Australia

For the second day in a row, most Asian markets - at least the ones that are open - were dragged lower by tech stocks and Apple suppliers, with the MSCI Asia Pacific Index down 0.2% led by Samsung Electronics and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing in response to the previously noted report that Apple will slash Q1 sales forecasts for iPhone X sales by 40% from 50 million to 30 million. Most Asian equity benchmarks fell except those in China. European stocks were mixed in a quiet session while U.S.

A 32 year old Australian citizen of Afghan descent with a history of drug problems has been arrested in Melbourne, Australia after a white Suzuki SUV was driven into a crowd of downtown Christmas shoppers at around 4:40pm. Fourteen people were injured, some critically. "There was no attempt to brake, no attempt to swerve" said witness Jim Stoupas. The BBC reports one victim was a child of preschool-age with head injuries who was taken to Royal Children's hospital in serious condition. 

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Oriental Review,

Australia is implementing its own “foreign agents” legislation modelled off of the US’.

The government recently announced that foreign lobbyists must register with the authorities and that political parties will be banned from accepting foreign donations.

The move to stop foreign funding is clear-cut and understandable, though there’s a lot of vagueness and prevailing uncertainty over what criteria will be used to designate someone as a “foreign agent”.

We keep returning to the subject of Australia and the growing signs that its bubble economy is bursting. Earlier this month, we discussed how the world’s longest-running bull market – 55 years – in Australian house prices appears to have come to an end. We followed this up with “Why Australia’s Economy Is A House Of Cards” in which Matt Barrie and Craig Tindale described how Australia’s three decades long economic expansion had mostly been the result of “dumb luck”.

It was only twenty years ago that the last Australian state, Tasmania, decriminalised male homosexuality. Whether one is in favour or not, Australia had a lot of catching up to do with other western nations.