Latest updates on Key Economic Indicators

Australian Dollar: $0.7759 USD (down $0.0030 USD)

Iron Ore Feb Spot Price (SGX): $168.14 USD (up $3.14 USD)

Oil Price (WTI): $50.92 USD (up $0.75 USD)

Gold Price: $1,917.35 (down 1.52 USD)

Dow Jones: 31,103.67 at 3.08 pm NY time (up 274.27 on yesterday's close)

All changes compared to 7am yesterday.

Pelosi and Schumer tried calling Pence to urge him to consider invoking 25th Amendment

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi tried to reach out to Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday to urge him to consider invoking the 25th Amendment to force President Trump's removal from office.

The Democrats issued a statement detailing their phone call attempt to Pence, whom they were unable to connect with.

“This morning, we placed a call to Vice President Pence to urge him to invoke the 25th Amendment which would allow the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to remove the President for his incitement of insurrection and the danger he still poses. We have not yet heard back from the vice president.

The President’s dangerous and seditious acts necessitate his immediate removal from office. We look forward to hearing from the vice president as soon as possible and to receiving a positive answer as to whether he and the Cabinet will honor their oath to the Constitution and the American people.”

ScoMo fast-tracks vaccine rollout for frontline workers

The Australian Financial Review - Page 1 & 4 : 8 January 2021 - Original article by Ronald Mizen - PortMac.News Summary

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced on 7 January that Australians will start getting the COVID-19 vaccine from mid- to late February.

Quarantine, border and frontline healthcare workers will be the first to get the vaccine, with Morrison saying around 80,000 people a week will initially receive it.

The government has set a target of having four million people receive the vaccine by the end of March, with that figure to include around 500,000 aged and disability care residents and staff.

States push for masks on local flights

The Australian Financial Review - Page Online : 8 January 2021 - Original article by David Marin-Guzman, Hannah Wootton - PortMac.News Summary

A proposal to make mask wearing mandatory on domestic flights and in airports will be discussed at an emergency national cabinet meeting on 8 January.

The proposal is one of a number of measures aimed at preventing a mutant strain of the coronavirus that has originated from the UK from spreading throughout Australia.

Other measures to be discussed include daily testing of hotel quarantine staff and compulsory pre-flight screening of passengers.

A survey conducted by the Australian Airports Association in December found that around 88% of people supported mandatory masks in international terminals, while 82% supported pre-flight screening.

Queensland hotel quarantine worker contracts UK strain of Covid prompting aged care lockdown

The Guardian - Page Online : 8 January 2021 - PortMac.News Summary

Queensland health authorities announced on 7 January that a casual cleaner working in a quarantine hotel has contracted the highly infectious UK strain of Covid-19.

The announcement prompted the state to lockdown some aged care homes in Brisbane, and came as both New South Wales and Victoria recorded zero cases of community transmission in the 24 hours to 8pm on 6 January, although one case in NSW was reported after that time and will be included in figures for 8 January.

Victorian authorities are continuing to investigate how its mystery case from the previous day came to be infected, but genomic testing has linked his infection to northern beaches outbreak in Sydney.

NSW crash prompts call to end QR monopoly

The Australian Financial Review - Page 6 : 8 January 2021 - Original article by Tom Burton - PortMac.News Summary

New South Wales venues face on-the-spot fines of $5,000 if they do not use the state government's Service NSW check-in system.

Use of the system by hospitality and hairdressing venues has been mandatory since 1 January.

However, the system crashed for over two hours on 7 January, meaning thousands of venues could not register visitors.

The crash has prompted developers of private check-in systems to call for an end to what they have described as a "Soviet-style" state monopoly, with developers calling for the NSW government to allow private check-in systems to digitally connect with Service NSW

China trade rises to $208bn despite feud

The Australian - Page 6 : 8 January 2021 - Original article by Patrick Commins - PortMac.News Summary

Two-way goods trade between Australia and China hit $208.8 billion over the 11 months to November, according to figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics on 7 January.

The figure is higher than the comparable period in 2019, despite the increasingly strained relationship between the two countries.

Imports from China over the subject period increased by five per cent to $76.3 billion, while Australian exports to China rose to $132.5 billion.

The value of iron ore shipments fell by two per cent in November, while LNG sales were up eight per cent.

Resources, financials lead ASX surge

The Australian - Page Online : 8 January 2021 - PortMac.News Summary

The Australian sharemarket posted its highest daily close in three weeks on 7 January, with the S&P/ASX 200 closing up 105 points at 6,712 points.

Resources and financial stocks performed strongly, with Rio Tinto up 8.6%, BHP up 6.1% and the ANZ up 3.8%. Stocks to decline included Afterpay, REA Group and Goodman, which fell 4.2%, 2.4% and 2.3% respectively.

Qantas winter fares to Tokyo cheaper than Sydney to Perth

The Australian Financial Review - Page 3 : 8 January 2021 - Original article by Aaron Patrick - PortMac.News Summary

Qantas has recently announced it expects to resume international services to restart in July, a timeframe described by Catherine Bennett, a professor of epidemiology at Deakin University, as "incredibly ambitious".

Transport Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack noted the government had not given its consent for overseas travel to re-open, and did not suggest it would do so by July.

Should international travel indeed be allowed by then, Qantas is offering fares from Sydney to Tokyo that are cheaper than from Sydney to Perth.

Urgent sale sought for collapsed fashion label

The Australian - Page 15 : 8 January 2021 - Original article by Cameron England - PortMac.News Summary

'Australian Fashion Labels' has been placed in voluntary administration, with administrator Marcus Ayres from Duff & Phelps saying it was in urgent talks with a possible buyer.

Ayres says the company is facing a "critical 48 hours", and that it is trying to "lock down" its main suppliers in order to allow it to continue to trade.

He said its three main secured creditors are Tigers Logistics, Export Finance Australia and Bendigo and Adelaide Bank, while he would not disclose how much 'Australian Fashion Labels', whose brands include 'Finders Keepers' and 'The Fifth Label', owes.

Why potential clients may be ignoring your advertising?

insideageing.com.au - Page Online : 6 January 2021 - Original article by Gill Walker - PortMac.News Summary

When it comes to advertising in the competitive aged services sector, there are a number of things that marketers need to be aware of.

Research shows that one large, full-page image is a lot more effective than a number of smaller images when marketing to Boomers and Seniors, and that five times as many of them read the headline as compared to the body copy.

When it comes to deciding where to place your advert, for those who do not have access to propriety media tools such as Roy Morgan, a good starting point are website analytics that reveal the demographic profile of website visitors.

Explorers sharpen drill-bit after WA letdown

The Australian Financial Review - Page Online : 8 January 2021 - Original article by Angela Macdonald-Smith - PortMac.News Summary

Beach Energy, Santos and Melbana are among the companies scheduled to drill new gas and oil exploration wells during 2021.

Beach is planning to start the Artisan-1 well in the Otway Basin off Victoria during the March quarter, while Santos will be drilling the Apus and Pavo wells in Western Australia.

Melbana is expected to drill its Beehive prospect in the southern Timor Sea late in 2021, with Beehive potentially holding up to 1.6 billion barrels of oil.

Diesel storage contracts up for grabs in fuel-security move

The Australian Financial Review - Page 14 : 8 January 2021 - Original article by Angela Macdonald-Smith - PortMac.News Summary

Oil refiners and fuel storage providers will be able to apply for grants of up to $33 million to build diesel storage facilities as part of the federal government's fuel security package.

Applications for the grants will open on 11 January and will close on 22 February, with companies that are likely to be interested in applying including Viva Energy, Ampol and ExxonMobil.

The grants aim to support the construction of an additional 780 million litres of diesel storage.

'Domain' to roll out buy now, pay later to property sellers

The Australian Financial Review - Page Online : 8 January 2021 - Original article by James Frost - PortMac.News Summary

Real estate advertising portal Domain has joined forces with instalments fintech Limepay to launch a new product called MarketNow.

The buy now, pay later product will allow real estate agents to receive up to $25,000 in property marketing costs upfront, while vendors who use MarketNow will be charged five per cent. Domain CEO Jason Pellegrino notes that buy now, pay later products can potentially increase spending by up to 20%, while retailers that currently use Limepay include Accor and EB Games.