BUSINESS

Households are steadily gaining confidence in their financial well-being, with 28 per cent of Australians prepared to start spending again over the festive season, following a period of frugality and personal debt reduction – according to the latest ING Direct Financial Well-being Index.

After finalizing some fresh debt from banks and U.S. private investors, CSL Limited, the world's second biggest blood products maker, said it plans to buy back A$900 million of its shares.

The Pharmacy Guild of Australia (PGA) is again in hot water over another apparent shady deal. This time it involves alleged kickbacks paid by pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to chemists.

Virgin Australia announced on Wednesday it would provide additional capacity over the coming months to meet market requirements and to minimize the impact of ongoing Qantas industrial action on the Australian travel and tourism industry.

Rio Tinto announced on Wednesday that it would advance the first shipment of ore from its Simandou project in Guinea to mid-2015. The earlier shipment date is because of accelerated development resulting from approval of another $211 million for continued studies and $1.117 billion funding commitment for early works and procurement of long-lead items.

Buoyed by strong demand and low interest rates, Canadian house prices continue to rise. In the year to end-June 2011, the national house price index rose by 4.52% (1.37% inflation-adjusted), according to Teranet-National Bank of Canada.

So what can the Reserve Bank do as it looks to the next board meeting on Melbourne Cup day and assesses the country's economic position and whether to cut interest rates?

Is the long tipped hard landing for China's economy about to happen?

After a decade, Kimberley's cotton growers are harvesting cotton once more. The ABC reported around 800 hectares of GM cotton will be balled up by a Queensland contract harvester next month.

The labor row between Qantas engineers and management turned for the worse after the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association (ALAEA) filed a complaint with the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) on Wednesday.

After some legal setbacks, Samsung Electronics finally won some of its legal battles against Apple. The victory was handed by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh who dismissed on Tuesday some of the antitrust claims by Apple against the South Korean firm.

Defying the softening market demand for iron ore, BHP Billiton announced on Wednesday a 24 percent hike on its iron ore output while admitting at the same time that the company’s copper production has retreated significantly in the face of a protracted labor problem.

The Australian sharemarket is gaining for the second time this week, with the All Ordinaries index up 0.8 pct or 34.5 pts to 4284.00. Almost all sectors are up with the exception of the gold space which is tracking lower due to weaker gold prices overnight.

Angry Birds maker Rovio revealed at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco on Tuesday that the popular video game will add a new bird while preparations for a movie version is underway.

Web browser maker Opera Software has developed a new mobile web browser that can load pages faster on devices running on the Android operating system.

- JP Morgan revises oil price expectations- Solid fundamentals to support tin prices- China under-reporting steel production- Iron ore price correction underwayBy Chris ShawWhile the global economic outlook worsens and even with Libya expected to make a rapid return to oil production, JP Morgan cont...

- Beach Energy has announced shale reserves of 300tcf in the Cooper- Broker interest is piqued, but not obsessive- Prices, costs, technology and the long timeframe are all hurdlesBy Greg PeelThree hundred trillion cubic feet.

Hungry Jack’s is replacing its slogan from ‘The Burgers are Better Hungry Jack’s’ to ‘Hungry Jack’s makes it better’ as the fast-food giant aims to expands its menu and increase its health focus.

Following a strategic review, Rio Tinto said 13 assets will be divested at an appropriate point in the future, and some of these will be managed separately in the meantime.

Anadarko Petroleum Corporation forged a settlement agreement with nternational oil and gas firm BP regarding claims related to the Gulf of Mexico oil spill in 2010 .

Commercial spaceflight company Virgin Galactic has officially opened its spaceport in New Mexico, USA to serve as the jump-off point of space tourists 12 months from now.

The bus drivers union agreed on Tuesday night to an Industrial Relations Commission order to lift a ban on gas-powered buses in Sydney. The explosion of a gas-powered bus prompted public bus drivers to raise their protest by refusing to get on the road, resulting in huge inconvenience among Sydney passengers at peak hour Tuesday.

It will soon cost readers of "The Australian", $2.95 weekly to access the newspaper's online content through computers, smartphones and tablets.

Apple Inc. later today will report its fourth-quarter earnings that would for the nth time exceed analysts' estimates and further grow its mountain of cash.

AFTERNOON REPORT (4.30pm AEDT)Local stocks managed to erase all of yesterday's gains during Tuesday's session, with fear and caution again at the forefront of investors' minds. Overnight, sentiment wasn't helped by negative commentary from Germany's Finance Minister who warned it was unrealistic to expect a definitive solution to the European debt crisis at this weekend's European Union summit.

Making its debut this week, Chime.In, Uber Media's new social networking site combines Twitter's sharing ability, Reddit voting and it actual pays users for their posts.

Solar panel manufacturer SunPower Corp. today launched a solar photovoltaic tracking system that concentrates the sun's power seven times to achieve the lowest levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) for utility-scale solar power plants.

Barely a week after being unveiled the Apple iOS 5 app Find My Friends is already instrumental in breaking up a marriage after a suspicious husband caught his wife cheating using the app.

Apple's new iPhone 4s has reportedly sold over 4 million units three days after its launch but that record-breaking figure doesn't mean that everyone is enjoying Apple's latest smartphone. Although early reviews have been positive there have been several notable problems with the iPhone 4s. Here's a brief rundown on the top five iPhone 4s issues.