BUSINESS

The Australian sharemarket lost ground for the third time in four days, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) falling by 0.9 per cent or 40.1 pts to 4370.6. So far, this has been the worst performance by the local market in half a year while shares are also trading at around two-month lows.

Australia has been ranked as the top among global countries with the best cigarette package health warnings, according to an international report released by the Canadian Cancer Society.

Nokia badly needs a lifeline, research firm Gartner said on its latest report, which showed that the Lumia 920 maker crashed out from the coveted list of the top five biggest smartphone makers in the world.

BlackBerry maker, Research in Motion (RIM), is frantic but confident in conquering the world consumer market as the struggling company readies its new handsets topbilled as the new Blackberry 10.

Local stocks have hit a seven week low in the early session, dragged down by more falls on US and European markets overnight. Key banking, energy and mining stocks are all in the red, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) down 45.5pts or 1pct to 4365.2.

Small footprint and easy on the hand (but not necessarily on the pocket) easily land the iPad Mini on everyone’s shopping list, plus of course the excitement that gradually built up on the gadget prior to its unveiling last month by Apple.

Much of the world barely noticed but yes Apple actually released the iPad 4 alongside with the iPad Mini a few weeks ago and it has generated enough buzz, at least for those paying keen attention.

Anyone who has a mobile phone probably owned at least one Motorola unit in his lifetime. Motorola used to be the global leader in mobile phone sales in the 1990s until Nokia, Apple and Samsung stepped up their game and caused Motorola sales to plummet. Based in Schaumburg, Illinois, Motorola lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, which caused the company to be divided into two independent units, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions.

The Android dominates the global smartphone market. A recently released Gartner report found that for the third quarter of 2012, Android comprised 72.4 per cent of mobile sales worldwide.

With the Christmas shopping season about the begin, Australians would have an alternative way to purchase goods without bringing cash or credit cards. All they need is their photo ID under a new in-store payment system announced by PayPal on Wednesday.

'Boom crash opera!' In keeping with this week's musical theme, that's how we'd describe yesterday's drama in the Australian share market. The ASX/200 fell over one and a half per cent by the close. It was an equal opportunity blood-letting, with the banks and the miners being hit.

According to the popular press, if we lose our grip we will surely fall into the red-hot bowels of Hell.

Last week I said 'Look out for a very sharp sell-off in the S+P 500 once it snaps beneath the 1390-1400 area, which is currently providing strong support. It will only take one nasty night to break through and then we will see a distinct shift in momentum.'

By Greg PeelIt is a truth universally acknowledged that official Chinese data are rubbery at best. As to just how rubbery, or worse still, manipulated, they are is anyone's guess, given the difficulty of foreign access to Chinese data and the lack of a reliable database for Beijing to use in th...

By Greg PeelThe Dow fell 185 points or 1.5% while the S&P lost 1.4% to 1355 and the Nasdaq dropped 1.3%.

The selling of recent sessions subsided for regional stocks today, although investors remain vigilante. The price action on global markets in the last day has been less than encouraging. Political developments on either side of the Atlantic will continue to be the main influence of sentiment in the near term.

Three million units sold so far and counting – that’s the measure of success attached with the Samsung Galaxy Note 2, which later on this month will be challenged by HTC’s Droid DNA and other phablets in the months and quarters ahead.

Australian retailers better be prepared with the influx of shoppers in the lead-up to the holiday season and its best that they configure their online stores to accommodate the expected traffic surge in Q4 2012, a new report said.

The city is on lockdown. Street vendors are closed. Taxi drivers have been ordered to seal their windows to prevent seditious material from being leafletted in the main square.

Expectations run high for the latest Call of Duty game franchise, the Black Ops 2, according to analysts, because previous releases of the Activision pedigree had delivered hundreds of millions in revenues within 24 hours of reaching global store shelves.

The Australian sharemarket started the day in mixed fashion; however is currently improving thanks in part to some solid economic numbers. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up 0.1 per cent or 5.1 pts to 4409.3. The energy, mining and industrial sectors are trading in the red while other sectors are higher. This is the first time in five sessions the local market is improving.

The stock market is not exactly a model of orderly progress, is it? The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) became the latest bourse to experience a 'glitch' yesterday. Volume was light on the NYSE because trading in 216 of its 3825 stocks was suspended. The exchange's matching engine wasn't functioning properly.

The director general, George Entwistle resigned from BBC within two months of commencing his job, after the broadcaster that is funded by the state had put out a programme that was marked by the chairman as nothing but shoddy journalism in BBC.

The rise in price of oil and improved stocks in the US on Friday was more than five years, owing to the sentiment of the consumers, exceeding concerns that the US fiscal cliff and the financial woes of Europe may result in global recession.

The Big Apple hosted the recent U.S. launch of the latest smartphone flavour from Taiwan-based HTC, the Droid DNA, which Verizon has picked up to become its latest Android mobile device.

For the Friday, Nov 16, release of the HTC One X+, AT&T started to take pre-orders for what is considered now the captain of the HTC football team. HTC is counting on the expansion of its HTC One series through the extra affordable unit, to boost its position in the global marketplace for smartphone.

Sony, once one of the leading electronic brands in the world, has slipped in comparison to other telecom companies such as Apple and Samsung in terms of sales and popularity of products. However, the Japan-based company could still count on the strong features of its products in a bid to reassert its place in the marketplace. For 2013, Sony targets to ship 50 million Xperia smartphones, relying mainly on Xperia T and TL, which were featured in Skyfall, the latest James Bond movie.

The United States is on track to overtake oil-rich Saudi Arabia and Russia as the world’s top oil producing nation by 2017, according to the latest report by the International Energy Agency.

The South Australian (SA) government provided on Tuesday some relief to mining giant BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP) by granting it a four-year extension to decide on the multibillion dollar Olympic Dam expansion project.