National cabinet begins overhaul of gun laws after Bondi terror

Good morning. Here's what happened overnight and what you need to know today.

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1.

Gun terror: National cabinet began work on the biggest overhaul of Australia’s gun laws in nearly 30 years, agreeing to renegotiate the National Firearms Agreement following Sunday’s mass shooting at Bondi Beach. Proposed measures include restricting the number of firearms per licence, ending open-ended licences, banning access for non-citizens, expanding the use of criminal intelligence in licence decisions and fast-tracking a national firearms register. NSW Premier Chris Minns and WA Premier Roger Cook will coordinate the reform process across jurisdictions. The Albanese government is also considering tightening rules on firearm imports, high-capacity ammunition and 3D printing. Sajid Akram, the alleged gunman, legally held six firearms and was not an Australian citizen. His son Naveed, who remains in hospital under police guard, was previously investigated by ASIO in 2019. The Greens have reportedly pledged support for urgent reform. Meanwhile, Jewish leaders and members of Australia’s tech and VC sectors called for public solidarity and action against antisemitism, with Square Peg’s Paul Bassat and Rampersand’s Paul Naphtali among those urging Australians not to stay silent. (Capital Brief)(SMH)

2.

Hollywood homicide: Nick Reiner, the 32-year-old son of director Rob Reiner, was arrested on suspicion of killing his parents after the couple were found dead at their Brentwood property. Los Angeles Police said officers responded to the home Sunday afternoon and detectives from the Robbery-Homicide Division “worked throughout the night” before taking Nick into custody at 9:15 pm the same day. He was booked early Monday morning and is being held on USD4 million bail. Family friends told the Los Angeles Times that Rob and Nick Reiner had a confrontation Saturday night at a Christmas party hosted by Conan O’Brien, and several people noticed Nick behaving unusually. The friends said Nick had long struggled with addiction and bouts of homelessness and was living in a guest house on the property. Michele Reiner had recently become more worried about his mental health. According to the reports, the couple’s daughter discovered the bodies on Sunday. Tributes followed from Democratic leaders and Hollywood colleagues. US President Donald Trump, whom Reiner had long criticised, mocked the director’s death in a Truth Social post, drawing widespread criticism. (LA Times)(Capital Brief)( NYT)(WSJ)

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Slew of MoUs: Singapore and China agreed to 27 deals to boost cooperation across key sectors, including a scheme that will allow Singaporean tourists to use digital renminbi in China. The Memoranda of Understanding were signed on Monday during the 21st Joint Council for Bilateral Cooperation in Chongqing, which saw the countries review progress of bilateral cooperation across the Belt and Road Initiative, legal and judicial cooperation, trade, sustainability, food security, the digital economy, and others. A statement released by the Singapore Prime Minister’s Office said that both sides agreed to deepen financial cooperation to strengthen financial and capital markets connectivity and RMB cooperation, including through appointing DBS Bank Ltd as the second Renminbi clearing bank in Singapore and launching a pilot program to enable Singapore travellers to use e-CNY for merchant payments in China. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) also announced several financial and capital markets initiatives intended to “deepen financial cooperation with China.” (Prime Minister's Office of Singapore)(MAS)(Capital Brief)

4.

Subdued markets: US markets wavered overnight as investors awaited delayed jobs data and a key inflation report that could guide expectations for further Fed rate cuts. The Nasdaq led modest losses, down 0.31%, with the S&P 500 slipping 0.08% and the Dow falling 0.17%. Tech stocks remained under pressure, with Broadcom down 4.7% and on pace for a 16% three-day decline, its worst since March 2020. Oracle extended a multi-session slide to around 17%. Gold futures were on track to settle at a record high, silver gained 2.66%, and Bitcoin dropped 3%, trading below USD87,000. Traders are betting on two rate cuts in 2026, according to LSEG data, with Fed officials focused on risks to the labour market. Emerging market currencies rallied, led by a 20% surge in Hungary’s forint, its strongest year in nearly a quarter of a century, as investors rotated out of the weakening US dollar and into higher-yielding developing markets. (Reuters)(Bloomberg)(WSJ)

5.

Rolodex reimagined: Australian startup Atrium secured $1.3 million in seed funding from Airtree and TEN13, alongside a group of US and Australia-based angel investors. Founded by former Airtree investor Kevin Lu, his brother Gerry Lu, previously at Immutable, and data engineer Daniel Lum, the startup is rethinking relationship management and communications. “[Atrium] came out of some pains I had through venture. We had a lot of contacts in our CRM, 40,000 contacts across two CRMs, with an investment team of 12 across eight communication channels. It was just chaos,” Lu told Capital Brief. Atrium’s long-term ambition is to build a “personal chief of staff” that cuts through noise and surfaces only the information most relevant to each user. Aimed at high-powered executives, investors, founders and recruiters, the platform integrates agentic automations into a unified inbox and customer relationship management view. It aggregates pre-meeting notes and allows users to filter and analyse their networks from a single, centralised location. (Capital Brief)

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Separation threat: ASIC chair Joe Longo warned the ASX it could be stripped of its clearing and settlement functions if it fails to deliver reforms agreed with regulators, after slapping the market operator with a $150 million capital charge alongside a scathing interim governance review. According to The Australian Financial Review, Longo told stockbrokers at a private briefing there would be “hard consequences”, including regulatory escalation and advice to government on structural separation, if the ASX breaches its commitments. The ASIC‑appointed panel found the ASX had placed too much emphasis on shareholder returns over investment in critical technology and failed to manage conflicts between its role as a steward of market infrastructure and a commercial enterprise. The report cited inadequate independence on clearing and settlement subsidiary boards, opaque financial accounts and a defensive culture that limited meaningful change. ASIC and the RBA said they would strengthen their joint supervision of the ASX. ASX shares fell 5.7%. (Capital Brief)(AFR)

7.

Token offering: JPMorgan Asset Management launched its first tokenised money-market fund on the Ethereum blockchain, the firm said on Monday. The WSJ reported that the fund is being seeded with USD100 million ($150.43 million) of its own capital. JPMorgan’s ‘My OnChain Net Yield Fund’, or “MONY” will be supported by the bank's tokenisation platform, Kinexys Digital Assets. MONY will be open to qualified investors, or individuals with at least USD5 million in investments and institutions with a minimum of USD25 million. The fund has a USD1 million investment minimum. Investors can subscribe to the MONY fund through JPMorgan’s Morgan Money portal, in exchange, they will receive digital tokens in their crypto wallets. Tokenised money-market funds are increasingly attractive for crypto investors as they allow holders to earn a yield while their assets remain entirely on the blockchain, the WSJ reported. For fund managers, tokenisation can cut costs and reduce transaction settlement times. (WSJ)(Capital Brief)(JPM Asset Management)

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Headcount cuts: McKinsey leaders have discussed the need to cut around 10% of its headcount across the firm’s business, according to sources cited by Bloomberg. Sources said the reductions could amount to a few thousand job cuts that McKinsey would stagger over the next 18 to 24 months, but that it is too early to gauge the net impact on headcount. Since 2022, the firm’s employee count has slid from a high of 45,000 to around 40,000, the masthead wrote. “As our firm marks its 100th year, we’re operating in a moment shaped by rapid advances in AI that are transforming business and society,” a McKinsey spokesperson told Bloomberg. “Just as we’re partnering with clients to strengthen their organisations, we’re on our own journey to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of our support functions.” The company plans to continue hiring consultants while cutting back on support functions, the sources said. (Bloomberg)(Capital Brief)