CEO INSIGHTS – Week Ending 7 August 2026

Oil & Refining

"If you exclude COVID, where there was no demand, I've never seen the available capacity relative to demand as low as it is today. We think we're going to continue to see a very robust refining market with very high margins." Darren Woods, CEO, ExxonMobil Corp.

"Resilience cannot be built in the moment. It is engineered years in advance, and only validated under distress." Amin Nasser, CEO, Saudi Arabian Oil Company

Farmers & Dairy

" Farmer margins remain tight, so they continue to prioritise value-driven investments while remaining cautious on discretionary spending." Chuck Magro, CEO, Corteva, Inc. [major global seed and crop-protection company]

"Dairy is a low-margin business. When costs rise significantly, whether in milk, packaging or energy, price increases sometimes become unavoidable." Emmanuel Besnier, CEO, Lactalis

Global Consumer Spending

"We're seeing a lot of volatility in the market, a lot of consumer uncertainty as we measure it…Until we get some of this volatility behind us, consumers will still be very thoughtful in terms of their purchases." Noel Wallace, CEO, Colgate-Palmolive Co.

"We're very cautious on the market still, because the European consumer is not getting happier.” Harold van den Broek, CFO, Heineken N.V.

"We expect the categories to continue to be muted given what's going on from a macroeconomic perspective and consumers continuing to engage in value-seeking behaviours." Linda Rendle, CEO, The Clorox Company [multinational consumer-products maker; brands include Clorox, Glad & Chux]

Quick Service Restaurants

"[We saw] a challenging consumer environment that saw QSR industry traffic in several of our largest markets continue to be flat to negative." Ian Borden, CFO, McDonald's Corporation

Hotels

"We continue to be quite bullish on the global outlook. We could see continued strong global RevPAR [revenue per available room] growth next year, and the thing that's most encouraging is the broad-based strength we're seeing in both rate potential and demand." Tony Capuano, CEO, Marriott International, Inc.

Ride Sharing & Southeast Asia

"Regional penetration remains incredibly nascent, giving us a massive runway." Anthony Tan, CEO, Grab Holdings Ltd [the Uber of Southeast Asia]

AI Cost vs Benefit

"I believe AI will fundamentally change our relationship with computers. We'll spend less time operating them and more time supervising intelligent systems that understand context and complete work on our behalf." Evan Spiegel, CEO, Snap Inc.

Gold & Coal Mining

"Even with the recent change in gold price, it is really a great time to be a gold miner — with the highest margins ever recorded at the company at 68%." Darren Millman, CFO, Ramelius Resources Ltd

"The Company's order book and pipeline of opportunities remains strong, underpinned by sustained demand for specialist underground coal mining services throughout the East coast coal basins." Jeff Whiteman, CEO, Mastermyne Group Ltd

Automotive

"The Chinese OEMs are a serious threat everywhere in the world...it's very important in every single market that we transform ourselves and become more resilient and stronger." Ivan Espinosa, CEO, Nissan Motor Co., Ltd

Data Centres

"There is a lot of discussion around AI demand...[but] no one is slowing down at the moment. In fact, if we can get more units [generator sets & gas turbines] out, they're asking us to give them more units." Joe Creed, CEO, Caterpillar Inc.

Offices

"Conditions across the Australian domestic office markets continued to stabilise during the year…With limited new office supply across the medium-term due to a rising disparity between replacement costs and prevailing asset values, COF anticipates continued benefit from stabilising market conditions." Market Statement, Centuria Office REIT

Residential Property

“Despite proposed federal taxation changes, global events and interest rate increases affecting overall sentiment, vendors continued to bring their properties to market, and national listing volumes remained in line with the prior year.” Market Statement, REA Group Ltd

Bandwidth

“With the advent of AI and humanoid robotics and vehicle robotics and just a massive number of robots, the appetite for bandwidth will be much greater than it has been in the past.” Elon Musk, CEO, SpaceX Tech. Corp./Tesla Inc.

Streaming Wars

"The streaming industry is consolidating through M&A and a growing number of partnerships. A more consolidated industry is really a better investment backdrop." Josh D'Amaro, CEO, The Walt Disney Co.

E-Commerce

"As we enter this agentic era, any acceleration in e-commerce growth, or disproportionate value to the long tail of commerce, is upside to our underlying growth story." Jeff Hoffmeister, CFO, Shopify Inc.‍