BUSINESS

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.

Samsung, the Korean-based phone manufacturer recently revealed the company's plan to launch a Windows Phone 8 in October, 2012.

Credit demands were down for four consecutive months, according to the latest data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), and banks were more inclined to push up their interest rates.

Tesla, the electric vehicle maker behind the Tesla Roadster, Model S and Model X, is doing all it can to achieve its current business plan of reaching profitability in 2013.

Holden inked on Monday a deal with a General Motors affiliate under which Holden will develop at its Port Melbourne facility vehicles for China. However, it excludes manufacturing.

Westpac's strategies to boost revenue will be put to a test during the first quarter as the bank seeks a larger market share, particularly deposits, small-to-medium business loans and wealth management. The results of said strategies will be disclosed by CEO Gail Kelly in May as she reports the company's first-half profit amidst a weaker banking environment.

By Greg PeelLast week a mere three transactions occurred in the global spot uranium market, totalling 500,000lbs, industry consultant TradeTech reports.

The Chinese-built Ford Focus will join three new SUVs at Ford's stand at the upcoming Beijing motor show exhibiting the brand's aggressive strategy to crack the largest car market in the world.

By Cinzia Alcici and Daniel GrosSpain faces high unemployment and slow growth. This column focuses on an important sources of those problems ? its housing market.

We have our eye on two major points to begin the week. The first is that the most interesting election in the world this year may be in a communist country.

Australia's largest independent coal company will be created shortly when the final stage of the friendly takeover of Aston Resources by Whitehaven Coal is completed.

Shares in Paladin Energy slid yesterday after the uranium miner again disappointed the market with a shortfall on guidance.

uVent.com.au founder Anthony Mittelmark recently launched a Web site that would serve as a meeting ground for Australian consumers with complaints and local companies. Within one week, the portal received about 11,000 complaints which indicate how angry and frustrated Aussie consumers are.

Two Australian banks cut their interest rates on Monday, ahead of a possible overnight cash rate reduction by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) in May and amid ANZ Bank's unpopular decision to hike fixed mortgage and small business loan rates by 0.06 per cent on Friday.

By Rudi Filapek-VandyckThe Reserve Bank of Australia today released the Board Minutes that accompanied the decision to stick with the status quo on the official cash rate earlier this month.