BUSINESS

Productivity in Australia declined for the fifth straight quarter in two years, going down to 0.2 per cent in the September quarter.

The $2.25 billion buyout by Whitehaven Coal (ASX: WHC) of Aston Resources (ASX: AZT) will create the largest independent publicly traded coal company in Australia. Besides Aston, which is owned by Nathan Tinkler, Whitehaven also agreed to buy Boardwalk Resources for $499.8 million.

One other piece of information that was released was Microsoft's ability to throw a "kill switch" to disable or even remove an app from users' Windows 8 device

Barnes & Noble Inc's second quarter earnings dipped slightly from $1.9 billion to $1. 89 billion compared to last year even as its Nook line of products posted an increase in sales to $220 million.

Telecommunications firm Telstra shut down its online billing and BigPond e-mail service for more than 24 hours starting Friday night after its bundle plan customer database became accessible to the public exposing user names and passwords of some 60,000 customers.

We can expect China to move more quickly in changing monetary and fiscal policy next year after a flood of weak economic data for November over the weekend, and a well-timed rare statement from the country's senior policy making group on economic policy in the coming year.

Ratings group Standard and Poor's and Europe's banks have emerged as the big worry points for markets in the wake of the latest deals from the EU and eurozone.

It's now up to the 17 eurozone leaders to come up with something dramatic to regain the confidence of markets after the European Central Bank refused to backstop the zone in bond markets.

The Asian Development Bank has trimmed its 2012 growth forecast for emerging East Asian economies including China, as the eurozone crisis threatens to further slow an already weakening global economy.

Australian share markets are seen opening positively this week following the strong signals from the European stock markets. Analysts from CMC Markets, Commonwealth Securities, IG Markets, and OptionsXpress share their views as to what direction the local equity markets will go on this first trading day.

By Gavin Wendt, Founding Director & Senior Resource Analyst MineLife Pty LtdAs Australians we're pretty much 'relaxed and comfortable' types, as former PM John Howard once famously described us.

By David Rodriguez, Quantitative Strategist and Timothy SheaSummary: Traders are right more than 50% of the time, but lose more money on losing trades than they win on winning trades.

U.S. stocks wrapped up a second straight week of gains as the euro zone's latest plan to fix its debt crisis overshadowed some disappointing forecasts from big U.S. companies. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 187 points, or 1.6%, to 12184.26, undoing most of the previous day's sharp losses.

A survey of more than 360 internationally renowned real estate professionals, including investors, developers, property company representatives, lenders, brokers and consultants has revealed the emerging top earners for the real estate sector in 2012.

The Productivity Commission's finding that NBN Co's business model is potentially in breach of the federal government's own competition policy underlines the need for a cost-benefit analysis of the National Broadband Network, Business Council of Australia Chief Executive Jennifer Westacott said.

Prolink Finance Solutions’ Muzi Dandachli will be postponing holidays until late January or early February to cope with demand which is having his business colleagues ‘chasing their tails’.

Suncorp has introduced year-one trail commissions amid other changes it says will simplify its commission structure.

Top brokers believe falling home values could spur buyers into action in 2012 as prices become "more realistic".

Australia's Reserve Bank cut rates this week, but NZ's Reserve Bank resisted the temptation to follow and sat pat yesterday, leaving its key rate at 2.5%, despite warning that the economy is slowing.

At the end of a big week for the Australian economy, there are definite signs the jobs market is going sour.

A report by the IT Industry Innovation Council released on Friday said that Australia has the potential to become a global cloud computing hub.

The Australia-New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ) has indicated on Friday its plan to shatter the 'nexus' that exists between banks' mortgage rates and the country's policy rates, as dictated by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA).

Google is fast catching up with Apple as the tech giant marked this week the 10 billionth download form its Android Market, signalling the dwindling gap between the current dominant App Store and its closest rival.

A federal judge imposed on Friday a $1.25 million fine on Australian online retailer Harvey Norman (ASX: HVN) for its misleading advertisement. The fine was initiated by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).

Emerging markets are again at the forefront of investment portfolios in 2012 as the dangers of inflation and stagnation had all been washed off by the tight monetary policies this year, a senior investment manager said.

Woodside Petroleum (ASX: WPL) announced on Friday that it got on Thursday the go signal from its joint venture partner to proceed with the $2.5-billion natural gas fields project.

By Greg PeelIt's been an eventful year in the global uranium market.The year began with the globally significant Ranger mine in the Northern Territory shutting down due to flooding, and there is still no guarantee operator Energy Resources of Australia ((ERA)) will decide the veteran mine can b...

by Peter Switzer, Switzer Super ReportAt a time when both industry and retail super funds are losing some of their best customers to self-managed super funds (SMSFs), it was interesting to hear what the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) thinks of us as a group of investors.

But with the BlackBerry 10 not even being released until 2012 can RIM still generate enough consumer interest or should it jump sides?