BUSINESS

Local shares are down 1.4 per cent at lunch, exceeding all of last week's losses in just two hours of trade. The defensive healthcare sector is bucking the trend, while all other industries are slumping significantly.

It was reported in the Wall Street Journal that Microsoft is investing on a new project to overthrow Amazon in e-commerce supremacy. Sources say Microsoft is working on “Project Brazil” in hopes of competing with Amazon and eBay in the near future. The project, however, may not come to materialize anymore.

Moto X Phone was spotted again with FCC filings which marks the upcoming launching of the device to all major United States network carriers at the same time. But latest reports claim that Moto X Phone is only an underwhelming, mid-range smartphone.

- Japan must restart nuclear fleet to keep recovery on track- US$80+ needed to incentivise new supply- RBC sees US$65/lb in 2014- US$80/lb by 2017By Andrew NelsonCommodities analysts at RBC Capital Markets expect uranium demand to increase at a rate of 4.

Apple’s iPad mini 2 is not released yet but it is already facing some stiff competition. Several tech manufacturers like Acer, Lenovo, Asus and Dell are gearing up to release 8-inch Android-powered tablets. Apple will have to deal with more Android competitors in the third quarter.

The LG Optimus F7 will be available at U.S. Cellular beginning June 27. If customers would opt for a two-year contract, they would only shell out $99.99, while off contract, the device would have a price tag of $299.99.

Over the weekend, another phone war was launched by Nokia Lumia 925, but it pitted the phone against Apple's iPhone 5.

Besides a salary of $100,000 a year, which they will actually work only between August and December 2013, six mates from the U.S., Canada, France, Brazil, UK and Ireland were declared on Friday winners of Tourism Australia's Best Jobs in the World promo.

Despite the market making an effort to sneak into the black this afternoon, Australian shares still slipped modestly to make it two straight sessions of losses. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) slipped by just 0.4 per cent; a huge improvement from the close to 1.5 per cent falls 30 minutes into the day. The XAO fell 1.1 per cent this week.

Singapore's air-pollution index has breached 400 on Friday after five full days of non-stop smoke billowing from neighbor Indonesia due to the latter's forest fires. And with the smog expected to last through for the next two weeks, citizens have been forced to improvise safety nets to protect themselves in the face of dwindling stock of surgical and gas masks.

Samsung has stayed silent for quite some time as competitors release ultrabooks here and there. Today, the company has announced the follow up for their Series 9 Ultrabooks. Not just one follow up but two – Samsung unveiled their ATIV Book 9 Plus and the ATIV Book 9 Lite series.

The Australian market is losing ground for the second consecutive session, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) down 0.3 per cent. The situation was dire this morning however, when the index was down by more than 1.5 per cent in early trade.

Samsung Galaxy S3 variants from U.S. Cellular and Verizon Wireless both received an official Android 4.1.2 firmware update with multi-screen & multi-window feature, S Beam Auto Share Shot and new security patches from Google.

Convertible devices running on either Windows 8 or Android have flocked the market today. Consumers now enjoy the convenience of detaching or transforming their computing devices based on their preferences. Often, the choice boils down to the type of operating system. Samsung is transforming the meaning “convertible” offering both Windows 8 and Android on their ATIV line.

Sony begins official Android 4.2.2 update for the Xperia ZL for European users of the LTE version. Reports also indicate that an official update will become available for the HSPA+ version soon.

The American Medical Association (AMA) has lashed out against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), labeling the latter's lifetime ban against gay men donating blood as "discriminatory" and "not based on sound science."

Intel is joining forces with Samsung and Qualcomm for the Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP) consortium. The company’s move is part of its ongoing efforts to develop and introduce wireless charging for laptops and tablets.

Customer Joe Gibson and his 3-year-old son were initially enjoying their meal at Friendly’s Sports Bar & Grill until the Missouri father got hold of the receipt. An angry Mr. Gibson shared the offensive receipt at the St. Louis Dispatch Facebook page to voice out the unpleasant incident.

Apple, HTC and Samsung have been battling it out in tech manufacturing for quite some time now. According to Digitimes, the competition may no longer be just on which company can produce the lightest and fastest devices. Rumor has it that the three companies are looking into developing liquid-cooled phones.

By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck, Editor FNArenaI joined Twitter. Not because I am curious what this celebrity has to say about her kids, or to read that another one is waiting for a connecting flight, impatiently.

By Kathleen Brooks, Research Director UK EMEA FOREX.comThe markets are still in carnage mode post the FOMC.

Huawei Technologies Co. is taking on two tech giants Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co. (005930). In a bid to gain as much market share, Huawei recently introduced what they claimed as the world’s slimmest smartphone.

An expert advisory group warned of the possibility of 8 sites on brown coal mines across the Latrobe Valley collapsing. The warning is the result of an independent investigation in the collapse of the Morwell River diversion that inundated the Yallourn mine with 60 billion litres of water, damaged infrastructure and cut electricity for months from the nearby power plant.

Lenovo is boosting its presence in the ultrabooks industry as it just released the ThinkPad S531. The ultrabook has a backlit keyboard and super slim design that can rival many high end offerings on the market today.

By Greg PeelWhen US bonds started to move on Fed taper talk in May, the Aussie went first. When the Aussie started to go, the foreign exit of Australian stocks, held for yield differentials, was quick to follow.

ASUS continues to release a line of supercomputer and high end notebooks. The company recently unveiled another ultrabook – the Touch-Enabled 15.6-inch VivoBook S551. Running on Intel’s latest 4th Generation Haswell based Core processor and power-efficient Nvidia GT 740M graphics processing unit, Asus is bringing competition over to their side.

By Greg PeelThe Dow fell 353 points, or 2.3%, while the S&P lost 2.5% to 1588 and the Nasdaq dropped 2.

By Stephen Hogan, Senior Private Client Adviser, Equities/DerivativesAustralian MarketThe Australian market (XJO) closed down -19.

The much vaunted US Fed meeting has come and gone, and some of the more significant market concerns have been realised. Chairman Bernanke re-iterated that risks facing US economic growth and employment had eased in recent months and as a result it was reasonable that the Fed should looking at slowing the pace of bond purchases (quantitative easing) later this year, with a view to ending the initiative by the middle of 2014. Whilst this was by no means a revelation, the commitment of the central ...