Insights

Reserve Bank governor Glenn Stevens says he remains "open-minded" about using foreign exchange intervention to weaken Australia's currency.

Fiorente's Melbourne Cup win may have left the punters in clover, but it seems the bookies took a drubbing.

The sharemarket fell for the fourth consecutive session as investors fretted over slightly more hawkish Federal Reserve minutes and sluggish manufacturing data from China.

When I wrote about Warrnambool Cheese & Butter recently I noted the potential for a $9-plus-a-share bid.

It's been a strange journey for Treasurer Joe Hockey to the point where he has hired a man who ran one of Australia's banking giants to conduct an inquiry into a financial system that the big banks dominate.

This time last year, Australia's leading business economists said growth would slide, business investment would hit a wall, and the government would deliver a deficit instead of a forecast surplus.

Premier Investments has joined other retailers in calling for the new federal government to get rid of the GST exemption on imported goods less than $1000.

Paladin chairman Rick Crabb has easily won re-election to the board of the uranium miner, as threats to vote against his tenure failed to materialise at the company's annual meeting. His reappointment came despite the Australian Shareholders Association calling for him to stand down in the weeks before the meeting.

US media company Tribune Co will slash 700 jobs at its newspapers, including the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune. Most of the cuts will be aimed at consolidating advertising and circulation, but some editorial positions are likely to go. The company, which emerged from bankruptcy last December, says the cuts will help its transition to digital news.

Murray Goulburn is preparing its shareholders for the possibility of a partial float of the co-operative as it continues its fight to take over Warrnambool Cheese & Butter.

This time last year Australia's leading business economists said economic growth would slide, investment would hit the wall, and the government would deliver a deficit rather than its forecast surplus.

School fees paid in Lew of shares

The chief executive of the world's biggest winemaker, Treasury Wine Estates, has lashed out at the rising tide of "crazy class actions" hurled at boardrooms, arguing they were being manufactured by self-interested litigators.

David Murray says he will put Australia's dependence on foreign capital under the microscope as part a sweeping review of how well the financial system is working.

BHP Billiton says it has been encouraged by recent work that suggests its push into the Canadian potash sector will be supported by further resources of the commodity close to its proposed Jansen mine.

When I wrote about Warrnambool Cheese & Butter recently I noted the potential for a $9-plus-a-share bid.