SINGAPORE (Reuters) -Bitcoin prices on the Australian arm of Binance, the world’s largest crypto-currency exchange, were at a 20% discount to rival exchanges on Tuesday, in a sign customers were seeking to exit their positions quickly. The price of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency, bitcoin, was around A$34,000 ($23,062) on Binance Australia, compared with around A$43,000…
MELBOURNE (Reuters) – BHP Group has teamed up with Microsoft Corp to improve copper recovery from its Escondida mine in Chile, the world’s biggest copper mine, by using machine learning and artificial intelligence, it said on Tuesday. BHP estimates the world needs to double the amount of copper produced over the next 30 years to…
HONG KONG (Reuters) – Singapore’s private home prices have surpassed Hong Kong as the most expensive in Asia Pacific in 2023, while rents in the city-state were also the region’s highest, the Urban Land Institute said on Tuesday. The institute’s 2023 APAC Home Attainability Index showed the median price for a Singapore home was $1.2…
By Kirsty Needham SYDNEY (Reuters) -Papua New Guinea said a proposed security treaty with neighbour Australia would be delayed as it consults “domestic processes”, a week after signing a defence agreement with the United States that sparked student protests. Papua New Guinea (PNG), a few kilometres (miles) to Australia’s north, is being courted by China…
(Reuters) – Australian regulators have over the recent years fined a slew of companies over breaches and non-compliance issues, with the country’s “Big Four” banks penalised the heaviest over money laundering and plenty of other charges. Here are some of the major penalties imposed by the regulators: AMP LTD Troubled Australian wealth manager AMP Ltd…
By Lewis Jackson SYDNEY (Reuters) -Australia’s Treasury department may not renew a A$1 million audit contract with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) when it ends this year, an official told a senate hearing amid a scandal over the firm’s misuse of confidential government tax plans. The global professional services firm is reeling after a former Australian tax partner…
(Reuters) – Qantas Airways on Tuesday forecast its international divisions to be twice as profitable in the post-COVID era on strong recovery in tourism, with earnings at domestic and loyalty divisions also projected to improve. International margins at Australia’s flagship carrier are forecast to grow to more than 8% in fiscal 2024, with its long-haul…
By Byron Kaye SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian special forces soldier Ben Roberts-Smith was lauded as a hero and awarded Australia’s highest military honour for “conspicuous gallantry” during a 2010 attack on two Taliban machine-gun posts during his fifth tour of Afghanistan. But according to three newspapers, backed by accounts of other soldiers who said they…
By Elizabeth Howcroft LONDON (Reuters) -European stock indexes edged lower on Monday and euro zone bond yields dropped, but news that the U.S. had reached a debt ceiling deal over the weekend kept Wall Street futures positive. U.S. President Joe Biden and top congressional Republican Kevin McCarthy reached a tentative deal on Saturday to raise…
By Dhara Ranasinghe LONDON (Reuters) – The dollar nudged down on Monday, pulling back from six-month peaks against the yen as a U.S. debt ceiling deal lifted risk appetite in world markets and dented the greenback’s safe-haven appeal. U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday finalised a budget agreement with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy to suspend…
