Vittorio Hernandez

In just a little over a year in power, Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott's honeymoon with Aussie voters is definitely over.The latest survey by Fairfax Ipsos showed that Opposition leader Bill Shorten had not only overtaken Mr Abbott in terms of voting intentions if an election would be held today as the PM's personal approval rating tumbled down by 12 points.

In US economic data, the employment trends index rose from 122.8 to 123.24 in November.

Australian shares kicked off the trading weak substantially firmer with the ASX 200 Index up 0.7 per cent and ending just shy of 5400pts. Local shares managed to rise by 0.4 per cent last week despite a tough start to the week.

Local stocks have started the second week of December on a strong footing. The ASX 200 opened flat, although buyers were waiting in the wings and the market was well supported over the course of the morning. The upward momentum for the market ebbed when the index hit the 5380 but prices remained well supported around these levels into the afternoon.

The Australian Dollar has opened this week around the .8300 level as Friday's US jobs report exceeded forecasts and the USD continued its strength.

The US dollar has been broadly bid higher as investors react to Friday's jobs numbers. The November payrolls reading showed 321,000 jobs were created and average hourly earnings rose 0.4%, while the unemployment rate was steady at 5.8%. This was the highest number of jobs created in nearly three years and was also accompanied by upward revisions to the previous two months. Heading into next week's Fed meeting, this jobs report is only fuelling the case for the hawks.

American boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr may have to find another way to get under the skin of Filipino eight-division title holder Manny Pacquiao.

There are some instances when cops have to be in disguise to catch suspects. In Austria, to stop people who use the sauna's steam room from engaging in hanky-panky behaviour, the owners of a fitness club in Linz needed special guards who must be present in the steam room to catch violators of the "no sex" policy.

In US economic data, non-farm payrolls (employment) rose by 321,000 in November, well above forecasts of job gains of 230,000 and the strongest increase in jobs in almost three years. The jobless rate was unchanged at 5.8% and hourly earnings rose by 0.4% in the month, above forecasts for a 0.2% gain. The trade deficit narrowed from a revised US$43.6 billion deficit to US$43.4bn deficit in October.

The Philippine Atmospheric and Geophysical Administration Service (PAGASA) turned out to have the better forecast than the US' Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) in predicting the path of Super Typhoon Ruby (Hagupit), which battered the Philippines on Saturday.

Just a little bit more than a year after Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda) ravaged the Philippines in November 2013, another super typhoon, Ruby (Hagupit) battered the country again on Sunday, particularly the Eastern Visayas which was hit by Haiyan.

Kazanah Nasional Berhad, the majority state-owned company that operates the embattled Malaysia Airlines announced on Saturday the appointment of Christopher R Mueller as chief executive airline. His designation aims to boost the business of the air carrier that suffered from two major air tragedies in 2014.

The heat in the kitchen has become too hot for NFL player Daniel Dockett whose retweet of the tight jeans image of Maila Obama has gone viral.

A flat start for local shares on Friday has given way to broad selling for the ASX 200. At the best levels of the session the AS 200 was ahead by almost 21 points. However at lunchtime the market was around session lows with a loss of 26 points or 0.5%. The was no clear direction offered by US and European markets overnight.

After unwittingly creating a social media storm last week because of their rolled eyes and bored looks, Malia and Sasha Obama appears to have learned some lessons in public appearances. On Thursday, the two presidential daughters were photographed with big smiles at the yearly Christmas Tree lighting ceremony at the White House, reports The Telegraph.

Buckingham Palace has been quite used to scandals involving members of the royal family. There was Princess Margaret's love affairs, Prince Charles' divorce with Princess Diana and other royal dangerous liaisons. But none was perhaps as modern-day as the nude photo scandal of Prince Harry.

The Australian Dollar made new four year lows last night amid expectations of interest rate cuts early next year.

2015 will remain a year of mass monetary accommodation; what will change is where the money printing and record low rates will come from. The ECB is clearly gearing up for a broad-ranging stimulus package in 2015. ECB President Mario Draghi stated clearly that the Board 'won't tolerate' low inflation and announced that officials had discussed all measures barring gold to support the economy at last night's meeting. It will allot another round to its current corporate bond buying prog...

Almost two years ago, Korean singer made Internet record with his Gangnam Style music video hitting 1 billion hits. He repeated the feat this December 2014 when the same video, seen below, went past the 2 billionth mark.

But just a little more than a year in power, Tony Abbott is experiencing what Kevin Rudd was going through the dying days of the Labor Party. In an interview with ABC, Mr Abbott admitted that man voters now feel dismayed, disappointed and surprised with how he runs the party that the shoe is now on the other foot with the Opposition leading by double digits in recent surveys, while the PM's popularity plummeted to a five-month low.

The European Court of Justice disallowed the use of Phallometric tests on gay asylum seekers. The court made the decision after three homosexual men from and Africa and a Muslim applied for asylum in Europe because gays are penalised in their countries.

In economic data, jobless claims fell by 17,000 to 297,000 last week. The 4-week moving average - a better gauge of underlying trends - rose to 299,000, the highest in 10 weeks.

The ASX 200 spent the afternoon consolidating having reached session highs in the latter part of morning trade. Materials and Industrial stocks were the best improved sectors and investors gave the defensive utilities sector a wide berth which saw that group lagging the most.

Early trade on Thursday has seen local shares continue to build on the gains of recent sessions. The ASX 200 opened the day with a gain of 5 points before pushing on to the best levels of the morning when the market was ahead by 52 pts. Investors have been encouraged by the positive tone of US economic news released over night. European shares were generally higher on Wednesday on hopes that the European Central Bank would inject more stimulus into the economy on Thursday. The FTSEurofirst 300 i...

At the rate first daughter Malia Obama is getting all the social media attention, reality star and attention-seeker Kim Kardashian should be planning her next nude photoshoot so she would again be the talk of the town.

The Australian Dollar is lower after yesterday's weaker-than-expected GDP data from around 0.8460 to 0.8400 and after some intra-session variation overnight, that's about where it sits this morning.

In a slight surprise this week, the PBoC did not use the reverse-repo operation to drain the excess liquidity in the market. Most had forecast this would take place considering the fiscal policy changes currently underway. To my eye, this signals intent that 2015 will be a growth supporting year; interest rate cuts, reserve requirement ratios and further disbursements will be a theme from China in 2015.

Big-name boxers like Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao are lucky because their guaranteed purses are eight digits, while their opponents get only in the lower seven-digit figure. The share in pay-per-view (PPV) buys is no longer a reliable source of boosting their earnings further since trends indicate lower PPVs.

Scientists have an unflattering image of nerd-looking older men who probably look like Albert Einstein and eternally garbed in white lab gown. However, an Italian physicist is getting the attention in social media because of his physical looks that could pass for a male model.