澳洲新闻 (ABC新闻快递) 2010-10-02

The local share market reversed early gains to close flat today after being dragged lower by financial stocks. The All Ordinaries Index closed down just two points and the ASX 200 lost four. The big four banks all finished lower. Westpac lost almost 2 per cent, but Telstra put on almost 1 per cent. Elsewhere in the region, Japan's Nikkei closed about a third of a percent higher.

Checking commodities and gold is lower 1,309 US dollars an ounce, but oil is on the rise. And the Australian dollar is buying just over 96.5 US cents, and many investors¹ actually expect it to rise past parity² with the greenback.

And the recent surge in the Australian dollar has led to a fall in manufacturing for the first time this year. The Australian Industry Group's Performance of Manufacturing Index fell almost 4.5 points in September to 47.3. And that's the first time it's fallen below the critical 50-point level in 2010, and it indicates a contraction³ in activity. 

Meanwhile, borrowers are being warned to brace⁴ for the banks to lift their interest rates by more than any official increase. The Reserve Bank is broadly expected to lift rates by a quarter of a percentage point when it meets on Tuesday. But the banks may put up their rates by more than that. They've complained that the higher cost of funding their loan is squeezing their profit margins⁵.

1 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

2 parity   

n.平价，等价，比价，对等

参考例句：

• The two currencies have now reached parity.这两种货币现已达到同等价值。
• Women have yet to achieve wage or occupational parity in many fields.女性在很多领域还没能争取到薪金、职位方面的平等。

3 contraction   

n.缩略词，缩写式，害病

参考例句：

• The contraction of this muscle raises the lower arm.肌肉的收缩使前臂抬起。
• The forces of expansion are balanced by forces of contraction.扩张力和收缩力相互平衡。

4 brace   

n. 支柱,曲柄,大括号; v. 绷紧,顶住,(为困难或坏事)做准备

参考例句：

• My daughter has to wear a brace on her teeth. 我的女儿得戴牙套以矫正牙齿。
• You had better brace yourself for some bad news. 有些坏消息,你最好做好准备。

5 margins   

边( margin的名词复数 )； 利润； 页边空白； 差数

参考例句：

• They have always had to make do with relatively small profit margins. 他们不得不经常设法应付较少的利润额。
• To create more space between the navigation items, add left and right margins to the links. 在每个项目间留更多的空隙，加左或者右的margins来定义链接。