Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s has boosted Pepper’s overall ranking in recognition of the company’s strong performance in the sub-prime residential mortgage space.
More than a quarter of a million mortgages were sold after last year's July 1 deadline for abolishing exit fees but the ban's impact on competition remains uncertain.
Australia's four largest lenders hold almost nine out of every 10 mortgages despite the Federal Government's year-long crusade to increase competition in the home lending space.
Well happy New Year, dear reader. If you're reading this, you made it to 2012. Congratulations!
Amazon.com sold more than a million Kindle products this holiday season according to a statement released by the company on Thursday. Although the company has been vague about the exact numbers, Amazon said its three Kindle products, the Kindle Touch, the regular Kindle and its latest tablet the Kindle Fire occupied the top three spots on its bestseller list.
The Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) index showed that export commodity prices registered a decline for the fourth straight month in December by 1 per cent.
The bearish market that characterised 2011 for Australia's retail industry would likely be replicated for the first quarter of 2012. A survey by Dun & Bradstreet showed that 55 per cent of retailers expect continued slowdown of consumer demand.
Sony Corp. has slashed $100 from its Sony Tablet S in the U.S. but Australian buyers will have to wait awhile before the Tablet S will be discounted in Aussie retail stores.
A report commissioned by the Australian government found that foreigners are heavily investing in the country's agricultural companies such as those into sugar, grain and beef production. South Australian Senator Nick Xenophon warned of the impact of control of such foreign capital into Australia's food security.
This holiday season was one of the busiest for Apple's App Store. Millions of people activated their Android and Apple devices for Christmas, and their first stop was the App store for both systems. On Christmas Day alone, 242 million apps were downloaded according to market research firm Flurry.
January is typically one of the strongest months of the year for stocks. In 60 of the past 83 years, the S&P 500 has closed the year in the same direction as it finished the month of January, according to S&P Indices.
The US ISM manufacturing index improved a little more than expected, rising to a six month high of 53.9 in December from 52.7 in November.
News Corp chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch, 80, has joined the microblogging and social networking site Twitter using the verified account @rupertmurdoch.
Westpac Bank (ASX: WBC), in a filing with the Australian Stock Exchange, said that it reclassified the allocation of loan purpose between owner-occupied and investment housing to better reflect the purpose of the loan.
Murchison Metals (ASX: MMX), in a filing with the Australian Stock Exchange, said it will submit to shareholders the proposed sale of its interest in Crossland Resources and the Oakajee Port and Rail projects to Mitsubishi Development.
Australia's manufacturing sector churned a positive growth in December, according to the latest Australian Industry Group - PwC Australian Performance of Manufacturing Index (Australian PMI®).
Threats of periodical downsizing and bankruptcies in the past few years now appear to have been conquered by the American auto industry as car makers reported on Monday increasing sales figures for two years in a row.
A resident of Narrabri accused Australian mining firm Santos of causing the death of trees at the Pilliga State Forest due to the coal seam water that leaked from a dam operated by the company.
Considerable successes it reaped in the mobile phone market and the general consumer electronics industry will not stop Samsung Electronics from moving further even in the face of a financial downturn across the globe.
Sony followed the tactics employed in early 2011 by Hewlett-Packard and Research in Motion, cut the price of a slow-moving product.
The labor dispute at Qantas benefited Virgin Australia which logged a 3.5 per cent increase in domestic passenger traffic in November.
Australian airlines are scrambling to reconfigure their international service flights to stay afloat and recoup losses incurred on steep price cuts to fend off lingering threats of competition, reports said.
Banking reforms introduced in late 2010 by the federal government appear to have made little difference as giant banks continue to hold sway in the mortgage market, capturing much of the share in the home loan market pie.
Australian chemical giant Orica (ASX: ORI) reopened on Tuesday its ammonia plant in Kooragang Island. The facility was shuttered in August after hexavalent chromium spilled on Hunter River and to more than 70 homes in Stockton.
2011 has already come to an end and recent report shows that Google’s Android emerged as the dominant OS for Smartphones in U.S. for the year 2011.
There is no doubt that tablets have played a dominant role in the market today and this is evident in the number of tablets released last 2011.
The National Stock Exchange of Australia (NSX) added 29 companies to its listing on Tuesday, doubling the total number of members to 62.
The original documents which spawned the birth of one of the most successful companies in the world were sold through an auction for 10 times more than its estimated value.
There were many additions to the gadget world in 2011. Most of the gadgets the previous year showed that the digital industry has improved greatly from mobility and transportation to entertainment and communication.
Telstra admitted another data breach over the weekend when customers' information were again displayed online through a spreadsheet inadvertently deployed by one of the giant telco's consultants.
