A landmark High Court ruling celebrated by environmentalists is causing consternation for coal miners and investors as they pore over its potential wide-ranging consequences.

Labor has meanwhile tried to hose down coalition demands for federal intervention to shore up black gold’s future.  

The High Court on Wednesday delivered a 3-2 split ruling in favour of community environmentalists who challenged a major open-cut mine expansion in NSW’s Hunter region.

It upheld a ruling from the state appeals court that found planning authorities must consider climate impacts of downstream emissions when reviewing projects.

In his reasons, Justice James Edelman cited expert Professor Penny Sackett’s estimate that the project, if it went ahead, would be one of the 650 largest greenhouse gas-emitting projects worldwide.

The mining industry feared the judgment’s wider implications.

“Mines may have to work out how to reduce emissions from their export customers, or Scope 3 emissions,” Minerals Council chief executive Tania Constable said. 

“Investors in Australia’s resource sector will carefully review the outcome from today’s High Court judgment and the potential ramifications for other projects.”

The mining body called on the NSW government – overseeing some of the nation’s richest coal deposits – to further protect planning approvals. 

Reacting to the decision, Environment Minister Murray Watt said the “novel decision” did not automatically impact federal environmental approvals.

“The decision from the High Court is in relation to a NSW government decision based on NSW legislation,” he told News24 on Wednesday.

“To my knowledge, that’s the first time the High Court has made that kind of a finding.” 

But the coalition called on state and federal governments to intervene to leave no room for legal doubt among trading partners that Australia would still be a top coal exporter.

In a pointed message to the lucrative sector, NSW Natural Resources Minister Courtney Houssos calmed down fears about coal mine extensions

“It does not mean the expansion cannot be reconsidered or that coal mine extensions cannot be approved.”

Muswellbrook landowner Wendy Wales led the case against the planned expansion of the Mount Pleasant mine.

The retired science teacher dubbed the decision a win for Hunter communities.

“We have experienced the change from a country town with a mine over the hill, to a town that is now encircled by mines,” she said.

“Especially when the temperature rises, that town bears that burden straight up.

“We’re grateful to be in that position to actually be part of this today.”

A spokesman for MACH Energy said the mine’s workers had lived with fear and uncertainty for too long. 

Lawyers involved in the case said the court’s decision would be groundbreaking for climate litigation in Australia.

“This decision is one that will be studied around the world,” Elaine Johnson said. 

The ruling comes after MACH Energy, owned by an Indonesian conglomerate, sought to extend the life of Mount Pleasant coal mine in the Hunter by 22 years and nearly double its yearly output.

The state planning commission in 2022 approved the plans before local Hunter Valley residents launched a legal challenge.

They failed on their first attempt, before NSW’s highest court unanimously ruled the approval unlawful in 2025.

The appeal court found planning authorities are legally required to consider the climate impact of Scope 3 emissions – caused when the coal is eventually burnt, including when exported overseas – on local communities.

The court suggested that could involve conditions to refine the coal before export, only export to signatories of the Paris Agreement or require expected Scope 3 emissions to be offset.

MACH Energy took the finding to the High Court, which struck down the appeal on Wednesday morning.

As a stop-gap measure, NSW in August allowed the mine – employing about 500 full-time equivalent jobs – to operate until 2032, and slightly increase yearly production. 

The 22-year expansion proposal will return to the NSW Land and Environment Court, which will consider whether the matter must return to the Independent Planning Commission.

The Australian bourse has ended a disappointing session after trading sideways for most of the day, as investors took a cautious stance given a lack of obvious direction from Asia. 

The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was little changed after shedding just eight points, or 0.09 per cent, on Wednesday to close at 8727.7, as the broader All Ordinaries edged down 0.1 per cent, or 8.9 points, to 8894.6.

The day got off to a slightly positive start after Wall Street locked in fresh record highs for the US market’s key S&P500 and Nasdaq indices on the back of a technology sector rally.

But the momentum faded, as the domestic bourse wasn’t up to matching the US tech lead, given a lack of similar listed companies in Australia.

“But there’s also a dearth of news and data right now,” Capital.com senior market analyst Kyle Rodda told AAP, noting that China is on holiday for the annual Gold Week celebrations marking the founding of its republic.

“Ultimately, we’re a market in need of a catalyst.

“It’ll probably have to come from geopolitical developments in the Middle East or perhaps the US earnings season when it kicks off next week.”

Across the market, falls in the heavyweight financial and materials or mining sectors outweighed a scattering of gains in the remaining nine segments, including energy and health care. 

Amongst the banks, Westpac gave up 1.21 per cent to $34.24, as Commonwealth Bank dipped 1.32 per cent to $150.37, National Australia Bank offloaded 0.78 per cent to $38.40, although ANZ edged up by a tiny 0.24 per cent to $37.95.

BHP lost just under one per cent to $62.45, followed by Rio Tinto, which fell by about the same to $166.74 and Fortescue, which shed almost 2.5 per cent to $16.01.

Local gold producers did a little better, with the country’s biggest miner Northern Star gaining about two per cent to $24.37, as the precious metal firmed slightly in Asia region trading to $US4158 ($A5954) an ounce.

Northern Star is still at the centre of a takeover speculation, despite recently rejecting a bid from a South Africa-based rival, Gold Fields.

Of the rising stocks, uranium miner Deep Yellow led the way with a 4.6 per cent gain to $1.14 while Telix Pharmaceuticals made good headway with a three per cent rise to $15.87 after telling the market its first US patients had been dosed with its Pixclara brain cancer imaging drug.

But real estate sector darling Arena was a highlight after surging around 13 per cent to $2.35, after the trust revealed one of its under-pressure tenants will transfer 31 of its childcare facilities to Goodstart Early Learning.

Elsewhere, consumer staples Woolworths and Coles were both little changed, with the former closing at $38.22 and the latter at $22.88.

The Australian dollar was buying 69.70 US cents, up from 69.69 US cents on Tuesday at 5pm.

ON THE ASX:

* The S&P/ASX200 fell eight points, or 0.09 per cent, to 8727.7

* The broader All Ordinaries fell 8.9 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 8894.6.

One Australian dollar trades for:

* 69.70 US cents, from 69.69 US cents at 5pm AEST on Tuesday

* 110.38 Japanese yen, from 1110.17 Japanese yen

* 62.07 euro cents, from 62.16 euro cents

* 52.61 British pence, from 52.74 pence

* 124.37 NZ cents, from 124.52 NZ cents

Under-pressure families suffering cutbacks to their disability supports are being referred to child protection services if they complain.

A parliamentary review into Australia’s disability support scheme has been told that the practice – while not commonplace – takes place across the country.

The WA-based South West Autism Network has documented more than 20 examples of surprise visits from authorities that have followed National Disability Insurance Scheme assessments.

“They just knock on the door without warning, saying they’re from child protection and there’s been a complaint,” the group’s chief executive Nick Avery told AAP.

The allegations – denied by the National Disability Insurance Agency, which administers the scheme – come amid a tightening of support services which have left many families fearful and frustrated.

Ms Avery recently told senators that parents who outlined concerns about their ability to support their autistic children had been targeted. 

“When they query large funding cuts, they’re being told ‘that’s parental responsibility (and) if you can’t perform your parental responsibilities we’ll have to contact child protection and family support’,” she said. 

“NDIS staff are following through on that threat … simply because the parents are asking for more support for their child.”

Similar experiences were documented anonymously at the royal commission into the treatment of disabled Australians, which ended in 2023.

“When I lost my NDIS supports, I couldn’t keep up with everything,” one person wrote.

“Then I got a call saying there had been a report to child protection. It was like they were waiting for me to fail.”

The same royal commission found the child-protection system often punished parents with disability for systemic failures that were not their fault.

According to the autism network, based on known cases, the visits failed to produce interventions because “there was no evidence of violence, abuse, neglect, nothing”.

“We have heard from both child protection staff and from families affected by this that the investigator was quite annoyed to have this family reported with no evidence,” Ms Avery said.

Families involved – which span at least WA, NSW and SA – are reluctant to talk about their experiences, even anonymously, due to fear of retribution.

A WA Department of Communities spokesman said the agency investigated child safety matters when there were wellbeing concerns linked to potential neglect or abuse.

An NDIA spokesman said that complaining about NDIS funding would not result in a referral.

“Child protection referrals occur only where there are child safety concerns that meet relevant legal and policy thresholds,” a statement to AAP said.

The government plans to move tens of thousands of people with autism – the largest cohort receiving NDIS support – off the scheme each year to 2030 to ease budgetary pressures.

At $51 billion, the NDIS was the second-most expensive program in last year’s federal budget, behind only the aged pension.

Recent cutbacks to the scheme include halving support given to “social and community participation” and a 10 per cent cut to services like speech therapy.

Decisions for each family come down to all-important assessments, often undertaken by agency staff via phone call.

Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA) says that process can be terrifying.

“CYDA continues to raise concerns about the experience many families face when interacting with the very systems that are designed to support them,” acting chief executive Liz Hudson said.

“The evidence is clear. Governments cannot say they do not know what families are experiencing.”

The community services sector has opposed the NDIS cuts, which were codified in August when related laws passed with support from the coalition.

Fortifying Australia’s cyber defences against artificial intelligence attacks has been compared to putting up stop signs in a world where cars have no brakes.

The warning came two weeks after an OpenAI agent’s breach of a Medicare platform sent Canberra scrambling to secure government data against AI’s rapidly developing digital weaponry. 

A rapid review task force will sniff out any legal recourse to punish the tech giant for the break-in, but Labor has been warned being overzealous will spook AI firms when they’re more needed than ever to defend against attacks.

In hearings in Sydney on Wednesday, members of a committee investigating AI’s potentials and pitfalls were told defending against the technology was a two-way street.

“Good road rules are important, but the rules of the road were never enough – a stop sign won’t work if you don’t have brakes in that car,” Cybersecurity firm Palo Alto Networks policy spokeswoman Nicole Quinn told the hearing.

“Seatbelt, airbags, crumble zones … we call the AI equivalent of this secure AI by design.”

Unlike cars, however, AI did not have decades to develop into a safer technology.

“This ecosystem introduces attack surfaces that traditional models in our world in cybersecurity were never built to address,” Ms Quinn said. 

“We’re adding lots of new componentry to a current vehicle, and we don’t quite know where they’re sourced from.”

Addressing the threats AI posed required privileged access to models to detect threats before they reared their heads, and laws that forced firms to bake safeguards into their models as they were built, the committee heard.

It required carefully balancing prudent regulation with giving the technology room to breathe.

“You can go too far one way in which you will regulate too harshly and stop that innovation cycle … or you can not regulate enough and (it) becomes a wild west,” Palo Alto chair Tom Scully said.

Australia needed to mobilise its cybersecurity service, foreign intelligence partnerships and the government’s new AI safety institute to lift the lid on groundbreaking models and investigate them for threats, according to the experts.

With 25 staff and $7.5 million in funding, Ms Quinn hinted the institute needed to be better equipped for the problem at hand.

“I would look at growing that investment,” she said, but did not stipulate how much funding might be required. 

Almost 30 per cent of systems’ critical vulnerabilities were now being exploited within 24 hours, they said, adding that while a longer head start was better, having that crucial window would put cyber defenders on much better footing. 

They mentioned Anthropic’s “Glasswing” project, fired up when one of their models became alarmingly good at exploiting software vulnerabilities, giving certain players early access to their newest models. 

An up-to-date index of AI agents, like the one which breached the Medicare site in June, was also badly needed, the cybersecurity boffins said. 

OpenAI, whose representative Jason Kwon apologised before the committee on Tuesday, has copped stern criticism for waiting weeks to inform the federal government the hack had happened.

The inquiry earlier heard data centres risked giving the economy a brief “sugar hit” if they were not accompanied by AI training facilities, and that Australia’s unique advantages could be bled overseas. 

Australia’s goal of building 1.2 million homes in five years has fallen further out of reach, despite the housing pipeline swelling to a record high.

The nation completed 355,817 dwellings in the first two years of the National Housing Accord, which started in July 2024.

By the end of June 2026, Australia needed to have built 480,000 new homes to be on track to hit the target by mid-2029, meaning the sector is short 124,183 homes.

The industry is picking up pace, at least.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday reported 47,168 homes were built in the June quarter.

While that’s below the required run rate of about 70,000, it’s better than the 44,592 dwellings completed in the three months ended March.

The total number of dwellings commenced in the quarter also rose.

New housing starts were up seven per cent to 52,201, driven by an 11.6 per cent jump in detached houses, while apartments and townhouses were basically unchanged.

Total dwellings under construction climbed to 248,733 – the highest number on record.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers and Housing Minister Clare O’Neil said the strengthening building activity figures contrasted with falling commencements and completions when Labor came to office in 2022.

“These are encouraging numbers but we know they can bounce around from quarter to quarter and that there’s more work to do,” they said in a statement.

But falling house prices, driven by rising interest rates and changes to property investor tax breaks, would likely cause growth in dwelling investment to soften, CBA associate economist Lucinda Jerogin said.

Master Builders Australia forecasts Australia would fall short of the housing accord target by 262,000 homes.

More recent housing indicators suggested conditions had deteriorated since the end of June and the outlook for new projects was becoming increasingly challenging, Master Builders chief executive Denita Wawn said.

“Recent policy decisions have been death by a thousand cuts for small building businesses at exactly the time Australia needs them delivering more homes and critical infrastructure,” she said.

Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn told ABC radio he did not expect the housing market to bottom out until well into 2027.

With data centre investment also fuelling a surge in non-residential construction, the total value of work done climbed to $45.8 billion in the quarter – 10 per cent higher than the June quarter 2025.

The data centre project pipeline grew by 20.1 per cent in the June quarter, following a 62.6 per cent surge in the first quarter, Ms Jerogin said.

“(It) places the pipeline at almost four times its size compared to a year ago. The data centre building pipeline is now more than twice as large as that of office buildings,” she said

“As a share of GDP, data centre projects have risen from just 0.4 per cent two years ago to now account for 2.5 per cent.”

Combined with purchases of IT equipment to fit out the data centres – which is a much larger share of total investment – the total feasible pipeline is estimated to be about $220 billion.

But the data centre build-out has heightened competition for in-demand construction workers and made it harder for home builders to find the skills they need.

The Housing Industry Association and the National Electrical and Communications Association recently warned data centres were placing unprecedented pressure on an stretched construction workforce.

They called on the government to increase investment in apprenticeships and accelerate skilled migration pathways for priority occupations.

The federal coalition announced on Tuesday it would lift Australia’s skilled migrant intake and prioritise construction trades, while slashing the overall stock of temporary migrants by 650,000 over four years, if it won the next election.

Australia will spend $3 million to buffer Pacific nations against the devastating effects of climate change as Prime Minister Anthony Albanese calls on more nations to help the region.  

The announcement at the pre-COP31 event in Fiji on Wednesday will fund four projects in island nations Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu and Kiribati, including road and communication infrastructure. 

But the news comes as a report warned the funding gap for climate finance in Pacific nations could be as large as $5.7 billion a year, leaving nations struggling to adapt to the warming environment. 

Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen announced Australia’s program at the event, revealing Climate Infrastructure for Resilient Coastlines and Riverbanks was designed to protect against damage caused by rising sea levels and erosion. 

The projects would focus on roads in Fiji and Papua New Guinea, and communication cables in Kiribati and Tuvalu. 

Climate threats and natural disasters were becoming more frequent and damaging, Mr Bowen said, reinforcing the need to protect assets in small nations that were more vulnerable to harm and less able to rebuild.

“We know that this is taking an increasing proportion of the (gross domestic product) of Pacific islands, both in terms of disaster recovery and also the need to invest in resilience,” he said

“Without action, climate-driven damage would sever these vital links and cut off the communities that rely on them.”

The pre-COP31 event in Nadi has hosted international speakers including Timor-Leste president Jose Ramos-Horta and former New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern, and will act as a precursor to the headline COP31 climate event held in Turkey in November.

The announcement comes after Fiji unveiled a $10 million contribution to the Pacific Resilience Facility, a fund designed to collect $US500 million to support climate adaptation projects in the region. 

Australia has committed $100 million to the facility and Mr Albanese called on other governments, financial institutions and investors to use COP31 to back the Pacific-led climate project.

“Investing in resilience today is far better than paying the cost tomorrow – it actually saves money,” he said. 

“It always astonishes me that people who call themselves economic rationalists aren’t terribly rational about (the) cost-benefit analysis of investments.”

The call came as aid agency Caritas Australia released research into the Pacific economy that found small nations could face a much larger climate finance funding gap than expected. 

The Turbulent Waters report, based on research from the International Monetary Fund, estimated the current annual gap was between $4.3 billion and $5.7 billion. 

The report found climate adaptation projects alone could cost $4.7 billion, and Caritas Australia CEO Kirsten Sayers said larger nations needed to invest to prevent these countries suffering an unfair burden.

“This new research suggests the scale of that challenge is far greater than previously understood,” she said. 

“This COP, the message from Pacific communities is clear: climate finance must be fair, accessible and grounded in the priorities of the people it is intended to support.”

Paramount Skydance has completed its blockbuster takeover of Warner Bros Discovery, creating a Hollywood heavyweight that hands CEO David Ellison control of one of the world’s largest entertainment and news businesses.

The deal is worth $US110 billion ($A158 billion).

It brings together the studios behind Mission: Impossible, Harry Potter ‌and DC Studios alongside major television and streaming networks such as CBS, CNN, Paramount+ and HBO Max — forming an expansive entertainment company spanning film, TV and news.

The merger is a chance “to build the next-generation media and entertainment company, powered by creativity and technology,” Ellison said in a memo to employees on ‌Tuesday, outlining his vision. 

The goal, he said, was not simply to get bigger but “to take on the biggest players in our industry”.

The new company, called Skydance, is the latest iteration of a conglomerate once controlled by the late Sumner Redstone that has precipitously shrunk over the years, as audiences flock to news ‌and entertainment delivered by a growing cadre of smaller publishers and creators who are chipping away at once-mighty Hollywood.

Skydance not only faces competition from Netflix, Disney and others, but also from tech companies Apple , Meta, and Amazon, as well as the growing threat of artificial intelligence.

Ellison said the merger was necessary to better take on these challengers at a time when the media industry had become complacent.

“They allowed Netflix to disrupt their business,” he told reporters in a press conference on Tuesday. 

“They allowed Amazon Prime Video to come and disrupt their business. They didn’t transform, and they held on to the past for too long.”

Shares of the combined company moved to the New York Stock Exchange from Nasdaq on Tuesday to trade under the ticker SKYD.

Settlements with a coalition of US states and a Hollywood writers union removed the main legal barriers to the merger, one of the largest in media history. 

It comes ‌as Hollywood faces declining cable TV subscriptions, ‌the high cost of competing for streaming audiences and ⁠persistent pressure from unions over jobs and creative workers’ rights.

President Donald Trump expressed approval on Tuesday when asked about the deal. 

“It’s going to be a great company,” he told reporters. 

“That’s ​a great merger. I’m glad they let it go.”

Ellison last week said the name Skydance was chosen to retain the individual identities of Paramount and Warner Bros studios, rather than combining them under a ‌new brand.

Wall Street analysts, however, said the ​name reinforces the extent of Ellison’s control, highlighting how some of Hollywood’s most iconic brands now answer to him and how he has a platform to impose his strategy and culture.

After merging with Paramount in 2025, Skydance set its sights on Warner Bros, entering a heated bidding contest with Netflix while drawing interest from ​other potential suitors, including Comcast.

Warner Bros shareholders received an additional $US41.9 million ($A60.0 million) in a “ticking fee,” based on the number of days between September-end and the deal-closing, according to a regulatory filing.

Skydance plans to combine its streaming services, including HBO Max and Paramount+, into a single service and has pledged to release at least 30 films each in the first two years after closing, rising to 32 a year for the following three.

Australians face “recession-like” conditions as the nation’s increasing reliance on population growth over productivity catches up with policy-makers.

The economy is likely to avoid a technical recession, defined as two consecutive quarters of contraction, but it won’t feel like it to Australian households, Deloitte Access Economics partner Stephen Smith says.

As he released Deloitte’s latest Business Outlook report on Wednesday, Mr Smith said Australia’s economic good fortune was running out.

Deloitte downgraded its economic growth forecast for 2027/28 to 1.7 per cent from 1.9 per cent in the previous forecast in June.

Australia would likely avoid a near-term recession because drivers of growth, such as strong government spending, data centre construction, and spending by older and wealthier Australians, were proving relatively impervious to higher interest rates, Mr Smith said.

Higher rates will therefore be worn hardest by low-income households, mortgage holders, home builders and businesses outside the AI bubble.

“Households will continue to experience recession-like conditions,” he said.

“That divergence will weigh on discretionary consumer spending, widen differences across sectors and intensify political pressure.”

Even though the economy was running too hot for the Reserve Bank and driving up inflation, on a per capita basis growth was relatively weak, because productivity growth has been non-existent in recent years.

“Increasingly, Australian economic growth has been achieved by adding more people to the economy rather than making each worker more productive,” Mr Smith said. 

“In short, Australia has mistaken a larger economy for one which is more prosperous.” 

Discontent about high migration levels while households have seen living standards fall in recent years has driven the rise in the polls of One Nation and prompted Labor and the coalition to announce their own plans to slash the migrant intake.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor and Nationals Leader Matt Canavan said migration had not been working for the Australian economy as they announced plans to slash net overseas migration to 100,000 in the first year they came to office. 

“Labor has become entirely reliant on migration to drive economic growth, relying on population rather than productivity to prop up GDP, that’s why we’ve seen GDP per capita go backwards,” Senator Canavan said on Tuesday.

“It’s an unsustainable model, and it must stop.”

Mr Smith said migration was still one of Australia’s great economic strengths.

“Skilled migrants expand capability, ease labour shortages, improve the population’s age structure, and deepen the tax base,” he said. 

“A smaller, older and less open Australia would face serious economic costs.”

But it was no replacement for boosting the productive capacity of the economy with adequate housing supply, infrastructure delivery, capital investment, stronger competition, skills training and greater business dynamism.

Thousands of protesters have rallied against a controversial weapons expo hailed as the nation’s largest land defence industry exhibition.

About 2000 anti-war protesters shadowed by dozens of police marched across Perth late on Tuesday towards the  Land Forces International Land Defence Exposition, waving messages such as “Stop War” and “Cut Military Spending”.

“We are the people; we won’t be silent,” some chanted as they moved down one of Perth’s busiest streets toward the weapons expo.

But the protest stopped short of the defence event, and the rally ended without incident.

Land Forces has previously been marred by violence when protesters and police clashed at the last conference in Melbourne in 2024, with dozens of people arrested and dozens of police officers injured.

High-ranking government and military officials are among the 15,000 interstate and international attendees expected to attend the three-day event in the WA capital.

Earlier on Tuesday, Defence Minister Richard Marles hailed the expo as “a display of the very best of Australia’s defence industry, and in fact, the very best of land forces capability that can be found anywhere in the world”.

“Our defence force is at the heart of our national sovereignty, and the defence industry supports them, and this is really important in terms of building our capability,” he told reporters.

“What’s really important to understand about this is that it is the defence industry which provides the equipment which keeps our soldiers, our sailors, our aviators safe.”

Among the exhibitors is Israeli defence company Rafael Advanced Defence Systems, which is showing off its Spike guided missile system.

It’s the weapon that military experts reportedly believe killed 43-year-old Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom in Gaza.

WA Greens MP Sophie McNeill, who attended the expo, called on the Land Forces organisers to boot Rafael out of the conference.

“It is so galling and so deeply upsetting to see Rafael Advanced Systems openly flaunt this missile there at the weapons fair,” she said.

“This Spike missile that we know has also killed thousands of innocent civilians in Gaza.”

Ms McNeill said Australian Army officers were being hosted by Rafael workers at the stand.

“It is so deeply inappropriate, and it shouldn’t be allowed to proceed,” she said.

Conference delegates, many in military uniforms from other nations, did not appear to share Ms McNeill’s concerns as they toured the displays of equipment and services from more than 900 companies.

Among the exhibitors is British aerospace company BAE Systems.

It is showing off its “affordable” long-range missile, which looked more like a spacecraft or drone than a traditional Hollywood version of the weapon. 

US aerospace company Boeing is also at the expo, with battle communications systems on display and a large model of its Apache helicopter.

Lockheed Martin, manufacturer of the Black Hawk helicopter, is also spruiking its wares, including defensive and offensive missile systems

Defence technology group Thales had its Australian-built armoured vehicle, the Bushmaster, at the expo, alongside missiles, rockets and the latest in firearms used by the Australian Defence Force.

Australian Army equipment boffin Brigadier James Davis said the expo was an opportunity for defence companies and soldiers from across the globe to come together and talk kit.

 “They’re talking to each other to work out how they should co-operate and what they can do together,” he said.

The Australian Army is also showing off its latest equipment, with dozens of uniformed officers at the expo alongside an impressive display of gear used by the force.

These include the latest mobile missile launchers and a combat reconnaissance vehicle painted in camouflage paint.

Brig Davis said it was the army telling its story to the industry.

“The type of equipment we’re using,” he said.

The event, which is run with the support of the Australian Army, is also an opportunity for small businesses that want to expand into the defence space.

“We want to provide a central hub for the smaller companies to come in and say, ‘I’ve got a thing. Where does this fit in your organisation’,” Brig Davis said.

European stocks have risen, extending a global equity rally as investors turned more optimistic ‌before earnings season, while easing pressure in longer-dated bonds and lower oil prices helped calm markets after last week’s fixed-income turmoil.

The euro rose 0.2 per cent to 1.1239 on Tuesday morning after sliding ‌to a 17-month low overnight, although concerns about the euro zone’s fiscal outlook persisted.

A sell-off in French bonds triggered by last week’s unpopular budget proposal showed signs of spreading across the euro ‌zone at the start of this week. 

Political uncertainty also increased after Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez called a snap election on Monday.

Bond markets stabilised on Tuesday. 

France’s 10-year bond yield fell nine basis points to 4.77 per cent after surging to its highest since the 2000s last week. 

Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, the frontrunner in the 2027 presidential election, said she wanted to cut France’s budget deficit to three per cent by 2030.

“European sovereigns have had a little bit of pressure coming off and France is looking in a better position overnight,” ‌said James Klempster, ‌deputy head of multi-asset at Liontrust ⁠in London.

“On the one hand you’ve got quite material pressure being felt on the government bond side. But ​elsewhere the corporate side of things actually don’t look too bad. You’ve got companies whose earnings remain very robust. We’re getting into the earnings season fairly soon, expectations for that are pretty high.”

The pan-European STOXX 600 rose one per cent, its third straight session of gains. 

Nasdaq futures and S&P 500 futures added about 0.2 per cent after a technology-led rally lifted the Nasdaq to a record close on Monday.

Third-quarter earnings season begins next week. 

Goldman Sachs estimates consensus forecasts imply 27 per cent growth in S&P 500 earnings, with more than half that coming from companies benefiting from AI ⁠infrastructure spending.

Nvidia, the world’s most valuable company and a bellwether for the AI trade, rose ‌one per cent in premarket ​trading, putting it on track for a market value of about $US5.8 trillion ($A8.3 trillion).

Brent crude fell 0.4 per cent to $US99.91 a barrel after dropping 1.9 per cent overnight as resilient Middle East crude exports and a ​G7 emergency stockpile ‌release eased supply concerns, though ongoing security risks in the region limited losses.

Most Asian markets rose. Japan’s Nikkei gained 1.1 per cent and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index added ​0.7 per cent, while South Korean shares fell nearly one per cent after reopening following a holiday.

Although the bond sell-off showed signs of easing, sovereign yields remained near multi-year highs as investors grappled with persistent inflation and debt concerns.

The premium investors demand to hold French 10-year bonds over safer German debt narrowed to 129.79 bps ​after ​widening last week to its highest level since the euro zone debt ​crisis in 2011.

German 10-year bond yields, the euro zone benchmark, dropped 5 bps to 3.44 per cent.

Long-dated US Treasury yields also eased after touching fresh 24-year highs overnight. 

The 10-year yield fell 3 bps to 5.2815 per cent, while the 30-year yield dropped 2.8 bps to 5.6356 per cent.

Yields have risen sharply even as markets scaled back expectations of a Federal Reserve rate increase  following a soft US jobs report and policymakers’ calls for more evidence before further tightening.

The dollar weakened broadly ​against most major currencies. 

The dollar index fell ⁠0.16 per cent to 101.99 after rising 3.5 per cent during the past month.

Spot gold rose 0.3 per cent to $US4,152.97 an ounce.