Insights

For Qantas chairman Leigh Clifford, free markets are good for everyone except the national carrier.

The airline is facing heavy losses, its credit rating has been cut to junk, and pleas for help are falling on deaf ears, writes Matt O'Sullivan.

Nine Entertainment is undoubtedly the sexiest business brand to join the stock exchange lists this year, but its appeal in terms of profit growth is a different matter.

It wasn't quite a champagne launch but the bubbly still flowed at the sharemarket debut of Nine Entertainment as current affairs star Liz Hayes rang the bell on a new era of public ownership for the TV network.

Long-term bond yields have continued to rise as foreign exchange markets treaded water before a key US jobs report, which could kick-start a near-term reduction in the US Federal Reserve's asset purchase program.

Qantas cut to junk News - Page 3 Distress call unanswered Matt O'Sullivan - Page 6 Trapped in a downward spiral Adele Ferguson - Page 6 Moral hazard alert Malcolm Maiden - Page 9

The dollar was trading higher despite expectations the US Federal Reserve will taper its stimulus program sooner rather than later.

Murray Goulburn must convince a former South Australian barrister, an economics professor and a top corporate lawyer that any loss of domestic competition from its acquisition of Warrnambool Cheese & Butter is insignificant compared with the benefits increased scale will yield for the national economy and the Australian dairy industry.

Car parts manufacturers would be devastated and thousands of jobs lost if Holden quit manufacturing in Australia, industry figures warn.

Investors are hungry for IPOs but there are highs and lows, writes Max Mason.

Local shares had their worst week in six months as signs of improving economic conditions in the US made global investors nervous the Federal Reserve might start withdrawing its stimulus as early as this month.

Supermarket chains Woolworths and Coles will walk away from decades of deep fuel discounts, capping their popular shopper dockets at 4¢ per litre, to avoid a possibly bruising court battle with the competition regulator which it believed it would have ultimately won.

Qantas faces a sharp rise in its borrowing costs after it suffered the ignominy of a downgrade in its all-important credit rating to junk status from investment grade.

Contrition time. At the end of August when Qantas announced an underlying pre-tax loss of $31 million in the June half but an increase in pre-tax earnings for the year from $95 million to $192 million, I wrote that a 14 per cent jump in the airline's shares price to $1.40 on the day was justified.

With our minds turning to Christmas, we know it's time to think about shopping for presents. Well that's what most of us are doing, but there is a tiny minority who have been getting into a new trend of "re-gifting".

The economy performed poorly in the September quarter, but that's OK. It was all Labor's fault, but now Labor is out. From here on it will be the Coalition's watch and everything will be much better. Or not. At least from here on Joe Hockey will be talking the economy up - as a treasurer should - not talking it down.

Malaysian newcomer UEM Sunrise Berhad will build two high-rise towers at 224-252 La Trobe Street that will soar 78 levels above the city on a site it bought just two months ago.