BUSINESS

The Cities of Opportunity survey conducted by accountancy firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) named Tokyo as the most expensive in 27 global cities, followed by Sydney.

Germany, the eurozone's largest economy, is in "great danger" of falling into recession, warned the country's leading economic think-tanks.

Local stocks managed a slight win today, with mining stocks leading the gains. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) added 5pts or 0.1pct by close to 4510.1, to finish the trading week relatively flat (XAO closed at 4513 last week). However local stocks remain near 14 month highs.

ANZ Bank joined the rest of the big four on Friday by announcing a 20 basis points rate cut for its standard variable rates. With the decision, ANZ pockets 5 basis points out of the 25 basis points cut made by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) last week.

Google's partnership with Samsung for a tablet computer is expected to yield some cutting-edge component tech, one of which is the pixel-packing display.

The Foxconn factory accident, that caused brain damage to a worker in Foxconn southern China plant, has thrown a harsh light on the labor rights in the country of China. Incidentally, the Apple Inc.'s largest contract manufacturer has been pushing the Chinese worker to be removed from the hospital.

The share market on the 9th of October saw an Asian shares rise, but was still topped by the concerns over the prospects of global growth. These concerns were based mainly on the expectedly weak U.S. corporate earnings and a slump in China's economic growth, which is the second largest in the world.

As requested, I have undertaken an extensive examination of Mr. Global Economy, both physical and psychological.

Dow down. Gold steady. And the ten-year T-note at 1.73%... about 20% higher than earlier this year.

The first words we heard Tuesday morning were: '...starting to think Super is not the solution to...' Then we hit the snooze button for another 9 minutes of peace and quiet.

If you think we've been too hysterical on the China debate, have a read of this. It's the bearded one, Ross Gittins, telling us to chill out...the China/Asia/commodity boom has only just started.

Mobile phone users thinking of getting the newly announced Galaxy S III mini because it has 8GBs of RAM may need to look again. The official specifications on the Samsung Web site lists the model as having 8Gb of RAM, which could misleading because that actually stands for gigabits, and not gigabytes. Eight gigabits is equivalent to 1 gigabyte, or 1GB.

Apple has become so arrogant that it deliberately ignores glaring consumer preferences, according to the tech giant’s co-founder Steve Wozniak.

Local stocks are trading modestly higher at lunchtime in the East, shrugging off a lacklustre finish on Wall Street. European markets were well supported thanks to solid moves from retail stocks; however US markets closed largely flat. At lunchtime in the East, the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up 7.6pts or 0.2pct to 4512.8.

The Australia Post reported on Thursday that it registered an overall yearly net profit of A$281 million or a 17 per cent rise compared to a year ago. The significant increase in its income, while its counterparts in the U.S., UK and Canada are suffering due to technology, is mainly due to Australians' growing love for online shopping.

British Airways has indicated in a submission to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) that it is considering quitting from the London-Australia route, more popularly called the Kangaroo route. The London-based air carrier cited Qantas recent preference for Emirates as its alliance partner as reason behind its change of plan.

By Ron Bewley, Switzer Super ReportFor the first time in well over a year, we are not anxiously awaiting news each morning from the US and Europe on the state of the economy and bailouts.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 18 points, or 0.1%, while the S&P was flat at 1432 and the Nasdaq lost 0.

Global rating agency Standard & Poor's warned on Wednesday that India still faced a "one-in-three" chance of a credit rating downgrade within the next two years, despite last month's blitz of new economic reforms to boost the sharply-flagging economy.

China will only stand to "lose out" by boycotting this week's global economic meetings in Tokyo, said International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde today.

First Australia then the United States, now China’s Huawei Technologies must contend anew with fresh regulatory hurdle that likely would come from another key market – Canada.

The Australian sharemarket had yet another quiet day with only $3.3 billion worth of shares exchanging hands. The All Ordinaries eased by 0.1 per cent or 6.7 pts to 4505.2, losing ground for the second consecutive session and for the third time this week.

In less than four weeks, Microsoft is set to launch Window 8, which would likely result in the web being flooded with prices of new PCs suited to the latest OS.

As Microsoft moves from Windows 7 to 8, the tech giant is faced with the huge task of teaching people how to use the new operating system, CNET reports. Leaked training videos give a peek of how Microsoft intends to accomplish that huge task.

Toyota vehicles are slated to be taken off the road worldwide as the giant Japanese carmaker confirmed on Wednesday a massive recall order of some 7.4 million units, comprising of popular Toyota sedans, compact cars and mid-sized SUVs.

The new iPhone 5 will be so hot of a gadget that Apple is destined to rack up total sales of 135 million units by the end of 2012 and one analyst credits the smartphone’s incredible engineering for the feat.

Some cattle ranchers in drought-stricken states are stealing grass and hay from their neighbors to feed their hungry herds.

ocal stocks continued to slide away from 14 month highs this morning, following another poor night on US and European markets. Wall Street eased was hit by more concerns over the outcome of the current 3rd Quarter reporting season.

Global consumers appear to continue their migration from conventional personal computers as new data from research firms showed PC sales shrunk anew in the September quarter of the current year.