Banks and energy weigh down ASX at close
The Australian share market has clawed back some of its earlier losses to close lower with the financial and energy sectors weighing the heaviest. The benchmark S&P/ASX200 index was down 15.1 points, or 0.26 per cent, to 5,843.7 at 1630 AEDT on Wednesday, while the broader All Ordinaries was down 15.6 points, or 0.26 per…
Police bust Australia-China baby formula crime ring
Six people have been charged after Australian authorities uncovered a multi-million-dollar crime syndicate stealing baby formula and vitamins from major retailers across Sydney for shipment to China, police said Monday.Four members of one family and two other men have been arrested and charged over the ‘organised criminal group’ that New South Wales Police believe has…
CommSec Daily Report Thursday
Latest NewsLocal shares are climbing higher for a third straight day as better than expected earnings for US banks helped boost Wall Street in overnight trade. There was also no shock with Theresa May’s government surviving a no-confidence motion in British parliament following a heavy defeat for her Brexit deal. The ASX 200 index is…
ECB charts uncertain course through shifting risks
European Central Bank chiefs went ahead and halted a key element of their economic stimulus programme despite a complex, shifting array of risks to growth, an account of their December meeting showed Thursday.Looking ahead, ‘it was underlined that the situation remained fragile and fluid, as risks could quickly regain prominence or new uncertainties could emerge,’…
CommSec Daily Report Friday
Latest NewsA steep sell off for US markets overnight has seen local shares reverse yesterday’s positive momentum as global markets remain volatile to start the New Year. The action on Wall Street was led by a ~10% slide in Apple shares after the tech giant released weaker earnings forecasts for the recent holiday quarter with…
Egypt threatens Apple with legal action under competition law
Egypt has warned it will take legal action against Apple if the US tech giant fails to remove alleged ‘restrictions’ on local distributors within 60 days.A decree threatening action was published in the official gazette on Monday after accusations from Egypt’s Competition Authority that Apple had violated the country’s competition law.It said the company had…
ASIC to ramp up criminal and civil action
ASIC is investigating possible criminal action against insurer ClearView over 300,000 unsolicited cold calls as it pledges to take more financial institutions to court for misconduct. Australian Securities and Investments Commission chairman James Shipton admits the corporate regulator should have pursued criminal sanctions in a number of cases. Mr Shipton said ASIC needed to take…
75% of Australian homes sold for less than purchased
Startling new figures from property data specialists Corelogic revealed that a whopping three-quarters of all Australian homes lost their value in the three months leading to October 2018. The figures showed that these homes sold for less than their purchase price. The Australian housing market has been in an overall decline for some time, but…
Mining bitcoin uses more energy than Denmark
Extracting a dollar’s worth of cryptocurrency such as bitcoin from the deep Web consumes three times more energy than digging up a dollar’s worth of gold, researchers said Monday.There are now hundreds of virtual currencies and an unknown number of server farms around the world running around the clock to unearth them, more than half…
CommSec Daily Report Wednesday
Latest newsAussie shares have faded from a better start and are flat at lunch as market’s focus on issues overseas. The ASX 200 has fallen over the prior three days and remains on track to have its worst month since August 2015. Although October tends to be a solid month for markets thanks partly to…
