, were used to sign Americans up for government-subsidized health-insurance plans, whether they wanted them or not. Hundreds of thousands of people complained to US federal regulators that they’d been duped. 

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