澳洲新闻 (ABC新闻快递) 2015-03-15

 Good morning, everyone. In finance news today, there might be a bit of re-prevalent store for some home buyers with some forecasts suggesting price growth will slow this year. Property prices have hit a record high over the past two years, and while the national medium house price is still set to rise by 5% this year. It’s down on the previous year. Conditions will remain tough for first home loan buyers though due to strong competition driven by record low interest rates. Sydney is set to outperform the rest of the country with 8% growth.

 

Agricultural export is calling on the Federal Government to do more to help overcome difficult rules and regulations in key markets. The Federal Government counts trade as one of its most successful portfolios¹, having signed free trade agreements with China, Korea and Japan while the agricultural industry has welcomed the tariff² reductions that come with those agreements. They say there needs to be more done to focus on technical barriers to trade that are costing some sectors³ billions of dollars.

 

Let’s take a look at the markets. And US stocks have closed up after two days of losses helped by weaker dollar and a rally in bank shares. The Dow and S&P 500 closed up more than 1%. The Nasdaq was up more than 0.5%. And in London, the FTSE also closed up more than 0.5% led by mining shares. 

 

Checking commodity prices, West Texas Crude is trading at 47 US dollars a barrel. Tapis is trading at 60 US dollars a barrel. And gold is trading at 1153 US dollars an ounce, while the Australian dollar is buying 77 US cents, 72 euro cents, and 52 pence sterling⁴.

1 portfolios   

n.投资组合( portfolio的名词复数 )；（保险）业务量；（公司或机构提供的）系列产品；纸夹

参考例句：

• Price risk arises in non-trading portfolios, as well as in trading portfolios. 价格风险中出现的非贸易投资，以及在贸易投资组合。 来自互联网
• How do we fatten our portfolios and stay financially healthy? 我们怎样育肥我们的投资结构和维持财政健康呢？ 来自互联网

2 tariff   

n.关税，税率；(旅馆、饭店等)价目表，收费表

参考例句：

• There is a very high tariff on jewelry.宝石类的关税率很高。
• The government is going to lower the tariff on importing cars.政府打算降低进口汽车的关税。

3 sectors   

n.部门( sector的名词复数 )；领域；防御地区；扇形

参考例句：

• Berlin was divided into four sectors after the war. 战后柏林分成了4 个区。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Industry and agriculture are the two important sectors of the national economy. 工业和农业是国民经济的两个重要部门。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 sterling   

adj.英币的(纯粹的，货真价实的)；n.英国货币(英镑)

参考例句：

• Could you tell me the current rate for sterling, please?能否请您告诉我现行英国货币的兑换率？
• Sterling has recently been strong,which will help to abate inflationary pressures.英国货币最近非常坚挺，这有助于减轻通胀压力。