BRR Media Event Calendar

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Key Stories

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 1:09PM

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 2:17PM 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.

Contains: total comments156

The May budget is set to introduce a $500 million tax on deposits to cover the governments' costs for a bail-out.

CBA: Customers face hit from deposit tax

James Eyers and Clancy Yeates 2:12PM

Commonwealth Bank of Australia says the federal government's planned $500 million-a-year tax on bank deposits might be passed on to customers.

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$A boosted by upbeat China data

1:13PM

Better-than-expected building approvals data and Chinese manufacturing figures have given the Australian dollar a boost.

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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.

Contains: total comments1

South32 chief Graham Kerr and his management are expected to eye Australian coal assets to bolster growth.

Deutsche Bank cuts South32 valuation

Amanda Saunders 2:13PM

BHP spin-off is likely to trade at about $2 a share, well short of market expectations, according to the bank's mining analyst. But it will have plenty of cash to grow.

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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 1:42PM

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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Currencies Euro posts worst quarter on record
Technology CBA to sell Albert device to global banks
Markets Iron ore slides to decade low
Technology NBN Co shoots for 4m by 2017

Market Indices

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

Currencies

United States Dollar
Last updated: Apr 1, 2015 - 1:50PM (delayed by 30 minutes)
0.7643	0.46%
Euro
0.7092	0.00%
British Pound
0.5141	0.10%

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.

Contains: This article contains a video.

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.

Contains: total comments2

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

Crunch time for government's reform ambitions

Malcolm Maiden 1:16AM

The Abbott government had decided before it was elected it would deliver process-driven reform in financial services, competition law and tax, and on two fronts the crunch time is now approaching.

Contains: total comments14

Taxis, pharmacies, open hours ripe for shakeup

Taxis are 'virtually unique among customer service industries', the Harper review found.

Gareth Hutchens, Peter Martin 4:36PM

Rules that restrict taxi licences, shopping hours and the location of pharmacies would be swept away as part of comprehensive review.

Contains: total comments2

Housing investor loans growth eases slightly
Contains: total comments1
The nasty surprise about to hit average workers
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
Contains: total comments15

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

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.

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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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
Contains: total comments35

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".

Contains: total comments214

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

The car company reading your mind

David Morley 1:30PM

A computer can tell you what colour and trim you want - even if you don't know.

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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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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.