BUSINESS

An afternoon of accelerated selling on rising volumes saw local stocks end with a substantial loss. Investors remain concerned about the outlook for commodity prices in the face of rising supply and falling demand against a backdrop of a weakening global growth pulse. Bringing a sharper focus to these concerns in the last 24 hours has been the head of the German central bank who warned that the European recovery may take up to a decade. These themes drove the aggressive selling seen for mining s...

After much anticipation, South Korea informed that it had prepared a 17.3 trillion won ($15.4 billion) extra budget aimed at spurring its recently fragile economy. Indeed, the Asia's fourth economy has lately witnessed a slowdown in its economy due to the weakness of yen and escalating North Korean threats. All recent initiatives of the South Korean government are designed to boost the country's economy and support its exporters.

Chocolate manufacturers, it seems, are following the model of smartphone, tablet and TV makers by coming up with larger models of their products.

The one-month-old supreme pontiff of the Catholic church, Pope Francis, continued to show his humane and humble side when he accepted, albeit giddy with excitement, a jersey shirt personally signed no less than by famous soccer player Lionel Messi of the Barcelona Football Club, a fellow Argentine compatriot.

Yesterday's brief reprieve for the Australian market was short-lived, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) down 0.7 per cent at lunch. This is the third session of falls this week, with the mining sector the major industry to blame.

Attaining one's ideal weight level is hard enough, much more to maintain it. But the French has invented a high-tech fork that will not only be useful in picking up our food, it will also buzz every time you eat too fast.

South Korean tech giant Samsung literally rolled out the gigantic 85-inch ultra-high definition TV on Wednesday night in Sydney. The $40,000 device, soon to be available in retail outlets in Australian this month, features an Australian accent.

After 18 long months, state teachers at Victoria have finally clinched a deal with the government, entitling them to a pay rise of between 16.1 to 20.5 per cent over three years. About 45,000 state teachers are expected to benefit.

Marine Park Tour Operators in Australia are questioning the exclusion of the Great Barrier Reef in Australia by travel guide Lonely Planet. At the same time, some groups are questioning the inclusion of smaller dive sites in the list.

Fears further escalated that the new avian influenza A H7N9 may indeed be transmitted through human contact after the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared that some of those currently infected in China did not have had any contact at all with poultry.

Because of the buzz over an upcoming Android OS that started in late 2012, among the 10 things that techies are expecting in the May Google 1/O is the roll out of the Android 5.0 Key Lime Pie.

-CIMB doesn't like recent acquisitions-Macquarie isn't sure-Citi has some reservations-Moelis sees share price upsideBy Andrew NelsonM2 Telecommunications ((MTU)) looks like a real puzzler as far as analyst perception goes.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 138 points, or 0.9%, while the S&P lost 1.4% to 1552 as the Nasdaq tumbled 1.

By Ashley Jessen, director of LearnCFDs.com and author of CFDs Made SimpleWeak leads from overseas markets provided a gloomy start to the day and, despite a minor blip to the upside on open, our market gathered momentum in only one direction and that was down.

The local stock market has closed above the 5000 mark, albeit by a modest margin, after several days of commodity induced weakness. The ASX200 rose by one per cent, although mining and energy stocks remained on the outer with investors, being the only 2 sectors to end the session in the red.

An interesting job vacancy ad was posted in Weibo, China's counterpart of Twitter. The ad announced that a third-party security company in Beijing called Anquan is looking for a Chief Pornography Identification Officer.

The Australian market is edging higher by 0.8 per cent after the initial concerns relating to the Boston marathon bomb attacks have largely subsided. The mining and energy sectors are sliding modestly, while all other regions of the market are improving. The psychologically important 5000.0 is being tested (for both the ASX200 and the All Ords).

AT&T, the largest U.S. carrier, started on Tuesday to accept pre-orders for the Samsung Galaxy S4 on its Web site. The carrier would only accept orders for the 16GB model on black and white colours and the offer is limited to select areas for the meantime.

Dominance of Android smartphones in the global market will continue in the next two years, Google Chairman Eric Schmidt said on Tuesday at the AllThingsD mobile conference in New York.

By Richard (Rick Mills), Ahead of the HerdAs a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best information Ironic isn't it? A record number of people on food stamps yet new highs for stock indices.

Gold continued on Tuesday its downslide as spot prices of the yellow metal, once considered a safe haven, tumbled down to $1,322.06 an ounce on Tuesday trading. It is the lowest price since January 2011, following last week's major drop which ended the 12-year winning streak of gold.

The death toll from the new avian influenza A H7N9 in China has now reached 16, with the number of infected people likewise rising to 77 cases, all in just two weeks' time.

As more people shift to tablets, the pioneer tablet maker, Apple, has seen its market share shrink in favour of the Android tablet. Blame it on the price, but due to the higher price tags on Apple's iPad, more consumers are shifting to ones that use the Android OS that 2013 would likely end up as the Year of Android Slates.

Although cattle sales of the Australian Agricultural Company (AACo) rose in the first three months of 2013 to 41,186 from 29,646 compared to the same quarter in 2012, average price per head went down to $980 from $1,255.

By Greg PeelThe Dow rose 157 points, or 1.1%, while the S&P gained 1.4% to 1574 and the Nasdaq added 1.

The UK housing market remains weak. But with the UK economy on the edge of another recession, the surprise is that the housing market has not fallen more. And central London is booming.

Falling commodity prices continued to be the the main theme driving markets on Tuesday. Gold remains a high profile casualty having fall by 15%in the last week. 10% of that decline has taken place in the last 24 hours, although in recent Asian trade prices of the yellow metal have consolidated.

While constructing sector is not in the best shape, UK-based giant JCB Ltd informed that it noted record annuals earnings in 2012. It is not surprising at all that the company trots out its outstanding profits as the global construction sector is indeed going through tough times. The JCB's results were mainly driven by increased demand in regions such as Africa and the Middle East.

Apparently, the days for Fresh & Easy, TESCO's foray in the US, are numbered; so are the present operations for many of the TESCO's own outlets across the UK and Europe.