1. LVMH buys Tiffany for less

The bitter dispute between French luxury brand LVMH (led by billionaire businessman Bernard Arnault) and US jeweller Tiffany (the brand that became globally famous following the 1961 Audrey Hepburn film Breakfast at Tiffany’s) has ended. LVMH will now pay approximately US$15.8 billion (about US$425 million less) to acquire Tiffany. The dispute was triggered after LVMH claimed Tiffany was no longer the business it agreed to buy last November before Covid-19. “We are as convinced as ever of the formidable potential of the Tiffany brand and believe that LVMH is the right home for Tiffany and its employees during this exciting next chapter,” Arnault said in a statement.

2. Get used to masking up

Kenneth Frazier, CEO of US multinational pharmaceutical company, Merck, has told CNBC’s Squawk Box that people will still have to wear masks and practice social distancing “for the foreseeable future.” While “he’s very optimistic that in the near future” there will be positive results coming from late-stage clinical trials for coronavirus vaccines and therapeutics, drugs to treat or prevent Covid-19 aren’t a “silver bullet” solution to the pandemic. Frazier predicted a potential vaccine probably won’t be widely available until mid-2021.

3. Victorians flock to K-Mart

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews says he’s disappointed by scenes of crowded retail and hospitality venues, with photos and videos posted to social media showing hundreds of Melburnians queuing up before midnight on Tuesday to enter Kmart stores. Despite concerns, Andrews says he doesn’t believe there is an issue with under-policing and has urged those who see people doing the wrong thing to dob them in.

4. Only a few Jobkeeper cheats

The ATO has reported that while it has clawed back $120 million out of the $69 billion in JobKeeker payments from businesses it deemed ineligible, it hasn’t found widespread systemic fraud relating to Government stimulus measures.  The ATO's second commissioner Jeremy Hirschhorn told Senate budget estimates that when it came to JobKeeper, most of the time employers had made honest mistakes.

5. A better day on Wall Street

The Dow Jones closed 139.16 points (0.52%) higher at 26,659.11. The S&P 500 rose +39.08 points (1.19%) to 3,310.11 and the Nasdaq jumped +180.72 points (1.64%) to 11,185.59.