BUSINESS

The Australian sharemarket continued to improve this afternoon, with local shares rising by close to 0.75 per cent. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) jumped by 0.7 per cent with all sectors finishing higher.

Institutions or individuals fond of sending spam mail to Canadian electronic mailboxes should ought to think twice sending those missives or otherwise risk getting sued in court for millions of dollars. Canada's new anti-spam law (CASL) already took effect on Tuesday.

Residents in the U.S.' North Carolina coast as well as Canada's Nova Scotia area have been advised to take necessary precautions as tropical storm Arthur continued to gain strength, potentially hitting hurricane level by Thursday.

When it comes to fast food restaurants, quality of the food and convenience of location have become more important factors in the people's dining decisions according to the recent release of Consumer Reports on best and worst fast food restaurants in the United States.

The Australian sharemarket is having its best week in two months with shares rising for the second day. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is up 0.7 per cent or 37pts to 5477.8. U.S markets ended modestly higher overnight with a better than expected report on private sector employment in North America helping.

Netizens have reacted on the social media Twitter over Facebook's social experiment testing whether emotional contagion occurs outside of in-person interaction between individuals by reducing the amount of emotional content in the News Feed.

Canada could be seeing soon on its many runways its first ultra low-cost air carrier as Canada Jetlines Ltd. announced plans of raising $10-million to be able to enlist on the TSX Venture Exchange.

American publishers have earned more from online sale of books than from physical stores in 2013.

It was a busy night on the US economic calendar with the ADP jobs report and comments from Fed chair Janet Yellen hitting the wires. The ADP non-farm employment change came in at a much-better-than-expected 281,000, smashing estimates of 207,000. This saw expectations ramp up as we head into the official non-farm payrolls reading later today. With the July 4thIndependence day holiday on Friday, the data is being released on Thursday instead of the traditional Friday. The market is expecting to s...

Federal Reserve Chair Yellen delivered a speech at an IMF conference in Washington. She believes that raising interest rates to fight asset bubbles would be a bad idea, instead she argued better regulation would mitigate financial risk.

Apple Inc. stock is reaching a new all-time high and is completing a record breaking June quarter according to analysts

Despite the recent protest against the operation of its rare earths facility in Malaysia, Australian miner Lynas said on Wednesday that it would move the company's headquarter to Kuala Lumpur from Sydney to cut costs.

Up to 75,000 jobs in Australia's mining industry are at a risk of being lost as the country enters the third phase of the resources boom, a report from ANZ warned.

Nikkei, a Japanese financial site, has reported mockups of iPhone 6 spread across media which are only rough estimates of what its sources from the supply chain have in their hands.

Apple Inc. has been beaten by Google, Microsoft and Walt Disney in the FutureBrand Top 100 Index. Consumers were asked to rate brands based on their experiences. Research firm Futurebrand seeks to "define and deliver future brand experiences."

The Australian share market rebounded solidly on Wednesday, following another record high for US blue-chip stocks during Tuesday's trade.

The Australian sharemarket is improving for the first time in three days, with fresh record highs in the U.S. and a firmer iron ore price helping. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) is 0.9 per cent higher, making it the best day for local shares in a fortnight.

Rumours of an impending shakeup has forced Ernst von Freyberg, chairman of embattled Vatican Bank, to step down ahead of confirmations, Italian media reported earlier.

Ofcom, the broadcast media regulator in the UK, just approved 10 new digital radio stations. It is the result of the auction of a second national digital radio multiplex seven years since the regulator made the first multiplex available.

Controversial CEO for Hon Hai, Terry Gou, hints at Apple Inc.’s robotic factory

Global markets focused on a broad recovery in manufacturing in some key economies. China's numbers in Asian tradeyesterday set the tone and this carried through to European and US trade where we also received some encouraging manufacturing numbers. After an ordinary Q1, it certainly looks like the US is on track for a Q2 rebound, and this encouraged some positive price action across the equities space.

Google Impact Challenge launched in Australia

In US economic data, the ISM manufacturing index eased from 55.4 to 55.3 in June. A figure above 50 indicates expansion. The sub index of new orders hit a six-month high, a good sign for business capital spending. On a negative note export orders were weaker. The Markit US Manufacturing PMI rose to 57.3 in June - the highest since May 2010. US construction spending rose by a lower than expected 0.1% in May.

The first day of the new financial year was much like the last in that sellers remained in control of the share market. The ASX 200 made new lows in the last hour of trade, although the index was able to finish the session off those levels. Compared to Monday where there were losses across the board, Tuesday was slightly more positive with a number of sectors ending with gains for the day.

It's been a bit of a choppy start to the new financial year for Australian stocks. The All Ordinaries Index (XAO) has been in and out of positive and negative territory, reaching a high of 5400 points and a low of 5371.6 points. At lunchtime in the East the All Ords is down 0.1 per cent to 5378.1 points.

Concerns of radiation from Fukushima affecting Alaskan seafood have been ruled out by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

A joint research conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI) claimed that 2014 will be the year when real estate markets "recover from the recovery," as buoyed by steadily growing demand for commercial real estate properties.

Defying odds, US space agency NASA will relaunch today a satellite that will track the global warming-inducing carbon dioxide levels and its effects around the world.

Global markets wrapped up the second quarter of the year on a mixed note on the back of some mixed economic data. In US trade, Chicago PMI missed estimates, while pending home sales came in well ahead of estimates. The housing market certainly continues to show some strong signs of improvement and this is helping lift confidence. Despite some encouraging data, the US dollar broadly lost ground, with the dollar index slipping below 80 for the first time since May. GBP/USD finally managed to break...