In what could be a sign of vindication to its earlier construction delays, initial production of Australia's newly-commissioned Pluto liquefied natural gas (LNG) Project by Woodside Petroleum Ltd. has been three times more versus what has been forecast for the month of May.
Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Deputy Chairman Michael Schaper warned Australian firms on Monday not to use the carbon tax, slated to be collected beginning July 1, as their excuse to jack up prices.
Labor whip Joel Fitzgibbon has already absolved himself, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said over the weekend, but the Coalition maintained that the man tagged as the source of renewed restiveness in government leadership must be sacked.
Probably encouraged by a Channel 9 TV show that found a former sex trade worker who claimed to have been a client of embattled MP Craig Thomson, the police is seeking other prostitutes to prove misuse of Health Services Union (HSU) funds by the ex-national secretary of the union.
Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar has opened this morning in the low 0.9800's as markets still focus on the European debt crisis with Spain starting to push Greece off the front page.
Stocks fell ahead of the long holiday weekend as reports of weakness in Spain underlined anxiety about the euro zone, outweighing a better-than-expected reading on U.S. consumer confidence. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 74.92 points, or 0.6%, to 12454.83. Caterpillar fell 1.6% while International Business Machines dropped 0.9%, weighing on the price-weighted average.
A group of domestic and international banks has granted in principle the $8.5 billion in project financing needed to finally drumroll the $20 billion Australia Pacific liquefied natural gas (LNG) project of Origin Energy Ltd. and ConocoPhillips.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard has ordered for a sweeping overhaul of security measures on Australia's key waterfront areas following reports from police authorities that confirmed the operations of criminal groups in Brisbane and Melbourne.
Australia has failed so far in raising the quality of life prevalent among the indigenous people living in the Northern Territory, according to the latest human rights review released this week by Amnesty International (AI) in Australia.
Yesterday the Australian share market kicked off the session a little higher for the third time this week, only to start losing ground following some disappointing economic data out from China. The latest HSBC Flash Manufacturing PMI came in at 48.7 down from 49.3 points the month before. By the close of trade the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) fell 12 points to 4,106 points.
Earning $1 million every 30 minutes has its disadvantages too. For Gina Rinehart who was named this week by BRW Magazine as the world's wealthiest woman with $29 billion to her name, it meant more public scrutiny of her companies as well as her private life, particularly the ongoing family court feud.
The sex trade worker who claimed to have embattled MP Craig Thomson as her client is real, not an imaginary person created to embarrass the legislator. The Daily Telegraph provided more details of the former prostitute whose tell-all interview with Channel 9's Current Affairs may be the final nail to Mr Thomson's crumbling political career.
Bell FX Currency Outlook: With worries a Greek exit would deepen the euro zone debt crisis and risk aversion continuing to mount this week, the Australian Dollar has continued track new lows.
U.S. stocks finished mostly higher after late afternoon comments from the Italian premier boosted confidence that Greece would stay in the euro zone. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 34 points, or 0.3%, at 12530, after bouncing back from a 0.6% slide.
Prices of rare earths from China have been reported posting a dropping trend this week.
The Australian sharemarket kicked off the session a little higher for the third time this week, only to start losing ground following some disappointing economic data in China. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) fell 0.3 pct or 12.6 pts to 4106.2. Today, 10 out of 12 sectors finished in the red; however the defensive healthcare industry was the best and rose 1 pct.
Manufacturers of high tech gadgets that use rare earths are in for more good news as Canadian miner Matamec Explorations Inc. announced on Wednesday the mineral processing and hydrometallurgical pilot plants needed to jumpstart the operations on its flagship Kipawa rare earth project are on schedule.
The worsening financial crisis in Europe, according to Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) owner Andrew Forrest, appears more disturbing than it ought to be, no thanks to the sensational media coverage trained on the struggling economic region.
Yesterday the Australian share market lost ground for the first time this week, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) down 54.7 points to 4,118 point. Last night Key European index's lost 2-3% after discussions at the European Leaders summit in Brussels made no real headway to resolving the current Eurozone, especially Greek, problems. US markets and commodity prices sold off dramatically at the start of US trade but by the close the major index's had made back most of the early losses. At t...
Although operators of the soon-to-be shuttered smelter plant in Hunter Valley cited the high Australian dollar and weak prices in the international market for aluminium as the short-term reasons why it would close its Kurri Kurri facility, the Opposition seized the closure of the plant to blame again the carbon tax for the economic woes of companies in Australia.
The Craig Thomson saga continues to unfold like a soap opera as an anonymous female sex trade worker claimed that the embattled MP was her client.
Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian dollar has opened this morning around USD.9760, after trading down to a low of USD0.9690 overnight as European
equities followed Asia's lead falling around 2.5%.
U.S. stocks reversed steep losses to finish the day roughly flat, though European stocks and the euro tumbled to 2012 lows amid growing chatter about a potential Greek exit from the euro zone
The Australian sharemarket lost ground for the first time this week, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) down 1.3 pct or 54.7 pts to 4118.8. Last night, U.S markets finished flat while European shares managed to gain for the second consecutive day.
Protesters against the proposed construction of the uranium mine project in Wiluna town in the northern Goldfields raised Australia is inciting global destruction should it continue to push with the project.
With no more nuclear reactors to help augment its energy requirements, Japan's imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) as well as crude oil have soared by as much as 14.9 per cent and 12.9 per cent, respectively, in April, data from the country's Ministry of Finance said.
The government of the Philippines stands to gain as much as $13 billion from the proposed copper-and-gold mine project to be constructed by Xstrata-owned Sagittarius Mines Inc. (SMI) in the southern part of the country, the BusinessMirror newspaper reported on Tuesday.
The Liberals withdrew on Wednesday a motion to suspend embattled crossbencher MP Craig Thomson from the Australian Parliament. Christopher Payne, the manager of Opposition business, initially sought the suspension of Mr Thomson for 14 days and a possible longer suspension following Mr Thomson's statement of Parliament on Monday.
The fate of whether to release or not the highly controversial temporary operating license (TOL) that Lynas Corp. needs to fire up its beleaguered rare earths processing plant in Malaysia has been committed to be known in the next two weeks.
Despite the surveys suggesting that Aussie voters were not inclined to give the Labor-led government a fresh mandate in 2013, Prime Minister Julia Gillard has reasons to smile these days following the approval attached to her economic policy by the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
