BUSINESS

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 35 points, or 0.3%, while the S&P ticked up a point to 1520 as the Nasdaq gained 0.

By Olivier Blanchard, 13 February 2013Optimism is in the air, particularly in financial markets. And some cautious optimism may indeed be justified.

March 15 or March 22 only suggest that Samsung's Galaxy S4 is coming to town a few weeks from now, and many are rreviewing the list if the latest rumours about the flagship device would tally with the ones set for unwrapping next month.

The local market managed to hold fast to its gains recorded at lunch, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) rising by 0.9 per cent or 43 pts to 5024.5. The XAO along with the ASX 200 index (XJO) both closed above the 5000.0 point mark; something which hasn't happened in years. In fact, today was the highest close for the XJO since September 2008.

The Like Button has been a favorite of FB users, but now it’s under fire for being used without permission from a patent holder.

Singapore, a land area of approximately 710 square kilometers, is one of the easiest places to do business in the world and it is the better business destination. So there is no surprise that Singapore has been ranked as one of the best places to do business in many rankings. Certainly, the small area of the country does not have a negative impact on its economic status whatsoever. Moreover, Singapore it is Asia's startup hub.

Billionaire that he is, Microsoft founder Bill Gates takes pleasure over things that are affordable and free like books that he received as gifts and cheap cheeseburgers, which he listed as one of the things that give him the most pleasure.

As singer-songwriter, Aimee Mann, poetically observes, 'The moth [will] beat his wings 'til he burns them black'.

'Wall Street is running a new profit game,' writes Shabnam Bashiri, 'by buying foreclosed houses and renting them back to their former owners.'

According to newest data, India saw its industrial output contract in December for a second month.

Come 2014, global consumers will possibly play with thinner, lighter and more powerful iPhone and Samsung Galaxy smartphones with the introduction of a smaller 4G-LTE chip from Broadcom.

On the 11th of February, Hakon Invest AB informed that Royal Ahold NV had decided to get rid of its 60 percent stake in ICA for as much as 21.2 billion Swedish crowns, or slightly over $3 billion.

The Australian sharemarket is having its best day in a fortnight, with the ASX 200 Index up 0.9 per cent or 44.8 pts to 5003.8. This is the first time the evasive 5000.0 mark has been breached by the index since April 2010. The local market is now up 7.6 per cent since the start of this calendar year. Global markets ended mostly higher overnight, with both the French and British markets the standouts after rising by close to 1 per cent.

A more powerful iPad Mini with Retina display technology is destined to kill the 9.7-inch iPad, according to analysts, pointing to current trends that showed consumers are gradually favouring the more compact and portable 7-inch plus tablet class.

Two Galaxy S4s will hit the market this year, a new report said, replicating last year’s two-pronged Galaxy S3 onslaught that saw the release of the third regular-sized S series smartphone and the Galaxy S3 Mini.

By Marco Annunziata, Chief Economist and Executive Director of Global Market Insight, General Electric Co.

What's this? First home buyers are not interested in taking out a loan to buy an overvalued property? The Australian Bureau of Statistics released data yesterday showing that loan approvals fell 1.5% in December, to the lowest level in three months.

The rise of demand for 10-inch tablets is unpredictable. Ever since Samsung and Google released Galaxy Note 10.1 and Nexus 10, more and more users want to own such portable devices.

For the past couple of months, Samsung Galaxy S4 had been under the heat of rumours and expectations of what's hot about its upcoming flagship device. A complete set of preliminary specifications and comparison of the Galaxy S4 had leaked out, and surprisingly, the device has only four-core processors unlike the ZTE Nubia Z7 which has eight-cores.

Google search is facing a porn-generating bug that shows when users are searching for an equation or string. Google search engine has been trusted by millions of worldwide and it can help a user find almost anything in the cyber world, from dictionaries to stories, images to videos, celebrities to scandals, and knowledge satisfying answers.

Even if the subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), Securency, is figuratively and literally making money for the RBA, the central bank is dumping half of its share in the troubled company for $65 million.

By Greg PeelThe Dow rose 46 points, or 0.3% to 14,018, while the S&P was up 0.2% to 1519, but the Nasdaq fell 0.

The analyst principally responsible for the production of this research report is: Howard Humphreys, Director & Lead Research Analyst, Seismic ResearchASX breaks through 5,000 as CBA, LEI beat estimatesThe ASX 200 surged 0.

Day 2 of the year of the year of the snake. With most regional indices offline to celebrate the Lunar New Year activity was stilted for much of the day, although volumes improved over the course of the afternoon.

Samsung is reaping billions of revenues selling its Galaxy smartphones, bannered mainly by the Galaxy S3 and the Galaxy Note 2. What could be the secret formula behind the South Korean firm’s incredible run so far?

Call it an April Fool's joke, but beginning April 1, 2013, Qantas is cutting the luggage weight allowance of its business class passengers to a maximum of 52 kilogrammes from 96.

Not so long time ago (relatively), a phrase "The King is dead, long live the King" was commonly used. And even these days, it can be used in case of China. According to comparative data, China overtook the United States and gained the title of the world's largest trading nation in 2012, taking into account imports and exports.

The concept of an Homeowners Association, or HOA, isn't one that typically comes to mind when most people think of sustainability. We see more and more horror stories in the news nowadays of homeowners slapped with hefty fines for growing gardens on their own property, or even thrown in jail for daring to keep a cistern in their backyard.

Renault witnessed an increase in the sale of its Sports Utility Vehicle, Duster, in India as middle class families lifted sales by approximately 60 percent. The company may glory in its Duster SUV which bagged the Indian Car of the Year award.