BUSINESS

The bulls of January through March have gone a bit shy, judging by the latest results from the Bank of America Merrill Lynch Survey of Fund Managers for April.

Slowly, the shape of retailing is changing as more of the world's biggest groups abandon the 'big is best' approach in favour of smaller stores, more savvy internet offerings and a slower rate of new store openings.

The consumption of Coca-Cola Company's countless beverages in India led to a growth in its sales around the world in the Q1, where volume soared 20 percent. The growth has definitely pushed the company's earnings above what the analysts' expected, that is, to $2.05 billion, or 89 cents a share, in the quarter ended March 31, compared with 82 cents a share in the same quarter last year.

About 1.2 million people or 7 per cent of the Australian adult and teenage population were victims of credit card fraud in 2011, an Australia Bureau of Statistics (ABS) survey found. Their loss was equivalent to $1.4 billion.

Despite a slight improvement in business conditions in the first quarter of 2012, a National Australia Bank (NAB) survey released on Friday said that the data boosts the need for a Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) overnight cash rate cut in May.

As China's economy heads for a slow down, the Chinese central bank has promised to boost the supply of liquidity in the financial system by turning to monetary easing tools.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) Chief Executive Ian Narev announced on Thursday the bank plans to expand further to Asia, considered the world's fastest-growing region.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 68 points or 0.5% to once again fall below 13,000 while the S&P lost 0.

In a bid to get a larger cut of the supermarket pie, grocery giant Coles revamped its flybuys loyalty programme that offers faster rewards or cash discounts and no expiry dates.

Westfield Group has announced its second big disposal of US shopping centres in two months.

A more optimistic tone from the latest World Economic Outlook from the International Monetary Fund, with the chances of a global slump receding and an upgrade to growth prospects for some major economies, especially in 2013.

Is BHP Billiton about to be 'save' its coking coal competitors here and around the world with a price spike for a second year in a row.

A day after the Gillard government announced the launch of a $1,000 job bonus for Australian firms that would hire workers aged 50 and above for at least 3 months, an employment agency belittled the incentive.

Next to the United States, Australia is the preferred destination of foreign jobseekers, according to the Global Professionals on the Move 2012 report released on Thursday.

The local share market is showing encouraging signs of growth at lunchtime in the East, despite falls on US and European markets overnight. European investors bailed out after bad loans surged in Spain overnight, while US markets eased due to disappointing results from IBM and Intel. After a shaky start, the Australian market is growing legs, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up 13.8pts or 0.3pct to 4441 at 12.30pm AEST.

The number of participants to Australia's largest class-action suit rose to 170,000 after 6,000 Bankwest customers joined on Thursday the lawsuit. With the inclusion of the 6,600 the pool of fees in the legal dispute went up to more than $220 million.

Due to its declaration of a force majeure in the early part of April, mining giant BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP) had been using its stockpile of coking coal to meet export commitments. This is amidst the company's struggle to maintain operations affected negatively by a prolonged labour dispute and bad weather.

By Greg PeelMining juniors have always suffered from a high cost of funding given the speculative nature of the mining game in a world of volatile commodity prices.

Asian stock markets rallied Wednesday as positive news from Europe and strong U.S. corporate earnings helped restore risk appetite, with technology, commodity and banking shares leading the charge

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 82 points or 0.6% while the S&P fell 0.4% to 1385 and the Nasdaq lost 0.

Intel finally decided to enter the smartphone market through their newest smartphone product called the Xolo X900. The Xolo X900 is the product of the collaboration between Intel and Lava International Ltd., a mobile device maker. The Xolo X900 will be available in India this week.

Apple and Samsung could soon end their ongoing legal tussles in a settlement as a San Franciso Federal Court ordered the tech rivals to possibly come up with a solution that would dissolve their differences, reports said.

The Australian government has commenced on Tuesday the defence of its cigarette plain-packaging law, which experts said could be adopted by other nations as an effective model for their anti-smoking campaigns.

New Zealand dairy giant Fonterra has justified adding permeate in its blue-topped milk, saying it is meant to standardise protein levels and not to cut costs to maintain a competitive price as recent news reports have hinted.

Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co., Ltd., saddled by an unsteady supply source of rare earths, on Tuesday announced it has developed a technological approach that would recycle at least 80 per cent of used rare earths metals in hybrid car batteries.

Australia's carbon dioxide emissions went up in 2011 due to more vehicle use and gases that leaked from coalmines. It resulted in the release of 546 million tonnes of more C02 from those two sources. The data came from Australia's report of the National Greenhouse Accounts to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.

By Greg PeelThe Dow rose 194 points or 1.5% while the S&P gained 1.6% to 1390 and the Nasdaq added 1.8%.

Miner Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) is the official medals provider of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. The firm announced on Tuesday that the 4,700 medals it will supply the games would be crafted from metals sourced from Rio's Kennecott Utah Copper Mines and Oyu Tolgoi Mine.

There have been numerous reports before stating that Apple has plans of launching a "mini iPad" in the market. These rumors are resurfacing again as NetEase; a Chinese web portal revealed that Apple is indeed working on a new iPad.