• ANALYSIS

At the dawn of the year of the rooster, China's economy is as leveraged as ever, with credit still outpacing growth.

China's move to ban coal imports from North Korea, effectively slicing the country's exports by about half, came with a message for the U.S. and its allies: It's time to do a deal.

Bellamy's shareholders told not to back the push to grab board control of the troubled company

Unlike some key local competitors, A2 Milk has boasted of "strong growth in demand" for its infant milk formula in China as it posted a surge in earnings.

Day traders in China? Taxi drivers in Dalian? Take your pick, but either way the sustained surge in the iron ore price has caught the smart money by surprise while giving a second wind to a group of second tier iron ore miners which have been struggling with busted balance sheets and bloated costs to stay afloat.

Jan Cameron has lashed the board of troubled infant milk formula group Bellamy's Australia for presiding over a "67 per cent destruction in share value" over the past 12 months.

The push by a group of dissidents to take control of infant formula maker Bellamy's Australia has hit a hurdle, with one of its four board nominees pulling out.

In a thinly reference to the new US president, Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto has warned of rising geo-political risk while also stating it expects China to continue to provide economic stimulus for much of the year ahead.

It is rare to find much unanimity among economists, but one of the few things they agree on is that the trough in commodity prices of 2016 will not be repeated. The question for now is how far will prices retreat, especially following the March quarter, which often marks a cyclical high.

The uncertain fate of Xiao Jianhua, a China-born billionaire who was last seen at a luxury Hong Kong hotel a week ago, has raised fresh fears about the city's autonomy amid media reports he may have been abducted by Chinese agents.

A Chinese-born billionaire with financial ties to Beijing was reportedly kidnapped by Chinese police from Hong Kong's Four Seasons Hotel.

The collapse in resource sector investment has yet to run its course, with the looming completion of as much as $100 million of spending on gas export projects to slash the level of engineering construction to the lowest level since 2009, a report by Deloitte Access Economics has found.

• COMMENT

If China's sustainable growth rate does fall as far and as fast as I have suggested is possible, how would the Chinese authorities react?

The rapid rise in the number of Chinese tourists visiting Australia – predicted to

Australia is set to become the world's biggest LNG exporter but project delays have helped US exporters get a foot in the door in north Asia

A dividend hike and a possible share buyback on the cards when global miner Rio Tinto releases its earnings early next month, after finalising deals to raise as much as $US3.8 billion from asset sales in recent months.

Shares in Rio Tinto surged from the opening bell with sentiment cheered by the sale of a further suite of coal mines which raises the odds of a buy-back or dividend hike.

An arm of the Chinese government has snapped up Rio Tinto coal mines in NSW for $US2.5 billion

BlueScope shares surged Tuesday thanks to a surprise profit upgrade as steel prices remained stronger than anticipated

China sentenced former hedge fund manager Xu Xiang to five-and-a-half years imprisonment for market manipulation, in one of the most high-profile cases following the 2015 market rout,??a court in the eastern city of Qingdao said in its official Weibo account.

The President of Guinea is disputing public statements made by Rio Tinto about the firing of a senior executive for a $US10.5 million payment made to the president's friend Francois de Combret.

Axiom Mining not daunted by recent upheaval in the nickel as Indonesia has eased export bans while the Philippines ramps up moves to force some producers to close.

Shares in Bega Cheese surged Thursday after it bought Vegemite and other local Kraft brands in a $460 million deal which takes it far from its roots in the dairy industry

Directors of troubled infant milk formula group Bellamy's Australia are ramping up their campaign against dissident shareholders after unmasking original backer Jan Cameron as standing behind a key block of shares in the company.

Jan Cameron, co-founder of Kathmandu retail chain, has been unmasked as the power behind the largest shareholder in troubled infant milk formula group Bellamy's Australia,

Troubled infant milk formula foundation shareholder Jan Cameron has no beneficial interest in Bellamy's Australia but her charity, the Elsie Cameron Foundation does.

Stronger December output of iron ore in the December quarter enabled Rio Tinto to recoup some of the lost momentum in the division which had led it to trim full year production estimates in October.

• COMMENT

It was a years-long effort that cost millions of dollars and required the leadership of a state-run corporate colossus. It was front-page news, widely discussed on talk shows and celebrated on social media.

The board of troubled infant milk formula group Bellamy's Australia is to pursue legal action in a bid to unmask the identity of the owner of a key block of capital in the company as it seeks to pushback against efforts to take board control of the company.

Shares in troubled infant milk formula group Bellamy's fell for a third straight day Friday with investor sentiment soured by the difficulties seen in reviving its fortunes.