Australian Market Report: Stocks follow global rally. Australian stocks closed stronger, pushing above one per cent during the day but eased to around half a per cent higher by the finish. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index rose 28.2 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 5209 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index gained 25.6 points, or 0.5 per cent, to 5185.4. Gaines were across the board, with financials rising 0.7 per cent, materials up 0.6 per cent and energy ending 0.4 per cent higher. Gold stocks were the main drag, falling 2.2 per cent. More...
The Australian dollar drifted up from multi-month lows on Monday, finding some traction after two weeks of steep declines as sellers took a breather ahead of key central bank events this week. The Aussie edged up 0.6 per cent to 97.86 US cents in late trade, pulling up from an 11-month trough of 97.11 US cents plumbed on Friday. More...
Hedge funds betting against gold. Hedge-fund managers are making the biggest ever bet against gold as billionaire George Soros sold holdings last quarter and Goldman Sachs Group predicted more declines after the longest slump in four years. More...
Super funds on track for bumper returns Australian shares flirted with five-year highs on Monday, returning to levels not seen since the onset of the global financial crisis, as investors were spurred on by signs of strength in the US economy. Gains in the sharemarket are translating into bigger superannuation returns with balanced super funds - the most widely held funds - on track to deliver their highest returns in 15 years More...
Two-thirds of consumers are feeling worse off because of the federal budget, with many planning to cut their spending despite the latest interest rate cut. A 0.5 percentage point increase in the Medicare levy to fund disability care is shaping up as the biggest concern, well ahead of the baby bonus being scrapped and tax changes to superannuation. More...
Small business struggle with slumping prices. A private survey has found trading conditions for small businesses improved slightly in the first three months of the year, but are still in contraction. More...
ASX launches govt debt trading system More...
EnergyAustralia facing 'difficult' conditions. China Light and Power has warned that its EnergyAustralia unit is facing continued "difficult" trading conditions, with little respite expected anytime soon. "Market conditions in Australia remain difficult," the Hong Kong company told shareholders in a quarterly trading update on Monday. More...
Hong Kong-based private equity firm Quantum Pacific Capital says it is best placed to resolve a dispute over the ownership of a troubled $5 billion copper and gold project on the Indonesian island of Java, and is in negotiations to grab back as much as 80 per cent of the project on behalf of former owner Intrepid Mines. More...
Apex Minerals has cancelled the planned $50 million sale of its flagship Wiluna gold mine to Everprosperity Investment after the vendor baulked at the asking price. Apex announced last week it had agreed to extend a 60-day due diligence period to Everprosperity in exchange for payment of a further $250,000. But Everprosperity failed to make the additional payment by yesterday's deadline, prompting Apex to cancel the deal and terminate discussions. More...
Rio faces union push in iron ore. Two powerful Australian unions have joined forces to try to take on Rio Tinto at its iron ore mines, where workers have not had union representation for around two decades. More...
Long-suffering shareholders of Galaxy Resources will again be asked to kick in cash to help keep the struggling lithium play afloat. In a letter to shareholders today, Galaxy's chairman Craig Readhead announced a deeply discounted $47 million rights issue. The one-for-one rights issue is priced at just eight cents a share, a 65 per cent discount to its last traded price of 23 cents. More...
Leighton looks to put board battle behind it. The new chairman of beleaguered construction firm Leighton Holdings has promised investors the company will remain independent of its indebted major shareholder, at least for now. More...
Leighton flags Asian growth drive More...
Shares in Santos closed 1.6 per cent higher after the company said oil production started ahead of schedule at its $490 million Fletcher Finucane project off the West Australian coast. Santos expects to produce 15,000 barrels daily in the first year of production. The company recently said the Fletcher Finucane oil project in the Carnarvon Basin would be commissioned later this month, 16 months after being approved. More...
Transfield 'sensitive' to slowdown. Shareholders in Transfield Services were bracing themselves on Monday for an earnings downgrade following downgrades by other mine services operators such as UGL, WorleyParsons and the smaller Coffey International last week. Transfield is to hold an ''investor day'' on Tuesday, with securities analysts to be briefed on the company's strategy. More...
Commonwealth Bank shares edged to an all-time high as speculation continued to swirl that Australian banks were overpriced, creating a "bank bubble". The stock rose 0.38 per cent higher at $73.49 at the 1615 official market close, against a benchmark increase of 0.54 per cent, after touching an intra-day high of $74.18. It marked a fresh high, beating the $73.21 achieved last Friday. Commonwealth Bank stocks opened the session at $73.50. More...
Holden is in danger of shutting its manufacturing operations and could bring the rest of the car industry down with it. That's the warning from University of Adelaide Associate Professor John Spoehr, who says he is seeing similar signs to the lead-up of Mitsubishi's Adelaide factory closure in 2008. (+video) More...
Investors have snapped up Macquarie Group's latest hybrid share issue, prompting the bank to bulk up the size of its offer by up to half. After last week announcing plans to raise up to $400 million by issuing hybrid shares, Macquarie said on Monday it had received $580 million in commitments from brokers and institutional investors. More...
Optus mounts 4G challenge. Telstra's primacy in the 4G mobile race is about to be seriously challenged by Optus, with the country's second largest carrier promising to have 70 per cent of Australia's metropolitan population covered in the next year. Optus says it is expanding 4G mobile coverage to match its key competitor in an increasingly intense battle for customers. Meanwhile, carriers are bracing for explosive growth in data traffic in the coming years. More...
Australian Agricultural Company has offloaded another slice of its property portfolio for $23 million. AACo has exchanged a contract for the sale of three properties within the Goonoo aggregation to Dean Armstrong's Comet Downs Cattle Company. More...
GPT Group will use the $397 million raised from the sale of its half share in Erina Fair shopping centre to expand its office and industrial/business park investments. The diversified Australian real estate investment trust has been steadily reducing its half-share interests in retail and expanding its bigger malls, such as Highpoint in Melbourne, through high end redevelopments. More...
South Korea shows rising interest in Aust property sector More...
Aussie given 10 years in Dubai jail as colleague acquitted. One Australian executive has been sentenced to 10 years' jail in Dubai but his junior colleague acquitted in a spectacular climax to their four-year battle against property fraud charges. More...
Opinion - Adele Ferguson: Shareholders in Leighton Holdings must have been pinching themselves on Monday when the construction company bucked the gloom that has descended on the mining and construction sectors and reconfirmed its earnings guidance for the full year. More...
Opinion - Elizabeth Knight: Target's troubles lead to pain for all The whole retail recovery story has wandered perilously off script over the past quarter. The start of the year held the promise of green shoots at the discretionary spending end. But as we near the close of the financial year, the fragile recovery appears to have been nipped in the bud. More...
Opinion - Michael Pascoe: India's workforce wasted. India's inability to manage its industrial revolution could have more impact on our children's future than an increase in the Medicare levy. More...
U.S. Market Report: Investors welcomed a pair of corporate mergers Monday, but stocks were only modestly higher as investors await comments from Federal Reserve officials later in the week. The Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were all up about 0.1% More...
North/South Americas Market Report: North and South American markets are mixed. The Bovespa is higher by 0.43%, while the IPC is leading the S&P 500 lower. They are down 1.64% and 0.06% respectively. More...
European Market Report: European markets finished higher today with shares in Germany leading the region. The DAX is up 0.69% while France's CAC 40 is up 0.54% and London's FTSE 100 is up 0.48%. More...
Asian Market Report: Asian markets finished broadly higher today with shares in Hong Kong leading the region. The Hang Seng is up 1.78% while Japan's Nikkei 225 is up 1.47% and China's Shanghai Composite is up 0.75%. More...
Commodities Report - Gold: Silver hit a 2-1/2 year low on Monday, led by fund liquidation in Asian trade, while gold was up slightly, reversing from seven days of losses based on speculation the U.S. Federal Reserve may rein in its stimulus programme. Investors have been dumping gold and silver, which are down 20 percent and 30 percent respectively this year, while stocks and the dollar have risen on an improving global economic outlook. More...
Commodities Report - Oil: Crude oil prices rose on Monday, reversing early losses to trade higher by late morning in New York as the dollar weakened, but ample supplies of crude oil were expected to limit gains. More...
Death cross brewing in bond market. Investors have been dumping bonds lately, but a little-known technical indicator suggests that may not last for long. The 10-year yield is flirting with the so-called death cross, which occurs when its 50-day moving average falls below its 200-day moving average. More...
Gross to Buffett Omens Disregarded as Sales Soar: Credit Markets Sales of corporate bonds in the U.S. are surging toward the busiest May ever as borrowers race to the market before demand dries up with Bill Gross and Warren Buffett cautioning against buying debt at all-time low yields. More...
Unclear whether Fed's bond buying has helped economy: Fisher While the Federal Reserve's accommodative policies have boosted stocks and helped the rich, it is unclear whether they are doing enough for the broader U.S. economy, a top central bank official said on Monday. "We've made rich people richer...," Dallas Fed President Richard Fisher said on CNBC television. "Question is what have we done for working men and women in America?" More...
Yahoo Inc will buy blogging service Tumblr for $1.1 billion cash, giving the Internet pioneer a much-needed social media platform to reach a younger generation of users and breathe new life into its ailing brand. The deal, announced on Monday, is a bold bet by Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer to revitalize the company by co-opting a Web property with strong visitor traffic but little revenue. More...
Tumblr Founder Says Site Will Stay an ‘Independent’ Effort More...
Elon Musk's SolarCity jumps 16% More...
An Apple bear calls a bottom As William Meade pointed out in Saturday's ETF Daily News post, he never once mentioned Apple's (AAPL) fundamentals during the three months that he was advising his readers -- mostly hedge fund managers -- to sell sell sell. More...
Chesapeake Energy Corp on Monday named a top executive at rival Anadarko Petroleum Corp to head the No. 2 U.S. natural gas producer, which has suffered a governance crisis and liquidity crunch over the last year. More...
GE Capital plans to pay $6.5 billion in dividends to GE More...
Goldman exits China's ICBC, 7 years and billions later Goldman Sachs Group Inc launched the sale of about $1.1 billion worth of Hong Kong-traded shares in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China on Monday, offering its entire remaining stake in the world's biggest bank by market value. More...
Generic drugmaker Actavis Inc, itself the subject of takeover speculation, said on Monday it would buy specialty pharmaceutical company Warner Chilcott Plc for $5 billion in stock to expand its branded drug portfolio, lower taxes and increase profits. More...
Dell says cannot disclose more information to Icahn yet Dell Inc said in a letter to suitors Carl Icahn and Southeastern Asset Management that the company would not provide more information about itself unless the board determined that their proposal was "superior" to founder Michael Dell's. More...
Caterpillar machinery sales down 9 percent in April, led by Asia More...
Taxes on some wealthy French top 100 percent of income More...
Swedish banks get no mercy as EU agenda ignored Swedish Finance Minister Anders Borg said he won’t cave to pressure from banks or the European Union to harmonize standards and insists capital ratios in the largest Nordic economy need to be higher than those elsewhere. More...
Britain's Vodafone has withdrawn from the running to provide a mobile service to fixed-line operator BT, two industry sources told Reuters, bringing to an end a nine-year partnership. More...
David Cameron told to stop moralising to multinationals over tax CBI head and UK's largest employers descend on Downing Street amid claims tax row has been used as 'political football' More...
Oil probe expands to Glencore, others. An investigation by the European Commission into possible manipulation of energy price benchmarks has expanded to seek information from Glencore Xstrata PLC and other Swiss commodity companies, More...
Morrisons to offer online shopping in Ocado deal. Morrisons, the UK's fourth largest supermarket chain, is going into business with internet grocer Ocado. Morrisons says it has agreed a deal that will enable it to launch an online grocery service by January 2014. More...
ABN Amro Group NV, the third-biggest Dutch lender, plans to cut about 400 additional jobs after first-quarter profit tumbled 17 percent. More...
Pactera Technology International Ltd said on Monday that Blackstone Group LP, together with the company's management, made a $680.3 million non-binding proposal to take China's largest technology outsourcing firm private. Pactera said it expected its board of directors to form a special committee of independent directors to consider the consortium's offer of $7.50 per share. Pactera shares surged 31.1 percent to $6.90. More...
Discount airline Ryanair has reported record full-year profits and rising revenues, despite soaring fuel costs. Profits after tax rose 13% to 569m euros (£481m) on revenues of 4.88bn euros for the year to 31 March. Passenger traffic grew 5% to 79.3 million as the airline added 217 new routes to its roster, bringing the total to 1,600. But fuel costs rose by more than 290m euros, the company said, and now account for 45% of total costs. More...
Wildcat strike hits Mercedes South African plant More...
Gulf wealth funds raising private equity investments Sovereign wealth funds in the Gulf Arab region are raising their allocations to private equity investments at a faster rate than other types of investment, U.S. fund manager Invesco says in a new study. More...
Analysis - Stanley White: Little sign Abe can shake up Japan's inbound FDI Japan risks missing, yet again, an opportunity to use foreign investment to help fuel sustained economic growth that has eluded it for the last two decades. More...
Opinion/Analhysis - Dan Primack: The biggest merger you didn't hear about today More...