BUSINESS

Unnerved by a slowing Chinese economic growth, Germany's Volkswagen AG over the weekend announced a massive shakeup of its top level honchos to realise ambitious growth plans in the second-largest economy.

It's been a terrible start to the trading week, following big slides on US and European equity markets on Friday night. A key European manufacturing gauge came in lower than expected, sending Germany's DAX Index down 3.4pct, while a weak jobs report out of the US saw the Dow Jones index slump almost 275 points. Only 69,000 jobs were created in the US in May, versus expectations of job gains of 150,000. Locally, the Australian share market continues to be sold off with the All Ordinaries In...

Fortescue Metals Group (FMG) remains positive on its business outlook despite the softening market price for iron ore, the premier raw material that has been fuelling China's incredible industrialisation pace.

Economists warned of a triple disaster that is looming over the global economy following release over the weekend of jobs data in the U.S. and weak factory output in China. They identified the disaster as chaos in Europe, recession in the United States and slowdown of the Chinese economy.

Euro Woes Hit Australian Investor Confidence - Sentiment Falls To New LowSentiment among Australian investors has fallen markedly over the past two months.

Major Australia's retailers such as David Jones and Myer continued to suffer from the weak consumer confidence. David Jones reported on Thursday a 2.9 per cent dip in sales to $399.8 million for the three months to April 28. Myer last week registered a 2.1 per cent decline in third quarter like-for-like sales.

A U.S. court ruled on Thursday that Google did not infringe on Oracle's exclusive copyrights when the Internet giant implemented functions of 'application programming interfaces' or API on its Android mobile platform.

The wait is over as Microsoft said on Thursday that the final beta version of its much-anticipated Windows 8 has been readied for download by those willing to try out what the giant software has touted as its most exciting product release in a decade.

The Australian share market has started the new trading month on a similarly disappointing note as May, following falls on US and European markets overnight. Concerns about the health of the Spanish financial system saw most European markets ease overnight, while weaker than expected GDP or economic growth figures out of the US saw Wall Street slump modestly. The Australian share market shed 7.5pct in the month of May making truth of the adage "Sell in May and Go Away". In early trade the ...

By Kathleen Brooks, Research Director UK EMEA, FOREX.comIn comparison to other commodity classes the gold price has held up fairly well today.

Qantas unions are again up in arms against Qantas Chief Executive Alan Joyce after another airline official confirmed to Fair Work Australia (FWA) that the company's executive committee discussed a lockout option two weeks before Mr Joyce unilaterally grounded the air carrier's fleet for two days.

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.

To address global financial concerns over the European situation as well as weakening consumer confidence in Australia, Westpac chief economist Bill Evans forecast four more overnight cash rate cuts by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) in 2012.

By Peter Switzer, Switzer Super ReportThere is nothing more annoying than seeing markets at the mercy of wise guys, but that's what we are dealing with right here, right now.

A new earthquake hits Italy which brought more destruction and death to the country. According to reports, 17 deaths were already accounted for due to this new earthquake.

By Rudi Filapek-VandyckThe S&P500 closed 0.23% lower, down 2.99 points to 1310.33. The Nasdaq lost yet another 10.

To protest the planned offshoring of sub-editing tasks to New Zealand, journalists at Fairfax Media voted to go on 36 hours of strike which took effect Wednesday midnight.

Amidst perception that domestic growth has stalled and key industries outside of the mining arena were struggling, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) unfurled on Thursday some glimmer of hope as it reported a considerable spike in investment flow during the first quarter this year.

More Internet speed and room will be required in the near future as network specialist Cisco issued a forecast this week that says net traffic will grow four-fold over the next four years, coming from its present levels that already paint a breakneck expansion pace for the World Wide Web.

Wesfarmers is optimistic for the current financial year that the company plans to open 19 Coles stores and refurbish 400 outlets in the coming months.

Despite a positive start to the trading week, the Australian share market continues to be sold off today, and is on track to close out May with an 8.5pct drop. That would make it the worst month on the Australian share market since the collapse of US investment bank Lehman Brothers in September 2008. In early trade, the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is down 47.2pts or 1.1pct to 4101.5. Following falls on European and US share markets overnight on more worries about the deepening European debt crisi...

By Rudi Filapek-VandyckThe world is experiencing a repeat of the Spanish Flu. The first time around, between January 1918 to December 1920, casualties grew up to an estimated 130 million with even far remote places such as the Artic and tiny islands in the Pacific Ocean ending up being infected by w...

By James Stanley, Trading Instructor, FXCMFor over 30 months traders around the world have cautiously watched the world's largest continental economy flirt with disaster.

There are now new rumors speculating that Facebook would now push through with their own Facebook Smartphone. This is not the first time that these types of rumor has been released as there are already previous speculations stating the details about a new Facebook smartphone.

Country music star will give away a house on each stop on his upcoming 'Brothers of the Sun' tour with Kenny Chesney.

The Galaxy SIII is all set to take full-collision course against the world's most preferred smartphone, the iPhone 4S, as Samsung simultaneously launched this week its flagship mobile phone units in key Asian and European markets.

More bad news wait Australian workers as another round of job cuts loom over employees of an insurer and the country's Foreign Affairs Department.

Local stocks are coming off the recent two day rally, despite gains on US and European share markets overnight. US stocks resumed from the long weekend holiday to gain more than one percent, while European markets recorded healthy gains thanks to cyclical stocks. Profit takers though appear to have moved in on the local share market, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) down 35.4pts or 0.8pct at lunchtime in the East to 4312.8.

YouTube emerged this week as the winner in a four-year legal tussle that attempted to paint the Google subsidiary as a willing party on internet practices that border on unfair competition.