Feature Stories

Australian rare earth hopeful TUC Resources may just have the high-value deposits to take a slice out of China’s dominance. The rare earth race is not over, it is rationalising.

Origin caused a bit of a spark with its second LNG train announcement, but mostly Australia’s LNG aspirations have been met with exuberant market indifference. Perhaps earlier announcements from Woodside, BG and, most recently, Santos provide the clues.

Communications and IT microcaps Vocus Telecom, Amcom and BigAir are not associated but between them they are successfully exploiting the next revolution in data management, communications and internet access.

Australia’s insurance industry is putting great faith in 2011-12 representing a peak in catastrophes and the ushering in of a new “cat” down-cycle. But what does longer term weather modelling tell us?

Investment Manager Alphinity sees short-term upside in Chinese steel production but a longer term slowing of the Chinese production growth rate. However the big growth opportunity is in LNG.

The price of oil is beholden to storage capacity, refinery capacity, supply issues and Middle East tensions but in demand terms the global economy’s shift from West to East is significant for future pricing.

In two years the price of oil has risen 50% but the price of natural gas in the US has fallen 50%. As America revs up to sell its gas surplus to the world, where does that leave Australia’s dreams of LNG riches?

Broker research shows how short-sell trades based on published ASIC data can greatly enhance returns on Australian stock portfolios and overcome the large cap concentration of the Australian stock market.

Yesterday’s FNArena’s Market Insight program is now available as a replay.

Skyrocketing prices have taken their toll on rare earth demand even as supply growth crawls. End-users are going to extraordinary lengths to withdraw from global mispricing in which China holds 94% of the cards.