Australia Financial News

Three new upcoming games from Australia and Asia-based teams have committed to building on Zero-Knowledge (ZK) proof-based scaling rollup Immutable zkEVM.

Peter Craig Dutton — has expressed concerns around Beijing’s “level of aggression” in the Indo-Pacific. Dutton himself is in India for a four-day visit for the ongoing Economic Trade Delegation Summit which began on November 1, 2023.

ACCC chairwoman Gina Cass-Gottlieb said Qantas’ “bundle of rights” defence does not answer the competition watchdog’s main lawsuit claim that the airline misled customers by selling tickets on cancelled flights, and signalled she will not back down from fighting the case in court.

Investing.com-- Most Asian currencies strengthened on Thursday, while the dollar fell sharply after mixed signals from the Federal Reserve ramped up bets that the central bank will not raise interest rates further. 

Wells Fargo has liquidated its local inventory finance business, leaving it with commercial and some investment banking capabilities in the country.

Bowen Coking Coal has launched a $50 million equity-raising with backing from coal billionaire Hans Mende, Street Talk can reveal.

Former competition watchdog chairman Graeme Samuel says the federal government needs to control prices charged by stevedores at the nation’s container ports after DP World increased container fees by as much as 52 per cent.

Rio Tinto negotiated a liability agreement likely to cap its payout exposure if Gina Rinehart loses a multibillion-dollar legal battle with another of Australia’s richest women.

Two senators spearheading the heavy scrutiny of the consulting sector have blasted the Tax Office’s deal with EY over a former tax partner’s alleged tax exploitation schemes, saying it was a “paltry censure” that let the firm off the hook.

The giant Tomago aluminium smelter in which CSR owns a 25 per cent stake is seeking a cheaper power deal from 2029 as crunch time looms for the biggest user of electricity in NSW.

The Albanese government will draft new laws to regulate how investment products are labelled in an attempt to reduce unverified sustainability claims and ensure environmental credentials are comparable.

While the approval of a spot Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded fund (ETF) will likely spike the price of Bitcoin, some analysts are concerned it won’t be enough to fully thaw the markets from its winter chill. 

World Cup 2023: Australian all-rounder Mitchell Marsh has returned home for personal reasons. He is out of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 indefinitely.

Cricket World Cup match against England on November 4 following injury. He sustained a cranial injury from falling off a golf cart.

Chris Ellison’s Mineral Resources made a down payment on the Bald Hill lithium mine as he advances a billion-dollar spending spree in the West Australian lithium sector, and mounts a potential challenge to SQM’s takeover of Azure Minerals.

The boss of Australia’s third-largest beer company, Cooper’s Brewery, says cost-of-living pressures have dented the sales of packaged beer but have sparked renewed demand for home brew kits in the past few weeks.

Law firm business models are causing “social harm” for employees and leading to an exodus from the legal profession, the former local head of international behemoth Clyde & Co says.

Santos has been prevented from starting work on a 292-kilometre pipeline to its $5.8 billion Barossa gas project in the Timor Sea after the Federal Court agreed to suspend the project until it can consider an argument from Tiwi Islanders that its cultural impact has not been properly assessed.

Origin Energy's largest shareholder on Thursday said it would vote against a «best and final» A$16.40 billion ($10.55 billion) offer from a Brookfield consortium for Australia's biggest energy retailer, throwing the deal's future into doubt. AustralianSuper said in a statement the consortium's A$9.53 per share offer, an 8% increase over the previous A$8.81 apiece bid, remained «substantially below» its estimate of Origin's long-term value. «AustralianSuper believes Origin has a highly strategic portfolio of assets to participate in, and benefit from, the energy transition,» a spokesperson said. Origin shares plunged as much as 5.6% to A$8.565 in high-volume trading following the news, as AustralianSuper's 13.68% holding could scupper a deal that requires approval from 75% of the register if not all investors vote. Hours earlier, the consortium led by Canada's Brookfield, which also includes EIG's MidOcean Energy, said the increased offer was its «best and final» proposal, meaning it cannot be increased unless a rival offer emerged. Brookfield did not respond immediately to a request for comment after AustralianSuper's announcement. AustralianSuper, the country's largest pension fund with A$300 billion in assets, on Tuesday had already rejected the prior offer, saying it was «substantially below» its estimate of long-term value as the country moves toward net-zero emissions by 2050. «If AustralianSuper is rejecting it, the likelihood of the deal going ahead is very low,» said Jamie Hannah, deputy head of investments and capital markets at VanEck, which owns a 0.3% stake in Origin. «I think the deal is back at the drawing board at the moment.» Should the deal fail at the shareholder vote scheduled for Nov.

Treasury yields as markets grew more convinced the Federal Reserve was done with its aggressive monetary policy tightening cycle after it left rates unchanged. The Fed on Wednesday held interest rates steady as widely expected, as policymakers struggled to determine whether financial conditions may be sufficiently tight to control inflation. However, Fed Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged that a recent market-driven rise in Treasury bond yields, home mortgage rates and other financing costs could have their own impact on the economy as long as they persist. The decision lifted sentiment in Wall Street, which spilled over into the Asia day, giving a small boost to the risk-sensitive Australian and New Zealand dollars. The Aussie rose 0.5% to a three-week high of $0.6426, while the kiwi similarly jumped more than 0.5% to hit a two-week top of $0.58825. The dollar edged broadly lower alongside U.S. Treasury yields which touched multi-week lows in early Asia trade.

Bowen Coking Coal is set to launch a $50 million equity raise on Thursday morning with backing from coal billionaire Hans Mende, Street Talk can reveal.