ASX ends week higher despite Friday dip
Australia’s share market has finished the week higher by 1.44 per cent, after earlier gains outweighed Friday’s session which closed lower. The S&P/ASX200 benchmark index closed lower by 37.4 points, or 0.62 per cent, at 6004.8 points on Friday. The All Ordinaries index was down 35.4 points, or 0.57 per cent, at 6144.9. The Australian…
WA ‘at war’ with Clive Palmer over borders
Western Australia is at war with Clive Palmer, the state’s premier has declared, as the Commonwealth stopped short of backing a new border trial. The latest twist came as Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann urged Mr Palmer to drop his challenge of WA’s border closures. Premier Mark McGowan went a step…
Facebook removes a QAnon conspiracy group
Facebook says it has removed one of the largest public groups devoted to the QAnon web of conspiracy theories after repeated violations of the company’s policies. The group, called Official Q/Qanon and with nearly 200,000 members, had been deleted after multiple individual postings were removed for crossing the lines on bullying and harassment, hate speech,…
PM dials up chance of online parliament
Prime Minister Scott Morrison says he’d be happy to video-call in to parliamentary question time if he had to quarantine for coronavirus. Arrangements are being put in place to enable the House of Representatives and Senate – which ordinarily have 151 and 76 members respectively – to sit in a safe way from August 24….
CommSec Daily Report Friday
Latest News The Aussie market is weaker at lunch on Friday with the ASX 200 slipping 35pts or 0.6% to 6,007 despite another solid lead from US markets. The Dow Jones has now risen for five straight sessions while the tech heavy NASDAQ has improved for the last seven. Even with today’s declines, the ASX…
Business backs further JobKeeper revision
Business groups believe the federal government’s latest JobKeeper changes aimed at virus-hit Victoria will ensure more people stay in work. Businesses will get easier access to the wage subsidies program with the injection of a further $15 billion, taking its total funding to just over $100 billion. In a move designed to cushion the economic…
RBA remains against negative interest rate
The Reserve Bank views negative interest rates as being an “extraordinary unlikely” course of action in Australia, even though it is predicting the unemployment rate rising to 10 per cent by the end of the year. In its quarterly statement on monetary policy released on Friday, the central bank says negative interest rates would be…
ASX lower as RBA rules out negative rates
Shares were trading slightly lower on the Australian market as the Reserve Bank all but ruled out a negative cash rate to stimulate the economy. The S&P/ASX200 benchmark index was lower by 23.0 points, or 0.38 per cent, at 6019.2 points at 1200 AEST on Friday. The All Ordinaries index was lower by 19.7 points,…
JobKeeper eligibility tweaked for business
Coronavirus-hit businesses will get easier access to wage subsidies with the federal government injecting a further $15 billion into JobKeeper. In a move designed to cushion the economic sledgehammer blow of Victoria’s outbreak, eligibility criteria will be eased when the scheme scales back at the end of September. Under the national changes, businesses will have…
Wall Street gains on hopes for aid package
Shares on Wall Street have shrugged off a sluggish start and closed higher, with the Nasdaq ending the session above 11,000 for the first time as investors hoped for a new fiscal stimulus package. Tech and tech-related heavyweight stocks such as Apple and Facebook helped pace gains on the indexes. The tech-heavy Nasdaq clinched a…
