The chips are down: pizza, fried chicken and doughnut shares plunge on ASX as living costs bite budgets

Once a symbol of cheap eating, fast food is transforming into a luxury many can no longer afford due to resurgent living costs.This shift is reflected on the ASX, where major pizza, fried chicken and doughnut outlets are seeing significant price drops, raising the question: are consumers so downbeat that they are even giving up on fast food?Shares in Domino’s Pizza, KFC operator Collins Foods and multi-brand food franchise owner Retail Food Group have all suffered double-digit falls over the past two months, coinciding with surging oil prices tied to the US-Israel war on Iran.The Guzman y Gomez share price is also down, even as the broader ASX has proven robust.Lochlan Halloway, an equity market strategist at Morningstar, says the stocks are under pressure because concerns over consumer spending are coinciding with fast-rising operational costs.“Fast food is a discretionary purchase, something that’s probably fairly easy to cut if your budget’s pinched, and so they might be a casualty of consumers just trading out of the category entirely,” Halloway says

Bank of England leaves interest rates on hold with committee split 8-1; ECB also keeps rates steady – as it happened

The Bank of England has left interest rates unchanged at 3.75%.The central bank’s rate-setting monetary policy committee (MPC) voted to leave borrowing costs on hold at noon, after its latest meeting.The vote by the nine-member committee to keep rates on hold was split eight to one. The Bank’s chief economist Huw Pill voted for a rate hike to 4%

Calls grow to ban Palantir in Australia after manifesto described by UK MP as ‘ramblings of a supervillain’

Just weeks after it implied some cultures are inferior to others in a manifesto described by one UK MP as the “ramblings of a supervillain”, the US spy tech company Palantir says it is just “a software company” amid calls for Australian government agencies to ban any new contracts with the controversial company.In Australia, state and federal contracts with Palantir have reached nearly $80m, and federal investment in the company is reportedly more than $160m.Palantir, a Trump-aligned company that was co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel, develops software for companies and government agencies to analyse vast amounts of data.Earlier this month, Palantir published a manifesto on X, arguing the benefits of American power and implying some cultures are inferior to others.“Some cultures have produced vital advances; others remain dysfunctional and regressive,” Palantir wrote in the post

Galaxy S26 review: Samsung’s still-compact flagship Android

Samsung’s compact flagship phone hasn’t changed much in a year, but the S26 is still one of the best smaller handsets available as rivals grow larger and larger.The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission if you buy something through an affiliate link. Learn more.The S26 is the cheapest and smallest of this year’s top Samsungs, dwarfed by the top-of-the-line S26 Ultra in size and price

Blues win Women’s State of Origin opener in fast fight with Maroons – as it happened

Here is Jack Snape’s match report:What an exciting game to start the series – NSW will be very relieved to get the win with the next two games being played in Queensland and will feel confident that they can snatch a win up there.The Maroons will take a lot of heart from that performance though. They lost two players to HIAs, both important players to their side, and they still were in the match right until the final whistle. They will have a lot of belief that they can win the final two matches with home crowds behind them.Thank you so much for joining us tonight – I hope you enjoyed this game as much as I did! Champagne rugby league out there in Newcastle tonight

Marauding Blues hold off luckless Maroons to take Women’s Origin series lead

In the end, it had to be Jesse Southwell. The Blues halfback may have chosen to leave her home town club Newcastle for Brisbane this year, but in familiar surrounds at McDonald Jones Stadium in front of 20,000 fans on Thursday it was her who proved coolest as New South Wales won the opening Women’s State of Origin game, 11-6.Her field goal with seven minutes to go stole the glory from a valiant Queensland, who went close to the winning try before Blues centre Jess Sergis scored a sealer on the whistle.Southwell described it as “probably the fastest” and “definitely the toughest” game she had ever played.“It was end-to-end and Queensland never let up,” she said