Crypto News: The big cotton tie-up

Good morning, it's Harry here again from Sydney with your Thursday morning roundup.

Today's must-reads:
• Behind the fight for Australia's biggest cotton producer
• RBA is factoring in China's stimulus to rates decision
• New Zealand officially has inflation tamed

Louis Dreyfus Co.'s long pursuit of Namoi Cotton is almost complete after an eight-month-long fight that pitted the major trader against fellow behemoth Olam Agri Holdings, a bitter battle illustrative of how waning demand and tight margins in the cotton industry have prompted industry consolidation.

The Reserve Bank is looking for the upshot to China's stimulus measures for Australians as officials prepare the bank's latest update of forecasts for next month's board meeting, Assistant Governor Sarah Hunter said. Prices of our iron ore, our main export to our biggest trading partner, have been trading all over the place as China signaled a deeper push to address its housing crisis.

Speaking of iron ore, BHP Group said output of the commodity in its first quarter rose 2% from the year before, as concerns grow that moves by major miners to ramp up production of the steel-making material may lead to over-supply.

New Zealand's annual inflation rate fell sharply in the third quarter, returning to the central bank's target band for the first time in more than three years. Reflecting on a job mostly done, New Zealand's central bank said it had to hike more than expected because of the sheer amount of money that had been added to the financial system during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Why is uranium among the worst performing commodities? The nuclear industry may be on the cusp of an all-time boom, if the proponents are to be believed as it holds the promise of becoming a vital source of green power. Bloomberg Opinion's David Fickling explores the most curious fact amid all this positive news: the moribund state of uranium prices.

More on nuclear power: Wall Street billionaire Ken Griffin and Amazon.com are backing a nuclear-reactor startup. The pair are anchoring a $500 million investment in X-Energy to develop small nuclear reactors. A Google executive said nuclear is key to its plan to get continuous clean energy for AI facilities.

Stock traders kept driving a rotation out of the megacaps that have powered the bull market into other corners of Wall Street. Economically sensitive shares outperformed, with the Russell 2000 index of smaller firms heading toward its highest level since November 2021. An equal-weighted version of the S&P 500 beat the US equity benchmark — providing a glimpse of hope the rally will broaden out.

Bitcoin bulls are eyeing a return to record highs with the cryptocurrency climbing toward $70,000 amid growing optimism for riskier assets and the looming US elections.

The silver screen industry is still in the pits as filming in the greater Los Angeles area fell 5% in the third quarter, showing that Hollywood is still struggling to overcome the impact of the pandemic and the actors and writers strikes last year, according to the local permit group FilmLA. Data from the organization show 5,048 days of shooting in the quarter, which FilmLA characterized as "the weakest so far in 2024, and surprising for its failure to meet or exceed numbers shared at this time a year ago."

• 11:30 a.m.: Australia Sept. Unemployment Rate, Employment Change

Meet Neuralink's top brain surgeon. Elon Musk has never been afraid to court controversy, but as he races to build a future merging of human minds with machine, Matthew MacDougall may actually be the man you'd want putting a chip in your brain.