POLITICS & POLICY

The Dow industrials rose Tuesday for the first day in five sessions as a reading on the service sector unexpectedly rose and officials from industrialized countries discussed the ongoing European crisis. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 26.49 points, or 0.22%, to 12127.95.

Oil and gas giant Exxon Mobil Corp. could be exporting liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States anytime soon.

The optimists out there often say things such as "It might be stormy now, but the rain won't last forever". Those words rang true for markets (not so much the actual weather) today in Sydney. Shares rose for the first time in five days, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up 1.5 pct or 59 pts to 4092.4. The market ended close to its best level of the day and improved in the second half of trade (following the central bank's rate cut).

With mounting concerns on the environmental preservation of the Great Barrier Reef that now includes the UNESCO, the federal government had halted the final approval of the coal mine project initiated by Gina Rinehart's Hancock Coal and India's GVK.

India, a country vastly rich in mineral resources, has ironically started to import iron ore, the key ingredient to steel making, the newspaper Economic Times reported.

As expected by economists and analysts, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) cut on Tuesday the overnight cash rate by 25 basis points to 3.5 per cent. The move aims to pre-empt the possible repercussions of the uncertainty if Greece will leave the Eurozone and weakness of the Chinese an American economies.

Coalition leader Tony Abbott has resorted to using a metaphor to warn Australians of the ill-effects of the carbon tax scheduled to be collected beginning July 1.

Australia can't seem to wait for a change in federal government, according to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, as he declared on Tuesday that the nation has come to realise that Labor policies currently in-place have been wrecking the domestic economy.

Matamec Explorations Inc., developer of the Kipawa rare earths project in western Quebec, announced on Monday its mineral processing pilot plant operations for the rare earths project have already went online.

Surveys have been suggesting that Prime Minister Julia Gillard will not carry the Labor Party to victory in 2013, yet all is not lost for the government as voters pointed to a one man they think is the fittest to lead the nation - Kevin Rudd.

Ratings agency Standard & Poor's forecast Tuesday that after its June 17 election, Greece will have one-in-three chance of abandoning the euro in the coming months.

All eyes are not only on the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) which announces on Tuesday its decision on the overnight cash rate, but also on Australian banks if it will pass in full any rate reduction.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: With UK markets closed for the Queen's Jubilee celebrations, the AUD has strengthened to be currently trading at USD0.9720 despite a lack of liquidity and very little direction during the offshore trading session.

Stocks tilted lower shortly after the open following a report that orders for manufactured goods fell in April, versus forecasts for orders to hold steady. Stocks then spent most of Monday's session in the red before reversing course late in the session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 17.11 points, or 0.1%, to 12101.46.

Tanzania has started to earn from the royalty rates under its new Mining Act in 2010, The Citizen newspaper reported.

The Australian sharemarket lost ground for the fourth straight session, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) down 2 pct or 83.5 pts to 4033.4. The ASX200 Index also closed below 4000 pts for the first time since November last year. All sectors lost ground, with the exception of the gold producers and the defensive telcos.

Utilising the power of digital technology and social media, Tourism Australia (TA) launched on Monday a $250-million tourism campaign, primarily to lure the Chinese market, where some 100 million have been forecast to will tour the world by 2020.

Google has rolled out a new feature on its search site, which the Internet giant said will provide technical guidelines for error returns normally encountered by searches originating from China.

Green groups in Australia have found an ally in the United National Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) in protecting the country's Great Barrier Reef.

Australia may yet have its biggest independent listed coal miner after shareholders of Gloucester Coal gave their unanimous approval today to its proposed merger with China's Yancoal Australia.

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan is confident that Australia is well positioned to weather the lingering financial storms worldwide, mainly in the eurozone, which today ate up some $23 billion from the local share market.

Resources Minister Martin Ferguson warned on Monday of a possible failure of the $9.5-billion Roy Hill iron ore project unless the venture gets foreign workers. He said the controversy generated by the enterprise migration agreement (EMA) places at risk not only Roy Hill but also $243 billion worth of future mining investments.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: Market sentiment turned negative on Friday as poorer jobs data in the US and weaker Chinese PMI figures moved equity markets lower as the possibility of further stimuli from central banks helped prevent the AUD from falling further.

The national surveys may have been unkind to the Gillard Government but a key cabinet member believes the ruling party will stick it out with Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

Another dismal U.S. jobs report triggered the year's biggest stock selloff and erased what was left of the Dow Jones Industrial Average's 2012 gains.

The Friday announcement by Fair Work Australia (FWA) that boosted the minimum wage in the country by $17.10 a week to $606.40 produced an almost violent reaction from employers.

The Australian sharemarket fell for the third consecutive session today, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) down 0.4 pct or 16.8 pts to 4116.9. Half the market actually improved today, however the energy, mining, industrials and consumer discretionary stocks all ended significantly lower. Modest gains from the financial sector were not enough to lift the market higher. Last month, shares fell by 7.5 pct, which was the worst performing month in two years (let's hope this month is better).

China will introduce effective Friday the issuance of a rare earths specialised value-added tax invoice system to its industry producers and miners in a bid to curb the rampant illegal mining of rare earths in its country, amid plans of building a national rare earths inventory reserve to regulate price fluctuations.

What has former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd been up to these days? The gruelling world of politics has been shunned lately by Mr Rudd but on Thursday he got one of the biggest milestones of his life - the world has welcomed the entry of the Labor backbencher's first grandchild - a baby girl.