Heartbreaking losses in the past two days will not break the resolve of Australia to complete its Afghan Mission, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said on Thursday following the deaths of five diggers on Wednesday, three of them killed by ‘green-on-blue’ assault.
The Dow industrials fell to a four-week low after remarks by European leaders escalated investors' fears about the euro zone, while a measure of economic sentiment in the region slid to a level not seen in more than two years. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 106.77 points, or 0.8%, to 13000.71, the lowest level since Aug. 2.
Bell FX Currency Outlook: European jitters have once again crept back into the market as risk sentiment weakened overnight.
Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Thursday that despite the strong fundamentals of the Australian economy, the country must diversify beyond the resource sector even if commodity prices are expected to improve in the future.
Opponents to the rare earths processing plant of Lynas Corp. in Malaysia scored a win after a Malaysian High Court this week approved to hear the application for two judicial reviews lodged against the plant's temporary operating license (TOL).
Darker days loom ahead for the world's miners especially of the key steel-making ingredient iron ore as an oversupply of the key commodity could dampen the positive forecast of renewed appetite made at the beginning of the first half of 2012.
With a mining boom about to fizzle, Australia may well rely on its grain sector to anchor the country's economic growth in the next few years.And as with its mining sector, the Australia's grain sector may well enjoy a growth spurt still from its largest and strongest trading partner, China.
Australia's much touted liquefied natural gas (LNG) boom may boomerang as not so much as a boom what with the flurry of natural gas discoveries being made in Africa right now. Moreover, the growing building costs in the country spurred by labour and material shortages further pose a threat to the situation.
Two days after the federal government announced plans to scrap the floor price on the carbon tax and link its carbon trading to the European Union trading system in 2015, large Australian polluters said they prefer to be connected instead to the carbon trading systems of the U.S. and China.
Three Australian soldiers were reportedly killed Wednesday by a rogue member of the Afghan army though details of the incident were still sketchy and remain under investigation, NATO said in a statement.
Ecuador is working on a deal with Britain that would allow the latter to send WikiLeaks founder Julia Assange to Sweden without fears of being extradited to the United States, reports said.
U.S. stocks finished slightly higher Wednesday as investors calibrated two positive readings on the U.S. economy against hopes for more help from the Federal Reserve. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 4.49 points, or 0.03%, to 13107.48 for its first gain in three days.
Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian dollar is slightly lower this morning, currently trading around USD1.0340 as some mixed data out of the US made it difficult for the AUD to hold its ground.
Tokyo Gas, top city gas supplier of Japan, has forged a basic agreement to purchase liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Malaysia at 900,000 tonnes annually for 10 years, effective April 2015.
Oil-rich Norway's central bank has just downscaled its overall stakes in global mining giant BHP Billiton, selling thousands of shares in the U.K.-listed side even as it bought a further million shares in the company's Australia-listed arm.
Egyptian authorities have agreed to allow an Australian freelance journalist to finally leave the Middle Eastern nation following more than six months of ‘hold departure order’ imposed by Cairo.
It was a dangling sword just about waiting to fall.As expected, with the suspension of the planned $30 billion expansion plan on the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine mega project comes the inevitable downsizing of jobs related to the project.
Consuming electronic and digital products in and within Australia has remained relatively expensive compared to other markets, with the price mark-ups reaching an average of 50 per cent more, according to a consumer advocacy group.
Not only Australia's much touted resources mining boom is waning off, apparently so also is the volume of construction work done in the country.
Grahame Morris, the former chief of staff of ex-Prime Minister John Howard, publicly apologised on Tuesday to ABC journalist Leigh Sales for calling her a cow on radio.
Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has pledged to revisit the prohibition imposed by the Labor-led government on giant Chinese network specialist Huawei Technologies.
Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar is steady this morning as rumors build European Central Bank President Mario Draghi is working towards a
breakthrough in the euro zone debt crisis.
Stocks ended mostly lower Tuesday as an upbeat reading on U.S. housing prices was offset by a dour report on consumer confidence. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 21.68 points, or 0.17%, to 13102.99. The blue-chip benchmark fell for the sixth time in seven sessions, a choppy stretch during which the Dow has fallen 172 points, or 1.3%.
Brazilian mining company Vale SA has resumed operations at its Carborough Downs coal mine, effectively lifting a declaration of force majeure, after a carbon monoxide leak forced the miner to suspend the operations of the mine on May 31 this year.
The $15 per tonne carbon tax floor price will be dumped by the Gillard Government following the conclusion of a deal with the European Union that would link the economic bloc’s carbon pricing scheme to that of Australia’s.
Troubled Australian surfwear company Billabong International, in a do-or-die attitude, will embark on a four-year restructuring plan to help tide up and hopefully keep afloat the company even as it opened its books to second-time suitor TPG Capital.
Prison walls have failed miserably to stem the flow of illegal drugs into Australian correctional facilities, a new council report said on Tuesday.
Queensland will likely cut no more than 15,000 public sector jobs, according to Queensland Premier Campbell Newman on Tuesday, yet regardless the exact number Treasurer Wayne Swan cautioned that the Coalition plans to do the same should it wins federal government power.
It won't be long before China loosens its grip as the world's stronghold of rare earths as American miner Molycorp announced that operations has already started at its new California rare earths mine.
The diplomatic standoff between Britain and Ecuador over WikiLeaks founder Julia Assange has reached a settlement stage as Quito confirmed on Saturday that “we consider this unfortunate incident over.”
