THE NEWS WRAP: Gillard appeals to business over carbon tax

 The Federal Government has challenged businesses to back its efforts to reduce carbon emissions, singling out the Business Council of Australia in an attempt to gain the lobby group’s support for its carbon tax.

In a letter to the BCA, Prime Minister Julia Gillard asks whether the group still supports reducing Australia’s emissions by 5% below 2000 levels. The letter follows the BCA’s call for the carbon tax to fully offset the cost incurred by large polluters.

Start-ups driving global job market

The top 1% of start-up companies create 40% of the world’s jobs, according to a new report.

The research, conducted by the World Economic Forum, found that early-stage companies around the world were broadly similar. WEF urged governments to recreate the successes of top start-ups in order to boost the global economy. 

Local stocks hit by US credit downgrade

Australian stocks have been hit by Standard & Poor’s downgrade of the US’ credit outlook, with around $20 billion wiped off the value of shares by the close of business yesterday.

S&P’s negative forecast of the US’ credit rating, due to scepticism over efforts to reduce the country’s huge deficit, caused markets around the world to fall. In Australia, the All Ordinaries and ASX 200 indices both dropped by around 1.4 per cent to close at 4,874 and 4,793, respectively. https://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/04/19/3195917.htm

Overnight

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 65.39 points to 12,266.98. The Australian dollar was up to 105.26 US cents