POLITICS & POLICY

All the fanfare normally attending the first sitting of the Parliament were present, punctuated by a bible reading that delved into 'betrayal', yet for Prime Minister Julia Gillard, the first order of business is to focus on the economy.

Obama thinks his tax policies are an extension of faith, saying that Jesus would support his plan to impose a higher effective tax rate on higher-income Americans. But many are crying foul over his remarks.

China is likely to experience power supply outages this year, with a shortage estimated to reach up to 40 million kilowatts (kW) compared from 30 million kW in 2011, driven by a supply shortage of the raw commodity coal.

Extraction and production of the precious yellow metal gold by Turkey, a country sandwiched between Europe and Asia, increased by 43 percent to 24.4 tonnes in 2011 compared from a year ago, the country's Anatolia News Agency reported.

Two African-focused miners, Randgold Resources and Harmony Gold Mining Co., have reported churning in favorable results in 2011.

Further drops in activity and new orders saw the national construction industry spend another month in the red according to the latest Australian Industry Group Australian Performance of Construction Index (Australian PCI®), in conjunction with the Housing Industry Association. The seasonally adjusted index fell by 1.2 points to 39.8 in January, marking the 20th consecutive month that the sector has contracted (readings below 50 indicate a contraction in activity).

The Australian stock market is seen to hold firm, but gains are narrowed down by the grim prospects in Greece, that has yet to settle prevailing debt concerns.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: Australia: The AUD continued to hold firm overnight despite weaker offshore equity markets and no progress from the Greek political parties.

U.S. stocks drifted lower as the recent rally paused, with investors shifting focus to wrangling in Greece over fiscal austerity. The Dow Jones Industrial Average eased 38 points, or 0.3%, to 12824 as the last hour of trading approached. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index lost 2.7 points, or 0.2%, to 1342, and the Nasdaq Composite declined 7.8 points, or 0.3%, to 2898.

Although still on the discussion table, this early, a proposal to implement changes into South Africa's mining industry that will pave the way for the imposition of a 50 per cent resource rent-tax has faced accelerating objections.

Compared with previous years, activities in pursuit of potential mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in Australia's mining sector will be mostly played on by the country's mid-tier and junior mining players in 2012.

Following the first week of losses for the Australian sharemarket in 2012 last week, shares kicked off trade today significantly higher. The All Ordinaries index (XAO) rose by 1 pct or 44.5 pts to 4364.6. Almost all sectors improved however the defensive healthcare space fell by 0.4 pct.

Embassies of Syria are being attacked around the world, and the Syrian embassy in Canberra took the latest assault Saturday. A group of around 40 men broke into the Syrian embassy in O'Malley at about 9:30pm (AEDT), while there were three employees inside.

Samsung Electronics has clarified over the weekend that its role on a television commercial produced by an Israeli network was limited only on a Galaxy tablet computer being employed in the promotional clip.

Although Australian consumers enjoyed the past few months lower prices on selected goods because of the price war between Coles and Woolsworth, they are actually paying higher prices for other commodities.

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.