澳洲新闻 (ABC新闻快递) 2016-03-16

 

Good morning, everyone. Australia's consumer confidence has risen to its highest level in 14 years, driven mainly by a stronger Australian dollar and falling fuel prices. The ANZ-Roy Morgan Australian Consumer Confidence Index rose to 116.4 this week. Confidence levels are now back to the highest we saw in December. With the negative impact from financial market volatility¹ in January now fully² reversed. Experts says the jump in confidence was driven by consumers view of their personal finances, which rose to their highest level since October 2009.

ANZ Bank has agreed to an indepedent review of its insurance and superannuation arm OnePath after a series of breaches³ affecting 1.3 million customers. The Australian Securities and Investment Commission said the breaches, which ANZ itself reported total  53.5 million dollars and occurred between early 2013 and mid⁴ 2015. Breaches include failures to provide disclosured documents for some insurance products, processing errors and inadequate⁵ systems for processes.

Let's go to global markets. Shares on Wall Street has ended dim mixed, with investors⁶ still waiting on that decision from the US Federal Reserve which is due out tomorrow. At the close, the Dow rose 0.1%. The Nasdaq fell 0.5%, while the S&P 500 was down 0.2%. In London, the FTSE fell 0.6%. Checking commodity prices, WTC is at 36 US dollars a barrel. Tapis Crude is at 40 US dollars a barrel. And gold is trading at 1233 US dollars an ounce. The Australian dollars is currently buying 75 US cents, 67 US cents, and 53 Pence Sterling⁷.

1 volatility   

n.挥发性，挥发度，轻快，（性格）反复无常

参考例句：

• That was one reason why volatility was so low last year.这也是去年波动性如此低的原因之一。
• Yet because volatility remained low for so long,disaster myopia prevailed.然而，由于相当长的时间里波动性小，灾难短视就获胜了。

2 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

3 breaches   

破坏( breach的名词复数 )； 破裂； 缺口； 违背

参考例句：

• He imposed heavy penalties for breaches of oath or pledges. 他对违反誓言和保证的行为给予严厉的惩罚。
• This renders all breaches of morality before marriage very uncommon. 这样一来，婚前败坏道德的事就少见了。

4 mid   

adj.中央的，中间的

参考例句：

• Our mid-term exam is pending.我们就要期中考试了。
• He switched over to teaching in mid-career.他在而立之年转入教学工作。

5 inadequate   

adj.(for,to)不充足的，不适当的

参考例句：

• The supply is inadequate to meet the demand.供不应求。
• She was inadequate to the demands that were made on her.她还无力满足对她提出的各项要求。

6 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会

7 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。