Latest updates on Key Economic Indicator

Australian Dollar: $0.7727 USD (down $0.0063 USD)

Iron Ore Apr Spot Price (SGX): $170.95 USD (up $1.45 USD

Oil Price (WTI): $64.04 USD (up $2.71 USD)

Gold Price: $1,698.48 (down $16.31 USD)

Bitcoin: $47,781.49 USD (down 6.69 % in last 24 hours)

Dow Jones: 30,911.23 at 3.06pm NY time (down 358.86 points on yesterday's close)

All changes compared to 7am yesterday.

New Zealand: New tsunami warning after third earthquake hits

An 8-magnitude quake has struck off the coast of New Zealand, with authorities urging residents near the epicenter to evacuate to higher ground "immediately."

A magnitude 8 earthquake struck off the Northeastern coast of New Zealand early on Friday, the National Emergency Management Authority (NEMA) said, triggering tsunami warnings.

The powerful quake, which hit just before 9 a.m. local time (2000 GMT Thursday) off the Kermadec Islands (1,000 km/621 miles northeast of New Zealand), followed earlier 7.4 and 7.2-magnitude quakes.

People in Northland, the East Cape and on Great Barrier Island, as well as anyone near coast from the Bay of Islands to Whangarei, from Matata to Tolaga Bay, must "move immediately" to higher ground or as far inland as possible, NEMA said.  

The authority said it "expected strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges" at the shore.

"Strong currents and surges can injure and drown people. There is a danger to swimmers, surfers, people fishing, small boats and anyone in or near the water close to shore," NEMA said in a statement.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) issued tsunami threats for large parts of the Pacific, including the Cook Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia, Niue, Pitcairn Islands, Solomon Islands, Tonga,Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna and some coasts of American Samoa. 

The agency said its assessing whether the New Zealand quake poses a threat to Hawaii. 

Italy blocks export of 250,000 AstraZeneca vaccine doses to Australia

The Guardian - Page Online : 5 March 2021 - Original article by Daniel Boffey - PortMac.News Summary

The Italian government has ruled that AstraZeneca cannot ship 250,000 doses of its COVID-19 vaccine to Australia.

Italy has become the first country to invoke the European Union's export authorisation mechanism with regard to coronavirus vaccines.

The EU has ordered some 400 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine.

Problems at the biotechnology group's plant in Belgium means that it has now committed to supplying just 40 million doses in the March quarter, well down on the 120 million doses that it was meant to supply.

US Capitol calm amid high security as Trump supporters await 'Second Coming'

Outnumbered by security forces deployed to deter any possible attack, a small group of Qanon conspiracy theory followers have gathered near the US Capitol on the day the movement predicts former president Donald Trump will return to office for a second term.

National Guard troops patrolled inside a large black fence encircling the Capitol, the scene of a deadly insurrection by supporters of Mr Trump that killed five people in January.

Police had warned of a potential attack by militants to mark the date of Mr Trump's alleged return to power, and the House of Representatives cancelled its session.

March 4 is the day when adherents to the debunked Qanon conspiracy theory believe that Mr Trump, who was defeated by President Joe Biden in the November 3, 2020 US election, will be sworn in for a second term in office.

Until 1933, March 4 was the date of the presidential inauguration.

Porter's alleged victim insisted we shut the case: police

The Australian - Page 1 & 2 : 5 March 2021 - Original article by Rosie Lewis, Sharri Markson - PortMac.News Summary

The family of the woman who was allegedly raped by Attorney-General Christian Porter in 1988 has expressed support for an inquiry into the circumstances that led to her death.

Labor leader Anthony Albanese has also pushed for an independent inquiry into the allegations against Porter, but Prime Minister Scott Morrison says there is no precedent for such an inquiry.

Meanwhile, New South Wales police say the alleged victim advised that she did not want to make a formal statement on 23 June, citing medical and personal reasons.

The woman took her own life the following day.

PM backs Reynolds despite 'Offensive' slur on ex-staffer

The Australian - Page 1 & 2 : 5 March 2021 - Original article by Rosie Lewis, Sharri Markson, Tom Dusevic - PortMac.News Summary

Defence Minister Linda Reynolds faces renewed scrutiny and potential legal action as the fallout from the alleged rape of an ex-staffer continues.

The media has reported that Reynolds described Brittany Higgins as a 'Lying cow' in her office on the same day that the former media adviser alleged that she had been raped by a colleague in March 2019.

Higgins' lawyers has raised the threat of legal action if Reynolds does not publicly withdraw her comment and apologise. Prime Minister Scott Morrison has described Reynolds' comment as 'Inappropriate and wrong', but stresses that she not referring to Higgins' rape allegation.

Inflation Expectations increase to 3.7% in February - higher in Regions

Market Research Update - Page Online : 5 March 2021 - Original article by Roy Morgan - PortMac.News Summary

In February, Australians expected inflation of 3.7% annually over the next two years, up 0.1% points on January, and the highest since February and March 2020 (4.0% for both). Inflation Expectations are now 1% point below their long-term average of 4.7%.

Inflation Expectations have now increased by 0.5% points in the last six months, the fastest increase for the index since late 2016/early 2017 when the index increased by 0.6% points in only two months.

Inflation Expectations are higher in Country Regions of Australia (4%) than in the Capital Cities (3.5%) and this is borne out in each mainland State.

The smallest gap of only 0.3% points between the two areas is in NSW.

Country NSW has Inflation Expectations of 4% compared to 3.7% in Sydney and in-line with the national average.

Cost of pandemic to reach $327bn over 5yrs

The Australian - Page 4 : 5 March 2021 - Original article by Patrick Commins - PortMac.News Summary

The Parliamentary Budget Office estimates that the combined net debt of Australia's three levels of government will blow out to almost $1.3tn in the five years to 2024.

Federal, state and local governments are forecast to collectively spend some $327bn on COVID-19 measures over the five-year period.

The independent budget watchdog now expects the national net operating balance across all levels of government in 2020-21 to be a deficit of 11.1% of GDP; it had previously forecast a surplus of 1.7% of GDP for the current financial year.

WHO warns of 'Wake-up call' as obesity linked to COVID-19 deaths

The New Daily - Page Online : 5 March 2021 - Original article by Ella Pickhover - PortMac.News Summary

The World Obesity Federation has claimed that the death rate from COVID-19 is 10 times higher in nations where 50% or more of the population is overweight.

The Federation states nine out of 10 COVID-19 deaths have occurred in countries with high obesity rates, with the World Health Organisation describing the Federation's report as a wake-up call.

Report author Dr Tim Lobstein notes that nations like Japan and South Korea have had low COVID-19 death levels and have very low levels of obesity, and that their focus on population weight as one of their public health priorities has paid off during the pandemic.

Record trade surplus adds to recovery

The Australian Financial Review - Page 1 & 6 : 5 March 2021 - Original article by Matthew Cranston - PortMac.News Summary

Australia's trade surplus rose to a record $10.2bn in January, compared with market expectations of just $8.3bn.

Strong growth in the resources sector's exports was a key driver of the record trade surplus; the value of iron ore exports rose by 14.2% month-on-month to $16.1bn, while LNG and coal exports rose by 7.9% and 2.6% respectively.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg notes that in addition to growth in iron ore export volumes in January, the price of the steel input remains well above the Budget forecast of just $US55 a tonne free on board.

End of JobKeeper 'a 250k JobLoser'

The Australian - Page 4 : 5 March 2021 - Original article by Patrick Commins - PortMac.News Summary

Professor Jeff Borland from the University of Melbourne estimates that between 125,000 and 250,000 people are likely to lose their jobs when the JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme ends in late March.

The labour market economist says workers who are most at risk are in jobs that would have been lost over the last year regardless of the pandemic, and those in sectors that will continue to be impacted by COVID-19 restrictions beyond March.

ANZ Bank economist Catherine Birch expects the strong labour market to offset any job losses that occur when JobKeeper ends.

'Aged care tax' idea killed off

The Australian Financial Review - Page 1 & 4 : 5 March 2021 - Original article by Tom McIlroy - PortMac.News Summary

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg has acknowledged that funding for the aged-care sector needs to be increased, but he says that growing the economy is the best way to do this.

The final report of the aged-care royal commission has recommended increasing funding for the sector via the tax system; however, Tony Negline from Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand says this is not appropriate, given that the bulk of aged-care funding already comes from taxpayers.

Negline has proposed options such as requiring nursing home residents to use the equity in their family home and a reduction in the capital gains tax discount.

Late rally cuts losses on bourse

The Australian - Page 20 : 5 March 2021 - Original article by Rebecca Le May - PortMac.News Summary

The Australian sharemarket lost ground on 4 March, with the S&P/ASX 200 shedding 0.84% to close at 6,760.7 points.

Rio Tinto was down 6.23% at $121.67, Northern Star Resources fell 3.43% to end the session at $9.58 and CSL was 4.18%t lower at $255.83 after trading ex-dividend.

However, the ANZ Bank added 3.01% to finish at $28.39 and GPT Group was up 3.39% at $4.58.

Start-ups 'Need new structure'

The Australian - Page 15 : 5 March 2021 - Original article by Lachlan Moffet Gray - PortMac.News Summary

KPMG has urged the federal government to establish special company structures for start-up businesses, so as to help grow the Australian fintech and regtech sectors.

It states that these proposed structures will help attract investment from affluent individuals; KPMG will make its recommendation to the Senate committee on financial and regulatory technology on 5 March.

Other recommendations that KPMG believes will help grow the fintech sector include a 'Tiered' approach to approvals for foreign investors and a revamp of intellectual property laws.

Google changing track on ads

The Australian - Page 18 : 5 March 2021 - Original article by Sam Schechner, Keach Hagey - PortMac.News Summary

Digital advertising consultancy Jounce Media estimates that global digital ad spending totalled $US292bn in 2020, of which Google accounted for 52%.

Google has doubled down on its recent decision to cease using third-party cookies to track internet users by advising that it will also stop using or investing in tracking technologies that uniquely identify web users as they move from one site to another.

Google will instead use a 'digital sandbox' to target advertising without collecting information about individuals from multiple websites.

'An enormous legacy': MCA director calls it quits after 22 years

The Guardian Australia - Page Online : 5 March 2021- Original article by Kelly Burke - PortMac.News Summary

Federal Arts Minister Paul Fletcher has praised Elizabeth Ann Macgregor, who has advised that she will step down as the director of Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art in October.

Fletcher says Macgregor is a 'dynamic and distinguished leader' in the nation's arts sector, and the MCA has 'Grown dramatically' during her tenure.

The MCA now attracts more than one million visitors a year, compared with fewer than 100,000 when Macgregor took on the role in 1999. Macgregor will also step down as the chair of the federal government's Creative Economy Taskforce.

Tokyo Olympics likely to exclude foreign spectators

The Australian Financial Review - Page 14 : 5 March 2021 - Original article by Michael Bleby - PortMac.News Summary

Japan could close the Tokyo Olympics to foreign spectators, although Japan's 'Mainichi' newspaper contends the decision to bar them has already been made.

Seiko Hashimoto, the newly appointed President of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games organising committee, says she wants a decision on the attendance of foreign spectators by 25 March, the day on which the Olympic Torch relay is due to begin.

Around 4.48 million tickets for the Olympics have already been sold, while a January poll found that 80% of Japanese people want the already-delayed games to be either further delayed or cancelled altogether.