POLITICS & POLICY

U.S. stocks finished slightly higher Wednesday as investors calibrated two positive readings on the U.S. economy against hopes for more help from the Federal Reserve. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 4.49 points, or 0.03%, to 13107.48 for its first gain in three days.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian dollar is slightly lower this morning, currently trading around USD1.0340 as some mixed data out of the US made it difficult for the AUD to hold its ground.

Tokyo Gas, top city gas supplier of Japan, has forged a basic agreement to purchase liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Malaysia at 900,000 tonnes annually for 10 years, effective April 2015.

Oil-rich Norway's central bank has just downscaled its overall stakes in global mining giant BHP Billiton, selling thousands of shares in the U.K.-listed side even as it bought a further million shares in the company's Australia-listed arm.

Egyptian authorities have agreed to allow an Australian freelance journalist to finally leave the Middle Eastern nation following more than six months of ‘hold departure order’ imposed by Cairo.

It was a dangling sword just about waiting to fall.As expected, with the suspension of the planned $30 billion expansion plan on the Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine mega project comes the inevitable downsizing of jobs related to the project.

Consuming electronic and digital products in and within Australia has remained relatively expensive compared to other markets, with the price mark-ups reaching an average of 50 per cent more, according to a consumer advocacy group.

Not only Australia's much touted resources mining boom is waning off, apparently so also is the volume of construction work done in the country.

Grahame Morris, the former chief of staff of ex-Prime Minister John Howard, publicly apologised on Tuesday to ABC journalist Leigh Sales for calling her a cow on radio.

Shadow Communications Minister Malcolm Turnbull has pledged to revisit the prohibition imposed by the Labor-led government on giant Chinese network specialist Huawei Technologies.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar is steady this morning as rumors build European Central Bank President Mario Draghi is working towards a breakthrough in the euro zone debt crisis.

Stocks ended mostly lower Tuesday as an upbeat reading on U.S. housing prices was offset by a dour report on consumer confidence. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 21.68 points, or 0.17%, to 13102.99. The blue-chip benchmark fell for the sixth time in seven sessions, a choppy stretch during which the Dow has fallen 172 points, or 1.3%.

Brazilian mining company Vale SA has resumed operations at its Carborough Downs coal mine, effectively lifting a declaration of force majeure, after a carbon monoxide leak forced the miner to suspend the operations of the mine on May 31 this year.

The $15 per tonne carbon tax floor price will be dumped by the Gillard Government following the conclusion of a deal with the European Union that would link the economic bloc’s carbon pricing scheme to that of Australia’s.

Troubled Australian surfwear company Billabong International, in a do-or-die attitude, will embark on a four-year restructuring plan to help tide up and hopefully keep afloat the company even as it opened its books to second-time suitor TPG Capital.

Prison walls have failed miserably to stem the flow of illegal drugs into Australian correctional facilities, a new council report said on Tuesday.

Queensland will likely cut no more than 15,000 public sector jobs, according to Queensland Premier Campbell Newman on Tuesday, yet regardless the exact number Treasurer Wayne Swan cautioned that the Coalition plans to do the same should it wins federal government power.

It won't be long before China loosens its grip as the world's stronghold of rare earths as American miner Molycorp announced that operations has already started at its new California rare earths mine.

The diplomatic standoff between Britain and Ecuador over WikiLeaks founder Julia Assange has reached a settlement stage as Quito confirmed on Saturday that “we consider this unfortunate incident over.”

Despite uranium spot prices currently trading at below $US50 a pound, Canadian company Cameco Corp., the world's third-largest uranium miner, remained confident demand for the yellowcake nuclear fuel will bounce back.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: The Australian Dollar is slightly weaker this morning, currently trading around USD1.0360 after a quiet night.

Water Minister Tony Burke extended on Monday by two weeks consultation with four states after the deadline for the approval of the fourth blueprint for the Murray-Darling Basin plan lapsed.

Former Prime Minister John Howard has affirmed earlier this August that the Australian economy is at a solid state as claimed by the Labor-led federal government, according to a report over the weekend by the Australian Financial Review (AFR).

The latest Fairfax-Nielsen survey showed the Labor-led national government collecting considerable gains from its dismal performance for the most part of 2012, inching closer to the likelihood of reversing a rousing Coalition win next year.

The Chinese government has set aside up to 2.37 trillion yuan ($373 billion) for investment into energy conservation and anti-pollution projects over the next three-and-a-half years, claimed a report by Reuters on Wednesday, with $155 billion of the money already earmarked for energy efficient projects that could reduce the nation's reliance on coal.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: Weaker Chinese data helped push the AUD below 1.0400 on Friday night but the ongoing threat of more central bank stimulus has kept the AUD above the 1.0400 level this morning.

Twitter user ‘Fresco Jesus’ became an internet sensation after a Spanish grandmother tried-but-failed to restore a 120-year-old church fresco. The century-old artwork, titled “Ecce Homo” (Behold The Man), features a sorrowful Jesus Christ wearing a crown of thorns and looking up to the heavens. The 'worst restoration' has been dubbed, “Ecce Mono” (Behold the Monkey).

They had the chance yet they didn't take it, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said on Friday in direct response to the Coalition demands that more questions need to be answered on the Slater & Gordon affair.

State-run China National Gold Group Corporation (CNGGC) is interested to purchase African Barrick, a unit of Barrick Gold which earlier said wants to offload the company, for $3.9 billion.