Markets Live: Chinese data cheers 2:49pm: Gina Rinehart's joint venture mining company has appointed a former Rio Tinto Coal senior executive as its new chief executive. The India-Australia consortium GVK Hancock announced today that Darren Yeates, who had been Rio Tinto Coal's chief operating officer and acting chief executive, would take over from outgoing managing director Paul Mulder. Yeates, who had previously worked at Rio Tinto Iron Ore and Tarong Coal, said his immediate focus would be completing the Galilee Basin coal projects in Queensland. Coppo report no more... 2:32pm: Richard Coppleson, one of the country's best known institutional stockbrokers and publisher of the ubiquitous afternoon market report, will retire from Goldman Sachs at the end of the week, the AFR's StreetTalk column reports. Coppleson informed colleagues and clients of his pending retirement when he returned to work from holidays today. Goldman Sachs chief executive Simon Rothery and co-heads of equities Brendan Lyons and David Acton announced the move in an internal memo soon after. Coppleson leaves after 12 years on the firm's trading desk. He is best known in the market for producing an afternoon market report, which circulates through much of the institutional investment community soon after the stockmarket closes each afternoon. The veteran was inducted into the Australian Stockbrokers Foundation's hall of fame in 2011. 2:25pm: Another one on China, as we have been today following the release of December quarter economic data, here's a non-consensus view. Chinese GDP growth has slowed from 12 per cent a year to 7.5 per cent or so over the past three years, yet imports from Australia (primarily iron ore) have accelerated over the same timeframe, point out economists at TD Securities (see chart below). And when Australia's newly-expanded LNG capacity comes on stream, gas imports will be added to the mix. Subsequently, the analysts at TD Securities believe that China's slowing growth profile does not necessarily dampen demand for hard (and soft) commodities. Chinese imports from Australia have continued to rise even as China's economy has slowed. The table was put together by The Economist, based on the data in the study. 1:56pm: If you think your job is safe, think again. Advances in technology mean that even highly educated workers will begin to feel the pinch of the digital revolution, with close to half of US jobs at risk of "'computerisation'" on the next 20 years. Dr Frey and Dr Osborne also note the irony that algorithms, created by computer software designers, are putting IT workers out of work. 1:40pm: Meanwhile, gold is extending its (slow) recovery, hitting $US1259.96, its highest since November 20. The precious metal is up 4.75 per cent so far this year, easily outperforming most sharemarkets. "A lot of our clients are still holding onto gold as a risk-event hedge," says Danny Laidler, head of ETF Securities' Australia and New Zealand business. I think the worst of the outflows is behind us. We think there is a greater potential for modest gains (in gold prices) this year than for a downside risk. Prices were finding a floor near $US1200 as that was close to the cost of production, he added. 1:35pm: Staying in China, the Shanghai Composite has fallen below 2000 points for the first time since last July, but selling pressure seems to be limited. The market has been heading south since early December, falling from above 2200 points on fears of a credit crunch and amid worries of an economic slowdown. ""Investors" sentiment is cautious only toward China, while they are bullish on the US and European economies,"" says Alex Wong, a Hong Kong-based director of asset management at investment bank Ample Capital. ""The China data is slightly positive as a whole, because people were afraid a deeper slowdown would mean a hard landing. Anything below GDP growth of 7.5 per cent would have accelerated the bearish sentiment. 1:10pm: A question for our readers: what time should the Markets Live blog start each morning? Please take a moment to answer the poll. Right now, we're starting the blog at 9.30am, but in the past we've had a few readers asking us to start a bit earlier. Before we throw any of our scarce capacity at an earlier starting time, we'd like to make sure there's enough reader interest to justify hassling our bosses. Poll: What time should the Markets Live blog start? 9.30am is fine; gives me enough time ahead of the market's open. 9am would be better; I'd prefer more time for preparation (and comments) Even earlier than 9am (if possible) Don't care Total votes: 336. Gone: Henrique de Castro. 1:01pm: It's hard to shed too many tears for Henrique de Castro, who was fired last week as Yahoo's No.2 executive. All told, de Castro will walk away with at least $US88 million ($100 million) and as much as $US109 million for his 15 months of work, according to an analysis of his pay by the compensation research firm Equilar. The exact amount depends on whether he receives his full performance award for 2013 and assumes that he wasn't fired for cause or lying on his resume. Even by Silicon Valley standards, his pay was stratospheric. In fact, in 2012, he was the eighth-highest-paid executive in the region, making more money than his boss, Marissa Mayer, according to Equilar. Which raises a question: what were Yahoo's board members thinking when they agreed to hire him in October 2012? 12:23pm: Shell's Arrow Energy coal seam gas venture in Queensland is set to cut potentially hundreds of jobs as speculation mounts that the proposed LNG project will be a casualty of reined-in spending by the oil major. One source told the AFR up to 600 jobs would go, representing half of the workforce. Arrow today confirmed it has carried out "a review of staffing levels as it manages costs." The statement comes amid media reports that managers in Arrow are travelling to regional centres in Moranbah and Dalby to kick off the job reductions. 12:04pm: Nintendo is under pressure to exit the game consoles business after reporting disappointing sales of its Wii U unit, as a shift in demand by casual players slices into profit. Nintendo fell 15 per cent to 12,445 yen, the biggest intraday plunge since 2011, at 9.34 am in Tokyo trading. On January 17 Nintendo forecast a surprise operating loss for the year ending in March, and cut its forecast for annual sales of the year-old Wii U by more than two-thirds. President Satoru Iwata should concede defeat with the Wii U, shut down production and open up Nintendo's iconic software characters such as Zelda and Super Mario to the smartphones, tablets and consoles that have made a shambles of his strategy, said Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles. Nintendo should exit hardware altogether, Pachter said 11:47am: Broker CLSA is painting 2014 as a "rebound" year for Westfield Group, which is facing gathering opposition to the proposed split of its international and Australasian businesses. After a disappointing 2013 - both Westfield Group and its satellite vehicle, Westfield Retail Trust (WRT), underperformed the broader index by a wide margin - CLSA anticipates growth will improve over the next 12 months because of asset sales and a more buoyant retail sector. However the broker's listed real estate analysts claimed the shopping mall behemoth "may have to sweeten" the terms of its break-up. Under the deal, Westfield's Australian and New Zealand businesses and properties will be merged with WRT, creating a new vehicle, called Scentre. However, a number of shareholders are marshalling to oppose the move, arguing the cost of the tie-up is excessive. CLSA has upgraded WRT to a "buy" with a $3.52 price target, equating to a 22 per cent rise in the stock. This figure does not take into account an improved offer to for the Scentre deal. 11:46am: JPMorgan has sounded another warning on Australia's beleaguered flag carrier, Qantas, arguing the airline will continue to rack up losses until 2016. In a research note issued this morning, the US investment bank has reiterated its "underweight" ranking on the company and cast doubt on the impact of potential debt reduction strategies such as the easing of government ownership restrictions. According to the analysts, the constant drive by Virgin to expand its domestic market share leaves Qantas's core profit centres under attack. The bank predicts the airline will report an underlying pre-tax loss forecast at $289 million on February 27, which equates to the higher end of management's $250 million-$300 million guidance. The analysts argued that even if the government eased the restrictions or even guaranteed new debt, such measures would make little inroad into the company's "current difficult operating environment." She also argued that selling a minority stake in Qantas's lucrative frequent-flyer programme may be earnings dilutive and said selling its domestic terminals would be preferable and could potentially rake in $1 billion. 11:31am: The Australian economy is set to be much tougher in the coming year or two than it has been in recent years, writes HSBC Australia chief economist Paul Bloxham in the AFR, one of the more bullish local economists. First, the booming mining sector, which had been a key driver of Australia's growth, is set to slow significantly this year. Investment in the sector is expected to fall, as fewer new projects get started and some of the larger ones are completed. Second, while we expect global growth to accelerate this year, it might be less helpful for Australia than previous global upswings. This is because the lift in global growth is expected to come from the advanced economies led by the United States, and we think this is unlikely to translate into a significant recovery in growth in Asia. Nonetheless, with local policy settings already loose, we expect Australia to post solid, but not stellar, growth in 2014. We see further modest downside risk to the Australian dollar and also expect growth to recover enough, and the currency to remain low enough, to obviate the need for the RBA to cut rates further. Our main case is that the central bank may need to lift rates before the end of the year. The key challenges are for the new government. Australia's reform agenda has been stymied in recent years and productivity growth has slowed. A misstep with fiscal policy is a key risk to this year's growth outlook. 11:23am: Smaller lenders are making an aggressive push into the market for fixed-rate home loans, with new figures showing non-major banks pinched a significant number of new customers from the big four last year. Figures from mortgage broker AFG today show smaller lenders" share of new fixed-rate loans surged over 2013, from 13.6 per cent in February to 38.2 per cent in December. 10:57am: The key local economic data out this week will be the fourth-quarter inflation figures published on Wednesday. Economists are expecting the CPI measure to rise by 0.4 per cent in the three months to December after a 1.2 per cent rise in the third quarter. Year-on-year consumer prices are forecast to lift by 2.4 per cent in 2013, up from 2.2 per cent in the previous corresponding period - well within the RBA's inflation target. As we noted earlier, the TD Securities-Melbourne Institute inflation gauge, which was released earlier today, points to a slightly higher inflation result than is currently tipped. But Barclays chief economist Kieran Davies said it was also important to note that the gauge relationship with the official data has become much looser over recent years. "For [the fourth quarter], the mid-month version of the gauge points to a 0.5 per cent rise in the CPI (in the third-quarter, it pointed to a 0.6 per cent increase, while the CPI rose by 1.2 per cent)," Davies says in a note. Investors continue to pull money out of bonds funds and into equity funds 10:48am: Investors globally continue to pull billions of dollars out of bond funds and plough the cash in equity funds. Dubbed "the great rotation," this move from fixed interest into shares began in the middle of last year, coinciding with the announcement that the US Fed's Ben Bernanke's announcement that a reduction in the central bank's quantitative easing program - the so-called "taper" - was on the cards. It has since accelerated. As QE scales back, long rates rise, and bond prices fall, hurting bond fund returns. Investors have responded by swapping fixed interest for equities. Meanwhile, reports Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, there have been 12 straight weeks of emerging market equity redemptions, which is equal to the longest outflow streak in 11 years. 10:21am: Leading economist Saul Eslake has issued a damning assessment of Australian housing policy of the past 20 years, saying government self interest has led to the worst affordability problem since the end of World War II. In a personal submission to a senate inquiry into affordable housing entitled "50 years of failure," Mr Eslake, who is also Bank of America Merrill Lynch chief economist, said that housing stock had grown at a slower rate than the population in the past 10 years, for the first time since the early 1950s. This was despite mortgage interest rates having been substantially lower. The overall home ownership rate fell by 5 percentage points to 67 per cent at the 2011 census, its lowest figure since the 1954 census. "Politics - more than any other single factor - means that Australians are likely to have to live with a dysfunctional housing system for a long time yet to come," Mr Eslake said. Government policies including cash assistance to first-time home buyers and negative gearing had only served to inflate the demand for housing whilst doing next to nothing to increase the supply and therefore made affordability worse, he said.