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Through the dark days of the financial crisis, and the grey days of the halting recovery that have followed, investors have always been able to count on backing from two sources - Ben Bernanke and Beijing. They have provided stimulus, mainly by pumping funds into the U.S. and Chinese economies in various ways, when other pillars of support had become unreliable.   That helps to explain why global financial markets took such a beating last week when both signaled that they are getting tired of being leant on so heavily. Bernanke, the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, set a timetable at last week's Fed meeting for the central bank to reduce the size of its bond buying program with a view to ending it by the middle of next year. Meanwhile, his counterparts at the People's Bank of China (PBOC) engineered a cash crunch as a warning to overextended banks - and this from a central bank that has previously always provided liquidity when cash conditions tightened. A lot will

Rio Tinto Ltd ( id="symbol_RIO.AX_0"> RIO.AX ) has scrapped the proposed sale of its $1.3 billion diamonds business, a setback for its plan to sell a swag of mines and company stakes to tighten operations during a global industry downturn. The world no.3 miner has at least half a dozen assets on the block, aiming to pare $19 billion in net debt, cut costs and boost returns to shareholders, but buyers are unwilling to pay up in face of volatile commodity prices and rising debt costs.   "In resource land it's just a little bit tough at the moment," said Paul Xiradis, chief executive of Ausbil Dexia, which owns Rio Tinto shares. "The market would have preferred for Rio to sell (diamonds)....But if you're not going to achieve the right price, there's no point in cutting off your nose to spite your face just to achieve an end." Rio is not alone in struggling to sell assets. Barrick Gold ( id="symbol_ABX.TO_1"> ABX.TO ) was unab

In a country synonymous with larger-than-life mining tycoons and Outback heroes, the geeks are quietly inheriting the earth. As coal magnate Nathan Tinkler, the poster boy for Australia's fading 10-year minerals boom, publicly battles against bankruptcy, software entrepreneurs Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar are riding high. The former college buddies behind fast-growing software firm Atlassian unceremoniously bumped Tinkler off the top of Australia's "young rich list", leading a charge in the country's blooming technology industries.   The tech start-up and biotech sectors are at the forefront of a push to transform Australia from an exporter of iron ore to an exporter of ideas. "It's a pretty primitive economy," said internet entrepreneur Matt Barrie. "We basically dig stuff up out of the ground, put it on a boat and ship it." As part of ambitious plans to change that, the government has announced millions of dollars in new

Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold Inc ( id="symbol_FCX.N_0"> FCX.N ) was ramping up production at its Indonesian unit on Monday, a company spokeswoman said, six weeks after a deadly tunnel collapse at the world's No.2 copper mine halted operations. Trade union workers at the Grasberg mine in remote West Papua were also returning to production work, while postponed pay talks with the Arizona-based firm have been resumed, a union official added. Freeport Indonesia employs about 24,000 workers, of which three-quarters belong to the union. Freeport stopped production at Grasberg on May 15, a day after a training area in a tunnel caved in, killing 28 people. Planned pay talks were also put on hold last month. On Saturday, the company said it had slowly resumed open-pit mining after receiving approval from the Indonesian government, although underground production remained closed.   "We herewith confirm that we have started to ramp up production since Saturday,&qu

China's cash crunch eased further on Monday after the central bank moved to prevent the money market from seizing up, but bank stocks tanked as the authorities made clear that the days of unlimited cheap official funds are over. Chinese shares suffered their biggest daily loss in nearly four years, with financial stocks dropping more than 7 percent after the People's Bank of China (PBOC) said banks needed to do a better job of managing their cash and lending.   Money market rates had soared last week when the central bank, relied on as a source of cheap cash used to finance China's vast "shadow banking" system, stood pat, letting a sharp drop in fund inflows into China and cash hoarding by some banks do the rest. The sudden tightening of cash markets, which saw some banks paying a 25 percent interest rate for cash, fanned fears that Beijing's latest attempt to steer the world's second-biggest economy to more balanced growth less reliant on credit-dr

The U.S. central bank's plans to scale back its stimulus and fears Chinese policy may be tightening sent the dollar sharply higher on Monday, while world shares extended last week's dismal performance. The sell-off in stocks, bonds and commodities since the Federal Reserve signaled an end to the era of cheap money that has fuelled record rises in asset prices is seen having further to run. "The prospect for a disorderly transition is there," said Josh Raymond, market strategist for City Index. Fears of further market turmoil have been exacerbated by worries over China's growth outlook and the health of its banks after the country's central bank said liquidity in its financial system is "reasonable", despite high short term rates. Amid the selling, yields on 10-year U.S. Treasury notes, a benchmark for global rates, hit a two-year high of 2.57 percent on Monday, supporting the dollar which added 0.4 percent against a basket major currencies to

Japan's Suntory Beverage and Food Ltd will raise 388 billion yen ($4 billion) after it set its IPO price near the bottom of its marketing range, hurt by concerns about its valuation and weak appetite amid market volatility. The food and soft drinks unit of Suntory Holdings Ltd set the price of its initial public offering at 3,100 yen per share, compared with its 3,000-3,800 yen indicative range, it said in a regulatory filing on Monday.   The maker of Boss canned coffee had been seeking as much as 470 billion yen in Asia's biggest IPO so far this year, to bolster its war chest for acquisitions in emerging markets like Southeast Asia and boost its competitiveness against rivals like Kirin Holdings Co Ltd ( id="symbol_2503.T_0"> 2503.T ). "It's obviously a sign that the stock is not popular among institutional investors," said a hedge fund manager based in Singapore, who was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly. "Given its valuation