Oil dived to a two-week low on Thursday after the Financial Times reported that Saudi Arabia was ready to abandon its $US100-a-barrel price target and increase production in a bid to reclaim market share.

Has China once again saved the global metal industry, the Australian economy, and the fortunes of people like Chris Ellison of Mineral Resources, along with the sagging renewables sector, especially lithium?

CSL (ASX:CSL) has announced that it has won a multi-million dollar contract from the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to increase America’s stockpile of bird flu vaccines.

The chances of Premier's Solomon Lew and his board getting the much-discussed demerger plan for the company back on track depend on whether the board of department store chain Myer can be convinced to do a deal on a group of retail brands that are, frankly, a little under the weather.

China has given countries like Australia a lot to ponder with its latest monetary policy easing.

China's central bank has implemented yet another minor market rate cut that will have no significant impact on the economy's sluggish growth.

How very un-European! Italy’s UniCredit banking group has been stalking Germany’s second-largest bank, Commerzbank, and getting nowhere, with Germany Inc. starting to circle the wagons—led by the country’s biggest bank, Deutsche Bank.

A dirty finish for Wall Street on Friday saw a gain for the day for the Dow and a record, but small blobs of red ink for the S&P 500 and Nasdaq as more investors took a long look at the economy and the Fed’s rate cut, pondering whether there was a deeper message there.

Bad news about the health of the Chinese economy continues to rattle global car companies, especially Germany’s biggest—VW, BMW, and Mercedes.

So, how did the big week for central banks go? Well, China didn’t cut, Japan sat it out, but with a rate rise looming, the Bank of England was steady — leaving the Fed all alone with the most significant rate cut in four years.

Oil prices rebounded last week, not just because the Federal Reserve cut rates, but also due to a combination of a reduction in supply, a tropical storm along parts of the US Gulf Coast, and the rapid rise in tensions between Israel and Lebanon.

Another record for gold was set on Friday, with no sign of second thoughts about the benefits of the Fed’s significant rate cut among its supporters, unlike in equities, where some hesitation was observed.

The boosters got what they wanted from the Fed — a half a per cent rate cut straight up — and they could get another half a per cent by the end of 2024. However, this could turn out to be something the rate cut bulls didn’t want to see so quickly.

Global major Barrick Gold has revealed ambitious plans to boost gold output by 30% by the end of the decade, along with a significant (if belated) increase in its copper production.

Being the world’s largest and fastest-growing market, it's natural that the daily news flow from China dominates globally. However, the news that Mercedes has abandoned the Chinese EV market is significant.

Ahead of tomorrow’s rate cut from the US Federal Reserve, global investors are excited about the first reduction in four years.

It’s a small club, as the Financial Review pointed out yesterday: only 25 of the country’s top 300 companies have a female CEO.