BUSINESS

By Greg PeelThe Dow fell 64 points or 0.4% while the S&P lost 0.4% to 1656 and the Nasdaq was relatively flat.

The Australian share market kick-started the trading week on a slightly positive note, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) adding 0.2 per cent.

A majority of Australia's small business owners have created diverse plans to face the continuing economic uncertainty, a recent survey by Galaxy Research has revealed

iPhone 5C News: Supplier for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Pegatron, had leaked pictures of iPhone 5C while a high definition video leaked of iPhone 5C made it to social media sites

New Zealand's Fonterra has suspended its operations temporarily in Sri Lanka after consumers continue to grow angry about food safety and the sale of Fonterra's products. Fonterra's botulism scare has prompted an angry protest outside of the company's local head office.

German filmmakers made a pun on a Mercedes spoof ad showing Adolf Hitler being killed by C-class car model.

The Australian sharemarket has been modestly higher this morning, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up 0.1 per cent at lunch. The XAO is trading above the 5100.0pt mark once again; something which has only happened a handful of times over the past two months.

X Factor Australia: Adira-Belle, Ellie Love grove, Omar Dean and Jordan Tolli are in dangers of being sent home but there’s the cheapest way to vote for them.

By Stephen Hogan, Senior Private Client Adviser, Equities/DerivativesAustralian MarketThe Australian market (XJO) closed up 12.

Another New Zealand export product has hit another hurdle. The British Food Standards Authority (FSA) has issued a nationwide warning, saying that the manuka honey exported by the Kiwis is not what it claims to be.

Today closed out another busy week for the Australian stock market. The ASX 200 index climbed from the open of trade and by the end was 47.7 points higher after a strong session in the US overnight.

After all the pent up anxiety, the release last night was anticlimactic. 'We know little now that we didn't know going into the release of the minutes,' said Dave Meger, director of metals a Chicago trading firm quoted at News.com.au.

Australia's corporate behemoths are publishing results left right and centre. It's tough to know what to make of the deluge of information, and there's a lot of shuffling going on. But a few clear trends are emerging.

Earnings season continues...heavyweights including NAB, Coca-Cola Amatil and QBE all reported first half results today. But we'll leave all that for tomorrow once the dust has settled. There's something more important going on in a different market.

Heineken NV (HEIA), the world's third-largest brewer delivered a dismal earnings report on Wednesday, saying its first half profit fell 17 percent because of bad weather, weak "consumer sentiment" in Europe and the United States, and sluggish growth in developing countries.

When Apple unveils the iPhone 5S and its budget sibling, the iPhone 5C, the gadgets will share top-billing with one man – company CEO Tim Cook, who is approaching his second year as big boss for the tech giant that preps for its 2013 flagship release date.

In a bid to eat a large slice of the tablet pie, particularly the share of Apple's iPad, Amazon kept on discounting their Kindle Fire tablet the past few weeks. On Thursday, Amazon cut anew the price of its refurbished Kindle Fire 8.9-inch model.

The Australian share market is rebounding in early trade following a positive session on offshore markets overnight. The NASDAQ rose more than one per cent despite a computer glitch which stopped trading for three hours.

A computer glitch hit on Thursday the Nasdaq Stock Market for three hours. Being the second downtime this week, it raised anew concerns over the fragile state of the bourses.

Fumes from vehicular traffic and home cooking fires using coal briquettes have been found to be the major culprits of China's burgeoning and worsening air pollution.

The flight attendants of Delta Airlines will now start using the Nokia Lumia 820 handset for more efficient on-board passenger purchases. The airline company announced that 19,000 units of the Windows Phone 8 device have been issued to simplify the flight attendants’ workload.

Hong Kong may not be directly affected by severe tropical storm Trami, which is currently battering China, but it surely still made its presence felt in the country. Trami's coverage was so wide that it trapped pollutants in Hong Kong's air to reach "very high" levels, prompting the government to issue health warnings.

Gold Fields agreed to buy three high-cost gold mines in Australia from Barrick Gold, the world's largest gold producer, for $300 million.

By Greg PeelThe Dow rose 66 points or 0.4% while the S&P gained 0.9% to 1656 and the Nasdaq added 1.0%.

Despite preparing for a launch of another version of the iPhone, it has been difficult for Cupertino-California based Apple to make its entry into China. The move to bring iPhone 5 to China was an arduous task. However, by teaming up with the nation's biggest telecom, China Mobile, Apple will be able to test its results by December 31, 2013.

A better than expected reading on the health of China's manufacturing sector wasn't quite enough to push local shares into positive territory today. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) slipped by 0.5 per cent, with the mining sector the biggest drag.

Thinking of investing in a serviced apartment? Here's a quick synopsis of why it's a good idea.

'CBA's record result delivers Narev $7.8m pay cheque' said a headline in the Business section of The Australian yesterday. According to the article, the CEO's salary package rose to $2.1m compared to last year. Nice work.

Gold, stocks, bonds - all the major markets seem to have turned around in the last six months. Bond investors have been the worst hit. Many have losses of 20% or more. Surely, there are some major financial problems hidden beneath these figures. Sooner or later, they will show up in the headlines...with the announcement of bankruptcies and defaults.