BUSINESS

Nokia's woes continue to grow as it was dislodged from the top of the smartphone market for the first time in fifteen years. Apple and Samsung Electronics vaulted over Nokia to gain the first and second rankings respectively at the smartphone sales rankings, according to Strategy Analytics this Friday.

Australia’s new home sales in June 2011 saw their biggest monthly decline in five years, amidst weakening confidence in the economy and concerns about higher interest rates.

Dairy Farmers are worried changes in Woolworths’ milk supply arrangements will negatively affect farmgate prices. Parmalat recently won the contract to supply Woolworths’ house brand milk products in NSW. This contract was previously held by Lion (formerly National Foods), which sourced around 100 million litres of milk from Dairy Farmers Milk Co-operative (DFMC) members in NSW to supply Woolworths.

Leighton Contractors said Monday it had been selected by Australian Rail Track Corporation (ARTC) to deliver the final stage of the Southern Sydney Freight Line (SSFL) in an Alliance contract worth $150 million.

Tiger Airways remain grounded as a scheduled Federal Court directions hearing of the Civil Aviation Safety Authority's application to continue the suspension of the Singapore budget carrier has been adjourned for a third time. A Federal Court directions hearing had been scheduled for Monday 1 August 2011, but the matter has now been adjourned to Wednesday 3 August 2011.

(This story was originally published on Wednesday, July 27, 2011. It has now been re-published to make it available to non-paying members at FNArena and to readers elsewhere).

The dramas on raising the US debt ceiling continue to dominate the financial news but the poorer than expected USD GDP for Q2 released on Friday does not bode well for the immediate prospects of the US economy.

The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission (ACCC) has announced it is continuing its proceedings against diet spray company Sensaslim Australia Pty Ltd.

A report released this month in the US has found that retailers are not adequately responding to the rising trend of consumers using mobile phone technology while shopping in supermarkets and other retail stores.

Self-managing your investment property can help you save a pretty penny in management fees - but dealing with tenants, coordinating repairs, conducting property inspections and chasing up rent can cause a few headaches.

Australia's property markets are continuing on a sideways trajectory, but the bottom of the market is approaching, according to new data released today.

The US debt debacle, central bank meetings in Australia, Japan, Europe and the UK, manufacturing surveys in all major economies starting later today with China and more corporate profits in Australia, the US, Europe and Asia.

If it's resolved, expect a sympathy rally that sees markets rally strongly in relief, but the rebound will peter out when investors realise that it's only a reprieve, not a solution for the most pressing problem, the lack of growth in the US economy.

There's no way to hide the unpalatable fact: the US economy, the world's biggest, has stalled and prospects of a slide into recession can't be dismissed, especially if the debt ceiling remains unresolved.

Charlie Gunningham is in San Francisco for Real Estate Connect and hopefully he will be able to write a great post on what is happening over there when he gets back.

Where Are The Politicians When You Need Them?The outlook for the Australian share market is bleak and politicians are to blame.

US StocksU.S. stocks fell Friday and posted the biggest weekly decline in a year, as a blur of debt-ceiling developments left the market uncertain over the course of Washington's deadlocked negotiations. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 96.87 points, or 0.79%, at 12143.24, in a volatile session that extended the index's losing streak to six straight sessions. All but two of the 30 Dow components finished in the red.

MORNING REPORT (7am AEST)The US economy grew at a 1.3pct annual pace in the June quarter, weaker than forecasts centred on a gain of 1.8pct. In addition March quarter GDP growth was revised down from 1.9pct to 0.4pct.

Now Stanford researcher Elie Bursztein is demonstrating at the Black Hat USA 2011 security conference that Microsoft is making available online the locations of Wi-Fi devices without taking privacy precautions. He says that Microsoft's Live.com makes public the precise geographical location of wi-fi enabled gadgets.

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., announced during the week that Samsung GALAXY S II (Model: GT-I9100) has passed the 5 million global sales milestone.

Dell Inc. on Thursday launched the Dell Streak 10 Pro tablet, its first 10-inch Android Honeycomb 3.1 tablet.

Nintendo, which released the 3DS only in February, will lower the 3DS to $169.99 starting Aug. 12, down 32 percent from $249.99.

E-Bay Australia will start charging its users double on some auction listings to push sellers away from second-hand auctions to list new items.

Australia’s second mainland National Broadband Network (NBN) site has been switched on this morning, with residents in the Kiama Downs and Minnamurra, south of Sydney, set to experience superfast fibre broadband.

British police officials revealed on Wednesday the arrest of an 18-yea-old teenager that authorities tagged as the mouthpiece of a hacking group identified as responsible for breaching the security protocols of Sony Pictures and a host of other websites.

There are only three days left to enter MPA’s prestigious Top Commercial Brokers list, recognising the top-performing advisers in the non-residential space.

Australian employers are missing out on an entire sector of the workforce, with limited pathways currently available to skilled migrants entering the professional workplace, according to a new report.

Now that the economy is stronger, increased business confidence is driving investment in new projects, which is increasing the workloads of current employees, according to the latest Financial Employment Report from Robert Half.

A lack of industrial relations knowledge has compounded the number of industrial disputes currently underway, a HR expert from Macquarie University has said.