Daily FNArena News

The latest survey into consumers expectations in Australia can be summarised best as: “more record lows”.

January data for housing finance in Australia showed a modest gain but economists don’t see the improvement as enough to prevent interest rates coming down again next month.

The March measure of the Westpac consumer confidence index was a surprising one.

Oil and gas exploration is a high risk, high reward business and both Merrill Lynch and Credit Suisse see Karoon Gas as an attractive exposure at current levels.

China’s trade surplus may be spiralling out of control, but Standard Chartered think China’s external imbalance will actually improve.

The ANZ Australian Job Ads series showed a sharp fall in February, supporting the bank’s forecasts of rising unemployment in coming months.

Following its February survey of business conditions and confidence National Australia Bank has revised down its growth forecasts for both Australia and the world in general.

Negative GDP growth, a weak Aussie dollar, falling inflation, drying up demand and an election are all on the cards for 2009, says Standard Chartered.

Commonwealth Bank is aggressively forecasting the Reserve Bank of New Zealand cuts official rates by 1.0% this week.

Weekly musings from your editor. Which Way Forward? A presentation plus some adventures in the City of Churches.