Bulls vs Bears is a weekly Australian stock market podcast from MPC Markets. Every Friday, Mark Gardner, Jonathan Tacadena, and Kai Chen wrap up the week in markets, what moved, what mattered, and where the opportunities are heading into next week. Part weekly market recap, part investment debate, part Friday afternoon pub chat. The team covers ASX and US stocks, sector themes, commodities, macro trends, and the bull and bear case on the ideas that matter most. New episode every Friday. Subscribe for your weekly market wrap.
Everybody HATES Datacenters (NOT IN MY BACKYARD)NextDC can’t expand in Lane Cove or Footscray. The SOX is 27% off its highs and sitting on the 200-day. Up to 70% of the world’s websites just had a PHP vulnerability. Mark, Kai, Jonathan and Phil are all bearish.This week: the data-centre NIMBY backlash, whether the chip trade is oversold, the PHP security mess, Meta getting belted on its AI funding plans, and why next week’s hyperscaler earnings matter. Oil is at a five-month high. Power is the bottleneck everyone said it would be.General advice only. Not personal advice.
16 Oct 2026
Hot Inflation & Coreweave Credit Crunch
Hot inflation (fuel-driven PPI and CPI), a $1.9 trillion SOX drawdown and CoreWeave’s credit situation dominate this week’s Bulls vs Bears.
We look at why the inflation numbers feel higher in the real world than the headline, whether CoreWeave’s short-duration debt and CDS spike actually threaten the broader AI trade, and how the hyperscalers’ cash flows change the picture. Also covered: the ASX rotation into safer stocks while US tech sold off, WiseTech staying out of the headlines, US banks missing expectations, SK Hynix and Samsung under pressure, bond yields, and our buy/avoid/wildcard calls including Megaport, PLS and Goodman.
From the MPC Markets team.
9 Oct 2026
Is it Over? OpenAI & Firmus Flop
OpenAI printed $50 billion. The figure in circulation was $68 to $70 billion. A $20 billion miss, against commitments that need 75 to 80 per cent compounding for three years. On their own numbers they were already about $300 billion short of those commitments by 2030.
Firmus was the local disaster. $43.7 billion was the valuation ASX investors would not wear. The "oversubscribed" line lasted until the price was cut to $8.25 and the float was pulled. Front page of Bloomberg. Front page of Reuters. Morgan Stanley and the lead brokers own that one. Valued above Transurban. This is why ASX tech is still three companies, and why the next proper float will list somewhere else.
SpaceX is raising another $40 billion. $10 billion bank debt, $30 billion from institutions. JT's version of the prospectus: two pages, an arrow, the universe. Ten gigawatts at about $50 billion a gigawatt, so this is a deposit. TerraFab, no TSMC, maybe Intel. Betting against Elon has been a horrible trade. The debt still has to get paid.
Kai likes the Cursor and Colossus angle and is the only bull for next week. Mark doesn't love banks flogging Oracle CDS. Philip wanted a proper ASX tech listing and got a debacle instead.
We also get into Firmus immersion racks and whether the patents are a moat, CCC credit spreads blowing out, global banks rolling over, Maas Group halted after the Firmus stake and contract book were marked down, and a Trump week that was an 11 out of 10 with midterm postal votes already open.
Buys and avoids:
JT buys Ampol and Viva, avoids the euro, wildcard Deterra.
Philip buys Telix, avoids NEXTDC, wildcard Clarity.
Kai buys EOS on the $700 million GCC contract, avoids Maas, wildcard JB Hi-Fi.
Mark buys a short-dated VIX ETF, wildcard is a manufactured geopolitical flare-up before the midterms.
Columbus Day Monday. US bank earnings from Tuesday. Hyperscalers at the end of the month. Greece is currently a better credit than France.
General information only. Not personal financial advice. MPC Markets Pty Ltd, AFSL 296877. mpcmarkets.com.au
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