Crypto News: Budget surplus exceeds forecast

Good morning, it's Amy in Melbourne with your Monday newsletter.

Today's must-reads:
• Another budget surplus
• REA's fourth bid for Rightmove
• Fonterra's new strategy

Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers has been talking up the government's back-to-back budget surpluses this morning. If you're just catching up, the underlying cash surplus was A$15.8 billion in the 12 months through June. That exceeded a A$9.3 billion windfall predicted in the May budget. "Our bigger than expected surplus in the year just gone is entirely due to lower spending, with the tax take also lower," Chalmers said.

There's a fresh deadline looming for Rightmove as it mulls a fourth takeover proposal from REA Group. Rightmove said it would consider the cash-and-stock package. The firm's London-listed shares are far below the indicated offer value, in a sign traders aren't banking on REA to be successful before Monday's deadline to make a firm takeover bid.

Hedge fund manager Leda Braga has been recruiting a team of "feature engineers" to examine an ever-growing slew of data that the firm has hoovered up for hints of where its traders can find profit.

Leda Braga Source: Systematica Investments

The world's biggest dairy exporter, Fonterra, is targeting higher dividend payments to farmers to retain its share of New Zealand milk collection. The company has raised its dividend policy to 60-80% of earnings, up from an average of 50% in the five years through 2023, it said Monday in Wellington.

Fonterra Cooperative Group Ltd.'s Anchor brand milk on the production line at a processing plant in Takaanini, Auckland. Photographer: Brendon O'Hagan/Bloomberg

The supercharged stimulus measures China's top leaders announced in recent days has left many investors unconvinced, writes Shuli Ren for Bloomberg Opinion. After all, Beijing has been vowing to revive growth with rate cuts and special lending programs for months — to little avail.

US stocks will outperform the nation's government and corporate bonds for the rest of this year as the Federal Reserve keeps cutting interest rates. That's according to the latest Bloomberg Markets Live Pulse survey.

In the Middle East, Israel's military said its fighter jets bombed a seaport and several power stations in Yemen, following a string of attacks this month on central Israel by Iran-backed Houthi rebels.

China has moved to lower borrowing costs on as much as $5.3 trillion in mortgages for millions of families. It's the nation's latest attempt to shore up the troubled property sector.

A 7,000-year-old city wants to offer a haven for expats looking to escape expensive rents in Dubai. Sharjah — Dubai's neighbor to the north — is beginning to lure investors to its shores. Already, developers are in the process of constructing tens of thousands of homes.

The Sharjah Skyline at sunset. Photographer: Rustam Azmi/Getty Images Europe

• Bloomberg Television, 1:30p.m.: interview with ANZ Chief Executive Officer Shayne Elliott

In a nation where the norm has been for people to park their assets in cash and deposits that offer almost no interest, Japanese octogenarian Shigeru Fujimoto has managed to build a small fortune. You can read our story about how almost seven decades of stock trading has earned the 88-year-old some serious wealth.

Shigeru Fujimoto Photographer: Yasutaka Tamura/Bloomberg

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