Dollar Slumps to 70 US Cents as Anthropic IPO Looms

Textbook market behaviour took a day off this week. A rise in the cash rate is meant to lift the currency by drawing in yield-hungry investors, but the Australian dollar did the opposite, sliding below 70 US cents for the first time since July. Shares were supposed to sell off too, yet the benchmark index edged higher regardless, defying the usual playbook on both fronts.

The gains were far from universal. Three of the market's biggest data-centre operators, Goodman Group, Infratil and NextDC, were among the session's notable fallers, dragged down by a fresh wave of nerves about the economics of artificial intelligence.

Much of that unease traces back to a Reuters report drawing on confidential sections of the prospectus for Anthropic's upcoming stock market float. The AI company is tipped to list at a valuation north of $2 trillion US, roughly matching the combined worth of every company on the Australian share market. More striking than the price tag was the warning reportedly buried in the document: that the technology Anthropic sells carries catastrophic, potentially existential, risks to humanity. It is an extraordinary admission to make while simultaneously asking investors to buy in, and may be the first time a company preparing to list has flagged human extinction as a risk factor in its own paperwork.

Away from the trading floor, climate records kept falling too. August 2026 was confirmed as the hottest August on record globally, with temperatures running 1.71 degrees above pre-industrial levels, comfortably above the 1.5-degree ceiling nations agreed to chase under the Paris accord eleven years ago.

Back on the economic data front, the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported household spending was flat in August, a marked cooling after a solid 1.1 per cent rise in July. The detail tells the real story: households poured more money into transport, largely petrol and diesel, and that squeeze crowded out spending elsewhere. Outlays on food, household goods, health, alcohol and clothing all softened, as did spending at sporting events. One category held its ground, however, with spending on eating out largely unaffected, suggesting a dinner reservation is one of the last things Australians are willing to cut.

Adding to the inflation picture, oil prices continued climbing, keeping pressure on the cost side of the ledger. Globally, sharemarkets were mostly subdued, with Shanghai the only major index to finish the day in positive territory.