A pay rise for thousands of miners is in the sights of the prime minister, as unions urge heavyweights in the sector not to advocate the rolling back of workplace reforms.
Wall Street stocks closed lower on Wednesday (Thursday morning WST), as climbing treasury yields pressured mega-cap stocks and investors grew less confident about strong rate cuts from the federal reserve.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq gained ground to end a choppy session up in the US, as Treasury yields retreated and investors awaited more earnings to assess the health of American companies.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 closed lower on Monday (Tuesday morning WST), retreating from Friday's record high closes and six straight weekly gains.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq ended higher on Friday (Saturday morning WST), boosted by an earnings-driven jump in Netflix shares and broader gains across technology stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose on Wednesday (Thursday morning WST) as Wall Street's three benchmark indexes ended higher, weathering declines in mega-cap tech shares.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq have edged higher while the Dow dropped, with the benchmark index hovering near record highs as investors parsed a mixed set of quarterly results from companies such as UnitedHealth and Bank of America.
The ASX200 gained 0.5 per cent thanks in part to the big banks and mining giants, but WEB Travel Group plunged by more than a third after downgrading guidance.