澳洲新闻 (ABC新闻快递) 2012-04-04
时间：2018-12-11 作者：英语课 分类：澳洲ABC新闻快递2012年
英语课
To finance news.
And the former finance minister, Lindsay Tanner, says trying to raise debt is a growing challenge for Australia's mid-sized companies. Mr. Tanner says the weakness of the corporate 1 bond market is a major constraint 2 for companies with the market capitalization of between one and two billion dollars. He says big companies like BHP Billiton and Telstra can easily go offshore 3 to borrow money.
At the moment, very low interest rates in international markets skew the balance in favor of placing your debt offshore. If you are big enough and serious enough to be able to do that, even though of course there is currency risk involved, but the critical fact underneath 4 all these issues that if there is not much for market domestically, particularly not much of a retail 5 market either, well then you do have a significant worry and you're gonna be up for pretty hefty investment bank fees to underwrite your issue. So there is a quite complicated problem with a number of different factors here.
Lindsay Tanner there. Let's go to the markets. And the Dow Jones has closed 64 points lower overnight. The NASDAQ ended six points down. The S&P 500 fell eight and across in London, the FTSE shed 36 points. Checking commodity prices. West Texas crude is trading at $104 a barrel. Tapis crude is at $132 a barrel. And Gold this morning is at $1644 an ounce. The Australian dollar is buying 103 US cents, 78 euro cents and 64 pence sterling 6.
1 corporate
adj.共同的，全体的；公司的，企业的
- This is our corporate responsibility.这是我们共同的责任。
- His corporate's life will be as short as a rabbit's tail.他的公司的寿命是兔子尾巴长不了。
2 constraint
n.(on)约束，限制；限制(或约束)性的事物
- The boy felt constraint in her presence.那男孩在她面前感到局促不安。
- The lack of capital is major constraint on activities in the informal sector.资本短缺也是影响非正规部门生产经营的一个重要制约因素。
3 offshore
adj.海面的，吹向海面的；adv.向海面
- A big program of oil exploration has begun offshore.一个大规模的石油勘探计划正在近海展开。
- A gentle current carried them slowly offshore.和缓的潮流慢慢地把他们带离了海岸。
4 underneath
adj.在...下面，在...底下；adv.在下面
- Working underneath the car is always a messy job.在汽车底下工作是件脏活。
- She wore a coat with a dress underneath.她穿着一件大衣，里面套着一条连衣裙。