BUSINESS

Australian shares had a very solid month, among the best of major markets and outperformed the US and some European bourses.

Just as we had mixed news from the Japanese and Australian economies on Tuesday, yesterday we got the same story from China with two surveys of the country's manufacturing sector producing very different results.

"It's all speculation." Air New Zealand boss Rob Fyfe told of the rumors about his career movement. As he is expected to step down late this year, Fyfe has been reported to have been recruited for a job at Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group.

Australia saw its worst annual job growth in 19 years in 2011, but December showed the highest rise in business confidence in seven months, according to a National Australia Bank survey. Consumers focused on savings due to growing concern over fiscal problems in the US and Europe, slowing down businesses and putting growth on hold.

Thomson Reuter and Crescent Wealth launched on Wednesday Australia's first research-based Islamic index. The index aims to provide investors who want to build Islamic-compliant Australian equity portfolios a powerful new tool for benchmarking.

The temporary ban on cattle export to Indonesia failed to dampen the growth of the Australian Agricultural Company (AAco) which even registered a 40 per cent improvement performance that led into a $10.5 million net profit.

Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 and Galaxy Tab 8.9 will not hit the German market after all following an appeal court decision on Tuesday, finding the South Korean tech giant in clear violation of unfair competition laws.

Australian manufacturers have been experiencing growth over the past two months but analysts said the jumps were too minimal and barely out of the contraction level.

Australian flag carrier Qantas was dealt another blow on Tuesday when rating agency Moody's Investors Service downgraded the air carrier's credit rating to Baa3 from Baa2. Moody's explained the cut in long-term senior unsecured rating of Qantas to expectations of ongoing pressure on the company's credit profile.

The ongoing price war between Australian supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths has led some MPs to seek a major amendment to the country's competition law. The legislators warned that the short-term benefits shoppers get from a 50 per cent price reduction on fruits and vegetables sold by Coles could mean disaster for the agriculture sector.

Australia's interest in Gina Rinehart, the nation's richest woman, continues to be fueled following her soon-to-be-completed acquisition of shares in Fairfax Media. Ms Rinehart, whose personal wealth is valued at $10.3 billion, wants a biiger piece in Australia's most influential media company.

- Emerging markets historically the best equity performers in February- Aluminium the best of the commodities, natural gas the worst- USD likely to struggle against the yen this month- Tough month for some Australian and US bondsBy Chris ShawEmerging markets tend to be the pick of equity markets in ...

The Kingdom of Thailand has agreed to Twitter's recent move to allow countries to censor tweets. Representatives from the Thai government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra have said that they will be working with Twitter to implement this new policy.

While the rest of the tech world is buzzing about the rumored Galaxy S III model that is reportedly being revealed at next month's Mobile World Congress, Samsung went ahead and revealed a new model of the Galaxy S called the Galaxy S Advance.

Starbucks Corp., the world's biggest coffee-shop chain, which proved the world that there's nothing as paying too much for a cup of coffee, is planning to experiment with wine and beer, the two elixirs that Americans love.

The Conference Board consumer confidence reading dipped unexpectedly in January, slipping from 64.8 to 61.1. Consensus expectation had been for a further gain up to 68.0.

Australia's stock market had not moved in pace with the rest of the Asia-Pacific markets on Tuesday and is seen to remain flat on Wednesday's trading, but some action will push media-related stocks led by Fairfax Ltd.

The Australian Dollar rallied off opening levels yesterday as Australian business confidence rose to its highest level in seven months, a survey by National Australia Bank showed.

The Dow was in line for a fourth straight decline after a weaker than expected reading on consumer confidence erased early gains prompted by agreements designed to address Europe's sovereign-debt issues.

The mixed nature of the Australian economy was on display yesterday in reports from the monthly National Australia Bank business survey and the Reserve Bank's credit data for December and 2011.

In one respect it was a clever bit of marketing by Woolworths yesterday to announce the restructuring and sale of its Dick Smith consumer electronics chain at the same time as it revealed weak sales figures, especially from its core Australian supermarkets and liquor business in the December quarter and half year.

Previous reports have confirmed a continuing slowdown in exports and the first yearly trade deficit for years, and yesterday we had a sharper improvement in industrial output in December, but a small rise in unemployment, offset by a rise in consumer spending.

The Dow was in line for a fourth straight decline after a weaker than expected reading on consumer confidence erased early gains prompted by agreements designed to address Europe's sovereign-debt issues.

By Greg PeelThe Dow fell 20 points or 0.2% while the S&P was flat at 1312 and the Nasdaq rose 0.1%.The US broad market S&P 500 has marked a 4.

Exports of milk powder, butter and cheese reached record high in December 2011, leading to a trade surplus.

Megaupload users may never be able to re-access their files following the U.S. government's announcement late Monday that digital storage firms contracted by the shuttered company will begin deleting files Thursday this week.

Australian consumers are expected to benefit again from the renewed price war between supermarket giants Coles and Woolworths with price cuts of up to 50 per cent on certain fruits and vegetables.

Australia's retail sector will witness more shopping activities in the first quarter of the current year, according to the latest indicators summing up the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC) CHEP Retail Index.

As countries in Asia develop, there are more reasons and opportunities for both investors and offshore companies to pour their millions into offshore banks and even more reason for off shore banking to flourish in Asia.