BUSINESS

Sellers regained control of the Australian share market for the first time in more than a week on Monday following a recovery for US markets at the weekend. US share markets rebounded sharply after Russia said it had concluded military exercises near the Ukrainian border. The Dow Jones index rose by 185 points or 1.1% with the S&P 500 index up by 1.2% . The ASX 200 started the session with a gain of 38 points and buyers were content for the index to maintain levels of that order for most of the ...

U.S. luxury retail mall chains Nordstrom Inc. and Saks Fifth Avenue are cornering a piece of Canada's prime real estate for expansion, according to a report on The Financial Post.

American investment bank Goldman Sachs added Barrick Gold, the biggest gold mining company in the world, to its Conviction Buy List. Goldman had previously recommended Barrick as a Buy stock.

A research study has suggested that Google trends tool can predict the changes in stock prices based on the search pattern of users.

Only a small proportion of fund managers active in infrastructure and real estate think that AIFMD regulations will have a positive impact on their firm and industry, following a recent survey of over 140 managers active in the asset classes.

The markets have just come off one there worst weeks in two years. The ASX has seen six consecutive days of losses, shedding 208 points from the high at the close of July. The Nikkei has lost 910 points in the last eight trading days, as geopolitical risk sees buyers ducking for cover.

In US economic data, labour costs rose at a 0.6% annual rate in the June quarter while productivity rose by 2.5%. Economists had tipped a 1.4% lift in labour costs and 1.5% rise in productivity. Wholesale inventories rose by 0.3% in June with sales up 0.2%, both short of forecasts.

Telecom giant Telstra opened a data centre at the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) that would connect financial centres. The Australian Liquidity Centre (ALC) was built mainly to make available fast and reliable connectivity to other major financial centres.

British Gas's BG Group is bidding out its $3 billion pipeline assets in Queensland, Australia, triggering a renewed competition between Hong Kong's Cheung Kong and the APA Group.

A report has recently circulated that China has banned the use of Apple devices such as iPads and Macbooks in government. The Chinese government has allegedly excluded Apple from its list of authorised products for official use due to security concerns. In a Bloomberg report, government officials who requested not to be identified, said China has discontinued the procurement of ten Apple products. The items have been removed from a list distributed in July.

Amaysim, a budget mobile phone operator in Australia, is challenging Virgin, the fourth top carrier in Australia, by rolling out a new low-cost data plan that offers 5GB for $44.90 a month.

A U.S. portfolio manager claimed New York's property bubble could pop due to a rise in demand, a great deal of foreign transactions (led by the Chinese), and a loophole in the Foreign Investment in Real Property Tax Act (FIRPTA), which imposes tax obligations on foreign investors, according to a commentary published on CNBC.

Malaysia Airline System suspended on Friday the trading of the company's shares on the Malaysian Stock Exchange as part of the restructuring plan of the air carrier that was financially hit by two air tragedies in March and July 2014.

There is some link between a surge in Google searches for political and business topics to stock market crashes, according to a study by Warwick Business School.

Yesterday Russia imposed sanctions on the EU and US around agricultural products, and overnight it has widened its reach to include Canada, Norway and Australia.

In US economic data, consumer credit rose by a less than expected $17.26 billion to $3.21 trillion in June. Revolving credit, which mostly measures credit-card use, increased only $941.54 million after a downwardly revised $1.74 billion in May- it was still the fourth consecutive monthly increase. US jobless claims fell by 14,000 to 289,000 last week.

Mining giant Rio Tinto (ASX: RIO) reported on Thursday first half underlying profit of $5.1 billion despite falling iron ore prices by about 30 per cent. It is up 21 per cent compared to the same period in 2013. The boost in profit was the result of cost-cutting measures applied on capital projects and operating cost.

The Australian sharemarket fell for the fifth day; its longest losing streak in eight months. Weaker than expected employment figures and falls in European markets overnight were drivers. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) fell by 0.1 per cent; however managed to close just above a key level at 5500.7.

Spurred by the Ebola outbreak in Africa, the political tensions gripping the Middle East plus the looming trade war with Russia, the International Air Transport Association (IATA) on Wednesday said it expects global air travel demand to get impacted this year.

A Milwaukee-based private security company on Tuesday has announced the discovery of an Internet hacking ring syndicate that has amassed a whopping 1.2 billion global usernames and passwords as well as 500 million email addresses.

A study by data provider Greenwich Associates concludes that regulators are unlikely to achieve their goal of creating a fixed-income market that is less dependent on a few massive banks. The findings were made after Greenwich interviewed 1,067 institutional investors from North America.

U.S. President Barack Obama has quashed calls of health experts to send to Africa the experimental ZMapp serum that was given to two Ebola-inflicted American health workers. The president thumbed down the proposal saying the drug still needs further testing if it indeed is working as it should.

Risks of an impending housing bubble are threatening Switzerland's real estate market following mortgage and property price jumps during the second quarter that surpassed economic growth, Bloomberg said in a report.

Another tough day for the Aussie markets, we saw the ASX 200 started only slightly weaker off 2pts. But by 11.25am the markets had fallen back by 14 points and just after the release of the weaker than expected July Jobs numbers the market lost more ground now down 18.6 points.

A child abuser who had been convicted and served a 20-year jail time has been slapped with fresh offences after Google scanned his Gmail account and found it contained indecent images of children.

It was one of Australia's finest display of people power ever. Commuters aboard a Perth-bound train, majority surely strangers than friends, all went out of their way, literally, by going out of the train just to collectively tilt it so as to release a man's trapped leg.

New Zealand's unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level in more than five tears at 5.6 per cent in the second quarter. According to Statistics New Zealand's Household Labour Force Survey released on August 6, the country's seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was below Wall Street Journal's 5.8 per cent poll prediction by 14 economists. The 5.6 per cent unemployment rate is the lowest since March 2009.

Authorities from North Korea's Catholic association had rejected an invitation to attend a mass led by Pope Francis next week, as families of Sewol ferry victims in the South refused to de-tent Gwanghwamun Square, the venue of the pope's mass. Pope Francis is expected in South Korea from August 14th to the 18th.

Sellers continued to apply pressure to the ASX 200 over the course of the afternoon on Wednesday. So far this week the index has shed just over 0.8 per cent having lost half a per cent last week.