Latest updates on Key Economic Indicators

Australian Dollar: $0..7770 USD (up $0.0070 USD)

Iron Ore Feb Spot Price (SGX): $167.15 USD (up $0.24 USD)

Oil Price (WTI): $53.14 USD (up $1.10 USD)

Gold Price: $1,855.91 (up $10.33 USD)

Dow Jones: 31,081.35 at 3.08 pm NY time (up 64.98 points on yesterday's close)

All changes compared to 7am yesterday.

Trump has called preparations to impeach him in US Congress "absolutely ridiculous" and said the movement was causing "tremendous anger".

Mr Trump, speaking as he boarded Marine One at the White House for a trip to Texas, called his likely impeachment in the House of Representatives on Wednesday a "continuation of the greatest witch hunt in the history of politics".

On impeachment, Mr Trump said it's "a really terrible thing that they're doing".

But he continued: "We want no violence. Never violence."

With only eight days left in his one-term administration, Mr Trump has been shunned by former supporters, barred by social media, and is now facing a second impeachment over a charge that he instigated a riot against Congress on January 6.

His trip to Alamo, Texas, where he will tout claims of success in building a US-Mexican border wall, is his first live public appearance since he held a rally shortly before thousands of followers, some of whom then marched on Congress last week.

Scientists call for pause on AstraZeneca vaccine rollout

The Age - Page Online : 13 January 2021 - Original article by Liam Mannix, Aisha Dow - PortMac.News Summary

Australian & New Zealand Society for Immunology president Stephen Turner says the federal government should not rely on AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine to achieve herd immunity.

The vaccine has an efficacy rate of just 62 per cent when given in a standard dose, compared with about 95% for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.

Professor Turner says the AstraZeneca vaccine could still be used to keep COVID-19 under control until more effective vaccines can be deployed.

The federal government will buy more than 50 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine; it has also secured enough doses of the Pfizer vaccine to inoculate five million people.

Chinese fury as Probuild deal blocked

The Australian - Page 1 & 2 : 13 January 2021 - Original article by Patrick Commins - PortMac.News Summary

The federal government's decision to block the sale of construction firm Probuild on national interest grounds has been described as 'political' by a spokesman from China's foreign ministry.

The state-owned China State Construction ­Engineering Corporation has withdrawn its $300m bid for Probuild in response to the decision, which is believed to have been prompted in part to the company's links to the Chinese military.

The Chinese embassy has responded by accusing Australia of "weaponising the concept of ­national security".

The Probuild decision is likely to further deepen the tensions between the two nations.

WA isolated in spat over best virus strategy

The Australian Financial Review - Page 1 & 4 : 13 January 2021 - Original article by Andrew Tillett - PortMac.News Summary

Australia's state governments remain divided over the issue of elimination versus suppression of COVID-19.

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian maintains that her government's suppression strategy is the right approach, after Western Australian counterpart Mark McGowan argued in favour of eliminating the virus.

Berejiklian also reiterated her opposition to hard border closures, which have been a key part of WA's COVID-19 response.

NSW reported five new locally-acquired coronavirus cases on 12 January, including four mystery cases.

There are 200 active cases in NSW and just 14 in WA; the latter state has had no cases of community transmission in the last nine months.

Treasurer urged to ease stimulus rules

The Australian - Page 1 & 5 : 13 January 2021 - Original article by Rosie Lewis - PortMac.News Summary

Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is resisting pressure to further extend the JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme, which is slated to end in March.

The hospitality and tourism industry is concerned that many businesses in the sector that previously did not qualify for the final three months of the scheme will require government support following lockdowns in Sydney and Brisbane during the crucial Christmas and New Year holiday period.

Frydenberg contends that the scheme has already been extended by six months, and notes that about 85 per cent of people who lost their job or were stood down due to COVID-19 are now back at work.

Surge in cases of 'Super dupers'

The Australian - Page 3 : 13 January 2021 - Original article by Lachlan Moffet Gray - PortMac.News Summary

New figures show that the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission received more than 5,000 complaints about scams during 2020.

The number of superannuation-related scams rose by 323% during the first 10 months of the year.

Many of the super scams were linked to the federal government's early access scheme, which was introduced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the ACCC has advised that total losses arising from super-related scams fell by 67% to just $2.059m in 2020.

Unions take Qantas 'Wage theft' to court

The Australian - Page 5 : 13 January 2021 - Original article by Robyn Ironside - PortMac.News Summary

The ACTU and three transport-related unions will seek leave to appeal the full Federal Court's recent ruling in favour of Qantas over allegations that it had misused the JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme.

The court overturned a previous ruling in favour of the unions.

A Qantas spokesman says the court found that the airline has been administering the JobKeeper scheme in accordance with federal government rules.

Unions will also seek leave to appeal a separate ruling on the sick leave entitlements of Qantas employees who have been stood down due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Tech, mining drive bourse down

The Australian - Page 19 : 13 January 2021 - Original article by Rebecca Le May - PortMac.News Summary

The Australian sharemarket lost ground on 12 January, with the S&P/ASX 200 shedding 0.27% to close at 6,679.1 points.

BHP was down 1.08% at $46, Tyro Payments slump 8.25% to end the session at $2.89 and CSL was 1.04% lower at $273.07. However, National Australia Bank rose 1.08%t to $23.46 and Super Retail Group was up 5.47% at $11.56.

Australian banks get the silver medal for fines

The Australian Financial Review - Page 17 : 13 January 2021- Original article by James Frost - PortMac.News Summary

Data from research house Finbold shows that banks across the world were fined $19.9bn in total during 2020, compared with just $11.8bn in the previous year.

Financial penalties against Australian banks totalled $1.3bn in 2020, which was largely due to Westpac's settlement with Austrac over breaches of anti-money laundering laws.

US banks topped the list, incurring fines totalling $14.42bn; this was headed by investment bank Goldman Sachs, which agreed to pay fines totalling $8.8bn over its role in the 1MDB scandal in Malaysia.

Bills paid promptly as nation recovers

The Australian - Page 14 : 13 January 2021 - Original article by Lachlan Moffet Gray - PortMac.News Summary

Data from CreditorWatch shows that 15 out of 19 industry groups have reported a decline in the amount of time they took to pay bills and invoices during December.

The average payment time in the transport, postal and warehousing sector fell by 53% month-on-month; in contrast, payment times in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector rose by 38%.

CreditorWatch CEO Patrick Coghlan says the reduction in payment times reflects the improvement in economic conditions, although he cautions that coronavirus-induced lockdowns at the end of 2020 may impact on payment times.

Subscription TV viewers soared to 17.3 million Australians during 2020

Market Research Update - Page Online : 13 January 2021 - Original article by Roy Morgan - PortMac.News Summary

New data from Roy Morgan shows that 17.3 million Australians (82.1%) watched a subscription TV service in an average four weeks during 2020.

This is up 2.4 million (+16.2%) on a year ago.

Netflix is by far Australia's most-watched subscription television service, with 14,168,000 viewers in an average four weeks; this represents an increase of 2,265,000 viewers from a year ago (+19.0%).

More than two-thirds of all Australians aged 14+ (67.2%) now watch Netflix in an average four weeks.

Foxtel in turn now has a total of 7,748,000 viewers of either Foxtel, Foxtel Now, Kayo Sports or Binge in an average four weeks, which is up 2,363,000 viewers from a year ago (+43.9%).

'Threat to democracy is real': MPs call for social media code of conduct

The Age - Page Online : 13 January 2021 - Original article by David Crowe, Nick Bonyhady - PortMac.News Summary

Liberal MPs have called for the federal government to introduce a voluntary code of conduct for social media companies regarding the issue of free speech.

Trent Zimmerman is among the MPs who support greater regulation of social media companies with regard to their policies on banning people from their platforms.

The issue has come under scrutiny in the wake of moves by Twitter and Facebook to ban outgoing US President Donald Trump.

Zimmerman has raised the prospect of legislation for a mandatory code of conduct if social media companies do not take action themselves.

Mongolia gets tough with Rio on expansion

The Australian Financial Review - Page 13 & 16 : 13 January 2021 - Original article by Peter Ker - PortMac.News Summary

The Mongolian government has advised that it may terminate the 2015 agreement for the underground expansion of the Oyu Tolgoi copper mine unless it receives a greater economic benefit from the project.

Rio Tinto has a commercial interest in the mine via its 50.79% stake in Turquoise Hill Resources

Rio Tinto has released a statement saying that it has engaged with the Mongolian government in good faith and is open to open to increasing the benefits of Oyu Tolgoi for all stakeholders.

The cost of the expansion project has blown out to $US6.75bn since it was approved in 2016.