Proposed US steel tariffs drive shares lower

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Economic and Financial Market developments US tariffs: The US dollar slumped and sharemarkets fell in response to news on proposed tariffs. What happened? US President Donald Trump has indicated that

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First annual fall in Sydney home price in 5½ years

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Home prices; Manufacturing Home prices: The CoreLogic Home Value Index of capital city home prices fell by 0.3 per cent in February to stand 2.0 per cent higher over the year.

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CommSec State of the States – January 2018

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Overall Results How are Australia’s states and territories performing? Each quarter CommSec attempts to find out by analysing eight key indicators: economic growth; retail spending; business investment; unemployment; construction work

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Unemployment 2017: Winners and losers

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Labour Force Regional unemployment: Unemployment rates vary significantly across regional Australia. Remote regions of the country such as Outback Queensland had the highest unemployment rate of 12.8 per cent in December.

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First home buyers return; record building work

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Consumer confidence, Housing finance, Building activity Consumer confidence: The Westpac/Melbourne Institute survey of consumer sentiment rose by 1.8 per cent in January – a 4-year high. The index now stands

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Confident consumers; luxury cars retreat

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New vehicle sales; Consumer sentiment Consumer confidence: The weekly ANZ/Roy Morgan consumer confidence rating rose by 1.2 per cent to 123.5 last week – the highest level in four years and

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Debit card growth the strongest in 4½ years

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Credit cards Credit cards: The average credit card balance rose by $65.90 to $3,127.70 in November – the largest monthly increase in 12 months. However, the smoothed annual growth rate of

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The Big Issues of 2018

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The Big Issues of 2018 For the past 16 years we have produced “The Big Issues” report – a report that has sought to highlight the issues that are expected to influence

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Rising petrol prices pressure households

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Weekly petrol prices Petrol: According to the Australian Institute of Petroleum, the national average Australian price of unleaded petrol rose by 4.4 cents last week to 141.5 cents a litre –

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Australian home size hits 20-year low

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CommSec Home Size Trends Report The average floor size of an Australian home (houses and apartments) has fallen to a 20-year low. Data commissioned by CommSec from the Australian Bureau

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