BUSINESS

Australian shares are sliding for the fourth day taking the losses this week to 1.8 per cent. The ASX 200 index is down 0.4 per cent and is trading below the 5450 mark. It has been a rocky ride for markets in recent months however with local shares surging by 6 per cent over the past month.

Jacob J. Lew is the current U.S. Treasury Secretary. He has held this office since Feb 27, 2013.

Equities continued to consolidate with a mild risk-off tone in a fairly quiet session on the economic calendar. The highlight was perhaps comments by Fed member Charles Plosser who reiterated the Fed should begin raising rates soon in order to avoid being far behind the curve. While Mr Plosser is traditionally a hawk, I think the market is gradually moving in that direction and this perhaps weighed on equities. On the other side of the spectrum, Kocherlakota maintained his dovish stance and said...

A commission has been formed by the Vatican that will handle the sexual abuse appeals lodged by convicted priests.

There are a number of anecdotes as well as jokes on airline meals. Australian flag carrier Qantas hopes to dispel some of those with its offer of Wagyu beef and 50 percent bigger portions on economy seats.

Alibaba founder and former school teacher Jack Ma is today's modern version of the poor little rich man. At 50, he became China's richest person after the Sept 19 initial public offering (IPO) of the e-commerce giant on New York Stock Exchange.

Iron ore prices has fallen to a five-year low of $76 per tonne in the international market. But it isn't the worst case scenario because a Citibank study forecasts the price of this key steelmaking-ingredient could still drop to less than $60 in 2015.

In the US, whole sale inventories rose by 0.3% in September after a 0.6% gain in August - a result that should support the September quarter GDP result.

The Reserve Bank of New Zealand has released its latest financial report with warnings of increased risk to the dairy sector.

Australian shares continued to lose ground over the course of the afternoon on Wednesday. Buying support was scarce in the second half of the session which was reflected in the final result, which saw the ASX 200 end at session lows. At the close of trade the ASX 200 was almost 1% lower or 54 points.

A recent global survey revealed Apple's iPhone 6 has strong demand in China. Sales of iPhone 6 Plus were also notably strong.

Australian shares are falling for the third day with buyers remaining uninspired to enter the market. The ASX 200 index is down 0.6 per cent and is trading below the 5500 pt mark for the first time since last Thursday.

A new study finds that wealth is concentrated in just a few hands in the top levels of the U.S.

The quiet November trade period continues to leave the market to its own devices. The US markets opened and closed largely unchanged to see the DOW and the S&P just resting against the record prints fromMonday.

Middle East countries are moving their focus to rail connectivity with big ticket investments.

In the US, the NFIB business optimism index rose from 95.3 to 96.1 in October. And chain store sales were up 3.8% in the latest week compared with a year earlier according to Redbook, down from 3.9% in the previous week.

Australian shares ended in the red for the second day with the ASX 200 slipping by 0.1 per cent. Despite losses of 0.5 per cent so far this week the ASX 200 still remains above the key 5500 pt level.

Local shares started the second session of the week much like the first, in reverse. The path of the ASX 200 to the session lows was orderly and took the first hour at which point the market was down by 16 points. As lunch approached there appeared to be little evidence that buyers were keen to make any impression and the index loitered within sight of the worst levels of the morning. The lead offered by US share markets didn't translate to sentiment at the open locally. The Dow Jones and the...

Canada is selling one of its properties in Rome.

The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) recently concluded the Ministerial Meeting in Beijing. The main aim of the group is to remove barriers to trade.

There is little in the way of macro news at the moment and this is allowing the markets to run; the US markets, in particular, are gunning for any reason to head higher.

In the US, consumer credit rose by US$15.92 billion in September, above forecasts tipping a US$15.1bn gain. The Employment Trends index rose from 121.7 to 123.09 in October.

A lady passenger almost lost her head in last week's emergency landing by Air Canada flight 8481.

Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday are slowly merging into one epic event for stores and its customers who are all excited for the upcoming big sale.

Australian shares have kicked off the trading week a little softer; wiping out all of last week's improvements. The ASX 200 index fell by 0.5 per cent or 31pts to 5518.4.

Sellers have applied their weight to the share market on Monday, discriminating little between the various sectors. Mining and energy stocks however have escaped the attention that has seen financials lead the way lower after Westpac (WBC) went ex-dividend, shedding more than 3.5% in the process. The softer tone is a reflection of a similar experience to that of US stocks on Friday after jobs data missed expectations. Figures from The US Bureau of Labour Statistics showed that non-farm payrolls ...

A new report that looked into the downing of Malaysia Airlines MH17 said that despite its denials, it was indeed Russia that has provided the missile launcher to the Ukraine separatist rebels.

Apple Inc stock has reached $110.30 per share last week as investor excitement builds for the spring release of Apple Watch.

I remain tepid about November trade, having seen the US markets returning to record all-time highs and more talk on the Street is that we're heading for 8% to 10% gains over the next 12 months.