BUSINESS

The first Australian shipment of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Woodside Petroleum's Pluto project in Western Australia this April is not just a milestone for the country's gas industry. It could also help pave the way for the country to become the world's biggest LNG exporter by 2018.

The Rio Tinto subsidiary, Energy Resources of Australia (ERA) has increased its hoped for level of production of uranium oxide for 2012 to between 3200 and 3700 tonnes.

China swung back to a $US5.35 billion trade surplus in March from February's deficit of $US31.48 billion

The weakness of Australia's manufacturing sector continues to be felt as 126 workers at an automotive facility in Victoria found they were stood down by the APV Automotive Components in Melbourne.

Stocks suffered their biggest declines this year, losing ground for the fifth straight session, as worries over rising borrowing costs for European countries weighed on investor sentiment ahead of the start of earnings season.

China's trade balance swung back into positive territory in March as the country's import growth slowed from a 13-month peak and exports grew faster than expected.

By Greg PeelThe Dow fell 213 points or 1.7% while the S&P lost 1.7% to 1358 and the Nasdaq dropped 1.8%.

The National Australia Bank (NAB) cut on Tuesday its growth forecast for Australia to 2.9 per cent from 3.2 per cent for 2012.

Sony Corp. announced that the company's plan of cutting down a total of 10,000 jobs which is equivalent to 6% of the global workforce. This strategy is said to be part of a new "restructuring plan" under the new president of the company.

The tech world's patent wars continue and Microsoft is bent on building up its armoury by securing hundreds of patent rights from former internet titan, AOL Inc.

Love Instagram? Well you will surely be counted with the 30 million plus global users that the mobile app has attracted so far and Facebook quickly took notice of the online social commotion and decided to join the fun.

The Australian share market resumed trade after the Easter break and tumbled into the red, following weaker than expected economic data out of the United States. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) lost 28.7pts or 0.7pct to 4373.6, but came off earlier lows, following data which showed China unexpectedly reported a trade surplus in March. This stoked optimism that the People's Bank of China won't need to cut rates in order to stimulate growth.

The dollar is down a bit and demands for commodities have generally eased down, according to major mining players, prompting many economists to suggest that Australia's surge of investments had reached the inevitable limits.

The competition watchdog has cleared the way for Foxtel's $2-billion proposal to fully acquire its Pay TV rival Austar but with explicit limitations that the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) stressed should safeguard competition in the industry.

Some of the most interesting vehicles in New York were in the basement. I checked out an electric DeLorean, a natural gas wheelchair van, and a flying car.

While the lower than expected jobs figures for March hit US market confidence, a more important influence will be the shape and health of the first quarter earnings reports that kicks off this week, starting tonight with Alcoa.

China's inflation data for March, like the performance of manufacturing surveys the week before, have left us with mixed impressions about the price pressures in the world's second largest economy.

Australian employers and unions are at odds over a proposal by companies to change workplace flexibility and pay. Among the changes eyed are cutting minimum working hours and pay.

Another big week ahead for global markets with important data releases, on top of reaction to the lower than expected US jobs figures for March.

By Greg PeelThere appears to be no pressure at present on potential sellers of spot uranium to aggressively meet buying interest, and what buying interest there is remains discretionary, industry consultant TradeTech notes.

Oscar Valdes, cabinet chief to Peruvian President Ollanta Humala, said on Tuesday that it would take about three more days before the nine trapped miners could be rescued.

Qatar became the third-largest stockholder of mining firm Xstrata after it bought 5 percent of the company's shares at $A2.65 billion. The purchase was made by the country's sovereign wealth fund.

In Australia, the NAB business survey and ANZ job ads survey are released. In China, March trade data is released. In the US, data on wholesale sales is released together with weekly chain store sales data. Alcoa kicks off the earnings season, releasing results after the bell on Tuesday.

Tourism industry executives blamed the strong Australian dollar for the slump in tourism revenues as foreign visitor spending declined to a four-year low of $2.63 billion in February.

The Construction, Forestry, Mining and Engineering Union (CFMEU) foresees the prolonged labour dispute at the BHP Billiton Mitsubishi Alliance (BMA) at the Bowen Basin coal mines may last longer, possibly until the end of April.

Nokia, the Finland-based phone manufacturer recently announced the release of their latest Windows Phone last April 8, 2012 which is the Nokia Lumia 900. Through this release, would Windows Phone be able to regain its place in the smartphone market?

Rumors of a new tablet from Google and Asus are ringing strongly in the technological world and there are now various news reports stating that the said tablet will now be pushed back in July.

No joy for retailers from the latest sales data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics yesterday which showed a rise of just 0.2% in February.

Germany's competition watchdog to launch pricing inquiry against petrol giants.