BUSINESS

In US economic data existing home sales rose for the third consecutive month in June, up 2.6% to an annual rate of 5.04 million - an eight month high. The Consumer Price Index rose 0.3% in June to be up 2.1% over the year. Gasoline accounted for two-thirds of the gain lifting by 3.3% in June. Stripping out food & energy prices, core CPI rose by a tame 0.1% in June to be up 1.9% on year ago.

Following the success of the Abbott government to repeal the carbon tax law, BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP) is challenging the Coalition to also repeal another tax initiated by the past Labor government under former Prime Minister Julia Gillard - the mining tax.

Paula Bennett, the Local Government minister in New Zealand has called for innovative steps to ensure public participation in undoing archaic rules and regulations, reports NZ Herald. The reformist minister hit out at the hard rules choking citizens even in silly matters like signage for cake stalls or position of shower curtains.

The largest snack food company in New Zealand is sold to the Philippines' Universal Robina Corporation (URC) for NZ$700 million or US$609 million. Griffins, owned by Pacific Equity Partners which is a private equity fund manager in Australia, will be paid NZ$100 immediately.

It was another very quiet day on the Aussie market with total market turnover only at 2Billion shares well down own the daily average. Investors nervous about entering the market at present and larger investors sitting the day out from trading ahead of tomorrow´s June quarter inflation numbers (CPI).

Fairfax Media Chief Executive Greg Hywood reaffirmed the company's commitment to radio amid talks it is discussing a merger with Macquarie Radio Network. He said at a Melbourne Press Club event that the 180-year-old newspaper company is thriving, while adjusting to new commercial reality and creating new revenues.

McDonald’s and KFC workers allegedly kept food on the floor before serving their customers. They have also been accused of mixing fresh meat with “expired” meat.

Health Canada has ordered processors and sellers of mechanically tenderized beef meat to label their packages effective August 21.

Foxconn and Pegatron Corp, the manufacturing partners of Apple Inc, will start mass production of 4.7 inches iPhone 6 on the third week of July and 5.5 inches iPhone 6 on the second week of August

Usually a 2 points gain at the start of trade would not be seen as a strong start but since the SPI futures had our market set for a decline and we had weakness in overseas market this was a good start. But the joy was short lived with the market moving into the red within 30 minutes of trade.

Only Shanghai gained 0.17 per cent or 3.48 points to 2,059.07 over the weekend at the close of bourses in the Asian market, while most of the major stock exchange in the region logged losses after the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was hit by a missile and crashed on Thursday.

Mourning families and loved ones of the 298 lives that perished from the downed Malaysia Airlines MH17 may have to condition themselves to further bear the painful accident. Investigators looking into the aviation accident said the probe could stretch into a year.

The black boxes or flight recorders of downed Malaysia Airlines MH17, an essential electronic recording device placed in an aircraft that would greatly facilitate investigations in the event of an aviation accident or incident, are finally in the hands of Malaysian authorities.

Global macro concerns outweighed further bottom-up strength from US earnings overnight, as the Gaza-Israel conflict raged on and the squeeze on Russia politically saw its index take a further pounding.

European shares eased on Monday with investors concerned about ongoing tensions between Russia and western nations. Fresh violence has flared up in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. The FTSEurofirst 300 index fell by 0.5% with the German Dax down by 1.1% while the UK FTSE lost 0.3%. Australia´s major miners were mixed in London trade with shares in BHP Billiton up by 0.1% while Rio Tinto lost 0.2%.

Almost $1.5 million would be deducted from Malaysian Airlines shaky finances as the embattled air carrier announced on Monday that it would grant $5,000 assistance to each of the families of the 298 victims of MH 17

The Australia stock market finished the day higher as the ASX 200 added 8 points, while the broader All Ordinaries index was up 9.2 points. The volume was very light today and the public holiday in Japan also impacted international trading volumes.

On Friday night the fear and volatility index (the VIX) fell 17% from its highs on Thursday as the concern over Geopolitical risk started to reduce around the downed Malaysian Airlines flight 17 and the news Israel had sent ground troops into Gaza. On Friday US markets rebounded and finished higher the Dow Jones up 123 points and the NASDAQ up 69 points.

At least 18 people have died after typhoon Rammasun struck Hainan island off China's southern coast on Friday.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's world seems to be getting smaller as global leaders gang up on him to owe up to the tragedy that befell Malaysia Airlines flight MH17. Either that, or Russia may end up losing contact with its G20 comrades as well as possibly having its assets frozen in London.

As if their sudden death wasn't bad enough, the bodies of passengers aboard doomed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 were stolen by pro-Russian rebels to be brought to an undisclosed location. And if that wasn't ruthless enough, rebels have also been reportedly stealing possessions from the dead. It was more than a double whammy the bereaved families of the victims can take from the senseless killing.

US corporate earnings saw the US market finishing the week in the green and this trend looks to be continuing as several majors saw substantial improvement in the actuals.

In US economic data the leading index rose by 0.3% in June, short of the 0.5% forecast gain. The consumer sentiment index eased from 82.5 to 81.3 in July, short of the 83.0 forecast result.

The two houses of Australia's Parliament have passed on Friday legislation that would ease foreign ownership restrictions on flag carrier Qantas. However, the airline would still remain 51 per cent or majority owned by Australia.

After a trying and emotional night in the US on the back of the crash of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 and escalated international tensions in the Middle East, Malaysia Airlines is currently down 11% as investors come to grips with the news. Malaysia Airlines is majority owned by the Malaysian government holding company Khazanah Nasional Bhd. who told the market in the early session that MH17 B777-200 had a ´clean maintenance record´. Concerns about the ramifications of the incident sent the VIX...

Could the disaster that fell upon Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 trigger a major global war after dozens of innocent lives, who definitely had nothing to do with the tensions ongoing between Ukraine and Russia, were lost?

Even before Malaysian Airlines Flight 370 disappeared mysteriously on March 8, 2014, the embattled air carrier was already struggling financially. The incident worsened the airline's financial standing as passengers, scared by what happened, cancelled bookings, while the company had to shoulder a lot of extra expenses related to the search and tending to the needs of the relatives of the 239 people aboard the ill-fated plane.

Despite being sold off this morning for the first time since Wednesday last week, local shares have crept into positive territory. The crash of yet another Malaysian passenger plane has kept global markets on edge, pushing the price of gold and oil higher, while the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up by 0.1 per cent.

Line App - a leading messaging app filed for an Initial Public Offering two weeks ago in Tokyo Stock Exchange and valued at $9.85 billion.