BUSINESS

Research in Motion, maker of the struggling BlackBerry smartphones, announced on Sunday the resignation of the company's two CEOs following series of disappointments that saw the once leading firm lagging behind from competitors.

Fair Work Australia (FWA) endorsed on Tuesday the proposed workplace determination between Qantas and the Australian Licenced Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA). The two parties presented the proposal to FWA in late December,

By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck, Editor FNArenaI spent most of my year-end break in New York with local citizens reminding me, every day, about the unusually mild weather.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of West Australia has granted mining giant BHP Billiton (ASX: BHP) conditional approval of its $40-billion Port Hedland expansion project.

Toyota Australia has axed 350 employees at its Altona plant in Melbourne, blaming the decision on current market conditions that include a high Australian dollar.

Coal processing equipment manufacturer and engineer, Ludowici has agreed to be bought by a Danish firm in a bid worth a total of $267 million, an announcement that saw the shares jump 91% yesterday.

The growth in producer prices slowed in the December quarter, a development some economists reckon gives the Reserve bank room to cut interest rates a fortnight today.

So where will markets head now after the post Christmas rebound continued last week, defying the gloomy forecasts from the World Bank and other gloomy prognosticators?

Reshaping Tomorrow: What will India look like in 2025?By Ejaz GhaniWhat will India and other South Asian countries look like in 2025? The optimistic view is that India will achieve double digit growth rates but the pessimistic view is that growth will be derailed by several transformational challeng...

It will cost as much as some of the huge LNG projects currently planned or underway: at $20 billion and eight years, BHP Billiton's plans to expand its key iron ore port at Port Hedland, off the northern WA coast, will be gigantic by any measurement.

The Houston-based Apache Corporation, the oil and natural gas producer, has agreed to acquire closely held Cordillera Energy Partners III LLC for $2.85 billion in cash and stock, adding oil reserves in Oklahoma and Texas that can be exploited using hydraulic fracturing.

The Australian Dollar enjoyed some considerable upside movement yesterday, soaring above $US1.05 to a 12 week high against its US Counterpart.

Ahead: In Australia, Newcrest and Oil Search release production figures and GUD Holdings releases its half yearly result. In the US, the Federal Reserve meets and the Richmond Fed index is scheduled.

By Richard (Rick) Mills, Ahead of the HerdAs a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best informationOur agriculture system is concentrated on producing a very few staple crops - there is a very serious lack of crop diversity.

By Greg PeelRBC Dominion Securities notes that global uranium mining stocks rallied 13% on average last week, spurring investors into believing that a uranium bull market will shortly be upon us once more.

From Morrison Securities Pty. Ltd.: U.S. stocks edged lower, jeopardizing the Dow's four-session climb, as investors mulled the sustainability of this year's rally and watched Europe for developments connected to the region's ongoing debt issues.The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 18.21 points, or 0.1%, to 12702 in afternoon trading.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 11 points or 0.1% while the S&P was flat at 1316 and the Nasdaq lost 0.

Three large Japanese banks are reportedly eyeing a share of the Australian home loan market by offering lower interest rates while Aussie lenders refuse to pass to borrowers made by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).

PayPal and Office Depot are reportedly testing the former's new payment method, called by experts as 'wallet in the cloud', that allows consumers with PayPal account to actually make in-store purchases, reports said.

The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has issued advisories to a number of airlines around the world to immediately implement check ups on their Airbus A380 fleets after the reported detection of cracks on the wings of some of the passenger plane.

An analysis by CommSec of Australia's states and territories' performance for the fourth quarter of 2011 showed that Western Australia is the strongest state in terms of economic performance.

American household name Kraft Foods said it would cut off 1600 jobs in the U.S. and Canada this year before it moves forward to splitting its giant business into two separate entities, the company announced in a statement.

A survey made by Balance Recruitment in December showed that 30 per cent of workers in Australia's IT and finance sectors experienced racism. The discrimination was particularly felt by migrant workers from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Pakistan and China.

FNArena is surveying investor sentiment in Australia in an effort to generate, over time, a similarly leading gauge as the AAII Investor Sentiment Survey in the US.

The New Zealand dollar is performing well while investors are strategizing and leaving the euro, with Greek and European Union officials meeting to study the decisions made between private bondholders on how to lower Greece's borrowing costs.

Deloitte Access Economics has upgraded its 2012 gross domestic product outlook for Australia on Monday. The research firm projected that the country would expand by 3.6 per cent this year, up from 2 per cent in 2011.

Most brokers would assume new clients who walk through the door are coming to them purely to service their finance needs - but not so Nicole Seagren of Vision Finance, based in Melbourne.

Sydney has been unseated as the second costliest city in the world in a new survey of housing affordability.

Consolidation of mortgage aggregators is expected to continue apace in 2012, forcing the industry to assess the future viability of aggregation models.