CEO INSIGHTS – Week Ending 24 April 2026

Volatility & Risk Off

“The external things to keep an eye on, deposits tend to rise when money supply is growing. GDP is growing when rates are kind of stable, on hold to falling, and also given our business, if volatility levels and risk off tend to rise, we tend to grow deposits.” John Woods, CFO, State Street Corp.

Autonomous Vehicles

“But it's obviously a topic for the future because it makes life easier for consumers. We see that, but it comes gradually. So not overnight and also not from Level 2 to Level 4.” Michael Lohscheller, CEO, Polestar Automotive Holdings PLC

Middle East

“Where work for our customers has been disrupted, including for safety reasons or supply chain and transportation challenges, project timelines have been delayed, and we continue to minimise the impact of such delays where we can. Customers are delaying commencement and award of new projects.” Market Statement, Worley Ltd

“The Middle East is the largest alumina-importing region in the world, with supply routes for raw materials heavily dependent on the Strait of Hormuz. Each year, roughly 8.8 million tons of alumina and 6 million tons of bauxite transit through the strait…That's a meaningful disruption to the global system…It moves quickly through the aluminium value chain, tightening supply, increasing cost volatility and elevating risk well beyond the region itself.” William Oplinger, CEO, Alcoa Corporation Inc.    

Securitisation

“The securitisation market, which supports our Debt Markets Services division, was robust through the quarter in the non-bank client segment.” Bernard Reilly, CEO, Perpetual Ltd

Builders

“Right now, builders need flexibility from government and private sector clients around completion dates and, where possible, contracts need to facilitate the sharing of the impact caused by unexpected cost increases outside the builder’s control.” Denita Wawn, CEO, Master Builders Australia

Supply Chain & Logistics

“We continue to monitor the evolving global impact closely and have contingency plans in place. However, we have relatively limited visibility of how the ongoing conflict will affect supply chains in H2 [2026].” Market Statement, Rio Tinto Ltd

“Consistent with this [historical] pattern, over the medium to long term, major events such as those occurring now have tended to be beneficial for Qube as customers are inclined to hold more inventory [rather than rely on just-in-time supply chains] and customers place greater value on logistics providers with a demonstrated record of reliability and strong financial and operational capability.” Market Statement, Qube Holdings Ltd

Healthcare

“Near term surgical volumes have been affected by a combination of hospital capacity constraints and reduced referral activity from the hearing aid channel. Consumer sentiment has declined in key markets, reaching historic lows in the US. The decline appears to be affecting discretionary healthcare decisions in the adults and seniors’ segment, adding to demand uncertainty in the near term.” Market Statement, Cochlear Ltd

Drones

“Ukraine and Iran show drones and counter-drone solutions are mainstream and a core feature in conflicts…Governments, law enforcement, public authorities, airports, infrastructure and public venue operators are acting on regulatory and deployment catch-up to meet critical needs.” Market Statement, DroneShield Ltd

Shopping Centres & Leases

“Average speciality rent escalations in that first quarter [1QCY26] of this year were up 5.3%.” Elliott Rusanow, CEO, Scentre Group Ltd

Mining

I wouldn't anticipate that diesel would be turned off completely for 50 or 90 days, more likely is a reduction in supply. Now that gives us the opportunity to optimise the diesel usage within our mines, to optimise our portfolio in terms of output. And I would anticipate the industry would do this. This broadly would impact all mining operations throughout Australia.” Sharif Burra, CEO, Yancoal Australia Ltd.

Residential

"Residential sales have remained resilient in New South Wales middle ring, Queensland, and Western Australia. Selected projects have seen a moderation in sales in recent weeks, but overall market fundamentals are solid, and enquiries remain strong.” Campbell Hanan, CEO, Mirvac Group Ltd

Listed Vs Unlisted

“We are a bank, and for a bank, trust is extremely important. Listed companies enjoy more trust than private companies." Nik Storonsky, CEO, Revolut [major UK digital bank]

Content Creation

“The entire process of creation today is fragmenting across lots of different tools and workflows, and it’s becoming more and more disparate.” Melanie Perkins, CEO, Canva

Technology

“Every major technology wave has followed a pattern. Value begins with infrastructure, moves to enabling platforms and ultimately concentrates on the workflows where businesses operate…Enterprises will want to retain control of the proprietary data. AI will run everywhere across public cloud, private and sovereign clouds and on-premise. The core challenge is making all of this work together.” Arvind Krishna, CEO, IBM Corp.

“I don’t think any country is going to let any company or any technology just run away. I just find that unimaginable.” Satya Nadella, CEO Microsoft Corp.