1. New business survey does not take kindly to Victoria
Recent research conducted by consulting firm Nous Group has found that Victoria is the hardest place to conduct business in Australia, ranking it as the highest-taxing state that hosts the largest public sector and most red tape. “Victoria ranked well in some areas such as infrastructure (the government released a Deloitte report on Tuesday that put the value of major projects at $174.4 billion) as well as utilities, research and development, and higher education. But the state’s productivity levels have fallen badly over the past decade, and the time and cost of setting up a business has risen to the highest of all the states,” the AFR reports.

2. Wealthy Australian business leaders defend flailing Magellan
The faltering fund manager, Magellan Financial Group has received support from some of Australia’s wealthiest business leaders, including media mogul Kerry Stokes. Though the likes of Stokes and fund manager Geoff Wilson have still found room for criticism for the company, pointing to its poor disclosure around the sudden exit of chief executive Brett Cairns last year and indefinite medical leave of co-founder Hamish Douglass. “Magellan is a fine company,” Mr Stokes, the former chairman of Seven West Media, told the AFR. “Obviously they have some problems at the moment, but I don’t know any fund manager who hasn’t made any bad bets over the last decade or two.”

3. SoftBank turns to Arm IPO following Nvidia Corp backflip
SoftBank Founder and Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son has announced the conglomerate will pitch an IPO for its subsidiary Arm Ltd most likely in the US on the Nasdaq. Arm is a British silicon chip designer that according to Son is about to embark on its “golden age” where it will experience its second growth spurt. Speaking of the IPO, Son assured it was a return to the original plan prior to Nvidia’s proposed acquisition, and that SoftBank “will aim for the biggest IPO ever in semiconductor history”. However, money is an issue, according to Bloomberg. “The Nvidia deal was valued at about $40 billion when announced in 2020, but that valuation surged by tens of billions of dollars with the bidder’s stock price. SoftBank is likely to struggle in landing a similar valuation in an IPO.”

4. Bitcoin breaks unwanted record
The US seized about $US3.6 billion ($5.05 billion) in bitcoin stolen during a 2016 hack of the Bitfinex currency exchange - the largest financial seizure ever - and arrested two people, the Justice Department said. “Today’s arrests, and the Department’s largest financial seizure ever, show that cryptocurrency is not a safe haven for criminals,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said in a statement. “In a futile effort to maintain digital anonymity, the defendants laundered stolen funds through a labyrinth of cryptocurrency transactions.”

5. ASX to continue rise
ASX futures up 3 points or 0.04% to 7087 near 5.39am AEDT, with the AUD +0.1% to 71.33 US cents. On Wall St: Dow +0.9%, S&P 500 +0.8%, Nasdaq +0.9%. 2-year yield: US +0.03% (1.33%), Australia +0.07% (1.05%). 10-year yield: US +0.05% (1.96%), Australia +0.13% (2.12%).