BUSINESS

AT&T has officially announced acquiring DirecTV for $48.5 billion on May 18.

The eerie quiet discussed yesterday is certainly playing true; overnight the US markets experienced one of the quietest trading sessions of 2014, with shares volume trading 25% below the 90-day average. Risk assets saw the light trade as a chance to bounce off the lows seen last week, but volume throughout the market suggests the bears where resting, rather than a conviction buy move.

US San Francisco Federal Reserve President Williams and Dallas Fed President Fisher spoke at a monetary policy conference. Both speakers agreed that the super-easing monetary policy conditions could have adverse consequences in the long run - resulting in excessive asset price growth and encouraging investors to take on too much risk. However Williams doesn´t believe rates should rise till the second half of 2015.

American drug giant Pfizer's plan to create the world's biggest pharmaceutical firm was thwarted on Monday when British medicine manufacturer AstraZeneca turned down Pfizer's offer of $119 billion.

Iron ore prices are again going down. On Friday night, spot price for the key steelmaking ingredient closed at $100.70 per tonne after a substantial decline in Chinese steel rebar futures which hit a record low.

Apple Inc has scored high in Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)'s privacy report. The digital rights advocator gave Apple a perfect mark of six stars in its effort to protect user data and policies towards government data requests. Apple has been given a perfect rating three years after a poor performance in user data protection.

The Australian share market started the trading week heavily in the red, falling 1.3 per cent on the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) as fears of a burst in China's property bubble impacted mining players and investor sentiment.

Energy Online makes UFO Sighting an advertising campaign for cheaper electricity services.

The Australian sharemarket is off to its worst start to a week in almost a month and a half, with a slump in iron ore pushing miners substantially lower. At lunch, the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down 0.9 per cent, with mining and energy stocks down by at least 1.5 per cent.

At least 44 have died from the worst floods that hit Serbia and Bosnia in more than a century over the weekend. Four days of heavy rainfall had triggered landslides forcing thousands to flee their homes as mud covered villages and roads. Rising flood waters are likewise threatening the power plants in the region.

There is an eerie quiet around markets currently; intraday equities moves are trending back to the value average mean price (VWAP) and currencies are treading water suggesting that fair value is globally priced in, barring the moves seen in the EUR.

In US economic data, housing starts rose by 13.2% in April to an annual rate of 1.072 million - well above expectations. Building permits hit 6-year highs. But consumer sentiment eased from 84.1 to 81.8 in May, short of expectations centred on a reading of 84.5.

Apple and Google have agreed to drop the lawsuits the two technology giants have filed against each other, but it only applies to legal cases involving Google's Motorola Mobility.

EU court judges have ruled out that personal details of individuals maintained by Google must be removed or deleted upon request.

Local stocks were under sustained pressure on Friday with the ASX 200 ending the session at the lows of the day. One small consolation was the low level of participation with just over $ 3.8bln shares changing hands.

TMZ has acquired the controversial Solange Knowles-Jay Z attack video for $250,000, a source told The New York Post.

New Zealand will welcome the newly-released budget focusing on the family. Finance Minister Bill English has delivered a budget with a bigger-than-expected forecast, tax cuts and free doctor visits to over 400,000 children under the age of 13.

Air Canada has suspended a planned purchase of Bombardier's CSeries and announced it will keep its 25 Embraer SA planes instead of replacing them with the new narrow-body aircraft.

Thousands of investors are considering filing a $200-million class action suit against Financial Wisdom, owned by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) because of alleged bad financial advice that cost them to lose their life savings.

Carl Icahn increases stakes on shares of Apple Inc. by 2.8 million shares

The future of bendable smartphones may come sooner than expected as Samsung and Apple race for patents

The worst trading session in five weeks on Wall Street overnight has given the local sharemarket a negative lead this morning. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down 0.5 per cent, with only the defensive utilities managing to remain modestly firmer.

General Motors has recalled 2.7 million vehicles for safety issues like faulty brake lights.

After three years on the pending list of patent application, Apple Inc. (AAPL) is finally granted a new patent by the USPTO. If the patented sidewall display will be integrated by Apple in its iPhone 6, this is surely a “new” for the device’s line that can make the model more interesting.

With the rumoured bigger-screened iPhones to be released soon within the year, Apple Inc may soon overtake Samsung as the world leader in smartphone market share. According to recent data released regarding smartphone sales during the first quarter of 2014, about 279.4 million smartphones were shipped worldwide.

The much-awaited Windows Phone 8.1 for mobile devices will be released in June and the support for this OS will be provided for the next three years, says Microsoft.

Equities extended their losses overnight with sentiment remaining subdued as European concerns resurfaced. Peripheral bond yields spiked in Europe with investors going defensive and favouring German bunds. US 10-year treasuries rallied to 2.5% as investors continued to flee risk. The carnage in the small cap space also continued with the Russell index extending its losses to contractionary territory. Even a drop below 300,000 for the first time since mid-2007 in unemployment claims to 297,000 wa...

n US economic data, consumer prices rose by 0.3% in May. Food prices lifted for the fourth consecutive months, coupled with a lift in gasoline prices. Prices were up 2% over the year. Excluding volatile food and energy, cosnumer prices increased by 0.2% in April to be up 1.8% over the year. US initial jobless claims fell by 24,000 to 297,000 - a seven year low. US industrial production fell 0.6% after lifting by 0.9% in March.

Despite a $30-billion forecast budget deficit for 2014-15, rating agency Moody's kept Australia's AAA credit rating this week. It also said that compared to other nations with the same tripe A rating, Canberra's growth outlook is still favourable.