SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s exports to China surged to record highs in March as the Asian giant sucked in more iron for its steel industry and lowered barriers to thermal coal shipments amid thawing diplomatic relations. Data out on Thursday showed exports of Australian goods to China hit A$19 billion ($12.71 billion) in March, a…
By Byron Kaye and Himanshi Akhand (Reuters) – National Australia Bank Ltd, the country’s No. 2 lender, fell short of analyst forecasts in half-year profit released on Thursday and took a hit to its share price after warning that the windfall from rising interest rates had peaked. Profit at the bank, also Australia’s biggest business…
By Devayani Sathyan BENGALURU (Reuters) -Australia’s central bank will likely deliver one more 25-basis-point interest rate increase by end-September to 4.10% following a surprise hike on Tuesday, according to a slim majority of economists in a snap Reuters poll. The Reserve Bank of Australia, which apologized last year for providing unclear guidance, has sent mixed…
By Jamie McGeever (Reuters) – A look at the day ahead in Asian markets from Jamie McGeever. The Fed on Wednesday delivered what markets are convinced will be the last rate hike of the cycle, bond yields and the dollar fell, yet investors are rattled. Asian markets wake up on Thursday to the realization that…
(Corrects firm name to RBC Wealth Management from RBC Portfolio Advisory Group in paragraph 5) By Sinéad Carew NEW YORK (Reuters) – MSCI’s gauge of stock markets around the world was advancing but trading was choppy on Wednesday while U.S. Treasury yields and the U.S. dollar steepened declines after the U.S. Federal Reserve raised interest…
By Karen Brettell NEW YORK (Reuters) – The dollar fell on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve raised interest rates by a quarter of a percentage point and signaled it may pause further increases. In an overt shift, the central bank no longer said it “anticipates” further rates will be needed, only that it will watch…
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australia’s central bank said on Wednesday that a rapid recovery in population growth was a big surprise for the bank’s economic forecasts, pushing up rents and leading to an earlier-than-expected stabilisation in housing prices after months of losses. Speaking at an event in Perth, Marion Kohler, the Reserve Bank of Australia’s (RBA)…
SYDNEY (Reuters) – Australian retail sales grew at their slowest annual pace in 14 months in March in a warning sign for consumption that will only get worse following a surprise hike in interest rates this week. Retail sales rose a modest 0.4% in March from February, when they edged up just 0.2%, data showed…
By Jamie McGeever (Reuters) – A look at the day ahead in Asian markets from Jamie McGeever. Maybe the U.S. banking turmoil of March 2023 wasn’t boxed up, tied with a bow, and neatly shelved for posterity after all. Shares in regional U.S. banks got clobbered on Tuesday – PacWest BanCorp lost a quarter of…
By Sinéad Carew NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street stock indexes closed lower on Tuesday, a day ahead of the Federal Reserve’s interest rate decision, while U.S. Treasury yields fell as investors worried the government could run out of cash after June 1 without a debt ceiling hike. Bank stocks underperformed sharply after the weekend…
