BUSINESS

A question asked in 2012 is being raised again this time by Harry Dent, a book author, economist and demographer raised the spectre of a property slump in Australia in the next few years. He warned that property prices could go down as low as 50% in the coming years, causing median house prices in Sydney to tumble down to $381,584 from the present $763,169.

Apple Inc. is gradually eating away Microsoft's personal computer market share.

China is planning to build the world's longest underwater tunnel at a whopping cost of 220 billion yuan ($36 billion).

The Australian share market continued its recent winning streak today, rising 0.5 per cent on the back of positive moves on Wall Street on Friday night and data out of China on the weekend.

A web site in Russia accepts Bitcoin while USD is used in more unlawful transactions said chair of Bitcoin foundation.

With the growing childcare costs for nannies contracted through agencies, Australian mothers were forced to pay nannies through the 'black market' or through online and referral by friends. Nannies taken through this unregulated approach were only paid $15 per hour.

Indonesia has started to claim normalcy and control as it reopened on Sunday the airports closed on Java island following Mount Kelud's eruption on Thursday.

The Australian share market has started the trading week on a positive note, after gaining 3.5 per cent over the course of last week.

The Abbott government is paying $4.3 million for media positioning analysis.

The pride biscuit of Australia is celebrating its 50 years now

With limited major macro news this week and after having seen the US and Australia releasing most of their respective January data in the past two weeks, the Asian and European earnings seasons will be the main driver of trade.

In US economic data, industrial production fell by 0.3% in January, short of forecasts for a 0.3% gain, but a result blamed on the severe winter weather. Import prices rose 0.1% in January and export prices rose by 0.2%. Consumer sentiment was unchanged at 81.2 in February.

Gold continued to lose its shine in 2013, with the top 3 miners registering a combined loss of $16 billion. The loss of Barrick Gold, Goldcorp and Kinross Gold Corp are due to lower price of the once-safe haven and the drop in value of bullion and mining shareprices.

While the federal Australian government is willing to help financially challenged national carrier Qantas, it wouldn't be in the form of a cash handout.

The new Apple TV, one of Apple Inc’s most anticipated products in 2014, may be closer to reality as the Wall Street Journal supported an earlier report by Bloomberg. The latter said the new Apple TV may be in the middle of negotiations for content, citing Time Warner Cable as one of the possible providers for content services.

Local stocks have ended the week with an emphatic improvement .The ASX 200 ended the session at the best levels of the day. Participation from investors remained at healthy levels with close to $5 billion in shares exchanged. In a week that has been replete with economic news from the world's economically important regions, in addition to a landslide of company results locally, the ASX 200 has risen by 3.5%. Every sector finished the session with solid gains led by the healthcare and consumer...

Apple Inc (NASDAQ AAPL) is rallying at $750 says analysts from the Oxen Group

The Australian sharemarket is up by 0.9 per cent at lunch, taking the gains since mid-last week to 5.4 per cent. All sectors are in the black, with the mining industry once again outperforming.

Australia's once-booming car manufacturing industry is now dead with the final blow delivered by Japanese car maker Toyota when it announced it will pull out of the country in 2017. In May 2013, Ford Motors said it would stop manufacturing cars in Australia. In December, Holden by General Motors followed suit. Toyota has sealed the fate of Australia's car industry by closing its assembly plants by the end of 2017. The last announcement has triggered fears of recession in Australia.

A recent household upload index has shown that Canada ranks only as a mere slow-moving 54th among the nations as far as Internet upload speeds is concerned. The country was listed just below Kenya and just above Mexico.

Equities in the US managed to extend their gains despite some disappointing economic data. Retail sales, unemployment claims and business inventories all missed consensus estimates, while Janet Yellen's Senate testimony was postponed due to weather-related issues. Despite all these negative prints, momentum still picked up with Comcast's TWC buyout helping sentiment along. Perhaps some are hoping the disappointing data could result in the Fed diverting/pausing its current tapering path, bu...

US retail sales fell by a surprising 0.4% in January after a 0.1% fall in December. Core sales (excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials, and food services) fell 0.3%. US initial jobless claims rose by 8,000 to 339,000 last week. US business inventories rose by 0.5% in December after rising by 0.4% in November. Analysts believe that the current level of inventory is unsustainable and it is likely that businesses will ease production to work through current stocks over the March quarte...

Valentine's Day is almost here! In case you don't have any Valentine's Day gift for your loved one yet, why not get him or her some chocolates? It's better than flowers because it's edible and yummy. Plus, it's more affordable than jewelry. And, it's so much easier to buy anywhere because it is available in a lot of stores, whether brick and mortar stores or online shops. The only challenge in getting chocolates as gifts for Valentine's Day is picking the best one. Due to...

Apple's decision to repurchase its stock worth $14 billion did not only get Carl Icahn, a billionaire activist investor, to drop his buyback proposal. It also indicated the company's confidence in hinting the launch of its new product categories.

The Australian share market snapped a healthy five day winning streak today, to close marginally lower on the back of a disappointing jobs report.

An Apple designer disses his dream job of working with Apple

International Data Corporation (IDC) reports that Apple iOS had underperformed in the overall market as compared to Android

The ASX 200 has spent the morning consolidating having risen for 5 consecutive sessions. The absence of catalysts from US and European markets last night a flurry of local companies reporting results meant that the index kept to a narrow trading range for most of the morning.

Air Canada's shares hit turbulence on Wednesday after the company announced an unfavorable fourth quarter 2013 results blaming the weak Canadian dollar and severe weather patterns.