BUSINESS

Queensland-based coal mining company Macarthur Coal Ltd (ASX: MCC) has abandoned a $110 million deal to buy out CITIC Resources' interests after some minority interests failed to give up their pre-emptive rights in the project.

Insurance Australia Group Ltd (ASX: IAG) expects to post a decrease in annual profit in fiscal 2010. The company said it forecasts better performance next year and has made changes to its executive team.

Overnight we saw the AUD break through USD0.9000 and this morning it is currently trading comfortably above this level.

US new home sales soared by 23.6pct to a 330,000 annual rate in June, well ahead of forecasts centred on a result near 320,000. The stock of unsold homes fell from 9.6 months to 7.6 months.

The Aussie dollar held on to support around 0.8940 during the Asian session despite a lower than expected second quarter Producer Price Index or PPI as its referred to.

Strong guidance from FedEx and better than expected data have taken Wall Street to a critical technical level. Dow up 100.

Top central bankers and regulators around the world said yesterday they had agreed on new standards to ensure the banking system could survive any new financial crisis.

The Australian currency opened higher on Tuesday as a lift in US homes sales bolstered growth assets such as equities and commodity-driven currencies.

The 30% slide in the price of QBE shares this year now has an explanation, at last.An update from the company yesterda...

The Coles retailing business of Wesfarmers is starting to look like one of the standout retailing performers for 2009-10...

And Harvey Norman shares fell more than 3% yesterday afternoon after the group reported a very sharp fall in 4th quart...

Japan's export resurgence continues to lose momentum as shipments to Asia and China slow.The fall is partly due to the ...

Australia's producer price index at the final stage of production rose 0.3% in the June quarter, for an annual rise of 1...

Kraft brings back the iconic 'Happy Little Vegemites' ad to the TV screen, using a reworked version of the original tune and visuals, as part of a new campaign to promote the typically Australian breakfast spread Vegemite.The new television commercial, which launched yesterday, combines the original...

Kirin Holdings has cut its sales and profits forecast for the first half of 2010.Kirin expects net sales to be JPY43bn (US$492m) for the six months to the end of June, 14% lower than previously predicted, the Japanese drinks giant said today (26 July).It added that net profits are expected to be JPY...

The Australian stock market is likely to open stronger after the Dow Jones hit a two-month high overnight.

Coles retail sales growth in the fourth quarter has once more topped Woolworths. ?Total Coles’ food and liquor sales for the fourth quarter were $5.9 billion, up 4.2 per cent, with comparable food and liquor store sales growth of 4.2 per cent.Total Coles’ food and liquor sales for the financia...

Mesoblast has been recording good Phase II trials results in bone marrow transplantation and Southern Cross Equities suggests this could make it a target of Big Pharma.

The ASX 200 closes up 0.6% at 4486

A Sydney company director has been fined $16,900 for underpaying eight of his former staff. The employees, who received no money at all for weeks on end, were underpaid a total of more than $31,000.

An economic analyst has suggested the hyped debate over Australia’s sustainable population has overshadowed the country’s problem on housing shortage.

Wesfarmer's Coles has announced in a company statement today that it has signed a new two year agreement as the exclusive supermarket sponsor of Network Ten's MasterChef Australia.

Access Economics reported on Monday that the Northern Territory’s economic growth rate should experience a resurgence this financial year following the region’s output decline of one percent as private sector projects started winding down.

The Directors of data and transaction services company Connxion Ventures Limited (ASX: CXN) today announced that based on June billings and unaudited financial accounts, full-year revenue for 2010 are now expected to be $12.6 million, a 14.5 percent increase on the previously announced forecast of $11 million.

A resumption of the publicity campaign against the Labor government’s Mineral Resources Rent Tax is part of political schemes aimed at the elections, Treasurer Wayne Swan claims.

Colin John Carleton, a Bendigo Bank manager of the Atherton branch in Queensland, has confessed to theft of bank funds worth about $3 million.

Wesfarmers says the market share of Coles supermarket lagged behind in the 2009-10 fiscal year and more work was required to make a successful recovery.

China could soon be freed from over-dependence on imported gas as reports by the Financial Times on Monday cited aggressive initiatives coming from Beijing, allegedly pushing for the expeditious development of the country’s huge gas deposits.

Australia's largest project development and contracting group Leighton Holdings (ASX:LEI) said today that its wholly owned subsidiary Leighton Asia has secured a A$172 million contract for the provision of mining services at the Martabe Gold Mine in North Sumatra Province, Indonesia.