BUSINESS

By Rudi Filapek-Vandyck, Editor FNArenaI joined Twitter. Not because I am curious what this celebrity has to say about her kids, or to read that another one is waiting for a connecting flight, impatiently.

Westpac Banking Corporation reported on Thursday first-half net profit of $3.07 billion for the six months to March 31. While it is a 25 per cent decline compared to the same period a year ago, the slump was mainly due to a one-off tax consolidation following Westpac's purchase of St George.

U.S. stocks fell as a disappointing reading on services-sector activity tempered sentiment on the eve of the government's employment report.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 62 points or 0.5% while the S&P lost 0.8% to 1391 and the Nasdaq dropped 1.

Samsung muscled its way again on top of the global smartphone market by capturing 29.1 per cent of the pie in the first quarter of the current year and effectively overtaking its chief rival, Apple.

South Australian Transport Services Minister Chloe Fox announced on Wednesday that the state has imposed about $218,000 fines on three Adelaide bus contractors because their buses are always late.

Australians continued to enjoy their passion for travel to domestic and foreign destinations which resulted in air carriers, Qantas and Virgin Australia, enjoying high passenger numbers for the month of March.

Manual work proved as the best pay slip booster these days, according to a new national wage report that detailed the compensation benefits currently enjoyed by Australian workers.

1st Fleet, an Australian trucking company that operates in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia, locked out about 1,000 workers and ceased trading overnight without any warning on Wednesday night.

The manufacturing sector of Eurozone showed a sharp shrink in almost three years in April, while the data from Asia seems to be very impressive for the quarter.

By Jonathan BarrattInventories in the copper market continue to come under pressure and as we have seen a good lift in prices already, we can suggest the trend is here to stay for a little while longer.

Chinese food safety regulators have shut down production at a Coca-Cola beverage plant in Shanxi province after discovering small amounts of chlorine in some of the products following a routine maintenance check.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the world's largest private employer, has been ordered to pay $4.8 million in back wages and damages to more than 4,500 of their employees across the United States.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 10 points or 0.1% while the S&P lost 0.3% to 1402 but the Nasdaq gained 0.

More tourists will hopefully flock to Australian destinations as industry officials announced on Wednesday a long-range tourism blueprint designed to lure more visitors into the country.

- One stockbroker has gone contrarian on prospects for Australian wine producers- BA-ML is predicting a long lasting upcycle- Change in industry dynamics should benefit Treasury Wine EstatesBy Greg PeelWe recall that the Australian wine industry underwent a significant boom beginning from around the...

The Reserve Bank dominates the coming week in Australia. But the April jobs report and a host of other data is out in the US will keep us interested.

It's going to be a great week for interest rate fetishists. The Reserve Bank of Australia meets on Tuesday to decide what to fix the price of money at in Australia.

The paper dollar is now the single most important source of systemic risk to the financial system, the world economy, and the security of the American people.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed up 65 points or 0.5% while the S&P gained 0.6% to 1405 and the Nasdaq added 0.

Prices of homes in Australia's key cities plummeted in April, reversing the gains that the housing sector saw at the start of the current year, according to the latest figures released on Tuesday by property analysts.

Australia's manufacturing sector again suffered a retreat in April, posting activity declines of 5.6 points to 43.9 in the month and underlining two months of successive contractions in an industry already reeling from the so-called downside of the country's resource boom.

Unite, the union of finance sector employees in Britain, criticised on Tuesday a plan by the National Australia Bank (NAB) to shed 1,400 jobs in the lender's operations in the United Kingdom.

More Australians are going on international cruises. Data from the International Cruise Council of Australiasia (ICCA) released on Tuesday said 623,000 Aussies went on cruise holidays in 2011. It is a 34 per cent hike compared to the 466,000 who went on cruises in2010.

The Australian share market closed higher yesterday, with the All Ordinaries Index (XAO) up 33 points to 4,462 points. Overnight global markets closed lower after concerns mounted about how Spain could turn around its economy and create job growth. After news the Spanish economy had fallen back into recession in the first quarter of 2012. It was a very mixed market by lunch time today with investors awaiting the outcome of The Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) board meeting and interest rat...

Woodside Petroleum agreed on Tuesday to sell its 14.7 per cent stake in the Browse gas fields to its Japanese partners for $2 billion. However, the sale to Mitsubishi and Mitsui would likely place a question mark if Mitsubishi and Mitsui would build the liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant at James Price Point.

By Greg PeelEither something has to give shortly or perhaps the spot uranium market will fade in importance once more as a price indicator, as was the case before the big uranium bubble of the mid noughties.

The American markets finished higher on Friday and last week, thanks to better than expected earnings and despite weaker than expected first quarter economic growth.

We can expect to see more earnings downgrades this week with two of the major banks, the ANZ and Westpac, centre stage.