BUSINESS

The Australian sharemarket is significantly weaker at lunch, as investors return to work following a holiday. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down 0.8 per cent, with the mining and financial sectors the main drags on trade. The losses don't come as a surprise however as global markets slumped on Monday following concerns relating to emerging market growth.

Russia has banned the importation of Australian beef byproducts such as offal over claims the food products used a growth stimulant which Moscow considers unsafe.

Global telecoms giants Samsung and Google has forged a 10-year cross-licensing deal on technology patents, which includes the existing ones as well as those filed within the term period.

Apple Inc has released its Q1 FY 2014 earnings and surpassed analysts' and its own expectations with $57.6 billion sales with earnings per share of $14.50. The Cupertino-based tech giant announced that the company sold 51 million iPhones, 26 million iPads and 4.8 million Macs. The iPhone and iPad sales for Q1 FY 2014 broke records as Apple claimed they were both quarterly and all-time highs.

Emerging markets continue to take a hammering as the fear around the moves in the Turkish lira prompted an emergency meeting of the Turkish central bank.

In US economic news the flash Markit Services PMI rose from 55.7 to 56.6 in January. New home sales fell 7.0% to a 414,000 annual rate in December, short of forecasts for a result near 457,000. And the Dallas Federal Reserve index rose from 3.1 to 3.8 in January.

It is bad that cigarettes are linked to lung cancer and tobacco firms continue to push their addicting products, especially to young people. Now, tobacco giant Phillip Morris is even making smoking more addictive by marketing marijuana cigarettes under the brand Marlboro M, according to report from a Web site named Abril Uno.

Apple Inc is set to release its earnings for Q1 2014 on Jan 27 after the closing bell. In anticipation of Apple CEO Tim Cook's earnings conference call, analysts have predicted that the iPhone and iPad maker will beat expectations. According to Bloomberg's compilation of analyst estimates, Apple Inc's anticipated earnings per share may reach $14 or equal to $57.5 billion in revenues. If analysts turn out to be right, the Q1 FY2014 earnings would be higher than 2012's $54.5 billion. A...

Apple Inc devices may not have the biggest market share than Android worldwide but a new report reveals iPhone and iPad owners do more with their gadgets. According to a survey by analytics company Arieso, iPhones and iPads were the most used in downloading data in 2013. The survey does not include data on the iPad Air which was launched after the survey ended.

The Australian share market has ended the trading week in the red, closing lower by 0.4 per cent today as weakness in financial stocks weighed on sentiment. The Australian dollar also took a beating, following comments from an external Reserve Bank board member.

Nicola Millar was out shopping with her 17-month-old daughter Violet when she accidentally locked the young toddler in their car. The first instinct was to call her roadside emergency service AA for help. She just couldn't believe her ears when she was refused help simply because her membership fees were outdated.

U.S. carrier Delta Air Lines has been named as the '2014 Airline of the Year' by the Air Transport World magazine. It's been 10 years since the award was given to an American airline company.

Sellers continued to make their case in early trade on Friday. There have been few consolations on offer for the bulls in recent days. A small positive has emerged on Friday. On several occasions sellers attempted to force the index through the 5250 area on a sustained basis. However buyers seemed content to defend this area. Having failed on 4 occasions, sellers retreated. Thereafter the market recovered ground quickly to be in positive territory at lunchtime. The question this afternoon will b...

A bankruptcy court in the U.S. has approved the assets sale of Montreal, Maine and Atlantic Railways (MM&A), seven months after it figured in a fiery railway crash in Lac-Megantic, Quebec that killed 47 people.

Kourtney Kardashian and her husband Scott Disick reportedly purchased the house of former NFL star Keyshawn Jones in Calabasas, CA., just a few doors away from Justin Bieber's house in the same neighborhood.

Residents in British Columbia, Canada, have been reportedly hoarding medicines containing potassium iodide amid radiation scares coming to their shores from Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant.

Hong Kong real estate tycoon is offering HK$1 billion ($120 million) to anyone who will marry his lesbian daughter and can make her steer away from lesbianism.

Risk continued to trade with a negative tone after price action broke down in yesterday's Asian trade. The selling was really triggered by the disappointing HSBC China PMI reading which came in contractionary territory, and disappointing earnings in the US didn't help the situation.

n US economic news the flash Markit PMI eased from 55 to 53.7 in January. Slower rates of output and new order growth were behind the modest fall. The leading economic indicators index rose by 0.1% in December. US existing home sales rose by 1% in December. Existing home sales totalled 5.09 million units over 2013 - a seven year high. The national median price for existing homes was up 9.9% on a year ago. US jobless claims rose by 1,000 to 326,000 last week.

Horticulture New Zealand warned the country's fruit and vegetable exporters that their produce could be blocked by overseas market because one pesky Queensland fruit fly in Northland was discovered.

Corporate Knights, a Canadian investment research company, named on Thursday Australian bank Westpac as the world's most sustainable company. The recognition was given at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.

Apple Inc is once again the target of billionaire activist Carl Icahn as he posted on Twitter that he bought US$500 million more shares within the past two weeks. With his latest investment in Apple, Mr Icahn's shares are now worth more than US$3 billion. With Mr Icahn's additional investment, Apple Inc's share price climbed 0.5 per cent at US$552.09 after its previous increase of as much as 1.5 per cent. The billionaire investor has made it clear he is not against Apple management but ...

A disappointing monthly reading on the health of China's manufacturing sector pushed the Australian market and dollar lower this afternoon. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) slipped by 1.1 per cent, the most significant daily loss in a week.

Effective March 1, 2014, Beijing will no longer be approving proposals for new constructions of industrial plants, including oil refining, steel, cement and thermal power plants. Proposals for improvements of existing ones will likewise be barred.

The Australian sharemarket is slipping for the third time this week and for the 11th time in 15 sessions. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down 0.1 per cent. China's HSBC Flash Manufacturing PMI will be issued at 12.45pm (AEDT) and measures the state of manufacturing activity in China. The market is expecting a slight rise from 50.5 to 50.6. A reading above 50.0 indicates manufacturing industry expansion. A surprise could move currencies.

A new research published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B has found that flu medications can actually help spread the influenza viruses more rapidly from one person to another.

Despite terrorism scares and anti-gay sentiments, prices of hotels in Sochi, Russia, host of the 2014 22nd Winter Olympics, have started ballooning and could reach by as much as $243 per night, a whopping jump of 121 per cent.

A U.S. District Court Judge in California on Tuesday has ruled that Korea's Samsung did infringe Apple Inc's autocorrect patent technology, two months before the telecoms giants face each other for a late March trial date.

US markets have provided no platform for Asia to move higher, so it seems we will need to see China come out firing again for the ASX 200 to make any upside traction.