澳洲新闻 (ABC新闻快递) 2013-08-07

 Let's go to finance now. And well, mortgage holders¹ are welcoming yesterday's interest rate cut. It is unlikely to do much to improve business confidence.

 

Economist² Salon³ Lobster⁴ says all the data shows the economy is soft and he reckons the government needs to do more to encourage business to invest.

 

“I think basically what you've got to do is you've got to try to give some confidence to business, because business is not confident. And when they are not confident they won't invest, etc. Um, I think you've also got to try to help structure policy, trying make things easier to do things. At the end of the day, ah, all those know political sides gonna agree with me. I think you need to use fiscal⁵ policy. Because at present, people are nervous. They're not prepared to borrow and so, cutting the costs of the borrowing to business doesn't mean you can go out and give up.”

 

Let's go to the markets.

 

And the Dow and the S&P 500 were down around half a percent overnight. The Nasdaq lost ground, too. In London, the FTSE fell slightly. 

 

To commodity markets. 

 

West Texas Crude is trading at 105 US dollars a barrel. Tapis Crude is 115 US dollars a barrel. And gold is at 1283 US dollars an ounce.

 

The Aussie dollar's buying 89 US cents, 67 Euro cents and 59 pence sterling⁶.

1 holders   

支持物( holder的名词复数 )； 持有者； （支票等）持有人； 支托（或握持）…之物

参考例句：

• Slaves were mercilessly ground down by slave holders. 奴隶受奴隶主的残酷压迫。
• It is recognition of compassion's part that leads the up-holders of capital punishment to accuse the abolitionists of sentimentality in being more sorry for the murderer than for his victim. 正是对怜悯的作用有了认识，才使得死刑的提倡者指控主张废除死刑的人感情用事，同情谋杀犯胜过同情受害者。

2 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

3 salon   

n.[法]沙龙；客厅；营业性的高级服务室

参考例句：

• Do you go to the hairdresser or beauty salon more than twice a week?你每周去美容院或美容沙龙多过两次吗？
• You can hear a lot of dirt at a salon.你在沙龙上会听到很多流言蜚语。

4 lobster   

n.龙虾，龙虾肉

参考例句：

• The lobster is a shellfish.龙虾是水生贝壳动物。
• I like lobster but it does not like me.我喜欢吃龙虾，但它不适宜于我的健康。

5 fiscal   

adj.财政的，会计的，国库的，国库岁入的

参考例句：

• The increase of taxation is an important fiscal policy.增税是一项重要的财政政策。
• The government has two basic strategies of fiscal policy available.政府有两个可行的财政政策基本战略。

6 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。