CEO INSIGHTS – Week Ending 6 November 2026

Interest Rates

“I was around in the 1970s when corporate interest rates were in the mid-20 % range, so this is a picnic. And in the 1980s or 1990s we had similarly high interest rates, so I’m somewhat bemused by the degree of concern people are expressing versus what it has been in the past…the reality is the sun will come up in the morning. The economy is cyclical, and things will rise, they will solve the problems, and the sun will come up.” Jack Cowin, Chair, Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Ltd

Cybersecurity

“There are some people who think that the total amount of tokens used over the next year or two, 20% of it, or some significant percent of it may end up being just security, and that’s a relatively new use case on top of what we’re seeing with coding and how that continues to grow on top of what we’re seeing with the various…” Andy Jassy, CEO, Amazon.com, Inc.

Credit

“In a time of global uncertainty, the Australian economy is holding up relatively well with strong business investment supporting the medium-term outlook. This is evident across our Business and Institutional customer base where demand for credit remains strong.” Market Statement, Westpac Banking Corporation

Smash Repairers

“In 1Q[FY]27, we experienced subdued repair volumes in low severity work and stable volumes in higher severity work...Pleasingly, we have seen modest improvement in repair volumes in October, in certain key regions.” Ray Smith-Roberts, CEO, AMA Group Ltd

Travel Bookings & Travel Retail

“Right now, our view is that AI is largely reshaping travel discovery. That doesn’t mean at some point, it won’t have a similar impact on bookings, but that piece seems to be moving more slowly.” Anthony Capuano, CEO, Marriott International, Inc.

“We are seeing Travel Retail worldwide stabilising to a slight positive.” Stéphane de La Faverie, CEO, The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.

Overseas Investment

“Every year government changes, tape and regulations keep climbing, and investment is increasingly deciding to head overseas.” Gina Rinehart, Chair, Hancock Prospecting Pty Ltd

Gold Coast Tourism

“It is tough in international for the destination. And so we’ve called out in the past that visitation to the Gold Coast from international markets in general was 40% behind what it was pre-COVID, and what is a telling statistic is that China is 70% behind what it was pre-COVID, which is a huge number.” Greg Yong, CEO, Coast Entertainment Holdings Ltd

Memory Prices

“So, for the December quarter, we expect constraints on Mac and iPad, and it’s primarily driven by memory.” Sabih Khan, COO, Apple Inc.

Agriculture & Protein

“Global demand is outpacing traditional supply, and the world needs new sources of high-quality, sustainable protein.” Juan Luciano, CEO, Archer-Daniels-Midland Co.

Industrial Property

“Structural trends continue to drive demand for industrial property. Customers are consolidating into larger, well-located facilities and investing in automation and robotics to improve productivity and reduce costs. These facilities also require significant power capacity to support automation and fleet electrification.” Market Statement, Goodman Group Ltd

E-Commerce

“It has been an incredible quarter for commerce. The velocity of development we are seeing across the entire industry is nothing short of remarkable. From the adoption of personal agents to the start of delegated purchasing to new tools that help entrepreneurs turn any idea into a business overnight.” Harley Finkelstein, President, Shopify Inc.

Beauty vs Consumer Goods

“I’m very confident that the beauty category is remaining a very strong category in consumer goods in general.” Stéphane de La Faverie, CEO, The Estée Lauder Companies Inc.

Merchant Ordering, Inventories & Deliveries

“The one that is really interesting that we can see agents taking a lot of attention on is on the vendor side for Square merchants, being able to handle a bunch of the mundane tasks of just ordering inventory and ordering the ingredients that you need to run your business, doing it automatically.” Jack Dorsey, CEO, Block, Inc.

“I think when Amazon brought overnight shipping, it was magic. And now next-hour shipping is magic, and pretty soon people are going to expect everything in 15 minutes.” Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO, Uber Technologies, Inc.

Coffee

“If you think about it, there have been multiple years of inflation-driven price increases on coffee, and we are seeing heightened value sensitivity in at-home coffee, particularly among the low and middle-income consumers.” Timothy Cofer, CEO, Keurig Dr Pepper Inc.

Bond Market

“To give you a sense of what the public market is, 99% of investment-grade bonds do not trade most days. 90% of investment-grade bonds do not trade most weeks. 50% do not trade most months. Only 7% of bonds trade 1 million or more every day. Therefore, 90% of the U.S. investment-grade market effectively marks to model off a curve, off liquidity, off beta on a daily basis.” Marc Rowan, CEO, Apollo Global Management, Inc.

Property Market

“Tax changes and higher borrowing costs will continue to weigh on buyer demand, but homeowner equity buffers, limited forced selling and low unemployment will support the market. When there is greater certainty about the peak of the interest rate cycle, buyers and sellers who have delayed their move will return.” Market Statement, REA Group Ltd