Market news & insights

In the "Year of Proof" 2026, the relationship between the US consumer and the Asian producer has entered a period of sharp divergence. Following the US Supreme Court's decision to invalidate previous emergency tariffs, the transition to the Section 122 regime raised the average effective US tariff rate to 10.3%.

Tariffs do not hit every company the same way. For US retailers and consumer brands, the first pressure point is usually margin.

Every so often, a market move catches traders off guard. Not because the news was surprising, but because many traders were already positioned the same way.

For the past three years, investing in artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure has followed a relatively simple logic: find the companies building the picks and shovels for the gold rush. At the top of that list sat one name: NVIDIA.

This is the second part of the GO Markets VIX Playbook. The first piece covered the basics and explored what the VIX measures, what it does not, why traders watch it and where new traders most often misread it. If you skipped it, start there as the foundation matters.

Tuesday, 12 May 2026, at roughly 7:30 pm AEST, Treasurer Jim Chalmers will stand up in Canberra and deliver the 2026-27 Federal Budget. According to Budget.gov.au, that is when the Budget is officially released, with the Budget papers going live online at the same time.