BUSINESS

About 17,000 New Zealand customers of the ANZ Bank joined a class action suit against the lender over excessive bank fees. The legal action was initiated by Fair Play on Fees Group.

Apple Inc. announces on Dec 16 that BEYONCE’ shatters iTunes Store records with 828,773 albums sold in three days

Google Inc., the world's largest Internet search engine, has just acquired the Boston Dynamics Robotics Company. Part of Google's acquisition are several robots made by Boston Dynamics including Big Dog, a four-legged robot dog that can climb hills and Cheetah, a really fast robot that can outrun Usain Bolt, who is believed to be the fastest human today.

Local stocks closed higher today for only the third time this month, although the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) finished off the day's highs.

Apple Inc. shares may have regained its momentum after climbing to its new 52-week high. Analysts are expecting the company to sustain its strong stock performance given Apple's massive gains from its iPhone and iPad sales across the globe. Analysts at Jefferies have agreed with others in increasing their long-term predictions and price targets for Apple Inc.

Google Inc. has been slapped with a legal motion by Canada's Competition Bureau, alleging the former that it has abused its dominant search position.

Elsewhere around the world, Dec 18 might just mean another regular, ordinary day. But for the telecom sector, most especially China's telecom sector, it could mean a historic day. Reports are rife that China Mobile may announce on Wednesday its long anticipated deal with Apple Inc. (AAPL).

The economy of New Zealand is expected to grow even stronger in the next two years, according to the Institute of Economic Research. A survey of economic forecasts based from various economic and financial agencies said that New Zealand is expected to have a broad-based annual growth rate of 2.8 per cent by March 2014 and 3 per cent in the 2014.

December hasn't been very kind for investors so far, however local stocks are moving higher at lunchtime in the East, following a positive offshore lead.

By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck"Extremely quiet" is the operative label that stands out from industry consultant TradeTech's weekly update on the spot uranium market.

As the global markets continue to look towards Thursday morning's announcement from the FOMC, Australian investors will be watching two very interesting public policy papers that are released today.

In US economic news, industrial production rose by 1.1% in November ahead of market forecasts centred on a 0.5% gain. The Markit ´´flash´´ manufacturing gauge eased from 54.7 to 54.4 in December, short of the 55.0 forecast. The Empire State manufacturing index lifted from minus 2.21 to +0.98 in December, but this was short of the +4.75 forecast. And overall net capital inflows to the US totalled US$194.9 billion in October compared with outflows of US$106.8 billion in September.

By Evan Lucas, Market Strategist IG MarketsGood MorningThe meaning is in the detail for the AUDAs the global markets continue to look towards Thursday morning's announcement from the FOMC, Australian investors will be watching two very interesting public policy papers that are released today.

Like Australia which has benefitted from the mining boom, Canada is also going heavily into the resources sector, but similar to the situation of the Land Down Under, Canada too is suffering from skilled labour shortage.

The Santa Claus rally is looking like more and more of a dream, with the Australian share market back in the red today despite Friday's gains.

Despite being almost a year old, the game-changing HTC One smartphone continues to impress the world of technology, prompting ZDNet's Matthew Miller to name the device the top smartphone of 2013.

Ward's AutoWorld Magazine has just named its 2014 10 Best Automobile Engines including the Audi S5, the BMS 535d and the Ram 1500 EcoDiesel. Ward's 10 Best Engines is an annual list of the ten best automobile engines available in the U.S. automobile market that are available in regular-production vehicles and are on sale in the U.S. no later than the first quarter of the year. Check out the winners below:

British customers have noticed something different from Anchor, their preferred butter brand. The famous butter brand is no longer produced in New Zealand. Arla, a European dairy company, has used the popular Kiwi brand for years until it decided to cut its ties with New Zealand.

Sellers had a breather on Friday. Although they have returned refreshed an invigorated on Monday. The Market sank by 39 points in early trade, a harbinger of the volatility that could be in store ahead of the Fed's FOMC mid week.

Sprint is considering a potential merging bid with rival telecom carrier T-Mobile.

Fashionistas and beauty junkies need to celebrate the holidays too, especially since it is at this time of the year that a lot of people get dolled up and dressed to the nines for the various Christmas parties that they need to attend. There are a lot of new beauty collections that are debuted during the holidays. These would be perfect as gifts to beauty junkies. For fashionistas, there are a myriad of trendy options to choose from.

With eight days to Christmas and only six and a half trading days left of 2013, you would hope trade would be settling down as investors set and forget, and put their feet up and enjoy a summer holiday. However, this looks to be wishful thinking; the week ahead is packed full with market-moving material.

In US economic news, producer prices fell by 0.1% in November with the core rate (excludes food and energy) up 0.1%. The core rate was in line with expectations.

Greg Peel is on a well-deserved break until Monday, 13th January. This week, which is FNArena's final week before we all start enjoying a well-deserved break, we will borrow the Overnight Report from third party content providers.

If men had been enjoying Viagra and other male erection enhancement drugs for almost 20 years, flibanserin, the equivalent of the sex enhancement drug for women, has suffered from another impasse with the regulator, the U.S. Food and Drugs Administration (FDA).

The weekly closed last week on a downtrend for a fourth week. The market had another volatile week with a range of 178 points just below the previous week's 200 point range.

The Australian share market snapped its longest losing streak in 17 months today, rising for the first time in seven sessions despite a weak offshore lead.

The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Lite might have a 5.68-inch display with a Liquid-crystal display (LCD) screen? Rumours are swirling about the tech industry that Samsung is planning to launch a new gadget with these particular specs. According to ETN News, a Korean site, this new Samsung device is aimed as a low-cost alternative to its other higher priced gadgets.

Apple Inc's iPhone 5 and the iPhone 5S have finally outwit Samsung Galaxy S4 based on global sales in October, according to Counterpoint's report.