澳洲新闻 (ABC新闻快递) 2015-03-01

 Woolworths attempted to / the Bunnings Party with its Masters home improvement chain has turned into a nightmare. It lost more than 100 million dollars in the latest half year, and there’s no sign yet of a turnaround. Wool still bullies¹ supermarkets and now getting thrashed by coals. The Cheap Cheap Campaign apparently² didn’t work as well as coals down down. So it looks like Masters’ effort not only hasn’t worked to big destruction from main business groceries, all of which come as a shock to investors³ today, and they slashed⁴ the price nearly 10%.

 

But they didn’t rush off by shares and coals. Its owner Wesfarmers also fell. But another retailer⁵ Harvey Norman went up after posing a 27% increase in profit. Medibank Private shares also went up after a health and insurance price increase of 6.2% was announced. And CBA and CSL plowed⁶ into 90s. Overall, the market edged higher, following the slight fall on Wall Street last night, but sold gains in Europe.

 

Now, the things have gone quiet on the great front markets focusing on the European version of / which starts in March. 

 

Oil suffered another big fall last night. The Iron Ore Spot fell a bit too while gold and copper⁷ went up. 

 

Credit growth remained fairly solid in January. In fact, the annual growth rate is the strongest since been for six years. And this growth put the credit situation into contest. Thirty years ago, households and business borrowings were both 25% of GDP. Now household credit is at 100% of GDP thanks mainly to a huge lift in housing investment while business investment is half that, having been flat as the proportion of the economy for 15 years. Finally, the Aussie dollar is down to 77.9 tonight, but only because the US dollar had a bit of the surge. And that’s finance.

1 bullies   

n.欺凌弱小者, 开球 vt.恐吓, 威胁, 欺负

参考例句：

• Standing up to bullies takes plenty of backbone. 勇敢地对付暴徒需有大无畏精神。
• Bullies can make your life hell. 恃强欺弱者能让你的日子像活地狱。

2 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

3 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

4 slashed   

v.挥砍( slash的过去式和过去分词 )；鞭打；割破；削减

参考例句：

• Someone had slashed the tyres on my car. 有人把我的汽车轮胎割破了。
• He slashed the bark off the tree with his knife. 他用刀把树皮从树上砍下。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 retailer   

n.零售商(人)

参考例句：

• What are the retailer requirements?零售商会有哪些要求呢？
• The retailer has assembled a team in Shanghai to examine the question.这家零售商在上海组建了一支团队研究这个问题。

6 plowed   

v.耕( plow的过去式和过去分词 )；犁耕；费力穿过

参考例句：

• They plowed nearly 100,000 acres of virgin moorland. 他们犁了将近10万英亩未开垦的高沼地。 来自辞典例句
• He plowed the land and then sowed the seeds. 他先翻土，然后播种。 来自辞典例句

7 copper   

n.铜；铜币；铜器；adj.铜(制)的；(紫)铜色的

参考例句：

• The students are asked to prove the purity of copper.要求学生们检验铜的纯度。
• Copper is a good medium for the conduction of heat and electricity.铜是热和电的良导体。