BUSINESS

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.

The Australian Dollar has strengthened slightly since yesterday on comments from ECB President Draghi.

Risk sentiment remained resilient through European and US trade in an active night on the macroeconomic front. Equities extended their gains yet again and with investors continuing to believe in the ability of central banks to support markets. There was also another set of encouraging US economic data with unemployment claims coming in well ahead of expectations (340,000 versus 354,000 anticipated). The more interesting moves were in the forex space as market participants reacted to different po...

New claims for unemployment insurance in the US (jobless claims) fell by 7,000 to 340,000 in the latest week. Planned job cuts by US companies lifted to 55,356 workers in February, up 7pct on a year ago according to the Challenger survey. The trade deficit widened from $38.14 billion to $44.45bn in January, above forecasts centred on a result near $42.6bn.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed up 33 points, or 0.2%, while the S&P gained 0.2% to 1544 and the Nasdaq added 0.

Fortescue Metals's lawyer told the Australian High Court on Wednesday that the minerals resources rent tax is unconstitutional. He cited the tax causing disadvantage to different resource projects in different states as his main argument.

Thursday was a day of consolidation for regional indices. Whilst political issues remain fluid in Europe the focus is tending towards the other side of the Atlantic. Better economic news is empowering investors who continue to push the Dow Jones Industrial Average further into record territory. The gains on Wall St failed to translate to local trade today although a case could be made for investors holding their fire until the release of key economic figures in the US at the end of the week. Not...

Pit the Galaxy Note 2 against the Xperia Z and you’ll get a good match. The Samsung device is an unabashed phablet while Sony has obviously configured its new 5-inch flagship to test the waters that the Note series has been familiar with.

True to its tradition, it actually is just a matter of time before the Vatican steps in to tell the College of Cardinals to zip their mouths in sharing bits and pieces of information from the pre-conclave talks on account of their oath to secrecy.

A 63-year-old Australian anaesthetist from the state of Victoria has been sentenced to 14 years in prison for infecting 55 women patients with Hepatitis C between June 2008 and November 2009.

The fundamental error behind central planning is being repeated in China. Wen Jiabao leaves office telling his colleagues that, 'Unbalanced, uncoordinated and unsustainable development remains a prominent problem.' China's planners are past caring, though. And as our colleague Greg Canavan has said all along, China's real estate bubble could be the biggest and most damaging yet.

The local share market is virtually unchanged at lunchtime in the East, after rising to highs not seen since September 2008 yesterday.

Silently, Nokia presented to select bloggers and journalist its rumoured replacement for the Lumia 920 during the recently concluded Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. As earlier reported, it’s known for now as Catwalk.

They stretch across the outskirts of dozens of major urban areas, criss-crossed by empty highways. The rows of modern skyscraper apartments are all sold to absent investors. There's little doubt these scenes create compelling television.

Apple reinvented the touch screen manipulation of mobile devices. Now a new patent application pointed to upcoming iPhone versions that will read users’ commands via squeeze gestures.

One Google executive trumpeted last month that future Nexus devices will come with insanely great features, most notably in the camera department. Naturally, we expect the Nexus 5 to come rolling out with a bang.

According to the newest report by HSBC, emerging markets saw their growth decelerate in February. The EMI showed that especially larger economies witnessed more sluggish economic growth.

Picture the Galaxy S and Galaxy Note series sporting near tablet-size screens, which a new report said is the focus of Samsung’s future smartphone plans. The current mantra appears – the bigger, the better handset.

US dollar strengthens as strong US data adds to positive sentiment.

Wednesday night it is was US non-manufacturing PMI that pushed the Dow to all-time highs and the S&P near its all-time high; last night, however it is was non-farm payrolls shooting the lights out.

The US ADP reported another 198,000 private sector jobs were created in February, with January numbers revised up to 215,000. The underlying trend remains one of improvement in terms of job creation. US factory orders fell back by 2pct in January, largely due to a fall in demand for military hardware and commercial aircrafts.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed up 42 points, or 0.3%, while the S&P gained 0.1% to 1541, but the Nasdaq slipped slightly.

The last 24 hours for global markets have been defined by positive news. One of the headline grabbing outcomes has been the Dow Jones closing at a new record high over night. Supporting news included European manufacturing reports which didn't disappoint investors, the Chinese administration announcing that the 2nd biggest economy in the world will grow at 7.5% this year and a better than expected read on activity in the US services sector. As a result the volatility which gripped the markets...

A few years ago, pre-teens had to lie about their real age just to open an account at the very popular social networking site Facebook. After a couple of years, these same young people have reached 13 and are legally allowed to open an FB account, however, some of them find the portal now uncool.

Production lines for both the iPhone 5S and its budget version has commenced humming, a new report said, supporting an earlier story that Apple is set to release the two handsets on June at the earliest.

A fusion of the Galaxy S3, the Galaxy Note 2 and the Galaxy Note 8.0 – that’s how the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S4 came out in a new image render.

It is now Day 3 of the pre-conclave talks by the cardinals who are being holed up at Vatican City. And from today, there are only 18 days left for the cardinals to be able to come up with a new 266th pope in time for the Roman Catholic church’s Palm Sunday rites, which heralds the start of its Lenten season. Yet despite the decreasing number of days, the College of Cardinals seem not wont to succumb to outside pressure to immediately start the ball rolling on this year’s anticipated papal concl...

After a great run here at home yesterday where the ASX 200 index closed 1.3% or 64points higher, European and UK markets rallied. Regained confidence in the US markets pushed the UK FSTE index to a 5 year high at the close of trade.

While Australia's farmers face bright prospects in the long term as global demand for food is project to go up by 75 per cent in 2050, they have to contend with short-term dip in prices.