Latest updates on Key Economic Indicators

Australian Dollar: $0.7757 USD (down $0.0043 USD)

Iron Ore Apr Spot Price (SGX): $160.10 USD (up $0.20 USD

Oil Price (WTI): $59.21 USD (down $5.34 USD)

Gold Price: $1,735.19 (down $9.74 USD)

Bitcoin: $57,730.95 USD (down 0.13% in last 24 hours)

Dow Jones: 32,862.30 (down 153.07 points on yesterday's close)

All changes compared to 7am yesterday.

BOM forecasts wild weather and 'life-threatening' flooding and winds across NSW

The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) has warned of "life-threatening" flash flooding and windstorms stretching from the NSW Mid North Coast and Sydney's north.

The BOM last night issued severe weather warnings for "the northern half of NSW" for damaging winds and heavy rainfall.

"This will likely continue into Saturday and move southwards into the Sydney Basin and the Illawarra," BOM meteorologist Jackson Browne said.

Mr Browne said the coastline should expect to get 'Drenched' throughout the weekend, with the bureau forecasting up to 300 millimetres of rain between last night and Sunday evening.

AstraZeneca vaccine not linked to overall increased risk of blood clots

abc.net.au - Page Online : 19 March 2021 - PortMac.News Summary

The European Medicines Agency has completed its review of AstraZeneca's COVID-19 vaccine.

Executive director Emer Cooke says the drug regulator's scientific position is that the vaccine is a 'Safe and effective option' for protecting people against COVID-19.

She adds that while the EMA cannot definitively rule out a link between the vaccine and blood clots, the review found that there is no overall increased risk of, and that the benefits of the vaccine outweigh any risks.

More than 45 million people in the European Economic Area have been given the AstraZeneca vaccine to date; at least 37 people have reported experiencing blood clots after receiving the vaccine, and four people have died.

Jobs boom wipes out Covid losses

The Australian - Page 1 & 4 : 19 March 2021 - Original article by Patrick Commins, Geoff Chambers --PortMac.News Summary

Australia's official unemployment rate fell to 5.8% in February, well ahead of the Reserve Bank's forecast that it would fall below 6%t by the end of 2021.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows that the economy added some 88,700 jobs during February, and the number of Australians in employment now exceeds 13 million.

Chris Richardson of Deloitte Access Economics expects the official unemployment rate to fall to 5.3% by the end of the year.

The ABS counts a person as being employed if they work for just one hour a week, but Roy Morgan estimates that Australia's real unemployment rate was 13.2% in February.

Coalition abandons crackdown on wage theft

The Guardian Australia - Page Online : 19 March 2021 - Original article by Paul Karp - PortMac.News Summary

Employers' groups have urged the federal government to press ahead with industrial relations reform after most of its omnibus bill failed to pass the Senate.

The elements of the bill relating to casual workers were the only ones to be passed by the Senate.

There will be a new definition of a casual worker, while small businesses will be exempt from the requirement to offer permanent employment to casuals after 12 months.

The rest of the bill was either rejected by the Senate or withdrawn by the government after crossbencher Stirling Griff advised that he would only support the measures relating to casual workers and wage theft.

Meanwhile, legislation to increase the base rate of the JobSeeker allowance by $50 per fortnight was passed by the Senate without amendments.

PM defends JobKeeper profit bonus

The Australian Financial Review - Page 9 : 19 March 2021 - Original article by Tom McIlroy - PortMac.News Summary

A report released by Ownership Matters on 18 March indicates that a fifth of JobKeeper payments made to large listed companies in the second half of 2020 went to companies that increased their profits during the pandemic.

Ownership Matters director Dean Paatsch says that unlike similar schemes in the US, UK and New Zealand, there was no public record of subsidies received by firms under the JobKeeper scheme.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that the companies who have returned their JobKeeper payments should be commended, while he said the scheme had saved jobs and the economy, and he was absolutely certain it had "saved lives".

Rules set to ease for skilled migrants

The Australian Financial Review - Page 8 : 19 March 2021 - Original article by Matthew Cranston - PortMac.News Summary

The Restaurant & Catering Industry Association of Australia has welcomed the findings of a government inquiry into skilled migration, but its findings have been attacked by both the Electrical Trades Union and the Australian Workers' Union.

The inquiry's recommendations are aimed at allowing easier entry for foreign workers into Australia, and include the removal of the need for employers to advertise for any occupations that are on special skills lists.

ETU national secretary Allen Hicks has described the inquiry's recommendations as "an attack on Australian values", but RCIU CEO Wes Lambert contends making skilled migration easier helps industries such as hospitality.

Record number of virus cases from PNG arrive in Qld

The New Daily - Page Online : 19 March 2021 - PortMac.News Summary

Queensland has recorded eight new COVID-19 cases in hotel quarantine in the last 24 hours, including six travellers who had returned from Papua New Guinea.

The state has recorded 55 new cases in hotel quarantine in the last fortnight, and Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk notes that the federal government has yet to respond to her proposal to establish quarantine facilities in regional areas.

Meanwhile, three new cases in hotel quarantine have been reported in New South Wales, and there has been one new case among returned travellers in South Australia.

EU threatens to hold back coronavirus vaccine exports

abc.net au - Page Online : 19 March 2021 - PortMac.News Summary

European Commission (EC) president Ursula von der Leyen has attacked AstraZeneca over its failure to produce the quantity of COVID-19 vaccines she states it had committed to.

Von der Leyen notes AstraZeneca had originally pledged to provide 90 million doses in the first three months of 2021, but has since reduced that figure to as low as 30 million.

She has hinted the EC may block the export of vaccines in response to a lack of AstraZeneca vaccines being delivered from the UK.

The Australian government is using the growing COVID-19 crisis in Papua New Guinea to pressure the EC to release vaccine doses that it has already paid for, with the federal government having pledged to send 8,000 AstraZeneca doses to PNG.

Population falls for first time in 40 years

The Australian - Page 4 : 19 March 2021 - Original article by Stephen Lunn - PortMac.News Summary

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen Australia's total population decline for the first time since official quarterly data began to be collected in 1981.

The nation's population fell by 4,200 in the September 2020 quarter to 25,693,059 people, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

Annual population growth slowed to a four-decade low of just 0.87% (or 220,500 people) in the year to September, while net overseas migration fell by 64.8% (156,900 people).

Meanwhile, the natural increase in Australia's population fell by 3.8%.

Frydenberg open to FIRB revisions

The Australian Financial Review - Page 4 : 19 March 2021 - Original article by Matthew Cranston - PortMac.News Summary

US companies such as Boeing, Blackstone, Pfizer and Tesla have called for changes to Australia's tough new foreign investment rules in a report produced by PwC and the American Chamber of Commerce.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said on 18 March that the changes being sought in the report will be considered alongside a review that the government itself is conducting into the alterations to the rules, which were approved by Parliament in 2020 and which took effect as from 1 January.

'Sports Rorts': Projects should receive belated funding

The Guardian Australia - Page Online : 19 March 2021 - Original article by Paul Karp - PortMac.News Summary

A Labor-controlled Senate inquiry has released its findings into the $100 million Community Sports Infrastructure Grant program.

The inquiry concluded there was "Overwhelming evidence" that the program was used by the federal government to gain political advantage, although Coalition senators taking part in the inquiry disagreed.

The inquiry has recommended that the federal government should finance all the projects recommended by Sport Australia but rejected by then Sports Minister Bridget McKenzie. 

Nation on track to feel Chinese rail squeeze

The Australian - Page 26 : 19 March 2021 - Original article by Robert Gottliebsen - PortMac.News Summary

There are anti-rail forces in Canberra that seek to make it easier for container ships to take more market share off rail operators.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has the power to disrupt these plans by directing Chinese exporters to tell shipping companies to send containers straight back to China and Hong Kong and not via Perth.

The rail operators, having reduced their capacity because of the anti-rail forces, would then not be able to cope with the influx of freight that would result from Xi's actions.

Stocks slip despite job figures

The Australian - Page 26 : 19 March 2021 - Original article by Rebecca Le May - PortMac.News Summary

The Australian sharemarket lost ground on 18 March, despite a positive lead from Wall Street, with the S&P/ASX 200 shedding 0.73% to close at 6,745.9 points.

Rio Tinto was down 0.89% at $110.80, the Commonwealth Bank fell 1.56% to $85.75 and Afterpay was 1.76% lower at $111.

However, Newcrest Mining added 3.68% to end the session at $25.06 and Harvey Norman was up 1.94% at $5.79.

Dots plot course for US rate rises: Citigroup

The Australian - Page 26 : 19 March 2021 - Original article by David Rogers - PortMac.News Summary

The S&P 500 rose to a record high on 18 March, after the US Federal Reserve left the cash rate on hold and signalled that the current rate of quantitative easing will be maintained for some time.

However, Andrew Hollenhorst of Citigroup says the 'Dot plot' interest rate projection of Federal Open Market Committee members shows that three of them now expect at least one interest rate rise in 2022.

Hollenhorst forecasts that the Federal Reserve will begin winding back its asset purchasing program in the December quarter and begin increasing the cash rate in late 2022.

Australians hoarding cash under mattress as shopping goes online

The Australian Financial Review - Page 9 : 19 March 2021 - Original article by Ronald Mizen - PortMac.News Summary

The value of banknotes in circulation increased by 17.1% over the year to February to $97.3 billion, according to the Reserve Bank.

This was in spite of a large fall in the use of cash for day-to-day transactions, with the RBA noting that the fear of COVID-19 being transmitted on banknotes had a big impact on consumer payment preferences and behaviour.

High-denomination notes were extremely popular during the height of the pandemic, indicating Australians were using cash as a store of wealth rather than for day-to-day use.

Responsible lending laws on the backburner

The Australian - Page 17 & 21 : 19 March 2021 - Original article by Richard Gluyas - PortMac.News Summary

The federal government is believed to be committed to pursuing changes to responsible lending laws, even lack of sufficient support in the Senate has prompted the draft legislation to be withdrawn.

The bill has already been passed by the lower house, but Consumer Action Law Centre CEO Gerard Brody has urged senators to reject the legislation if and when it returns to the upper house.

He warns that banks will be less accountable and consumers will have fewer legal rights if the legislation is enacted.

Creditors meet today in bid for Greensill assets

The Australian Financial Review - Page 15 & 18 : 19 March 2021 - Original article by Jenny Wiggins, Simon Evans - PortMac.News Summary

The first creditors' meeting of Greensill Capital Pty Ltd, the Australian parent of supply chain finance company Greensill Capital, will be held on 19 March.

Greensill Capital had $US16 billion of receivables outstanding when it collapsed, while it had $1.5 billion of assets at the end of January, but $1.2 billion in liabilities.

Around 100 creditors of Greensill Capital Pty Ltd are expected to take part in the first creditors' meeting; dozens of Greensill's Australian employees are among its creditors.

Lenders put pressure on Gupta's empire

The Australian - Page 17 & 22 : 19 March 2021 - Original article by Perry Williams, Jared Lynch - PortMac.News Summary

Sanjeev Gupta is reckoned to owe as much as $2 billion to lenders and bondholders worldwide, on top of funds his GFG Alliance conglomerate owes to failed lender Greensill Capital.

Lenders to Gupta are said to be querying if his exposure to Greensill has triggered material adverse change clauses in their loans.

If such clauses are invoked, the lender is entitled to recall part of their loan.

Meanwhile, one former Greensill executive is said to have questioned why founder Lex Greensill had "No Plan B", while another has claimed that the company's failure sparked a "Collective sigh of relief".