POLITICS & POLICY

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar has opened slightly firmer this morning but trading ranges overnight have been very tight due to the US Thanksgiving holiday.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott envisions a government with sound fiscal policies and more focused in engaging with its immediate neighbours in the Asia-Pacific region, that is if he becomes Australia’s next leader.

Aluminum producer Alcoa Inc. is mulling to acquire the aluminum holdings of BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto Group to boost production requirements in anticipation of a 6.5 per cent growth in demand.

Chinese miners of rare earths are bound to receive a funding support from China's Communist Party-led government to encourage further development and upgrades in the badly performing sector recently dealt with environment problems.

A proposed management plan to save the Murray-Darling Basin after decades of degradation has finally become a decree on Thursday, with Federal Environment Minister Tony Burke affixing his signature to make the plan a final legality.

The resumption of uranium mining in Queensland could potentially earn for the state some $78 billion, Jeff Seeney, Deputy Premier and Infrastructure Minister, said on Thursday.

Jonathon O'Dea, Liberal MP for Davidson, has urged on the New South Wales Government to consider exploring the potential of nuclear power generation after the state government reported 39 expressions of interest from companies wishing to explore for uranium in the province.

Mines located in Queensland ought to brace for potential ill-effects of the impending wet season as well as ensure that their respective safety contingency plans are in place and at the same time are working.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: Australian Dollar opens little changed after a subdued overnight session. The Australian Dollar has this morning opened at 1.0364 against the Greenback after trading to a low of 1.0339 overnight.

Comments from Central Bankers have been in focus in the last day. Locally RBA Governor Stevens presented a picture of the RBA being alert but not alarmed. In a speech the Governor delivered on Wednesday evening, he reflected on the Chinese slowdown being 'more material' than the Bank had predicted, although the outcome wasn't a 'disaster'.

After the meltdown came the eventual chaos, and more. Shopping retailers that participated in Click Frenzy are mulling to combine forces yet again, not to add in more products for sale this time, but to ask for proper compensation for the services the online shopping website failed to deliver.

The state of Queensland has given a conditional stamp of approval to a proposed $1.4 billion resort tourism and residential development project at Ella Bay near Innisfail, south of Cairns.

The inevitable happened. What was touted as the "online event of the year" frustrated many cyber shoppers when the website of Click Frenzy failed to run smoothly a minute after it opened shop at 7pm (AEDT) on Tuesday.

Some eleven franchisees of the Harvey Norman, a large Australian-based retailer of electrical, computer, furniture, entertainment and bedding goods, have been slapped cases by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in the Federal Court on alleged consumer rights misrepresentation.

Risk assets were fairly choppy throughout European and US trade, but managed to edge higher into the close. Market participants continued to monitor the wires for a potential deal on Greece as European leaders meet.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar is slightly lower this morning following falls on US stock markets and a signal the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) may cut the cash rate again in the near future.

Hopes the US government will reach a deal to avert the so-called fiscal cliff saw US share markets soar overnight, with the Dow Jones Index adding more than 200 points. Local stocks have followed suit, adding to yesterday's 0.5pct gain with another 0.6pct win today. By close, the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) was higher by 24.9pts to 4407.5pts.

Australian rare earths miner Lynas Corp has scheduled for December the start-up of its processing plant in Kuantan, Malaysia, executive chairman Nicholas Curtis said at the annual general meeting in Sydney on Tuesday.

Australia, along with 109 other nations, on Tuesday supported a resolution at the UN General Assembly urging for the elimination of the death penalty. The declaration is voted upon every two years by member-nations.

NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory HD camera captured the image of a massive sun eruption. Fortunately, the Earth’s surface is far away from the scorching plasma unleashed otherwise our planet might have been wiped out.

Consumers and kibitzers can't wait for the day to finish and for the clock to strike 7pm in a mad dash to Australia's first nationwide online sale,Click Frenzy. But financial experts warned the frenzied clicking could do more damage than good to one's finances later on.

After pleading guilty to earlier allegations on illegal betting on rival horses two years, Australian champion jockey Damien Oliver has finally received his verdict that suspends him from participating in any racing contests for 10 months.

Former party leaders Kevin Rudd and Malcolm Turnbull have insisted that current leadership set ups both in Labor and Liberal-National Coalition are not issues with them, seemingly contented at the moment to abide by the prevailing caucus flow.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average staged a triple-digit advance Monday, as investors rooted for signs of a compromise in Washington on the impending fiscal cliff. The Dow industrials climbed 160 points, or 1.3%, to 12748 in afternoon trading. Friday, it had risen 46 points to snap a four-session losing streak, although the blue-chip benchmark has lost ground for four consecutive weeks

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar has rallied on positive sentiment overnight amidst hopes the US will avoid their "fiscal cliff".

Organizers and some 200 retail participants into the first cyber flash sale Click Frenzy are all agog making last minute detailed preparations in anticipation of an online mob going bargain hunting on Tuesday evening beginning 7pm AEDT.

Since the GFC investors have become accustomed to political inertia at pivotal moments when bipartisanship or farsighted initiatives are required. The matter of the 'Fiscal Cliff' is another inflection point in this regard. When pressed, most commentators would agree that the situation will be resolved to avert a crisis

Australian seismologists have developed and released a new National Earthquake Hazard Map of Australia, which identified the areas of Moe in Victoria, York and Kirwan in Western Australia as well as Tenant Creek in the Northern Territory the country's most susceptible to the natural occurrence.

A new study suggests of earth’s mercury further rising by four degrees at the turn of the current, which according to the World Bank would lead to catastrophic events mostly affecting low-lying countries and their poverty-stricken inhabitants.