BUSINESS

Local stocks are managing to partly make up for yesterday's 1.5 per cent slump; the single worst day for Australian equities in four months. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is back above the 5250.0 market, following hitting four week low on Tuesday; now improving by 0.7 per cent.

Good news to those seeking jobs in the Canadian airline industry. Air Canada Rouge is on the lookout for additional flight attendants in 2014 to service its growing fleet as it expands its service to include Calgary and Vancouver this spring.

Apple Inc has announced its back to school deals in New Zealand and Australia with free gift cards for education customers who will be buying a new iPhone, iPad or a new Mac. The free gift cards can be used in Apple's digital content stores like the App Store, iBookstore, iTunes Store and the Mac App Store.

They were the very first who responded to the call for help when the Fukushima nuclear power plant got hit by a massive tsunami on March 2011. But never did the sailors aboard USS Ronald Reagan thought that they too would become victims of the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl.

Apple Inc's iPhones may be behind Google's Android in terms of mobile phone market share, but an Actix report has shown that the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 are the most used phones in Europe and North America in 2013.

The negative sentiment that has dogged markets finally came to a halt in US trade after December retail sales data came in better than expected. Earnings also got off to a fairly good start with gains for JP Morgan and Wells Fargo. This raised expectations heading into the Bank of America earnings, which carry significant weight given the bank's large retail offering and mortgage exposure. With tapering likely to roll on, investors really want to see data suggesting the US economy is in a muc...

In US economic news, US retail sales rose by a modest 0.2% in December, marginally stronger than the 0.1% forecast. More importantly core sales (excluding autos, gasoline and building materials) rose by a healthy 0.7% in December. Clothing sales lifted by 1.8%, supported by the colder weather, while gasoline sales rose by 1.6% and auto sales fell by 1.8%.

Young men in Alberta lost their interest in studying when the province's oil sands sectors offered them jobs whose average hourly wage increase of 21 per cent was significantly higher than the 4 per cent salary hike granted to workers in other Canadian provinces.

David Jones on Queen Street would have a new tenant in February with the opening of American menswear retailer Brooks Brothers of a boutique store in Brisbane.

The Australian sharemarket recorded its biggest daily fall in four months, with the All Ordinaries slumping by 1.5 per cent and ending very close to a four week low. Local shares are down 2.5 per cent since the start of January; making it the worst start to a new year since 2010. Today's weakness was largely expected though, with the DOW index slumping by 1.1 per cent overnight. The falls were partly due to comments by a U.S. central bank official who said the Federal Reserve will continue to...

Sellers have been mobilised from the outset in today's session and have encountered little resistance from buyers along the way in early trade. The fall on Wall Street overnight has been too difficult to look through for local investors. The US Fed will be undeterred in relation to tapering despite the weak reading for US jobs growth according to comments made by the President of the Atlanta Fed overnight.

Canada on Tuesday has launched the auction of several blocks of 700 megahertz (MHz) wireless spectrum to telecoms companies operating in Canada, where large players are expected to participate. At least one however has backed out due to lack of funding.

Air New Zealand, one of the world's safest airlines, was hailed the Airline of the Year by AirlineRatings.com. The popular travel international site has chosen Air New Zealand for its strong financial performance, customer service, operational safety and in-flight innovations. The travel site praised New Zealand's carrier for its commitment to its fleet and environmental awareness. Air New Zealand earned the distinction of being the best premium economy class.

The New Zealand city Christchurch was named by the New York Times on Monday as the second best city in the world. The influential daily came up with the list of 52 places to visit in 2014.

A radioactive drug against prostate cancer has been launched in the UK. Marketed as Xofigo, it contains polonium-210, the very same substance that killed Alexander Litvinenko, former KGB agent and Kremlin critic, in 2006 in London.

Having seen a 30% rise in the S&P in 2013, investors are starting to ask the question that strategists and analysts have been asking since October: has the optimism that drove 2013 translated into earnings?

European shares climbed to a fresh 5½-year high on Monday, supported by a rally in banking stocks, after regulators agreed to soften new leverage ratios for banks. On Sunday global banking regulators said they would modify the way the new bank rule, which is meant to rein in risky balance sheets from 2018 is compiled. Deutsche Bank climbed 4.7%, Barclays added 2.9% and UBS rose 3.1%. The STOXX banking index rose 1.5% (up 6% so far this year). The FTSEurofirst 300 index rose by 0.3% with the UK F...

Canadian singer Neil Young spoke against the country's oil sands on Sunday at a news conference in Toronto before the kicked off for the first of four concerts on his Honor the Treaties tour.

Australia may be shutting tighter its door to economic asylum seekers, but the country should open its door wider to skilled migrant workers for it to improve the national economy.

The nightmare that happened to New Zealand's largest company, Fonterra, in mid-2013 is recurring again on the first month of 2014. The dairy firm recalled on Monday 8,700 bottles of fresh cream sold under the Anchor brand over fears of E. Coli bacteria contamination.

Apple Inc. has launched a new ad featuring the iPad Air during the NFL playoff game between the Carolina Panthers and the San Francisco 49ers on Jan.12. The ad showcased creativity, a feature that Apple has always wanted its products to be known for.

The New Zealand dollar is on its way to surpassing the Australian dollar for the first time in forty years, according to HSBC Bank Australia.. New Zealand's economic boom could drive the currency to new heights. HSBC considers the rebuilding of earthquake-damaged Christchurch as one of the driving forces

The local market worsened its position from lunch through to the close of trade, with the All Ords Index sliding by a little over 0.3 per cent. At its worst, the index was down 0.41 per cent and edged higher by 0.09 per cent at its best.

Amid cost-cutting measures, Canada has closed seven of its 11 Department of Fisheries and Oceans libraries across the country. Around 1,000 scientists lost their jobs in the process. But what's saddening were the books which observers claimed never got digitized. They believed the books have been all together damaged and burned.

The 2014 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has just ended last Friday, Jan. 10, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada, but a lot of people are still buzzing about it, especially the newest technologies that were introduced during the convention. One of the amazing and practical technologies unveiled in the CES 2014 are smart locks which combine smartphones and house keys into one gadget to allow consumers to not just use their smartphones to call or send and receive messages, but also to unlock their doors an...

Fish caught in waters near the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant have been detected 124 times highly radioactive than the accepted limit, a report by the Asahi Shimbun said.

Residents at Northern Territory have been advised to prepare necessary precautions as a cyclone could potentially ram into the region on Wednesday.

The Australian sharemarket is in the red for the sixth time in seven trading days following disappointing U.S. jobs growth. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is 0.1 per cent lower, with the mining sector the lone improver at lunch.

The non-farms payroll print from Friday night showed than nothing in the market is linear.