News

Palmer points finger at US band over song

The musical spat between Clive Palmer and an American rock band over the use of their hit 80s song has continued to escalate. Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider says the political hopeful is ignoring a cease and desist order, after allegedly using the band’s 1980s hit We’re Not Gonna Take It as inspiration for the…

Wall Street roars back to life in best session in 9 years

Wall Street stocks roared back to life on Wednesday, shaking off four straight routs following strong retail sales data and White House reassurances that Fed Chair Jay Powell won’t be fired.The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up nearly 1,100 points, or about five percent, at 22,878.45. The broad-based S&P 500 also surged five percent to 2,467.70,…

CommSec Daily Report Friday

Latest News The Aussie market is rebounding from three straight losses to lift towards lunch on Friday. The ASX 200 is climbing 35 points or 0.6% to 5692. If the market is able to maintain these levels for the remainder of the session, the ASX 200 index will manage its first weekly improvement in a month. The…

Minister rejects casual worker rip offs

Industrial Relations Minister Kelly O’Dwyer has dismissed claims casual workers are being denied a premium despite trading off leave and other entitlements. Australian Council of Trade Unions research has argued many casuals get between two and five per cent more than their permanent counterparts, rather than the usual 25 per cent loading. But Ms O’Dwyer…

Australia launches Pacific plan to counter China influence

Australia wants to take steps to reduce the growing Chinese influence over many of the Asia Pacific nations and has announced that it will be launching funds of its own to try and counter what it perceives as an increasing threat. Prime Minister Scott Morrison is looking to give Australia a greater hold in the…

BP doubles its profits as oil prices stay high

Petroleum giant BP is starting to see a return to the days before the oil recession of 2014, with profits finally beginning to climb. This has allowed it to purchase all the shale assets from BHP Billiton in cash. Given that many of the oil companies that had not diversified back in 2014 struggled so…

Jobless rate falls to 6-year lows

Jobless rate falls to 6-year lows of 5 per centNSW & Victoria jobless rates fall to decade lowsLabour forceEmployment rose by 5,600 in September after a revised 44,600 increase in jobs in August (previously reported as a 44,000 increase in jobs). Full-time jobs rose by 20,300, but part-time jobs fell by 14,700. Economists had tipped…

Annual retail spending hits 15-month high

Annual retail spending hits 15-month highRecord engineering construction activityRetail trade; Performance of Construction IndexRetail trade lifts: Retail trade rose by 0.3 in August after a flat outcome in July. Sales have lifted in seven out of eight months in 2018. Annual spending growth rose from 2.9 per cent in July to 3.8 per cent in…

RBA dismisses need for monetary policy adjustment

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) has this week dismissed the idea that Australia will need any adjustment in its monetary policy in the short-term, saying that there is “no strong case” to do so. The cash rate has remained at the record-low level of 1.5% for the 25th consecutive month. With the release of…

Slowest loans growth in 26 years

Slowest growth of loans & deposits in 26 yearsPrivate sector credit; China dataLending: Private sector credit (effectively outstanding loans) rose by 0.4 per cent in July after a 0.3 per cent rise in June. Credit was up 4.4 per cent over the year – the equal slowest growth rate in 4½ years. Investor housing finance…