Despite the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) slashing interest rates in both May and June, sales of new homes in Australia continued to fall, dropping by as much as 3.7 per cent for a third consecutive month in September.
Sandy is pummeling the U.S. East Coast Monday night, coinciding with a full moon which intensifies its fury. Social networks are busy receiving photo uploads, shout outs and status updates from its users. See some of these #Sandy images in the accompanying slideshow.
Labor Senator Don Farrell has relinquished the top senate spot in South Australia on Tuesday, saying his move should dispel suggestions that the ruling party is troubled by factionalism and sexism.
Bell FX Currency Outlook Hurricane Sandy Closes New York Equity markets and sees a sluggish Australian dollar lower.
The Chinese government has been reported to be studying a plan of consolidating eight of its country's vital industries, including the rare earths sector.
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is on offensive mode these days following strings of opinion polls that showed his plummeting popularity and that of the Coalition’s diminishing edge over the Labor-led government.
Effective next month December, 500 job posts will have to go at Vodafone Hutchison Australia as the company sizes up what could still be managed and saved from the firm amid a dropping market share.
The coal mining industry in Australia's Hunter Valley region in New South Wales is now the focus of debates as Australian health experts clamored for a health impact study following international evidence which stated that Australia lacked research that studied the possible ill effects of coal mining in the communities.
Australia has been ranked as the eighth most attractive destination for business expansion in 2012, according to global accountancy network BDO in its new survey based from responses of 1,050 chief financial officers (CFOs) of medium sized firms around the world.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard is riding high as the latest Newspoll-News Ltd survey pointed to her steady popularity with a significant bonus – Labor, the party she leads, is surging too and has effectively erased the possibility of a humiliating defeat come the federal election on the latter part of 2013.
Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar has opened this morning in the mid 1.0300's after the release of US GDP for Q3 on Friday evening was slightly higher at 2% than the 1.8% expected.
The Saturday election in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) yielded a deadlock after the Liberal and Labor Parties won 8 seats each in the 17-member Assembly. With the situation, the power broker in the state politics is Greens MLA Shane Rattenbury.
To indicate the importance that Asia will play in the prosperity of Australia in the next 100 years, the Asian Century White Paper released on Sunday recommended that one-third of board members of the top 200 public companies in Australia must have deep experience and knowledge of the continent by 2025.
China’s National People's Congress Standing Committee has moved for the inevitable on Friday, it struck out the name of Bo Xilai from the list of deputies serving in the foremost Chinese legislative body.
Labor is likely to boost its primary votes if the party would reinstall Kevin Rudd as leader, a secret union-sponsored survey said earlier this week, pointing to the likelihood that the former prime minister may consider another leadership challenge.
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel are fully-equipped to serve missions and conduct operations whenever and wherever they are deployed by the government, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said on Friday.
Prime Minister Julia Gillard will launch Australia's Asian Century white paper on Sunday at the Lowy Institute in Sydney. The 300-page policy blueprint, which took the federal government 13 months to prepare, will spell out long-term targets for the country's political, economic and personal ties with Asia.
Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar is steady this morning and is remaining well supported going into the weekend, and this is despite a US equity market sell-off late in the session.
The controversial mining tax remains poised to deliver Australia’s surplus target, Treasurer Wayne Swan insisted on Thursday, despite reports of zero revenue following the program’s roll out on July 1 this year.
WikiLeaks’ founder Julia Assange is reportedly sick and Ecuadorian embassy officials in London have appealed to British authorities to grant the Aussie whistleblower safe passage so he can be brought to a hospital.
U.S. stocks traded around the flatline after the Federal Reserve reiterated its concerns about the U.S. economy and pledged to stick to its bond-buying policy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose nine points, or 0.1%, to 13111 in Wednesday afternoon trading, in a day that saw stocks trade in a relatively narrow range.
Bell FX Currency Outlook: Australian Dollar continues its surge in offshore trade as local inflation and Chinese manufacturing support.
The accusations of misogyny continues to hound Opposition leader Tony Abbott long after Prime Minister Julia Gillard used strong words in Parliament on her nemesis to describe his dislike for powerful women.
Australia has joined forces with government cyber warriors from the United States and the United Kingdom to increase nations’ capabilities of thwarting attempts by unscrupulous hackers to breach the security protocols of computer systems maintained by public and private entities.
The Australian government was not surprised at all that neighbouring governments would find the Coalition’s border protection and migration policies unacceptable, specifically the party’s insistence of turning back boats filled with asylum seekers when safe to do so.
The human brain is perceived to be sending mixed signals sometimes. It is your brain that makes you note it's time to sleep. Yet it won't let you sleep. This is just one of the main points of "scumbag brain" memes.
Australian consumers had been struggling with higher prices of basic goods and services in the three months until the end of September as inflation rises 1.4 per cent, dampening the central bank's aggressive stance in slashing benchmark rates in the coming months.
Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar is trading back below USD 1.0300 this morning on renewed market concerns over global economic growth.
Embattled independent MP Craig Thomson is back in the headlines after the New South Wales (NSW) police conducted an early morning raid on his house. The search, which reportedly led to the seizure of computers, is part of the ongoing investigation on Mr Thomson's alleged misuse of Health Services Union (HSU) funds.
U.S. stocks Tuesday headed to their worst decline in four months as weaker earnings and concern about Spain heightened fears about the global economy. After a 262-point drop, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was lately off 207.7 points, or 1.6%, to 13,138.19, with chemical maker DuPont pacing its losses that included 28 of its 30 components.
