BUSINESS

Good news for the Australian iron ore and coal industries, and of course the country's balance of payments for the next 18 months or so.

A case is emerging for the Reserve Bank not to cut interest rates, either next month or December.

Questions are being asked if China's economic slowdown is starting to crunch sections of the economy, just as the trade surplus weakens as export growth fades.

The financial sector led U.S. stocks lower Thursday following less than stellar results from J.P. Morgan Chase & Co., although strength in technology stocks kept the broader market's losses in check. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 59 points, or 0.5%, at 11459 in Thursday afternoon trading, after earlier dropping as much as 141 points.

The US trade deficit narrowed marginally from $45.63 billion to $45.61 billion in August. US exports fell 0.1pct while imports were flat. The trade gap with China widened to a record $29 billion in August. US jobless claims fell by 1,000 to 404,000 in the past week. The four-week moving average of claims (considered a better measure of labour market trends) fell by 7,000 to 408,000.

By Greg PeelThe Dow closed down 40 points or 0.4% while the S&P lost 0.3% to 1203 and the Nasdaq gained 0.

Apple Stores, resellers, and carriers in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United Kingdom are opening their doors today, Oct. 14, to people eager to be the first to get their hands on iPhone 4S.

Qantas long-haul pilots launched a new website on Thursday to help concerned Qantas shareholders stand up to current Qantas management and their plans to offshore the iconic airline.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has granted the alliance between Virgin Australia group of airlines (ASX: VBA) and Singapore Airlines draft approval.

Even with a subdued quarter for rental prices, annual growth figures show rental prices for units are approaching that for houses in most capital cities, according to a new report released on Thursday.

Qantas licensed aircraft maintenance engineers are among the highest paid in the world and the current demands from the union are unreasonable, Qantas Group Executive Government and Corporate Affairs Olivia Wirth said on Thursday.

Apple released the iOS 5 today and its perhaps the biggest update to the software. The iOS 5 comes with over 200 new features and it has been released for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

Labor force figures released on Thursday highlighted the underlying strength and resilience of the Australian economy in the face of heightened global instability.

Speculations are ripe that China is into a copper buying spree after the world's second-largest economy voluntarily disclosed the size of its copper inventories.

In support of the booming mining sector, Virgin Australia announced today it will provide more than 1,000 additional seats each week from Perth to Port Hedland and Karratha in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. The increase in services will commence on November 21 and end in March next year.

As more consumers shift to upgrades of modern electronic devices such as tablet computers and smartphones from laptops and 3G phones, more companies are launching their own versions of the devices in a bid to get a slice of the growing market - notwithstanding risking a lawsuit from Apple.

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 continues to be banned from Australian consumers as Apple won its bid to block the tablet on Thursday.

The Australian sharemarket is gaining for the sixth time in seven sessions, with the All Ordinaries index (XAO) up 0.6 pct or 27.4 pts to 4293.8. Today's improvement can be partly attributed to the impressive gains out of European markets overnight, thanks to progress being made on a viable debt solution.

The country’s unemployment rate declined to 5.2 percent in September as employers from the private sector employed more people and the dollar went up from $US1.015 before figures were made public to $US1.0236.

The proposed alliance between Singapore Airlines and Virgin Australia is almost as good as a done deal as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced on Thursday it is finalizing necessary paper works that will ultimately conclude and seal the integrated network aviation alliance between the two airlines.

Macquarie Telecom, Fujitsu, Infoplex and VMware have formed the OzHub, a national cloud council which aims to promote cloud computing to enterprises, small businesses, consumers and governments in Australia.

- JB Hi-Fi AGM offers sales update- Group sales higher, like-for-like sales down- Tough macro outlook impacting on earnings- Brokers remain broadly positive on the stockBy Chris ShawAt its annual general meeting yesterday JB Hi-Fi ((JBH)) indicated like-for-like sales for the first quarter of FY12 w...

With the final eurozone vote now in for the EFSF, the next step is to leverage up that fund to allow governments to shore up the capital positions of their respective banks.

Dialogues between representatives of the Community and Public Sector Union and the Customs and Border Protection officials over wage issues resumed on Thursday as work stoppages are scheduled to take place in different airports across the country.

Qantas canceled 14 domestic flights and delayed another 30 trips on Thursday morning as the baggage handlers and ground crew walked off their jobs for two hours at 7 a.m.

We have a long standing tradition of educating investors here at FNArena. Today's quiz is an attempt to try out a different concept.

By Greg PeelThe Dow finished up 102 points or 0.9% while the S&P gained 1.0% to 1207 and the Nasdaq added 0.

Coal producing miners better get their act together and prepare this early for a possible weather disturbance of a returning La Niña.

Minutes from the last US Federal Reserve meeting highlighted that Fed officials discussed a fresh round of bond purchases among other tools to stimulate activity. However officials seemed to be holding back from a third round of QE. The minutes reiterated that the Fed had become a lot more concerned about the economic outlook.