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Betting on Fortescue a 'risky play'

Fortescue Metals chairman Andrew Forrest said: "I don't think it's a great deal of debt, I think it's totally manageable."

Benjamin Purvis, Stephen Engle and David Stringer 10:25AM

The bond market is skeptical about Fortescue Metals Group founder Andrew Forrest's confidence in how well the miner can withstand the collapse in iron ore prices.

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Shares succumbed to fresh investor unease last week.

Markets Live: Miners under pressure

Patrick Commins 12:27PM Live

Shares trade down early with miners bearing the brunt of lower iron ore and oil prices and following a poor offshore lead, while the Aussie recovers from the night's lows.

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The S&P/ASX 200 finished last week strongly, up nearly 3 per cent.

Investors out of love with Aussie stocks

Vesna Poljak 9:53AM

Australian equities and commodities are firmly out of favour with international investors who prefer exposure to Europe, technology and health care.

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The Australian Industry Group's gloomy performance of manufacturing index shows the sector is still struggling.

Manufacturing sector continues to shrink

Tim Binsted 9:47AM

The nation's manufacturing sector has shrunk for the fourth straight month despite the dramatic devaluation of the Australian dollar as political uncertainty and weak business investment weigh on activity.

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Europe's shared currency lost 11 per cent since the start of the year, dragged lower by Greece's fiscal crisis.

Euro posts worst quarter on record

Lananh Nguyen and Rachel Evans 8:44AM

The euro posted its biggest quarterly slide versus the dollar since its inception as Greece struggled to avert a default.

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CBA customers will be able to use Albert, a wireless, 7-inch Android tablet with touchscreen that has been developed in association with German banking tech giant Wincor Nixdorf.

CBA to sell Albert device to global banks

James Eyers 11:53AM

Commonwealth Bank of Australia expects tens of thousands of its new Albert point-of-sale devices to appear in Australian restaurants, cafes and retail stores, changing the way we pay and gathering richer data.

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Still hauling it in: As commodities prices fall, the mining lobby has become more brazen in its attempts to reduce taxes and rail against royalties.

Iron ore slides to decade low

Jasmine Ng 9:18AM

Iron ore fell to a decade low on Tuesday as the commodity logged its biggest quarterly loss since at least 2009.

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Technology NBN Co shoots for 4m by 2017
Banking and Finance Bank strength needs 'broad measurement'
Business Former ABC Learning CFO fined $2000
Comment & Analysis Crunch time for reform ambitions

Market Indices

Last updated: April 1, 2015 - 3:00AM

Currencies

United States Dollar
Last updated: Apr 1, 2015 - 11:58AM (delayed by 30 minutes)
0.7628	0.24%
Euro
0.7099	0.07%
British Pound
0.5146	0.18%

Comment & Analysis

Colin Kruger, CBD

Easiest place to find Tinkler is in a courtroom
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Malcolm Maiden

Crunch time for government's ambitions
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Gareth Hutchens

Australia's scientists forced to join the scrum
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Buffett said a Greek exit from the euro zone could lead member countries to come to better agreement about fiscal policy.

Buffett says Grexit 'may not be bad' for euro zone

Sam Forgione 7:51AM

Billionaire Warren Buffett says that an exit by Greece from the euro zone could be constructive for the region.

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In Depth

Why the iron ore price keeps falling

Max Mason

Iron ore continues to tumble, falling close to 4 per cent over the last week. Here's four charts explaining why.

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Office workers need to get off their butt

Australia Post's refurbishment of its main Cleveland Street office in Redfern

Philip Hopkins 12:00AM

Studies estimate the average office worker spends about 80,000 hours seated during their working life.

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Insurance, depression fears for pilots

The Qantas loss of licence insurance policy can exclude payouts in the case of "psychosis or psychoneurosis".

Jamie Freed

Australian pilots say past disputes over payouts in the case of psychiatric conditions could make them less likely to be honest about condition.

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Trading Room

How the miners are undermining our wealth

Claude Walker

If these price falls have served any purpose, it’s to remind us of the risks faced by those who invest their retirement savings in mining, oil and gas.

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What’s your perspective?

Morgan Housel

Talk to as many different investors as you can. This is how you gain perspective.

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Markets

S&P;, Nasdaq post ninth-straight quarterly gains

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq registered their ninth straight quarterly rise.

8:29AM

US stocks ended down on Tuesday in a retreat from the previous session's sharp rally as energy shares declined and the dollar edged up, but the S&P; 500 and Nasdaq registered their ninth straight quarterly rise.

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Funtastic shares slump to new low

Cabbage Patch Kids are among Funtastic's best sellers.

Madeleine Heffernan 8:31PM

The toy wholesaler backed by Gerry Harvey and Lachlan Murdoch is at rock bottom but says it can return to profit this half.

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MYOB to return to ASX in year's largest IPO

Accounting software company MYOB has released a report into what New Zealanders' workplace could look like in 2040.

6:19PM

Three years after outlaying $1.2 billion to acquire accounting software developer MYOB, Bain Capital, is seeking to float the company in a move which will value it at up to $2.7 billion, including debt.

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$A drops as RBA rate cut chance increases
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Sell-off of banks, resources sinks shares
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Recovery lifts European banks' credit profile
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Australian business calendar, March 30-April 3
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Rio Tinto Oyu Tolgoi talks down to deal breakers
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Janet Yellen says Fed will increase rates slowly
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ASX 200 seals best first quarter in decades
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a2 chief executive Geoff Babidge is faithful 'it is a product that works.'

a2 Milk shuns Asia rush as shares hit ASX boards

Search Quotes & Charts

The Economy

Housing investor loans growth eases slightly

The central bank is almost certain to cut the cash rate another 25 basis points, to 2 per cent, either next week or in May in a further attempt to stimulate non-mining investment.

Mark Mulligan

The pace of lending to property investors eased in February, giving the Reserve Bank of Australia more scope to cut interest rates without adding fuel to overheated housing markets in Sydney and Melbourne.

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The nasty surprise about to hit average workers

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 30: Treasurer Joe Hockey addresses the media regarding the Liberal Party Tax White Paper and their plan to reform the tax system on March 30, 2015 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Graham Denholm/Fairfax Media) *** Local Caption *** Joe Hockey

Judith Ireland

The average Australian worker will find themselves bumped into the second-highest income tax bracket in just over a year's time.

Contains: total comments180 This article contains a poll. This article contains a video.

Questions over company tax rate
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RBA warnings fail to dampen property bonanza
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Mood builds for corporate tax cut
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Committee calls for rethink on ATO powers
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Minack sees one in three chance of recession
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Retail

Tough talk needed to curtail giants

In a recent survey, more than 70 per cent of Australians said Coles and Woolworths held too much control in groceries. Less than one in five thought supermarket competition was "healthy".

Julie-Anne Sprague and Sue Mitchell 6:45PM

The Harper review ignores pleas from the nation's biggest supermarket chains to abandon an 'effects test'.

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Metcash hoses down tax timebomb talk

Madeleine Heffernan 2:56PM

Metcash has hosed down suggestions it owes money to the tax office for failing to pay fringe benefits tax on the "overseas study tours" taken by its employees.

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Banking & Finance

CBA to sell Albert device to global banks

James Eyers 11:53AM

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Westpac's Yetton signals potential of P2P

Clancy Yeates 8:51PM

Banks face growing competition from online industries, but Westpac senior banker is looking at the benefits if banks were to join forces with their online rivals..

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Banks warn on small business credit
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Bank strength needs broad measurement; NAB
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'Why wait?': Small banks say don't delay
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Apple, Google must sign fraud code, says PayPal
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Dynamic currency conversion - robbery by choice
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Mining & Resources

Coal mine could hurt endangered finch

7:50PM

Plans to build coal mine in central Queensland would wipe out the habitat of the world's most significant population of an endangered finch.

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BHP, Rio investors back expansions

BHP and Rio shareholders back miners' expansion plans.

Amanda Saunders 6:26PM

Industry fallout is 'natural selection' and Andrew Forrest's push to cap output casts more doubt on Fortescue than its rivals.

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World Business

McDonald's will test breakfast all day in US

McDonald's is hoping all-day McMuffins will help boost sales.

Craig Giammona

McDonald's will experiment with serving breakfast all day at some San Diego-area locations as Chief Executive Officer Steve Easterbrook seeks to pull the restaurant chain out of a US sales slump.

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Vinter to fight ice with firepower

'Storms destroyed 70 percent of our grapes in 2008 and 2009. Each of those years, we produced less than 6,000 cases of wine,' says managing director Emmanuel Cruse.

Elin McCoy

After golf ball-sized hailstones battered vines in the Bordeaux area, managing director Emmanuel Cruse is pulling out the big guns.

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Eurozone 'untenable' in current form
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Greece's creditors mull over reforms
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Questions linger after employee's loss in Silicon Valley trial
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Apple's Tim Cook to donate his $1b fortune
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Women narrow the gap
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China

The Aussie company eyeing China's solar market

RayGen believes it can crack the Chinese market with its solar technology.

Angela Macdonald-Smith

Victorian solar power developer RayGen will on Friday host giant renewable energy producer China Three Gorges Corporation at the opening of its pilot plant west of Bendigo.

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Chinese property crackdown called 'racist'

Three years ago, China overtook the United States as the biggest foreign buyer of Australia residential real estate.

Sally Rose

The operator of a Chinese-language real estate website says FIRB's crackdown on foreign investors is "racist".

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Give China a reserve currency
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Chinese outdrinking Aussies, Brits, Irish
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China flash PMI contracts to 11-month low
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Qantas link may be an air bridge too far
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Village Roadshow, CITIC form $500 million theme park fund
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Strongest rally in eight years for Chinese stocks
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Featured advertisers

Property Focus

Property boom reaches all sectors

View from the top of Tower 2 of the Barangaroo South Lend Lease construction site Sydney.

Carolyn Cummins

The NSW property sector is currently experiencing a long term recovery.

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More mergers flagged for REITS

CBD Towers of Power. Deutsche Bank, Chifley Sq, Aurora Place, Gov Philip Tower - the most expensive rents in Australia.

Carolyn Cummins

GPT Group has emerged as the latest name to be casting an eye over the Investa Property Group portfolio.

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Hot property: Playing the global game

Andrew Holder

What does the growing power of multinationals mean for our local commercial property market?

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505 George St
74 storeys, 260m high, being developed by Mirvgac and Coombes family.

Battle for Sydney's prime retail strips looming

Upper House here for the long term
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Collins Street building sells for $8.888888m
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RBA warns of commercial property slump
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City buildings halfway to emissions reduction target
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A local private investor paid $1.96 million on a very tight 3.3 per cent yield for a securely leased old-fashioned butcher's shop in bayside Bentleigh. The butcher held a pre-auction sausage sizzle for an enthusiastic 90-strong crowd who watched five bidders vie for the property, Teska Carson Director George Takis said.

452 Centre Rd.jpg

Melbourne small shop sales sizzle

Aldi hunts for new Melbourne CBD site

Simon Johanson

Soaring central city population growth from Melbourne's apartment boom has prompted Aldi to join a growing list of retailers looking for new CBD store spaces.

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Executive Style

A lightweight skipping rope is a heavy-duty workout tool.

You only need two items of gym gear

Michael Jarosky

Keeping it simple can still unlock thousands of beneficial workouts.

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Money

Dipping a toe in the investment water

Noel Whittaker

I'm 31 and nervous of investing my hard-earned savings in shares. What should I do?

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Could currency bring us together?

The New Zealand currency is part of its national identity.

David Wilson

It’s no joke – there are sound economic reasons for Australia and New Zealand to share a joint currency.

Contains: total comments17 This article contains a poll.

Small Business

A million Insty followers and counting

Thessy Kouzoukas (L) and Yiota Kouzoukas from Instagram sensations Sabo Skirt.

Larissa Ham

Meet the local duo that is dominating the hottest social media channel on the planet.

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We walked away from our old lives

Donna Sparx has started two new businesses: one playful, the other strategic.

Christine D'Mello

Meet the people who tossed in their boring jobs to follow their dreams.

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Business Video

Germanwings crash puts aviation under spotlight

As French investigators search for clues as to why Germanwings flight 4U9525 crashed, killing all 150 on board, there's a lot at stake for the companies involved.