Australia's economy soared the 3rd quarter boosted by a rapid expansion in mining business. Gross domestic product gained 1% compared with 0.8% increase previously predicted by economists, said Australian Bureau of Statistics on Wednesday. Growth in GDP reflects rapid escalation of mining investment and robust household consumption, though outweighed by declining public demand.
The China's government issued 1st white paper outlining the country's success in stimulating foreign trade and China's positive contribution into the global trade. Country foreign trade has made a significant progress during the last years. Trade volume grew at the annualized rate of 16.8% from 1978 when the country opened barriers to foreign trade. The value of trade approached 2.97 trillion USD in 2010, according
Asian stocks edged up on Wednesday as investor optimism on forthcoming European summmit returned. Shanghai Composite Index gained 0.2%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index added 0.9% and South Korean Kospi suged 0.5%. Australian S&P/ASX 200 index rose 0.7% while Japanese Nikkei Stock Average jumped 1.5%. Markets remain positive ahead of European meeting on December 9, said BNP Paribas strategists.
Stricter budget control rules can be introduced without amendments in the previous treaties, announced Herman Van Rompuy, European Council President. He proposes fast-track fiscal measures that can be adopted without time-consuming ratifications needed for treaty changes. However, Germany and France still insist on including tougher rules in the treaties.
Chinese rich people are getting more risk-averse due to weak real estate market and stock market's sentiment, according to industry survey. Almost a half of wealthy family's liquid assets are in bank deposits with the investments in stock market contributing only 20%. However, still 75% of family wealth is made up by property despite being in the highest risk in case of property prices tumble,
India's parliament restarted its work after it was announced the country suspends retail reform aimed at opening the sector to large foreign retailers. The decision was postponed till it would be possible to reach a consensus, reported parliament. The conflict arose as the opposition claimed the new reform would destroy thousands of jobs and small businesses while supporters insisted it would bring wider choice and
China's court rejected Apple's accusation of Proview Technology, China's technology company, of infringement trademark of iPad. Proview has a legally registered iPad trademark along with other 2,000 trademarks in countries including China, the court claimed. Meanwhile, Preview also brought a complaint against Apple's infringement of its copyrights on 10 billion yuan, reported Caixin Online.
Barclays Capital cut China's GDP growth forecast from 8.4% to 8.1% for 2012 citing the downturn in the euro-zone. Investments are expected to fall next year but domestic consumption will play a role of stabilizing factor, reported Barclays. CPI is expected to ease from 5.5% projected in 2011 to 3.2% in 2012 due to decline in exports and risk of overcapacity, Barclays added.
Australia's LNG projects worth A$130 have to be completed in the next five years before the natural gas supplies becomes oversaturated, according to Australian Financial Review. The final investments should be done and the projects have to be placed on the market in the next five years, confirmed Dick McIlhattan, head of LNG at Bechtel.
The fall in the yuan value for the five consecutive days is a natural response of the market to declining trade surplus in China, claim analysts. The yuan value is likely to be balanced in long-run, they add. China's trade surplus tumbled by 36% in October on an annual basis weighting down on the country's currency value that fell essentially against the greenback to
European officials are negotiating probable boost the euro-zone members' capability to combat with spreading debt crisis by running two bailout funds, reported Financial Times. The new measure stipulates the euro-zone countries being able to access 400 billion euros bailout fund currently available and adding new 500 billion euros facility in 2012. The policy may be adopted along with revision of the treaties to impose stricter budget
China plans to increase its nuclear energy capacity and make nuclear energy a foundation of the power-generation structure in the next 10-20 years, according to senior official. China is going to expand its energy capacity by 2 billion kW in corresponding period with 300 million kW being generated from nuclear power, said Shi Lishan, deputy director of the National Energy Administration's department.
Southwest Airlines announced the increase in traffic by 2.5% pulling the revenue passenger miles to over 8.28 billion as compared with 8.07 billion in 2010. The capacity in November also increased by 0.7% to 10.14 billion available seat miles. The revenues are expected to rise by 9% in November.
Expenditure on buying Christmas trees in US will surge 3.1% this year, the record high since recession in 2008, said IBISWorld. Americans are planning to paid about $800 m for 25 m real trees and another $2.6 bn on 10 m non-natural trees during the Christmas time, predicts IBISWorld. Americans spent $3.14 bn to purchase Christmas trees in 2008.
On Tuesday's premarket trading Nasdaq, Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500 futures float around breakeven as investors stay prudent after S&P European rating warning. US equity futures edge higher in advance of opening indicating direction for the morning trade. US stocks advanced on Monday but fell of their highest levels after S&P report.
Occupy Wall Street protesters have scheduled December 6 for making demonstrations across 25 US cities, involving Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. The aim of activists is to express protests regarding maltreatment of homeowners and lenders. Demonstrators plan to halt police from removing residents from their homes as well as to occupy property that already foreclosed.
Treasury prices dropped on Tuesday increasing borrowing costs for the 4th day out of five as response to news from Europe. Yields for 10-year bonds surged 4 b.p. reaching 2.07%. Growth in yields were also stimulated by Standard & Poor's announcement to place 15 Eurozone countries on Creditwatch. 30-year borrowing costs added 3 b.p. to 3.04% while 2-year bond yields dropped 2 basis points to 0.25%.
Southwest Airlines announced the increase in traffic by 2.5% pulling the revenue passenger miles to over 8.28 billion as compared with 8.07 billion in 2010. The capacity in November also increased by 0.7% to 10.14 billion available seat miles. The revenues are expected to rise by 9% for November.
The Bank of England announced it plans to introduce new liquidity facility to ease the stress in the financial markets. The facility is known as Extended Collateral Term Repo and is aimed at decreasing risks to stability in financial market. The novelty will provide additional flexibility to the bank by offering British currency liquidity in the format of auction against wider range of the collateral.
Sugar futures decreased following India's approval of one additional million tonnes of sugar to be exported in this market season. On the ICE Futures U.S. Exchange, sugar futures for delivery in March were traded at USD0.2395 a pound at the European afternoon trade, losing 0.45% since opening. However, speculation over China's high demand for the commodity backed up prices slightly.
After two day gains German DAX Index dropped as Standard & Poor's positioned Germany and 14 other Euro-region countries on monitoring for potential rating downgrades. DAX lost 0.7% reaching 6,062.66 led by RWE AG, German 2nd largest utility company which plunged 9.1% after it had to raise $2.8 bn in a stock sale to lower debt. Metro AG (MEO) fell 9.9% after retail firm cut its profit
On Monday UK's benchmark index closed 0.3% up, on hopes European officials are ready to take crucial actions to tackle crisis. However, FTSE 100 opened lower on Tuesday morning trade after Standard & Poor's reported it may downgrade 15 Eurozone countries. Index lost 0.2% in morning trade led by mining stocks as Vedanta Resources PLC declined 2.3% and Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. PLC gave up
Corn futures declined to two-month low amid rising competition for US exports. Moreover, concerns on the recent warning by Standard & Poor's to lower 15 euro-zone members credit ratings weighted down on the commodity price. On the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, corn futures for delivery in March were traded at USD5.8312 a bushel at the early European trade, falling by 1.27% since opening.
Factory orders in Germany increased much more than projected after experiencing a decline in September. The factory orders soared by 5.2% on a seasonally adjusted basis in October as compared to 1.0% previously expected. Factory orders increased by 5.4% on an annualized rate in October after rising at 2.4% rate in proceeding month.