The competition watchdog is providing regulatory relief to the telecommunications industry on two fronts to allow the sector to better respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, its chairman says. Australian Competition and Consumer Commission chairman Rod Sims told the CommsDay telecommunications summit via Zoom the agency paused two inquiries into the […]
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Seek defers dividend, eases payment rules
Seek has postponed its dividend and is allowing customers some payment concessions due to the coronavirus pandemic. Seek told the share market on Monday it would defer its first-half dividend to July 23 and was reducing costs to better manage cash flow. The business will also draw down some undrawn […]
Virus-hit Flight Centre to raise $700m
Virus-cruelled travel firm Flight Centre is tapping investors for $700 million as business grinds to a halt amid widespread travel bans and shutdowns. Managing director Graham Turner has also announced the company had secured an extra $200 million loan from existing lenders to stop it becoming one of the businesses […]
Battling traders seize virus loan scheme
Small and medium businesses have borrowed more than $150 million from the Commonwealth Bank as they battle the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. The loans are part of the federal government’s Coronavirus SME Guarantee Scheme, which became available on March 23. The government guarantees 50 per cent of the loan […]
Gold rises on bleak US payrolls data
Gold prices edged higher after gloomy US nonfarm payrolls data magnified the economic toll from the coronavirus, although a stronger dollar capped bullion’s advance. Spot gold was up 0.4 per cent to $US1,619.40 per ounce on Friday. US gold futures settled 0.5 per cent higher at $US1,645.70 per ounce. “Gold […]
Saudi-Russia dispute to pressure oil price
Global benchmark oil prices are expected to open lower as a dispute between top crude exporters Russia and Saudi Arabia raises concerns of another collapse in talks to curb production at a meeting this week. The move lower may be muted as the market reacts to US President Donald Trump’s […]
Metals slide after dire US jobs data
Copper prices slipped and aluminium carved out a four-year low on worries about an extended erosion in global demand for metals due to the coronavirus pandemic after dire US employment data. Traders and fund managers have been concerned about sliding metals demand as industry shuts down in many areas, while […]
US stocks fall as virus shreds US payrolls
Wall Street’s main indexes have fall enmore than 1.5 per cent as the coronavirus abruptly ended a record US job growth streak of 113 months, intensifying fears of a deep economic slowdown. Even the loss of 701,000 jobs that Labor Department data showed for March did not completely capture the […]
Aussie market remains ‘sensitive’ to virus
The Australian share market could see a gain of 0.9 per cent at the start of trading on Monday, but the continuing volatility of the coronavirus pandemic means the market might not finish up that way. CommSec chief economist Craig James said the United States market and the expected raft […]
Saudi-Russia row ‘delays’ OPEC+ meeting
OPEC and Russia have postponed a meeting due on Monday to discuss oil output cuts until April 9, OPEC sources say, as a row between Moscow officials and Saudi Arabia over who is to blame for plunging crude prices intensified. The delay came amid pressure from US President Donald Trump […]