POLITICS & POLICY

NZ Prime Minister John Key today justified some of the government’s plans for partial asset sales in his official address during the annual Waitangi Day breakfast. Mr. Key discussed to his audience his thoughts on mining, asset sales and the Crafar Farms sale to a Chinese company.

The foreign exchange reserves of India, the world's fourth largest economy, added $673.4 million for the week ended Jan 27, placing the country's total foreign exchange reserves now at $293.93 billion, latest data from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) showed.

In an unexpected turnaround, analysts are now forecasting lesser chance of an overnight cash rate cut by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) in Tuesday's monetary committee meeting. The explained the change to more scope on the part of RBA to delay another round of interest rate reduction, particularly broad-based market rallies since January and strong job news from the U.S.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard emphasised over the weekend the importance of loyalty and discipline within members of the Australian Labor Party, stressing that in-fighting and not the Coalition alone, would spell the end of Labor rule.

The Australian share market has kick started the trading week on a very strong note, on the back of impressive US and European data. The US unemployment rate fell to a three year low of 8.3pct in January, while European manufacturing data allayed recession fears somewhat. The US Dow Jones Index is now trading at its highest level since May 2008, while European shares posted their biggest one day gain on Friday since late December.

Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce has opposed proposed changes in the Qantas Sale Act and cabin crew laws. He warned that planned changes being discussed in the Australian parliament could lead to job losses and reduced aviation access.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar rallied again on Friday night as stronger than expected US data saw investors continue to build long positions in commodity currencies.

The optimism generated by the better-than-expected US jobs is seen to redound to the stock market.Analysts are bullish that Monday's trading will record some gains benefitting from the major averages posted by the Dow Jones Industrial Average, up 1.2% to close at 12862; the S&P climbed 1.5% at 1345; and the NASDAQ advanced 1.6% to end at 2906.

Although the Australian dollar had a great run coming into February, we expect the high-yielding currency to come under pressure next week as the Reserve Bank of Australia is expected to lower the benchmark interest rate.

Stocks rose Friday after the U.S. economy added more jobs than expected last month, driving the Nasdaq Composite to an 11-year high and pushing the Dow to its highest close in nearly four years. The earnings parade continues this week, with the latest results due from a handful of companies in the Dow Jones Industrial Average and from media giants and tobacco companies. In addition, seven companies across a range of industries are expected to go public this week, coming off a week that has seen ...

The Australian sharemarket lost ground for the fourth time in five days today with the All Ordinaries index (XAO) easing by 0.3 pct or 13.1 pts to 4320.1. This was the first week of losses so far in 2012. On a positive note, Australian shares have gained by around 5 pct over the past five weeks.

Australian exploration mining firm Xanadu Mines Ltd. wants to dispose its shares in its Mongolian-based based mine in the next six months in a bid to re-strategize its corporate operations.

China's possessions of the precious yellow metal gold may be more than what its official data had revealed.

Ahead of the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) Monetary Policy meeting on overnight cash rates set on Feb 7, Australian banks are once again hinting that they would likely not pass in full to borrowers any rate cut that the RBA will announce.

Uranium production in 2011 from Kazakhstan, one of the countries that form Central Asia and the world's leader in volume of uranium production, had grown to 19,000 tonnes from the 17,803 tonnes registered in 2010, the country's Industry and New Technologies Ministry announced on Thursday.This, as shortfalls in global uranium supply, used to produce nuclear fuel, is seen to further increase in the coming decades, as countries like China, India and Russia, among others, race to find alte...

Uranium production in 2011 from Kazakhstan, one of the countries that form Central Asia and the world's leader in volume of uranium production, had grown to 19,000 tonnes from the 17,803 tonnes registered in 2010, the country's Industry and New Technologies Ministry announced on Thursday.

The thought of following the lead of Gina Rinehart occurred on Clive Palmer, who declared on Thursday that dipping his fingers on media business was not bad proposition at all.

The standard Labor answer whenever the change of leadership question props up is "there is no vacancy."

The Australian sharemarket is completely flat at lunch with the All Ordinaries index (XAO) sitting at 4333.2 pts. Most sectors are currently pulling back, however the mining sector (the market's second largest sector behind the financials) is a touch higher while the energy sector and industrials are also slightly higher.

The Australian stock market is off to a slow start on Friday with commodity-related stocks led by Lynas Corp (ASX: LYC), Aquarius Platinum Ltd (ASX: AQP), Atlas Iron Ltd (ASX:AGO) hitting some gains as of 10:00 AM (AEST).

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The local unit maintained momentum overnight touching a high against the US dollar of USD1.0745 to open above USD1.0700 this morning.

The Dow industrials fell, on pace to decline for a fifth time in six sessions, as mixed quarterly earnings curbed sentiment ahead of Friday's readings on jobs.

India has increased the base prices on gold and silver for travellers and individuals who import small quantities of the precious metals.

The Australian sharemarket improved for the first time in four days today and has effectively wiped out most of this week's losses. The All Ordinaries index (XAO) gained 1 pct or 42.2 pts to 4333.2 with all sectors bar the healthcare companies ending higher.

Molibdenos y Metales S.A. (Molymet) of Chile, the world's largest processor of the strategic metals molybdenum and rhenium, on Thursday signed an agreement to invest $390 million in Molycorp Inc.

Australians are following keenly the entry of mining billionaire Gina Rinehart into Fairfax after she became the biggest shareholder with her purchase of a 14 per cent share. They are even anticipating a clash between Australia's richest woman and Roger Corbett, chairman of the publisher, over major national issues such as the mining tax and carbon tax.

Scuttled in an emotionally-charged national elections year, yet impinging on the flow of foreign direct investments, Malaysian authorities through its Atomic Energy Licencing Board (AELB) and the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry (Mosti) has granted the Australian mining firm Lynas the highly coveted temporary operating licence (TOL) to proceed with the controversial $200 million rare earths processing plant in the province of Gebeng, Kuantan.

It looks like Afghanistan and Pakistan will go hand in hand for peace and security as the two countries have declared support for each other.

Australian shares have rebounded from yesterday's sell-off in early trade, following positive offshore leads. US and European markets rose overnight on solid economic data and on hopes the world's largest social media network, Facebook, would file for listing on the US share market. At lunchtime in the East, the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up 53.5pts or 1.2pct to 4344.5.