POLITICS & POLICY

From mining rare earths to producing magnets with rare earths, name it and Molycorp Inc., the world's largest non-Chinese rare earths miner, just could already possibly have it.

Similar to executive pay increases and bank executive bonuses which are now under scrutiny by shareholders while the rest of the world are tightening their belts, fund managers in Australia are under pressure from the industry and stakeholders to disclose their pay.

Decreasing government revenues and the slowing down national economy could hamper efforts to achieve budget surplus by 2013 but Federal Treasurer Wayne remains confident that the fiscal goal is achievable.

US employment (non-farm payrolls) rose by 227,000 in February. The January result was upgraded by 41,000 to show job gains of 284,000. The jobless rate was stable at 8.3pct.

Bell FX Currency Outlook: Aussie slips against the US$ on the back of Greece reaching a solution which Bell FX Currency Outlook: Aussie slips against the US$ on the back of Greece reaching a solution which has averted a technical default.

The Australian market managed to improve today for the second consecutive day, partly making up for three straight sessions of losses between Monday and Wednesday. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) rose 0.9 pct or 38.3 pts to 4300.5, however still has fallen by around 1.5 pct over the week.

China has followed through on its open opposition to the recently implemented emission trading scheme by the European Union, with Airbus reporting on Thursday that Beijing has advised against the sale of Euro-made commercial planes to Chinese airlines.

Business leaders in Australia are seeking a drastic cut in the carbon tax to just $10 from the $23 per tonne scheduled to be collected beginning July 1, 2012. Their $10 proposal is close to the carbon price in the European Union.

Australian federal Treasurer Wayne Swan has approved the$2.2-billion worth merger deal between China's Yanzhou Coal Mining Co.'s Australian unit Yancoal and Gloucester Coal, and has even offered the Chinese firm an extension until the end of 2013 to bring down its stake ownership in Yancoal to not more than 70 per cent.

ANZ Bank announced on Friday that it would raise it fixed home loan interest rate by 20 basis points to 6.34 per cent. It is the first among the big four to adjust interest rates after the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) retained this week the current overnight cash rate at 4.25 per cent.

The Australian unit of Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., Ivanhoe Australia Ltd., has generated its very first gold and copper concentrate at its Osborne processing facility bought roughly 18 months ago.

The Australian government has been accused of conducting sham dialogues that were supposed to back its Stronger Futures legislation for the indigenous communities of the Northern Territory.

The choice to construct the Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) in Malaysia rather than in Meenar, Western Australia as earlier contained in the blueprint of Australian rare earths miner Lynas Corp. stemmed from "a business decision," the company's general counsel told a Malaysian news agency on Thursday.

In US trade, markets rallied in a massively risk-on session. Risk sentiment was greatly improved by reports that Greece was nearing a debt swap agreement with a large enough percentage of private holders to avoid a messy default. Sentiment was also lifted by some relatively hawkish comments from the ECB and stronger-than-expected German economic data.

New claims for unemployment insurance in the US rose by 8,000 to 362,000 in the latest week, ahead of forecasts near 351,000. The four-week average of claims was 355,000, up from 354,750. Planned job layoffs by companies stood at 51,728 in February according to the Challenger survey, down 3.3pct on January.

The Australian sharemarket improved for the first time this week, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) jumping by 0.7 pct or 27.8 pts to 4262.2. Eight of twelve sectors rose over the session, with the energy stocks the best performers.

A NZ Treasury report suggests the Government should be exhausting means to yield public sector savings of $250 million a year. The Treasury’s suggestion could mean a further slashing of 2400 public service jobs, Dominion Post reports.

The captain and officials of MV Rena made “a series of poor decisions,” which led to the ship’s crash into Astrolabe Reef off Tauranga in October, says Tauranga Mayor Stuart Crosby.

Any global effort to save and prolong the life of Mother Earth, such as investing into and inventing technologies that use clean fuel and green energy are most welcome. But with the world still yet to determine a suitable, dependable and reliable source of rare earths outside of China, these efforts could prove detrimental to the rare earths supply chain.

Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan remains upbeat that the Labor-led government will deliver a budget surplus in 2013 despite indications that tax collections for the current financial year would fall short of expectations.

Defence Minister Stephen Smith has failed to measure up with the top defence officials and must relinquish his current duties, this according to former Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) commandant Jim Molan.

An Australian graduate school has graded as A the performance of Prime Minister Julia Gillard. The Australian Graduate School of Management (AGSM) released the report on Thursday, to coincide with the International Women's Day. Ms Gillard is Australia's first female prime minister.

The highly debated rare earths processing plant of Lynas Corp. in Malaysia was never part of the Australian miner's overall blueprint submitted and approved a decade ago. In fact, according to the original plan, the now known Lynas Advanced Materials Plant (LAMP) should have been erected at Meenar, Western Australia.

In US trade, markets rebounded from the previous day's big falls on improved optimism that the Greek debt swap will proceed, and also on better-than-expected ADP US jobs data. The ADP numbers are a good indicator in the build-up to Friday's US non-farm payrolls data. Reports that the Fed is considering a new type of bond-buying program also helped to lift sentiment.

The US ADP National Employment index showed that 216,000 new private sector jobs were created in February, close to market forecasts. In Germany, factory orders fell by 2.7pct in January taking the annual contraction to 4.9pct. A sharp fall in foreign orders was the main driver of the weakness: foreign orders fell by 5.5pct, while domestic orders rose by 0.9pct.

The Australian sharemarket lost ground for the third straight session today, making it the worst three day pullback for the local market this year. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) slumped by 1.4 pct or 61.1 pts to 4234.4. All sectors ended in the red, despite some modest gains recorded by the telcos earlier in the day.

Environmental activists were gearing for costly campaigns that they hope would convince Australia to gradually abandon mining, which they claim would bring economic and ecological destruction over the long haul.

The central bank is not keen on forcing the Australian dollar to assume values that were inconsistent with the dictates of market forces, according to Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) Deputy Governor Philip Lowe.