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Last week's Federal Budget appears to have eased consumers' pessimism, according to Westpac/Melbourne Institute's monthly survey. The April survey was conducted over five days on either side of the Morrison Government's Budget and saw consumer sentiment rise marginally above the break-even mark of 100, which separates optimism from pessimism.
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Banks face a fresh showdown with shareholders over executive pay and risk copping second "strikes," senior bankers warn, after the regulator urged boards to put less weight on financial targets when paying bonuses. In an attempt to improve bank culture, the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) is expected to propose restrictions on bank executive pay in the coming weeks.
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Surging job numbers and a mood to expand in the west have contributed to a slight reduction in Perth’s office vacancy. According to blue-chip real estate agents JLL, Perth’s office vacancy fell to 20.7 per cent as 8700sqm was absorbed.
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A major Australian coal mine project near the Great Barrier Reef was controversially approved by the federal government Tuesday, days before national elections are expected to be called. The controversial Queensland project backed by India's Adani would significantly boost coal production, but must now get approval from state and local governments.
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A new national lithium research hub in Western Australia is hoped to take the state a step closer to developing a battery manufacturing industry. The $135 million centre, announced today, will operate out of Curtin University in Perth and will look at how to better source minerals and process them into chemicals that are used to develop batteries.
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Minority shareholders of Flinders Mines have won their David and Goliath battle against the delisting of their company after the aspiring miner’s board pulled its plans. Flinders released a brief statement this morning saying that it had decided to withdraw its revised delisting application to the ASX, given the views expressed by shareholders.
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Wollongong Coal says it is suspending its last operational mine after putting its Wongawilli colliery under "care and maintenance," likely increasing the financial challenges the company faces. Wollongong made the decision to suspend Wongawilli after officials found another "fall" on the main belt road of the mine, according to a statement to the Australian Securities Exchange.
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Domino's Pizza has agreed to pay $4 million for the brand's Danish franchise after the region's local operator went into administration.
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Vegan activists who target farmers' homes and lawful businesses could face a year in jail under proposed new laws to stop disruptive protests. If re-elected in May, Mr Morrison plans to change the laws to prevent vegan activist organisation Aussie Farms from using private information about farmers to harass them.
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US casino giant Wynn Resorts has abruptly ended buyout talks with Crown Resorts after word of a potential buyout was leaked. In a tersely worded statement, the Las Vegas casino company said it was ending all discussions with its Australian rival.
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Labor promises car cash splash to build electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles in Australia. Tens of millions of dollars will be offered to the world's automotive giants to resurrect the Australian car industry, centred around manufacturing electric and hydrogen-powered cars, under a yet-to-be unveiled Labor plan.
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US submarine cable company SubCom says it would lay an internet link from Australia to Hong Kong through Papua New Guinea, deepening its involvement in a region where China's Huawei Technologies Co Ltd has sought to expand.
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The United States and the European Union are preparing to impose tit-for-tat tariffs on each other’s products, the latest escalation in a 14-year fight over government aid given to Boeing and European rival Airbus.
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President Donald Trump is sending a clear message to the economic policy makers gathering in Washington for the IMF and World Bank’s spring meetings: My trade wars aren’t finished yet and a weakening global economy will just have to deal with it. With his latest threat to impose tariffs on $11 billion in imports from the European Union -- from helicopters to Roquefort cheese -- the U.S. president offered a vivid reminder that, even as he moves toward a deal with China to end their tariff wars, he has other relationships he’s eager to rewrite.
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U.S. consumer prices increased by the most in 14 months in March, but the underlying inflation trend remained benign against the backdrop of slowing domestic and global economic growth.
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Wednesday that U.S.-China trade talks continue to make progress and the two sides have basically settled on a mechanism to police any agreement, including new enforcement offices.
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A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers introduced legislation on Wednesday to expand the electric vehicle tax credit by 400,000 vehicles per manufacturer, a provision that would give a boost to Tesla Inc and General Motors Co before the existing credit comes to an end for them.
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U.S. lawmakers grill bank CEOs for the first time since financial crisis
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Shares in drugmaker Indivior plunged 70% after the US Department of Justice charged it with fraudulent marketing. A federal grand jury in Virginia accused Indivior of a "truly shameful scheme to put profits over the health and well-being of patients".
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Uber Seeks About $10 Billion in Year’s Biggest IPO
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ECB President Mario Draghi raised the prospect of more support for the struggling euro zone economy on Wednesday if its slowdown persisted, saying the central bank had “plenty of instruments” with which to react.
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German Chancellor Angela Merkel views an extension of a Brexit deadline for "several months to early 2020 as possible," a source from her party quoted her as telling lawmakers on Tuesday. Briefing MPs from her CDU-CSU conservative bloc after she hosted British Prime Minister Theresa May for talks in Berlin, Merkel said the option would be discussed at an EU summit on Brexit on Wednesday, according to the source.
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Britain’s exit from the European Union looks set to be delayed by as long as a year in a blow for Theresa May that risks a destabilizing backlash at home. European Council President Donald Tusk rejected May’s request for a brief postponement to the U.K.’s membership, saying it would create a “rolling series of short extensions and emergency summits, creating new cliff-edge dates.”
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The struggling UK economy is getting a boost from Brexit stockpiling. UK GDP grew 0.3% in the three months to the end of February, the Office for National Statistics said Wednesday. Economists polled by Reuters were expecting an expansion of 0.2%.
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China, a Major Bitcoin Source, Considers Moving Against It. China is planning new steps that could put a stop to making Bitcoin there, a move that could cut off one of the world’s largest sources of the popular but unstable cryptocurrency.
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Hong Kong Overtakes Japan as World's Third Largest Stock Market
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Yen tells the global ‘synchronized slowdown’ story. While the US dollar is the main safe-haven, the yen also has become a go-to currency in times of stress. The more crowded the trade, the more wrong punters often tend to be. Case in point: the months-long bet that the Japanese yen would skyrocket.
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Energy giant Saudi Aramco on Tuesday raised the size of a bond issue aimed at helping to diversify the Saudi economy to $12 billion from an initial $10 billion target following heavy demand, a source close to the operation told AFP. Demand for the issue comprising several bond maturities totalled $92 billion, the source said, making it nearly 6.7 times oversubscribed.
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