BUSINESS

Google has announced a partnership agreement with Sprint Mobile to integrate Google Voice into the mobile phone's applications. In a press statement, Google said the firm has been working to bring an integrated Google Voice experience to your mobile device by building mobile apps, introducing Google Voice Lite, and most recently Number Porting.

Westpac Banking , which closed at $116.74 on Election Day, has since fallen 3.3% to its most recent close at $112.83.

The Australian Dollar (1.0050) moved slowly and steadily upwards in Asian trade yesterday as commodities in general started the week on a firmer foot and news out of Japan confirmed that 2 out of the 6 reactors at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant were under control.

US existing home sales fell by 9.6pct in February to an annual rate of 4.88 million - a near nine year low and more than double the fall analysts had expected. The supply of homes available for sale rose to 8.6 months.

By Greg PeelThe Dow rose 178 points or 1.5% while the S&P gained 1.5% to 1298 and the Nasdaq added 1.8%. The Dow reclaimed the 12,000 mark, closing at 12,036.Wall Street has always loved a good war. Typically stocks fall on the threat of war and rebound strongly when pictures of the first plumes of smoke are broadcast. Speaking in Chile this morning, President Obama declared that he expected the e...

It wasn't surprising that the Australian dollar regained parity with the greenback yesterday afternoon, as reports from Japan on the continuing nuclear power station crisis improved.The dollar rose from 99.59 USc at the close in New York early Saturday to around $US1.1019 yesterday in local trading.All the doom and gloom reports in the media and from some analysts disappeared as well as the c...

Australian merchandise imports rose 6 per cent or $1.010 billion in February, to $18.032 billion, seasonally adjusted, official national figures show.

Lend Lease says it has reached financial close on the Wandsworth Schools program for Wandsworth Borough Council in south-west London.

Sundance Resources Ltd (ASX: SDL) says all of Ken Talbot's shares in the iron ore explorer have been transferred to Hanlong Mining, making the Chinese company Sundance's largest shareholder.

- Analyst bank target prices unchanged despite global disruptions- Several ratings upgrades in the past week- ANZ's Asia strategy sets it aside from the packBy Greg PeelI lasted updated the Australian banking sector a month ago just after all the interim and quarterly results were in. At that point analysts felt the results had been reasonable without being spectacular, and market prices were now ...

Global miner Rio Tinto says it will extend its offer for shares in Riversdale Mining by three trading days.

The Australian dollar has opened firmly in the mid 0.9900’s this morning after one of the wildest weeks in the currency markets since the GFC in late 2008.

- The threat of a Japanese nuclear disaster is much less than perceived by media and financial markets- The newest generation of nuclear power plants represents even less risks By Richard (Rick) Mills, Ahead of the HerdAs a general rule, the most successful man in life is the man who has the best informationWhat is happening in Japan is a humanitarian disaster, but not because of what primetime pu...

(This story was originally published on Wednesday, 16 March 2011. It has now been re-published to make it available to non-paying members at FNArena and readers elsewhere).- February revealed an extreme gap in earnings growth between "winners" and "losers"- This gap is expected to narrow, if not close over the next 18 months- This prospect is not priced in share prices for most industrial stocksBy...

The Australian Dollar has bounced dramatically off 3-month lows against the greenback around the 0.9780 area and opens the new week at 0.9950.

The Group of Seven nations intervened in currency markets on Friday to reduce the value of the Japanese yen - the first co-ordinated intervention since 2000. A strong yen would hamper economic recovery in Japan.

From now onwards, FNArena will survey investor sentiment in Australia in an effort to generate, over time, a similarly leading gauge as the AAII Investor Sentiment Survey in the US. You are hereby invited to participate by expressing your personal view on the share market. The survey takes up a few minutes only. As we do this in coordination with the Australian Investors Association (AIA) we ask m...

Japan, the situation in Libya and other states in the Middle East, the NSW election and a moderate flow of economic data here, in the US and Europe will dominate this week.Hopefully events this week will be better for Japan and global markets.Friday night's intervention to boost the value of the yen by the Group of Seven major economies will help settle last week's volatility.The situati...

More than half of Gunns Ltd workers who were axed when the timber company closed down its Manjimup project on February found new careers as fly-in fly-out miners, thanks to Rio Tinto Ltd.

Outgoing Google chief executive Eric Schmidt lauded the Australian government’s national broadband initiative of putting up a country-wide network that he said would boost business and consumer growth.

Australian national carrier Qantas Airways Ltd (ASX: QAN) had reached a settlement with the New Zealand Commerce Commission in relation to price fixing conduct within its freight division between 2000 and 2006.

By Greg PeelIn this week's regular uranium report (Uranium: A New Dynamic) I noted that pre-quake trade had the uranium spot price rising for the first week in many, by US$1.00 to US$67.75/lb on industry consultant TradeTech's weekly indication. It's all academic now of course, given the situation in Japan has thrown the global uranium industry into turmoil.Fellow consultant UxC published its week...

The Australian dollar has opened lower this morning as investors remain focused on news from Japan overnight.

(This story was originally published on March 10, 2011. It has now been made available to non-paying members at FNArena and to readers elsewhere.)The following is the text of a speech prepared by Greg Peel and delivered in November 2009 to a financial markets seminar in Singapore. The text is no less relevant today and given the attention being directed towards high frequency trading in the US and...

U.S. stocks were on track to post their first gain in four sessions Thursday as bets that rebuilding efforts in Japan could lift energy and industrial companies and offset anxieties around the country's nuclear power crisis.

US consumer prices rose by 0.5pct in February - marking the largest monthly increase in 18 months. In the 12 months to February consumer prices were up 2.1pct. Gasoline prices was the key driver rising by 4.7pct.

By Greg PeelThe Dow rose 161 points or 1.4% while the S&P gained 1.3% to 1273 and the Nasdaq closed up 0.7%.If I had told you last week that the Dow was up 160 points on a night oil was up four dollars you'd have thought it was a typo. But that's where we find ourselves, only one week after a period in which rising oil simply meant falling stocks.Last night MENA was firmly back in the frame. Tensi...

TEMPTU, the worldwide leader in airbrush makeup, announced today the donation of sales proceeds from TEMPTU websites to Japan Tsunami & Earthquake Relief to assist the recovery of the victims and areas affected by the devastating earthquake.

In 2007 the US housing sector and all the exotic securities than hang off dodgy valuations, falling prices and going broke homeowners smothered the US financial system and economy, producing the 2008 crash and crunch.In 2011 the US housing sector remains broken and is in danger of smothering, or at best severely retarding America's stuttering economic recovery.In its post meeting statement th...