BUSINESS

A big fire on Wednesday burned down Kenya's Nairobi International Airport. As a result, the most important and busiest gateway in East Africa handling 16,000 travelers daily was closed as flights were diverted to other airports. The airport is expected to remain close for a few days.

The Australian share market had its worst session since early July today, as investors sold out of equity markets on fears the US Federal Reserve could soon start winding back its QE3 stimulus program.

TransCanada will transport 2 billion cubic feet of natural gas daily as part of the C$1.5 billion agreement it signed with Progress Energy, a Malaysian company.

The Australian sharemarket is in the red, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) down by 1.1 per cent. This is the longest losing streak for local shares since late June this year. The index is down by around 1.3 per cent since the start of this week.

McDonald’s in the U.S. is having a conundrum of Big Mac proportion these days, and neither the franchisers nor the employees are lovin’ it. But while staff workers of the American burger chain are fighting for higher hourly wage, their Australian counterparts are not crying the same complaints. They are already earning almost $15 an hour, and they are about to earn more.

Callum Newman's weekend Daily Reckoning took on a whole new meaning this morning. The Australian Financial Review reports that China just stopped all imports of milk powder from New Zealand.

The White House is casting about for a new Federal Reserve chairman. Three candidates have their mouths open, hoping to snag the hook: Janet Yellen, Larry Summers and Don Kohn.

Plenty of amusing stories are making the rounds today. Like the bond salesman who fooled Royal Bank of Scotland into thinking he had access to wealthy clients. After touring their trading floors and meeting clients and executives, it turned out the oddly named KK Ho wasn't a bond salesman after all. Just an employee facing an imminent layoff.

Markets continued their summer trading behaviour last week. Up a little, down a little...meandering...strolling...not in a hurry to get anywhere. The end of the week found the Dow about where it began...and gold a bit lower.

In a deal that has shocked the industry the Seattle billionaire Jeffrey Bezos known for creating one of the Internet's most innovative companies has bought the Washington Post for $250 million.

The Reserve Bank of Australia's recent rate cut may have unintended economic effects although the move was spurred with the intention of helping the Australian economy cope with the fading mining boom. Recent history has shown proof that central bank actions can lead to dire consequences. Economists fear a looming housing bubble.

Apple Inc apparently has lost its days of glory in China. A latest survey released by research firm Canalys showed Xiaomi, one of China's low-end smartphone makers, has outbumped Tim Cook's Apple in the country's smartphone ranks to capture the No. 6 spot. Apple Inc slid to No. 7.

Days after the U.S. and UK suspended the operations of its global network of embassies and consulates, U.S. intelligence officials disclosed the terrorist group Al Qaeda may have already developed a liquid explosive highly undetectable even by the most sophisticated scanning machines.

As previously expected, international dairy prices dropped at the first GlobalDairyTrade auction after Fonterra's botulism scare that resulted in China declaring an import ban on some of the company's milk products.

From banning the entry of contaminated whey from Fonterra, China and other Asian nations have taken the botulism scare a step higher by recalling infant milk products.

Even if Australia's richest person, Gina Rinehart, has extended the olive branch of peace to her two estranged adult children, chances of the bitter and much publicised family feud coming to end appears weak.

By Greg PeelThe Dow fell 93 points or 0.6% while the S&P lost 0.6% to 1697 and the Nasdaq dropped 0.7%.

As expected by nine out of 10 forecasters, the Reserve Bank (RBA) decided to cut interest rates by 25 bps to 2.5 per cent today. This makes it the very first rate cut by the central bank during an official election campaign period.

The Reserve Bank of Australia has cut interest rates to a record low of 2.5 per cent during its board meeting for the month of August. The latest interest rate cut is the first since the Reserve Bank has declared a 25-point cut in May 2013 when the Australian dollar was above parity with the U.S. dollar. This is also the second time interest rates have been cut in an ongoing election campaign.

IT outsourcing firm Infosys has been accused of discrimination against "stupid Americans" and is currently facing a class-action lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed by VMware specialist Brenda Koehler in the U.S. District Court in Eastern Wisconsin who claimed that Infosys has been abusing the visa system and actively discriminates against hiring American workers for staff positions.

The Australian share market is flat in the early session, following a mixed session on US and European markets and as investors tread water ahead of this afternoon's rate decision.

By Greg PeelPost the Fukushima fallout, it seemed for a while that US$50/lb was a line in the sand below which utilities were happy to pick up "cheap" supply.

A tech Web site, Slashgear, released on Monday a leaked photo of the HTC One Max. The device features a 2,3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 quad-core processor, the same processor found in the Samsung Galaxy S4 LTE-A.

Microsoft is cutting the price of its Surface Pro tablets by $100 for both the 128GB and 64GB versions. The price reduction will run only until Aug 29 and will be applicable only in the U.S., Canada, Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Nutricia, the manufacturer of infant formula Karicare, widened its recall of two types of formula amid growing fear of contaminated whey from Fonterra's Waikato plant causing botulism.

The bitter family feud over money that has divided Australia's richest person, Gina Rinehart, and two of her estranged adult children could finally end soon.Ms Rinehart, through her lawyer David Russell, told the New South Wales Supreme Court that she has written to the two children and offered to appoint a co-trustee in the trust fund set up by her father Lang Hancock.

- Business confidence stabilising- Profit expectations stronger for Q4- Investment, hiring off agenda- More promising after electionBy Greg PeelHistory suggests that aside from perhaps some initial volatility, there is little correlation between stock market performance and which political party is ...

By Greg PeelThe Dow fell 46 points or 0.3% while the S&P lost 0.2% to 1707 as the Nasdaq rose 0.1%.The RBA will meet today and as far as anyone is concerned will cut the cash rate to 2.

For some time market commentators have spoken about the importance of the upcoming federal election as a market catalyst. However, on Monday it was hard to distinguish the impact of the news at the weekend that the country will go to the polls in September.